w.
The change means private data collected by one Google service can be shared with its other platforms including YouTube, Gmail and Blogger.
Google said the new set up will enable it to tailor search results better.
But data regulators in France have cast doubt on the legality of move and have launched a Europe-wide investigation.
Google has merged 60 guidelines for its individual sites into a single policy for all of its services.
France's privacy watchdog CNIL wrote to Google earlier this week, urging for a "pause" in rolling out the revised policy.
"The CNIL and EU data authorities are deeply concerned about the combination of personal data across services," the regulator wrote.
"They have strong doubts about the lawfulness and fairness of such processing, and its compliance with European data protection legislation."
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17205754
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edia outlets are running a highly coordinated and sensationalized propaganda campaign to hype-up a “national measles outbreak”, while demonizing any American parents that dare to question the efficacy and safety of any mass-produced vaccine product.
http://www.pakalertpress.com/2015/02/05/us-measles-hoax-cdc-who-merck-documents-prove-vaccinated-are-spreading-virus/
Back in 2000, the CDC announced that the United States achieved measles elimination. Since then, cases have been recorded in the US each year, culminating in 2014 where the CDC claims to have tracked 644 cases. Where are these cases really coming from? Clearly, measles do exist, but can they rightly say that recent cases in 2014 and 2015 constitute a “national outbreak”?
There is a visible backlash happening against parents who are challenging government and corporate vaccine orthodoxy. The US media’s latest ‘mandatory vaccination’ PR campaign was successfully launched nationwide following an “outbreak” incident at Disneyland, the Walt Disney theme park brand on January 7th (see the timeline of events here).
As a popular and recognizable children’s brand, Disneyland was crucial in propelling successful headlines that boldly declared, “Disneyland Measles Outbreak”. Even the President endorsed the campaign stating, “There is every reason to get vaccinated — there aren’t reasons to not,” Barack Obama told Today on Monday.
Today, CNN took an even more aggressive stance in promoting what the network is now touting as a “federal mandate”.
CNN’s Sanjay Gupta pressed hard on the new US Surgeon General Vivek Murphy about how vaccines “do not cause autism”. Host Jake Tapper continued heaping on the narrative by claiming, “When they [parents] opt-out [of vaccines] they put not only their children but other children at risk too”. Tapper later insisted that the federal government “needs to convince” parents that all vaccines “are safe”. The messaging being pushed here is as follows: “measles are currently ravaging the US and so we need all children to receive ALL vaccines mandated by the state”. That could total up to 49 or more vaccines per child.
What US authorities and media are hiding from the public is a disturbing phenomenon where the measles infection is actually spread through MMR (live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine). See a full and detailed report on this below.
The reality, just like the US-based Ebola Hoax, is that there is no ‘national outbreak’. The CDC is currently promoting the idea that 2014 was a record year for measles in the US with approximately 644 cases out of a US population of 320 million. What the media is not telling you (surprise, surprise) is that the majority of those 644 plus cases originated from two specific sources: an Amish community and a group of travelers who entered the US from the Philippines. So when you eliminate those two sources, there was no ‘upward trend’ at all in the US in 2014.
In fact, the CDC’s own 2014 reports state: “The U.S. experienced 23 measles outbreaks in 2014, including one large outbreak of 383 cases, occurring primarily among unvaccinated Amish communities in Ohio. Many of the cases in the U.S. in 2014 were associated with cases brought in from the Philippines, which experienced a large measles outbreak. For more information see the Measles in the Philippines Travelers’ Health Notice.”
Regardless of the details and facts, the US media are touting the latest ‘outbreak’ in California, citing “102 children in California” who have been detected with measles, leading audiences to believe that these just cropped-up from nowhere and were a direct result of “unvaccinated children” who gave measles to other ‘vulnerable children’. Since the Disneyland outbreak story was released, US media outlets, including CNN, have been aggressively promoting the livestock term, “herd immunity”, effectively labeling American children as a herd of animals. Media and CDC spokespersons appearing on TV are insisting that this ‘herd immunity’ is merely the collective level of inoculation that protects even the unvaccinated.
