Don't feed this to your baby
POSTED ON APRIL 3, 2015
Natural Society
What kind of person, even as the head of a major food retailer, would want to feed developing children pesticides and questionable genetically modified ingredients? That’s a question to consider when you find out that one of Gerber’s popular baby food items has been found to be full of insecticidal GMOs.
Do these executives not realize they are feeding these to our children or do they just not care?
Lab tests have confirmed that Gerber’s Lil’ Crunchies snacks are full of Roundup Ready, insecticidal GMO ingredients. Even the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has issued a policy statement recommending that children’s exposure to pesticides be reduced. How can this company put them in a snack that little ones are meant to munch on?
“Children encounter pesticides daily and have unique susceptibilities to their potential toxicity. Epidemiologic evidence demonstrates associations between early life exposure to pesticides and pediatric cancers, decreased cognitive function, and behavioral problems.” ~
A package of Gerber Graduates Lil’ Crunchies Veggie Dip Baked Whole Grain Corn Snack were sent to an independent lab and 100% of the corn in the product was found to be derived from GMOs, according to the report. This herbicide-resistant, Roundup Ready corn has been shown to cause liver and kidney problems, among other adverse health issues. It is also known to be toxic to human cells, damaging to male reproductive organs, detrimental to healthy gut flora, and can add to the fragility of a developing fetus.
Related: 3 Companies Using GMOs in Baby Formula
And unfortunately, mothers who can’t afford the good stuff are given this low-quality formula. Mothers and babies who receive federally-funded WIC assistance (Women, Infants and Children Program) are usually provided with formula comprised of GMO ingredients, including GMO corn and GMO soy. Mothers who desire organic baby formula for their developing children are denied it. Are the poor relegated to carcinogenic, developmentally-altering, genetically modified food, and nothing else?
Does Gerber’s VP of nutrition really think this is a great thing to put in food meant for consumption by small children?
Gerber has also been known to put GMOs in baby formula – so if they don’t get you at infancy now, they are targeting your toddler. It’s time to Boycott this horrible company, for good. It is clear they don’t make safe products for your family. They just make profits utilizing GM poison.
Additional Sources:
Photo courtesy of: GMOFreeUSA
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Bayer Sold HIV-Risky Meds
By BOOTIE COSGROVE-MATHER AP May 22, 2003, 12:20 PM
Chemical and drug maker Bayer AG said Thursday it acted "responsibly, ethically and humanely" during the 1980s in selling a blood-clotting product that stopped potentially fatal bleeding in hemophiliacs but was linked to the risk of HIV infection.
The company's statement was in response to a New York Times report that it sold millions of dollars worth of an older version of the medication in Latin America and Asia while marketing a newer, safer product in the United States and Europe.
Bayer division Cutter Biological continued selling old stocks of the medicine for more than a year after it introduced a version in February 1984 that was heat-treated to kill HIV, according to documents obtained by the Times.
The medicine, called Factor VIII concentrate, can stop or prevent potentially fatal bleeding in people with hemophilia, a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting normally.
Early in the AIDS epidemic, the medicine was made using plasma from 10,000 or more donors. There was not yet a screening test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, so even a small number of HIV-positive donors could taint a large pool of plasma recipients.
As a result, thousands of hemophiliacs became infected with HIV. Bayer and three other companies that made the concentrate have paid about $600 million to settle more than 15 years of lawsuits accusing them of making a dangerous product, the newspaper said.
The documents from that litigation, examined by the Times, include internal memos, minutes of marketing meetings and telexes to foreign distributors.
Bayer, based in the western German city of Leverkusen, said Cutter continued selling the older version because some customers doubted the new one's effectiveness, and because some countries were slow to approve its sale. It said there were initially concerns that heat-treating might make the drug less safe or less effective.
"Bayer has always behaved responsibly, ethically, and humanely to provide lifesaving products for the global hemophilia community," the statement said.
"Decisions made nearly two decades ago were based on the best scientific information of the time and were consistent with the regulations in place. They cannot be judged on the information available today."
The Times said at least 100 hemophiliacs in Hong Kong and Taiwan alone contracted AIDS after using the older product, and that many have since died. Li Wei-chun said her son, who died in 1996 at the age of 23, was among the victims.
"They did not care about the lives in Asia," she said. "It was racial discrimination."
