News from Geneva: Lecture on "The Marketing of Madness": Psychiatric Medications Dominate Mental Health

On 18 April 2012, the Citizens’ Commission for Human Rights (CCHR) organized a lecture in Geneva, Switzerland, on the marketing of psychiatric diagnoses and medications and their adverse effects on health.  Dr. Nicolas Franceschetti, President of CCHR, Geneva, introduced the evening by referring to recent developments such as the British Medical Journal article published on 27 February 2012 warning about the deadly adverse effects of regular ingestion of hypnotics (sleeping pills) which include shortening of lifespan and cancer.

A nurse who works at a “home” for aged persons (EMS) in Switzerland gave testimony of the over-prescription of medications to the elderly in these establishments.

Extracts of the documentary, “The Marketing of Madness” were shown. (YouTube access to the 177-minute film is available at the end of the article).  The film discusses “how psychiatric medications with deadly side effects and no known rate of cure came to dominate the field of mental health”, for example through the drawing up of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV).  This manual creates “disease out of everyday suffering and as a result, pads the bottom lines” of pharmaceutical companies (ref: “Inside the Battle to Define Mental Illness”, by Gary Greenberg, 27 December 2010, Wired Magazine).  Another example is the prescription of atypical antipsychotics to some 2.5 million children in the United States.  This new type of psychiatric medication, which includes Risperdal and Zyprexa, can cause weight gain, cardio-vascular dysfunction and Parkinson’s disease-like symptoms.  These drugs sometimes require the prescription of other psychotropic medications to lessen side-effects, a practice called “poly-pharmacy”.

Cell Phone Tower Dangers: Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Lecture by Dr. Magda Havas

The Health Department for Brazil’s third largest city, Belo Horizonte, recently released a government-funded cell phone antenna study showing an increased risk of cancer for those living within 500 meters of the antennas.  The city prosecutor has wasted no time in suing the cell phone companies, with the result that 66 of the 500 antennas which the citizens asked to be removed, have so far been taken down.  Between 1996 and 2006, 7,191 cancer deaths occurred within an area of 500 meters from the cell phone antenna base station:  a high mortality rate of 34.76 per 10,000 inhabitants.  Outside of this area, there was a decrease in the number of cancer deaths. 

Watch this 4-minute video on cell towers and cancer study in Belo Horizonte (26 March 2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt0G23GXJzc

In a 52-minute lecture on cell phone tower microwave radiation given in Oakville, Ontario, Dr. Magda Havas, leading Canadian expert, mentions this study. (15 March 2012)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AEOcB7Svhvw

News from Geneva: The United Nations Orchestra Gives Its First Performance in Victoria Hall

The newly-formed United Nations Orchestra of Geneva gave its first performance in Victoria Hall, Geneva, on 16 March 2012 to a full audience of UN employees and dignitaries from Belgium, Sierra Leone and Switzerland.  Many of the 45 musicians work every day at the United Nations and other international organizations. 

“Since music is a universal language, what could be better than an orchestra to create a multicultural bridge and to strengthen links within international Geneva? Who better than the staff of international organizations themselves, many of whom are talented amateur musicians, to constitute an orchestra representing their institutions and the ideals they promote?”

Switzerland: Waves from Wireless Communication: Physicians for the Environment Requests Strict Application of the Precautionary Principle

Basel, 22 March 2012

Press Release from Physicians for the Environment (MfE – Switzerland)

Mobile Telephony :  MfE requests stricter limit values

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) considers the waves emitted by wireless communication “possibly carcinogenic”.  According to the IARC, the risk of cancer for this type of radiation is thus similar to that of the insecticide DDT, rightly banned.  Physicians for the Environment (MfE) is concerned that the limit values expected to protect the Swiss population, notably vulnerable groups such as children and pregnant women, constitute insufficient protection.  In a communication sent to the Federal Assembly, MfE thus requests strict application of the principle of precaution and – in view of the risk of cancer – lower limit values.

Children’s rooms, housing, trams or offices are experiencing a growing exposure to radiation from diverse sources:  babyphones, mobile telephony, wifi, etc., yet more and more studies warn against the serious health consequences of electromagnetic pollution for human beings and animals.

Cataracts in calves, Alzheimer’s Disease, cancer …

Mesothelioma - A Personal Testimony

The recent conviction of two directors of the asbestos company Eternit by a court in Turin has a great deal of personal meaning.

My companion, Adon, died on 1 April 2009 from mesothelioma (cancer of the pleura) caused by exposure to asbestos.  He believed he had been exposed to the substance nearly 40 years ago while working in a factory in Belgium.  He was diagnosed with the disease in July 2008, after two months of investigations, including invasive procedures.  Shortness of breath while climbing stairs led him to consult his generalist in May who mentioned a possible diagnosis of mesothelioma.  