‘Herd Mentality’
In reality, what the media are promoting is a “herd mentality”, ignoring how parents used to bring their young children together to catch chicken pox and measles etc, to guarantee lifetime immunity for their children. Of course, this is bad business for vaccine manufacturers who prefer that you pay them for a vaccine which will actually increase a recipient’s chances of contracting the said virus (see report below).
The psychological operation being deployed here is fairly obvious – first to berate and shame, and then to scare American parents into compliance with central government – a government that appears to be in collusion with Big Pharma on this issue. The message is clear: any parents who might have genuine personal and family health concerns regarding risky vaccines, are “putting the public safety at risk and therefore must comply”. In the wake of this crisis, US media are currently promoting a new class of laws that will eliminate a parent and student’s ability to obtain a ‘waiver’ for mandatory vaccinations. In other words, if you do not get all the vaccines which the state demands, then you will be breaking the law.
Meanwhile, the vaccine industry is funding their own studies which claim that their products are ‘safe’.
Also, the media appear to be subtly working to characterize measles as a fatal disease, when in reality, the vast majority of measles infections will run their course in just 7-10 days. Again, according to the CDC’s own records, the ‘record-breaking’ 2014 year which cited 644 cases, had ZERO deaths from measles. Contrast this to the Flu (influenza), where annual US deaths can range from anywhere between 3,000 and 49,000 per year, and it becomes clear that characterizing a ‘measles epidemic’ in the US is a complete fabrication.
With Disneyland media scare, it’s now been established at least half of the Disneyland children who allegedly caught measles WERE vaccinated. So what is really going on here?
As expected, the real story is the complete opposite of what you’re being told…
20 years ago, the MMR vaccine was found to infect virtually all of its recipients with measles. The manufacturer Merck’s own product warning links MMR to a potentially fatal form of brain inflammation caused by measles. Why is this evidence not being reported?
The phenomenon of measles infection spread by MMR (live measles-mumps-rubella vaccine) has been known for decades. In fact, 20 years ago, scientists working at the CDC’s National Center for Infectious Diseases, funded by the WHO and the National Vaccine Program, discovered something truly disturbing about the MMR vaccine: it leads to detectable measles infection in the vast majority of those who receive it.
Published in 1995 in the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and titled, “Detection of Measles Virus RNA in Urine Specimens from Vaccine Recipients,” researchers analyzed urine samples from newly MMR vaccinated 15-month-old children and young adults and reported their eye-opening results as following:
Measles virus RNA was detected in 10 of 12 children during the 2-week sampling period.
In some cases, measles virus RNA was detected as early as 1 day or as late as 14 days after the children were vaccinated.
Measles virus RNA was also detected in the urine samples from all four of the young adults between 1 and 13 days after vaccination.
The authors of this study used a relatively new technology at that time, namely, reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR), which they believed could help resolve growing challenges associated with measles detection in the shifting post-mass immunization epidemiological and clinical landscape. These challenges include:
A changing clinical presentation towards ‘milder’ or asymptomatic measles in previously vaccinated individuals.
A changing epidemiological distribution of measles (a shift toward children younger than 15 months, teenagers, and young adults)
Increasing difficulty distinguishing measles-like symptoms (exanthema) caused by a range of other pathogens from those caused by measles virus.
An increase in sporadic measles outbreaks in previously vaccinated individuals.
Twenty years later, PCR testing is widely acknowledged as highly sensitive and specific, and the only efficient way to distinguish vaccine-strain and wild-type measles infection, as their clinical presentation are indistinguishable.
Did the CDC Use PCR Testing On The Disneyland Measles Cases?
The latest measles outbreak at Disney is a perfect example of where PCR testing could be used to ascertain the true origins of the outbreak. The prior assumption that the non-vaccinated are carriers and transmitters of a disease, and that the vaccinated are ‘immune’ has not been scientifically validated. Since vaccine strain measles has almost entirely supplanted wild-type, communally acquired measles, it is statistically unlikely that PCR tests will reveal the media’s hysterical storyline — “non-vaxxers brought back an eradicated disease!” – to be true. Until such studies are performed and exposed, we will never know for certain.