Cutter also sold the older medicine in Argentina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore after February 1984, according to the documents. The newspaper said Cutter shipped more than 100,000 vials of unheated concentrate, worth more than $4 million, after it began selling the safer product.
The sales continued partly because of Cutter's desire to deplete stocks of the older medicine, and partly because of fixed-price contracts, for which the company believed the older product would be cheaper to make, the newspaper said.
In March 1983, the federal Centers for Disease Control warned that blood products appeared responsible for AIDS among hemophiliacs. Three months later, Cutter sent a letter to distributors in nearly two dozen nations saying that AIDS was "the center of irrational response in many countries."
In late 1984, as Hong Kong hemophiliacs began testing positive for HIV, some doctors wondered whether Cutter was sending "AIDS-tainted" medicine into less-developed nations.
But the company assured its distributor that the unheated product posed "no severe hazard" and was the "same fine product we have supplied for years."
In May 1985, Dr. Harry M. Meyer Jr., the Food and Drug Administration's blood-products official, called the companies to a meeting, believing they had broken an agreement to stop selling the older medicine, the Times said. But Meyer decided to handle the matter quietly instead of notifying the public, the newspaper said.
By David McHugh
© 2003 The Associated Press.
The company's statement was in response to a New York Times report that it sold millions of dollars worth of an older version of the medication in Latin America and Asia while marketing a newer, safer product in the United States and Europe.
Bayer division Cutter Biological continued selling old stocks of the medicine for more than a year after it introduced a version in February 1984 that was heat-treated to kill HIV, according to documents obtained by the Times.
The medicine, called Factor VIII concentrate, can stop or prevent potentially fatal bleeding in people with hemophilia, a genetic condition that prevents blood from clotting normally.
Early in the AIDS epidemic, the medicine was made using plasma from 10,000 or more donors. There was not yet a screening test for HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, so even a small number of HIV-positive donors could taint a large pool of plasma recipients.
As a result, thousands of hemophiliacs became infected with HIV. Bayer and three other companies that made the concentrate have paid about $600 million to settle more than 15 years of lawsuits accusing them of making a dangerous product, the newspaper said.
The documents from that litigation, examined by the Times, include internal memos, minutes of marketing meetings and telexes to foreign distributors.
Bayer, based in the western German city of Leverkusen, said Cutter continued selling the older version because some customers doubted the new one's effectiveness, and because some countries were slow to approve its sale. It said there were initially concerns that heat-treating might make the drug less safe or less effective.
"Bayer has always behaved responsibly, ethically, and humanely to provide lifesaving products for the global hemophilia community," the statement said.
"Decisions made nearly two decades ago were based on the best scientific information of the time and were consistent with the regulations in place. They cannot be judged on the information available today."
The Times said at least 100 hemophiliacs in Hong Kong and Taiwan alone contracted AIDS after using the older product, and that many have since died. Li Wei-chun said her son, who died in 1996 at the age of 23, was among the victims.
"They did not care about the lives in Asia," she said. "It was racial discrimination."
Cutter also sold the older medicine in Argentina, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, and Singapore after February 1984, according to the documents. The newspaper said Cutter shipped more than 100,000 vials of unheated concentrate, worth more than $4 million, after it began selling the safer product.
The sales continued partly because of Cutter's desire to deplete stocks of the older medicine, and partly because of fixed-price contracts, for which the company believed the older product would be cheaper to make, the newspaper said.
In March 1983, the federal Centers for Disease Control warned that blood products appeared responsible for AIDS among hemophiliacs. Three months later, Cutter sent a letter to distributors in nearly two dozen nations saying that AIDS was "the center of irrational response in many countries."
In late 1984, as Hong Kong hemophiliacs began testing positive for HIV, some doctors wondered whether Cutter was sending "AIDS-tainted" medicine into less-developed nations.
But the company assured its distributor that the unheated product posed "no severe hazard" and was the "same fine product we have supplied for years."
In May 1985, Dr. Harry M. Meyer Jr., the Food and Drug Administration's blood-products official, called the companies to a meeting, believing they had broken an agreement to stop selling the older medicine, the Times said. But Meyer decided to handle the matter quietly instead of notifying the public, the newspaper said.
By David McHugh
© 2003 The Associated Press.