At the time of the definitive diagnosis, we felt we could not get through this on our own.  We needed friends, family, sound advice, support, and especially the opportunity to share experiences.  We were met with a culture of silence from medical personnel and the Swiss Cancer League.  No one could or would put us in touch with others, including family members of persons diagnosed with mesothelioma.  By the time I started sharing my thoughts on the Internet cancer forum, Adon was within days of dying.  Just a few persons helped us:  the compassionate surgical team;  the palliative care nurse at the Cancer League;  and a lady in the United States whose husband Steve had been diagnosed with the same cancer several months after Adon’s diagnosis;  he died in July 2009 after complications from radiotherapy.  Steve’s father had been exposed to asbestos in a factory in England.  Each evening, he would return home with his clothes covered in dust.  Both his son, Steve, and his wife were diagnosed with mesothelioma around the same time, nearly 40 years later.

Toxic Pesticides: Syngenta's Paraquat and Atrazine

“The campaign ‘Stop Paraquat’, conducted by non-governmental organizations, trade unions and scientists around the world, calls to end the production and ban the use of this highly toxic harmful herbicide”, manufactured and distributed by the Swiss company Syngenta.  Although banned in Switzerland since 31 December 1989 and in the European Union since 2007, this toxic herbicide is still being marketed by Syngenta to over 100 countries, usually under the brand name “Gramoxone”.  It is regularly used on banana, coffee, palm oil, rubber, fruit, and pineapple plantations and also on maize and rice fields.

Acute health effects of paraquat include eye injury, nosebleed, skin irritation and burns, nausea, vomiting, pain, breathing difficulties.  Exposure to very low doses over a longer period of time produces chronic health problems such as damage to the lungs, nervous system or brain, and may also cause potential birth defects and increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.

This request comes from the Berne Declaration and Permanent People's Tribunal:  Vote for Syngenta as the Worst Company - just click on "VOTE NOW" in the attached link.

"Cellphones Replace Smokes as the Addiction of Choice"

This article is a humorous but very true portrait of the comparison of cellphones to cigarettes. 

Cellphones Replace Smokes as the Addiction of Choice
by Josh Freed, Montréal Gazette, 7 January 2012

I was in a movie theatre last week when that new warning cartoon came on urging us not to talk or text. Suddenly I remembered those old no-smoking signs they had outside theatres decades ago - and I realized the transformation is complete.

The cellphone has become the cigarette.

Everywhere you look, people hold phones instead of cigarettes up to their mouths - exhaling words instead of smoke. Meanwhile, the anti-cell lobby is becoming as visible as the anti-smoking one.

How else does the cellphone resemble the cigarette?

- First, cigarettes were an ideal way for fidgety people to do something with their hands, whether they were rolling, lighting, twirling, tapping or dragging on them.

But the cellphone has just as many rituals to keep fidgeters busy. You check your messages, organize your mail, then reorganize it - along with texting, Skyping, surfing, checking the weather for the 42nd time, or just fondling the keys.

World's Six Biggest Agrochemical Companies Found Guilty of Human Rights Violations

Following is a résumé of various articles on the Permanent People’s Tribunal which recently condemned the world’s six biggest agrochemical industries for human rights violations.  One of the articles came from “SOS pour un monde meilleur” by way of the International Society of Doctors for the Environment, Italy.

After three days of deliberations in Bangalore, India  (3-6 December 2011), the Permanent People’s Tribunal (PPT) cited human rights violations of the world’s six largest agrochemical industries:  Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer, Dow Chemical, DuPont and BASF.

Over 355,000 persons die each year from pesticide poisoning and hundreds of thousands more are made ill. Testimonies of persons who had been harmed by pesticides and biotechnology were presented. The practices of the agrichemical industry, which is valued at $42 billion, affect the environment, food, health, children and future generations.

Birth Defects and Pesticides: the Tomato Fields of Florida

The basis of this article, which is the chapter “Chemical Warfare” from the book, “Tomatoland” by Barry Estabrook, was sent to me by the association, “SOS pour un monde meilleur” which, among other sources, receives information on environmental health from Dr. Ernesto Burgio, International Society of Doctors for the Environment (ISDE), Italy.  The group, “SOS pour un monde meilleur”, located in Geneva, Switzerland, is a school offering accredited courses in natural health therapies and a non-profit association whose purpose is to contribute to a better world for children and future generations through sensitization, information, education, representation, and production. 

Migrants working in the tomato fields of Ag-mart in Immokalee, Florida, are exposed to very toxic pesticides.  Ag-mart is a tomato harvesting company that grows tomatoes in three states.  It employs about 500 migrant workers to stake, plant and pick tomatoes.  Most of the workers are from Mexico and Guatemala and are employed under deplorable conditions.

Among the workers were three women who gave birth in 2004 to babies with very serious birth defects. The first baby, Carlitos, was born with spinal and lung deformities and without arms and legs. Jesus was born six weeks later with a deformation of the jaw which placed him at risk of being unable to breathe. The third baby, Violeta, survived only 3 days. She was born with only one ear and one kidney, without a nose and anus, and with a cleft palate.

Trees

Trees

 I think that I shall never see

A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest

Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;

A tree that looks at God all day,

And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;

Upon whose bosom snow has lain;

Who intimately lives with rain.

Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

-        Joyce Kilmer

As we come to the end of another year, tribute is paid to those who have made the world a better place.  Whether they are poets, environmentalists, health-givers, all these persons have healed the world in some way.