Laura Hayes, of Age of Autism, recently addressed this key question in her insightful article “Disney, Measles, and the Fantasyland of Vaccine Perfection“:
“Has there been any laboratory confirmation of even one case of the supposed measles related to Disneyland? If yes, was the confirmed case tested to determine whether it was ‘wild-type measles’ or vaccine-strain measles? If not, why not?
These are important questions to ask. Is it measles or not? If yes, what kind, because if it’s vaccine-strain measles, then that means it is the vaccinated who are contagious and spreading measles resulting in what the media likes to label “outbreaks” to create panic (a panic more appropriately triggered by our 25 year history of epidemic autism). It would be what one might call vaccine fallout. People who receive live-virus vaccines, such as the MMR, can then shed that live virus, for up to many weeks and can infect others. Other live-virus vaccines include the nasal flu vaccine, shingles vaccine, rotavirus vaccine, chicken pox vaccine, and yellow fever vaccine.”
Additional Evidence That the Vaccinated Are Not Immune, Spread Disease
The National Vaccine Information Center has published an important document relevant to this topic titled “The Emerging Risks of Live Virus & Virus Vectored Vaccines: Vaccine Strain Virus Infection, Shedding & Transmission.”
Pages 34-36 in the section on “Measles, Mumps, Rubella Viruses and Live Attenuated Measles, Mumps, Rubella Viruses” discuss evidence that the MMR vaccine can lead to measles infection and transmission.
…
Added by space wabbit at 6:39am on February 8, 2015
the White House hopes to end with the signing of an agreement between 12 nations called the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In preparation for this vote, President Obama has been deliberately antagonizing his critics, mostly liberal Democrats. Senator Elizabeth Warren is “a politician, like everybody else,” Obama said Friday to Yahoo News, who has “got a voice that she wants to get out there,” framing her concerns as insincere self-aggrandizement. Those concerns, Obama added, are “absolutely wrong.”
This is not the first time that Obama and his aides have depicted opposition on trade as deliberate misinformation designed to stir up a left-leaning political base, or generate campaign contributions; my favorite is the claim that Warren is merely trying to energize a non-existent Presidential campaign.
It’s beneath the dignity of the Presidency to so aggressively paint opponents as not just wrong on the facts, but hiding the truth on purpose. Warren has responded without using the same indecorous tactics. Unfortunately, I don’t have the same self-control. So by way of response, here are ten moments where the President or his subordinates have lied – call it “misled” or “offered half-truths” or whatever; but I’m in an ornery mood so let’s just say lied – about his trade agenda:
1. 40 PERCENT: The President and his team have repeatedly described TPP as a deal involving nearly 40 percent of global GDP. This tells only part of the story. First of all, the U.S. by itself represents 22 percent of global GDP; a bill naming a post office would involve that much. Second, we already have free trade agreements with six TPP partners – Canada, Mexico, Australia, Singapore, Chile and Peru – and between them and us, that’s 80 percent of the total GDP in this deal. The vast majority of the rest is represented by Japan, where the average applied tariff is a skinny 1.2 percent, per the World Bank.
You can see this paragraph in graphic form here. The point is that saying TPP is about “40 percent of GDP” intimates that it would massively change the ability to export without tariffs. In reality it would have virtually no significance in opening new markets. To the extent that there’s a barrier in global trade today, it comes from currency manipulation by countries wanting to keep their exports cheap. The TPP has no currency provisions.
2. JOB CREATION: Saying, as the White House has, that the deal would support “an additional 650,000 jobs” is not true. This figure came from a hypothetical calculation of a report by the Peterson Institute for International Economics, which the Institute itself said was an incorrect way to use their data. “We don’t believe that trade agreements change the labor force in the long run,” said Peter Petri, author of the report, in a fact check of the claim.
The deal is actually more about building up barriers than taking them down. Much of TPP is devoted to increasing copyright and patent protections for prescription drugs and Hollywood media content. As economist Dean Baker notes, this is protectionist, and will raise prices for drugs, movies and music here and abroad.
