We find it interesting, therefore, that the Australian government’s limit on mercury in complementary medicines is set at 0.5 ppm, as described in this TGA document. The document explains that “Incidental metals and non-metals” must be less than 5 ppm total, and mercury in particular must be under 0.5 ppm in order to meet the TGA’s “acceptance criteria.” Yet influenza vaccines contain... 

An Indian worker wears a mask next to camels as he works at his Saudi employer’s farm outside Riyadh on May 12, 2014. Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has raised the death toll from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) to 282. In a Tuesday statement, the figure, which earlier stood at 190, rose to 282 following “a comprehensive revision” going back to 2012. The... 

Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry has recorded 13 more deaths from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in the kingdom. The ministry said on Wednesday that a total of 186 have died from the virus since it first appeared in the country in 2012. It added that some 565 people had contracted the virus in Saudi Arabia. MERS is a cousin of SARS. The former virus first emerged in the... 

The passengers and crew of Australian planes have been exposed to potentially toxic fumes on over 1,000 occasions, a report reveals. Former cabin crew are now taking legal action, alleging the exposure is linked to cancers and neurological disorders. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has released a report on aircraft safety documenting over 1,000 cases of exposure to toxic fumes on Australian... 

Konstantinos Daikos, Greek MEP Candidate of the People’s Association – Golden Dawn It’s been several years now since the fate of the seed trade was decided in a massive gathering. The American companies Monsanto and Dupont Pioneer, along with the Swiss Syngenta, today control about 60% of the world’s seed market. On the whole, the 10 biggest corporations in the field control about 80% of... 

Ecological economists such as Herman Daly write that the more full the world becomes, the higher are the social or external costs of production. Social or external costs are costs of production that are not captured in the price of the products. For example, dead zones in the Gulf of Mexico that result from chemicals used in agriculture are not included as costs in agricultural production. The price... 

The UN urban ambient air quality database reveals that half the urban population monitored is exposed to air pollution at least 2.5 times higher than the recommended level and concludes that city dwellers are at risk of “serious, long-term health problems”. The survey, covering 91 countries and 1,600 cities, shows that most urban areas show air pollution above acceptable levels. According... 

As Russian MPs ponder over a draft bill that could see GMOs outlawed, the country’s chief genetic safety activist tells RT she is skeptical about the legislative initiative and urges ‘long-overdue’ independent international research. GMO production and distribution is likened to terrorism by the authors of a draft bill submitted to the Russian parliament earlier this week. It’s not the first... 

A draft law submitted to the Russian parliament seeks to impose punishment up to criminal prosecution to producers of genetically-modified organisms harmful to health or the environment. The draft legislation submitted on Wednesday amends Russia’s law regulating GMOs and some other laws and provides for disciplinary action against individuals and firms, which produce or distribute harmful biotech... 

Five more people die from the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus (MERS-CoV) in Saudi Arabia, health officials say. The Saudi Health Ministry announced on Wednesday that the new victims were three women, all over 60, who died in the capital Riyadh and two men, aged 56 and 57, who passed away in the port city of Jeddah. The latest fatalities bring the kingdom’s death toll to 157 since... 

A “near-natural” prosthetic arm, that took eight years to develop and test, has been approved for mass production by the US Food and Drug Administration. The DEKA Arm System has been affectionately dubbed “The Luke,” after Star Wars’ Luke Skywalker who received a robotic replacement for the hand he lost in a fight with Darth Vader in the 1980 film “The Empire Strikes Back.” One of the... 

Experts from the drinking water inspectorate found that cocaine use in Britain is now so high it has contaminated the drinking water supply, even after it has gone through intensive purification treatments, UK media reports. Scientists found supplies of drinking water contained traces of benzoylecgonine, the metabolized form of the drug after it has been processed by the human body. Benzoylecgonine... 

More than a decade after a Japanese soy sauce manufacturer said it had discovered a molecule in its sauce that could be used to fight HIV, the findings have been confirmed by university scientists. According to a team of virologists at the University of Missouri, a flavor-enhancing molecule found in soy sauce – called EFdA – is up to 70 times more powerful than typical drugs like Tenofovir, which... 

Microscopic images of the Middle East Respiratory Virus (MERS) The US’s first case of the MERS virus has been detected in Indiana, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced Friday. The patient is a healthcare worker who returned to the US from Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia, on April 24. Along the way, the person passed through London and Chicago before taking a bus to Indiana.... 

While the state of Oregon gears up to test its shores for radioactive contamination from Japan’s Fukushima nuclear disaster, university scientists have found that radiation levels in some albacore tuna caught off its coast have tripled. According to researchers at the University of Oregon, the results came after tests analyzed the cesium levels in 26 tuna caught prior to the 2011 nuclear calamity...