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Bayer Admits It Paid "Millions" in HIV Infection Cases -- Just Not in EnglishBy JIM EDWARDS MONEYWATCH January 28, 2011, 5:25 PM
To read the English-speaking media, you'd never know that Bayer (BAYRY) just paid "tens of millions" of dollars to end a three-decade long scandal in which the company sold HIV-contaminated blood products to haemophiliacs, thousands of whom later died of AIDS.
Ironically, Bayer's new haemophilia iPhone app got some coverage, as did Bayer's haemophilia research grant to the University of Florida. But you have to pick through the French and Italian news media to find out that Bayer is finally writing checks to people who got AIDS because, in the 1980s, the Cutter Biological unit of Bayer ignored federal law to recruit prisoners, intravenous drug users, and high-risk gay men as donors of the blood Cutter then used to make Factor VIII and IX, the clotting product that haemophiliacs need in order to not bleed to death. Agence France Press reported (via a Google translation):
The German group Bayer and three other labs will pay tens of millions of euros to hemophiliacs who accused them of having sold in the 1980s blood products contaminated with HIV, a source close to the deal told AFP.
The figure of tens of millions of euros in compensation "is not totally wrong," she added. Bayer and the U.S. company Baxter are the two main parties to the agreement, she said.
A company spokesperson said:
However, "the company accepts no responsibility" in this case, and "continues to insist it has always acted responsibly and ethically."
The Italian media contained a similar report. A source who has followed the issue closely told BNET the actual payment was $50 million. That source added:
The reason why there have been no reports is that the hemophiliacs and their lawyers were not allowed to talk about the settlement.
I haven't seen ANY newspaper from the U.S. reporting on the issue (not even the haemophilia community published a statement) which I think is strange -- I mean, $50 million is not nothing. And this is the largest settlement on the HIV/hemophilia issue for more than 10 years (as far as I know), and two U.S. law firms negotiated it.
In 1997 Bayer paid 300 million euro into a compensation fund for haemophiliacs with HIV. About 20,000 patients contracted HIV from the blood. You can read more detail on the new settlement here. Bayer's 2010 annual report is scheduled for Feb. 28. It will be interesting to see if Bayer puts any details on the settlement in that disclosure.
Related:
Hemophiliacs Appeal Ruling That Prevents Them Suing Bayer Over HIV-Tainted Blood
Bayer Says It Settled Decades-Old HIV-Tainted Blood Cases
To Your Health!
ReplyDeleteI became politically active back in the '90's when there was an awful stench emanating from the wastewater treatment plant. That "Stench" made my children sick. It woke me up in the middle of the night out of a sound sleep. That "Stench" was traced back to waste imported from Pioneer Plastics in Auburn ME. The waste contained acrylonitrile among other toxic carcinogenic chemicals.
A little later came the push for the dump...oh yeah "landfill". That plan called for an enormous landfill where Templeton's old landfill was once located off of Rt 202. The reason that landfill was closed because a plume of toxic crap was making its way two of the town's wells off of Maple St. There was a consent order to close and cap that landfill which the residents of Templeton voted for at a town meeting. A former BOH agent and BOH commissioners were behind the move to create the largest landfill on the East Coast on top of our aquifer for drinking water.
In the mid 2000's, the EPA began a cleanup of Temple Stuart - a superfund site. Many homeowners in Baldwinville had trees cut down and parts of their lawns removed to bring the level of toxins...ie: dioxin down to "acceptable levels". 5-8 million spent on that cleanup; the illegal dump where shellacs and solvents were burned was not addressed. EPA put a fence around it.
So the battle continues; The battle to remove known toxins from our environment here in Templeton. Fluoride is one of those known neurotoxins which has been linked to hyperthyroidism, ADHD, lowered IQ, mottled teeth and brittle bones...
From the articles above one could come to the conclusion that huge international corporations, may not have your best interest at heart. There is a revolving door between the government and BIG PHARMA. Government agencies like the FDA, CDC, EPA may not be looking out for your health.
I've worked with kids for over fifteen years. Kids are becoming more and more unhealthy. Not just obese, but really , really unhealthy. Fifteen years is too short a time span for this epidemic of "unhealthiness' to be genetic.
Please read the posts about fluoride. When in doubt, Listen to the George Carlin -They Own You video.
To Your Health!