3. EXPORTS ONLY: The Administration constantly discusses trade as solely a question of U.S. exports. A recent Council of Economic Advisors report touts: Exporters pay higher wages, and export industry growth translates into higher average earnings. But the Economic Policy Institute points out that this ignores imports, and therefore the ballooning trade deficit, which weighs down economic growth and wages. Talking about trade without discussing both imports and exports is like relaying the score of a ballgame by saying “Dodgers 4.” It is literally a half-truth. Recent trade deals have in fact increased the trade deficit, such as the agreement with South Korea. Senator Sherrod Brown notes that the deal has only increased exports by $1 billion since 2011, while increasing imports by $12 billion, costing America 75,000 jobs.
4. MOST PROGRESSIVE: Obama has called TPP “the most progressive trade deal in history.” First of all, so did Bill Clinton and Al Gore, when talking about NAFTA in 1993. Second, there’s reason to believe TPP doesn’t even clear a low bar for progressive trade deals. The Sierra Club, based on a leaked TPP environmental chapter, said that the deal is weaker than the landmark “May 10 agreement” for deals with Peru, Panama and Colombia, struck in 2007. Key Democrats who devised labor and environmental standards for those agreements, like Rep. Sander Levin, believe that TPP falls short. Even if the chapters were up to par, consistent lack of enforcement of the rules makes them ineffective. The U.S. Trade Representative has actually claimed the Colombia free trade agreement is positive because only one trade unionist in the country is being murdered every other week. Labor groups can only ask the White House to enforce labor rights violations, and for the past several years, the Administration simply hasn’t. So when Obama says violators of TPP will face “meaningful consequences,” based on the Administration’s prior enforcement, he’s lying.
5. CHANGING LAWS: On the controversial topic of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), where corporations can sue sovereign governments for monetary damages for violating trade agreements that hurt the company’s “expected future profits,” the White House has engaged in a shell game. They say, “No trade agreement is going to force us to change our laws.” But the point of a corporation suing the United States or any trade partner is to put enough financial pressure on a government to force them to alter the law themselves. So ISDS doesn’t “cause” a change in law only in the narrowest sense. Even third-party countries have curtailed regulations in reaction to ISDS rulings, as New Zealand did with their cigarette packaging law, awaiting the outcome of a dispute between the tobacco industry and Australia (a suit that continues despite an initial victory for Australia).
6. NEVER LOST: The White House assumes that the only thing America cares about with ISDS is the upsetting of our own laws. So they’ve stressed that the U.S. has never lost an ISDS case. This is irrelevant. What ISDS does is offer bailout insurance policy to multinational corporations. If they run into discrimination or regulatory squeezing by a foreign government, they can use an extra-judicial process to recoup their investment. Workers screwed over by trade agreements have no ability to sue governments; only corporations get this privilege.
The United States attracts businesses through our relative rule of law. When that insurance is granted to countries like Vietnam and Malaysia, it weakens our competitive advantage, and makes it simple for countries to outsource their operations. Their investment is protected, as is their ability to exploit cheap labor. This makes it impossible for America to compete.
7. WEAKENING DODD-FRANK: Obama reacted strongly to Senator Warren’s charge that a future President could overturn financial regulations or other rules through trade deals. “I’d have to be pretty stupid,” Obama told Yahoo News, to “sign a provision that would unravel” signature achievements like Dodd-Frank. I suppose he is, then, because modern trade agreements often seek to “harmonize” regulations, effectively setting a regulatory ceiling. This harmonization could, as Warren says, “punch holes in Dodd-Frank without directly repealing it,” by forcing regulators to roll back capital or leverage requirements.
European negotiators want a trade agreement with the U.S. called the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) to include a chapter “harmonizing” financial regulations. So far the Obama Administration has rejected this, while admitting the potential for regulatory harm. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew told Congress in December 2013, “Normally in a trade agreement, the pressure is to lower standards” on regulations, “and that’s something that we just think is not acceptable.” A future President might find it acceptable, and today’s vote on “fast-track” authority would give trade deals an expedited process, with no amendments or filibusters by Congress, for six years, outlasting the current Administration. Scott Walker or Jeb Bush may decide it’s perfectly appropriate to undermine regulations in trade deals.
