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Once again Codex, the world's food standards setting body, has side stepped actions which would focus it on health instead of trade. Despite direction to implement the pro-health WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health by both of its parent bodies and report on its progress on doing so, the annual Codex meeting in Geneva put off any action for another year. Geneva, Switzerland (PRWEB) July 10, 2006 -- Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) put off dealing with a strong pro-health initiative for another year. Last year at the 28th CAC meeting, noting that Codex was not serving its mandate for health, Codex's parent organizations, World Health Organization (WHO) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly required that the world food standard setting body, which WHO and FAO run jointly as a special project for the UN, must change its focus to include health through implementation of the WHO's "Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health" (GS).
It is with considerable dismay that I noted the final decision of Prime Minister Stephen Harper not to attend the International AIDS Conference in Toronto Aug. 13 to 18. It is an error of considerable magnitude and sends the most appalling message to the international community regarding Canada's continued commitment to defeat this horrific disease. Canada had achieved leadership status on the HIV/AIDS battle by addressing the pandemic in a very holistic way. We funded the World Health Organization's 3x5 program with $100 million to prevent the program's demise which is now putting 3 million people into anti-retroviral drug treatment over a 5-year period. Through the Canadian International Development Agency, we invested $15 million in the research to develop a microbicide to put protection from infection in the hands of women.
WASHINGTON--Two scientists with the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) contributed three risk assessments that are scheduled for publication in Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology. The papers address coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), creatine monohydrate, and the carotenoids lycopene and lutein. According to CRN, the scientists undertook the assessment to help regulators determine safe upper levels (ULs) for these non-essential nutrients in dietary supplements. "[They] are becoming more popular and more prevalent in dietary supplements and a safe upper level has not yet been established by governing bodies for these nutrients," said Andrew Shao, Ph.D., CRN's vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs and co-author of the papers. Shao and John Hathcock, Ph.D., CRN's vice president of scientific and international affairs, reviewed randomized clinical trials in humans to develop ULs using basic elements of the Food and Nutrition Board's methods and the World Health Organization's highest observed safe limit (OSL).
That has a lot of people concerned. Mercury in its many forms is poisonous, especially to children and pregnant women. The most heinous problems are neurological ones, which can hurt children's ability to learn, even before they're born. Still, many dentists and all of the associations that back them say the fillings are safe. But some medical practitioners, holistic adherents and even the World Health Organization say mercury shouldn't be considered totally safe under any conditions. The answer as to whether you should fear your silver fillings falls to your own comfort level, dentists say. Reputable studies say silver fillings pose no danger; others, including some dentists, say that if they hurt one person, that's one too many. The studies: Silver fillings in teeth are called amalgams.
Milk may do a body good, but transgenic researchers are trying to make it do a body better. A new study shows that goat's milk engineered to be more similar to human breast milk reduces the amount of harmful bacteria in piglet guts. Eventually, such dairy animals might improve the health of children in undeveloped countries. The World Health Organization estimates that approximately 2 million people a year die from bacterial infections that cause diarrhea and dehydration. Young children in developing countries are at greatest risk. That's because, after a child is weaned, it is no longer exposed to a variety of helpful proteins in mother's milk that fight diarrhea-causing pathogens, such as coliform bacteria. One of these proteins, lysozyme, is present in human breast milk at 1600 to 3000 times the concentration found in cow's or goat's milk.
(NewsTarget) -- A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) blames sun exposure for 60,000 deaths every year, mostly from malignant melanomas. The report says too much sun exposure can cause deadly skin cancers, serious sunburn, cataracts, skin aging and other ailments, and encourages the use of sunscreen and avoidance of tanning salons. "We all need some sun, but too much sun can be dangerous -- and even deadly," says Dr. Maria Neira, Director for Public Health and the Environment at the WHO. However, natural health advocates say that sun exposure -- which naturally produces healing vitamin D in the skin -- has saved far more lives than 60,000. "No life at all would be possible on this planet without the sun," said Mike Adams, a consumer health advocate and proponent of the healing powers of natural sunlight.
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