News Alerts: Week 43, 2017

EU fails to agree on glyphosate renewal

The European Parliament voted yesterday to ban household use of glyphosate immediately, stop the agricultural use of glyphosate by 2022 and make EU Commission risk assessments public. This came a day before a vote by the European Commission’s Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed on the renewal of the herbicide’s license for a further 10 years. Despite the concerns expressed by MEPs, the Committee, which met today were unable to agree on the license renewal with no clear majority either for or against. This means that a further vote will take place in due course. This is a clear indication that people power is winning out as EU citizens just don’t want glyphosate. It’s important for citizens to maintain pressure on their elected representatives.

Conduct proper vaccine safety science or face legal action

In the US the Informed Consent Network has written to the Health and Human Services (HHS) setting out the failure of HHS to conduct the proper science necessary to demonstrate vaccine safety as set out by the National Childhood Vaccine Act of 1986. The letter warns that should the HHS not take action to conduct appropriate studies, legal action will be taken to address these issues. If you agree that there is still a long way to go before health authorities have enough scientific evidence to state vaccines are ‘safe’, please sign our petition.

Just say NO – to antibiotics!

The problem of antibiotic resistance is no longer something in the future, it’s a reality today. In the UK alone it’s estimated 5,000 deaths are caused because antibiotics don’t work for some infections. Public Health England has launched the Keep Antibiotics Working campaign to encourage appropriate use of antibiotics. The campaign urges patients not to ask their doctors for antibiotics for everyday infections such as colds or flu and to take their doctor’s advice on when to use them and when to go home and rest. It is essential that more people are encouraged to take responsibility for their health and, in doing so, build natural immunity to reduce reliance on antibiotics. Without antibiotics that work, we will see a rise in unnecessary deaths from infection that have, up until now, been successfully treated.

Attacks on natural health continue in Australia

In yet another attack on the natural health industry, the Australian Government has announced it will scrap private health insurance rebates for a wide range of natural therapies following a recent review. Use of complementary medicine is substantial amongst Australians with many taking out private insurance for this purpose. Natural therapy groups in Australia are warning that this action is short-sighted and could backfire on the Government as people find it harder to afford to maintain their health naturally and look to the state (and mainstream medicine) for care.