8. STOPPING CHINA: President Obama frequently casts TPP as a way to “contain” China. “If we don’t write the rules for trade around the world, guess what, China will,” he said on Friday. This is so facile as to be totally meaningless. China is a major Pacific Rim economy, and will have a presence regardless of our actions. As former Clinton Defense Department official Chas Freeman writes, “China has been and will remain an inseparable part of China’s success story.” Plus, as I’ve written in Salon, weak “rule of origin” guidelines could allow China to import goods into TPP member countries without any tariffs, while freed from following any TPP regulations.
9. SECRET DEAL: Obama has angrily dismissed the notion that TPP is a “secret” deal, saying that everyone will have public access to the TPP text for at least 60 days before a final vote. This is not the point opponents are making. The vote on fast track would severely limit Congressional input into the deal. And right now, members of Congress can only see the text in a secure room, without being able to bring staffers or take notes, or even talk about specifics in public. That makes the deal effectively secret during the fast track vote. “The president has only committed to letting the public see this deal after Congress votes to authorize fast track,” Warren told Greg Sargent. The President wants to filibuster-proof the bill in secret, then employ pretend transparency on TPP after that.
10. JUST A POLITICIAN: This idea from Obama that everybody opposing fast-track is acting like a mere “politician,” aside from demonizing the concept of representing constituents, neglects the fact that he’s a politician too. His interest in building a legacy, when practically nothing else has the potential to pass Congress the next two years, is a political interest. His possible interest in rewarding campaign contributors who would benefit from TPP is also political, or his desire to earn the respect of the Very Serious People who always support trade deals. Since Obama has a large platform and will not publicly debate any opponent on trade, he can float above it all, acting like a principled soul only wanting to better the country rather than a transactional ward heeler. This may be the biggest lie, that Obama’s somehow superior to everyone else in this debate.
STORY
…
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Click here to learn more
The Monsanto public relations machine has done a stellar job in recent years of reducing the GMO debate to one that pits “pro-science advocates” against “anti-science climate-denier types”—with Monsanto portrayed as being squarely planted in the pro-science camp.
But that well-oiled machine may be starting to sputter.
Turns out that Monsanto executive solicited pro-GMO articles from university researchers, and passed the “research” off as independent science which the biotech giant then used to prop up its image and further its agenda.
We know this, thanks to thousands of pages of emails obtained by US Right to Know, under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). And because a host of news outlets—including the New York Times, the Boston Globe, Bloomberg, the StarPhoenix and others—are now running with the story.
For anyone who has paid attention, this latest scandal should come as no surprise. As Steven Druker writes, in “Altered Genes, Twisted Truth,” “for more than 30 years, hundreds (if not thousands) of biotech advocates within scientific institutions, government bureaus, and corporate offices throughout the world have systematically compromised science and contorted the facts to foster the growth of genetic engineering, and get the foods it produces, onto our dinner plates.”
Will Druker’s book (published this year), and this new wave of bad press be enough to finally expose Monsanto’s “science” for what it is—nothing more than an expensive, sustained and highly orchestrated public relations campaign?
The story behind the story
U.S. Right to Know (USRTK), a nonprofit funded almost entirely by the Organic Consumers Association, launched an investigation into “the collusion between Big Food, its front groups, and university faculty and staff to deliver industry PR to the public.”
As part of its ongoing investigation, the group filed FOIA requests to obtain the emails and documents from 43 public university faculty and staff. The requested documents included records from scientists, economists, law professors, extension specialists and communicators—all of whom, as the group points out, were conducting work in public institutions, all funded by taxpayers.
On its website, the group says:
We believe the public deserves to know more about the flow of money and level of coordination between public university scientists and other academics, and the agrichemical and food companies whose interests they promote.
And now we do. And we know exactly how the latest plan to deceive, involving a paid PR firm posing as an independent third party, was hatched.
According to Mother Jones:
In an August 2013 email to nine prominent academics, Monsanto's strategic engagement lead Eric Sachs broached a plan: that the group would pen "short policy briefs on important topics in the agricultural biotechnology arena," chosen "because of their influence on public policy, GM crop regulation, and consumer acceptance."
Sachs assured the professors that the project would be handled discreetly. "I understand and appreciate that you need me to be completely transparent and I am keenly aware that your independence and reputations must be protected," he wrote. Two outside entities—an industry-funded group called the American Council on Science and Health and a PR outfit called CMA—would "manage the process of producing the policy briefs," "coordinate website posting and promotion," and "merchandize" the briefs by helping turn them into "op-eds, blog postings, speaking engagements, events, webinars, etc." This third-party management is "an important element," the Monsanto exec added, "because Monsanto wants the authors to communicate freely without involvement by Monsanto."
The explanation outlined by Mother Jones followed articles by mainstream news outlets, including Bloomberg and the New York Times. Here’s a partial roundup of the coverage generated so far by USRTK’s investigation.
New York Times: ‘helped produce important payoffs’
In a September 5 article, New York Times reporter Eric Lipton credited USRTK with obtaining “thousands of pages” of emails, many of which the Times then requested on its own.
After reviewing the documents, and describing some of the email exchanges between Monsanto’s PR firm and academics who were solicited to write articles, Lipton concluded that Monsanto’s strategy was effective: The efforts have helped produce important payoffs, including the approval by federal regulators of new genetically modified seeds after academic experts intervened with the United States Department of Agriculture on the industry’s behalf, the emails show.
Lipton singled out, among others, Kevin Folta, chairman of the horticultural sciences department at the University of Florida. Monsanto recruited Folta, Lipton wrote, ”to help with ‘biotechnology outreach’ and to travel around the country to defend genetically modified foods.”
Folta, who according to the Times became “part of an inner circle of industry consultants, lobbyists and executives who devised strategy on how to block state efforts to mandate G.M.O. labeling and, most recently, on how to get Congress to pass legislation that would pre-empt any state from taking such a step, received a $25,000 grant from Monsanto to fund his travel and “outreach.” According to Bloomberg, the University of Florida donated the $25,000 to charity—after the Times story ran.
Despite the grant, and the incriminating emails revealed by the Times, Folta has long denied any “formal connection” to Monsanto. (USRTK provides a list of Folta’s many denials).
The Times also singled Bruce M. Chassy, a professor emeritus at the University of Illinois, who in 2011 received a grant for an undisclosed amount to support “biotechnology outreach and education activities. Emails obtained by the Times reveal that Chassy and a Monsanto executive talked about efforts to persuade the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to “abandon its proposal to tighten the regulation of pesticides used on insect-resistant seeds.
In the same email in which Dr. Chassy negotiated the release of the grant funds, he discussed with a Monsanto executive a months long effort to persuade the Environmental Protection Agency to abandon its proposal to tighten the regulation of pesticides used on insect-resistant seeds.” Read the entire New York Times article here.
Bloomberg: ‘How Monsanto mobilized academics’
The headline on an article posted October 2 by Bloomberg said it all: ‘How Monsanto Mobilized Academics to Pen Articles Supporting GMOs.’
Bloomberg reported that the “undisclosed recruitment of scientists from Harvard University, Cornell University and three other schools to write about the benefits of plant biotechnology is drawing fire from opponents.”
The Bloomberg piece focused on how the Genetic Literacy Project, a clearly pro-GMO nonprofit that says its mission is “to disentangle science from ideology,” published articles by the scientists on its website, without disclosing that the articles had been solicited by Monsanto and its PR firm.
Despite its headline, however, the Bloomberg report bends over backwards to present Monsanto and the scientists’ arguments that their articles weren’t influenced by Monsanto’s PR firm, CMA Consulting, even going so far as to infer that there exists a scientific consensus that GMOs are safe with this statement: “The challenge for the pro-GMO lobby is the yawning gulf between scientific consensus and public perception.”
The existence of a scientific consensus on the safety of GMOs is widely disputed by international scientists.
Read the Bloomberg article here.
Boston Globe: ‘Harvard Professor failed to disclose’
Taking the local angle approach, a reporter for the Boston Globe focused on a Harvard professor caught up in the scandal.
Reporter Laura Krantz wrote:
A Harvard Kennedy School professor wrote a widely disseminated policy paper last year in support of genetically modified organisms at the behest of seed giant Monsanto, without disclosing his connection, e-mails show.
Professor Calestous Jumanot is author of an article titled, “Global Risks of Rejecting Agricultural Biotechnology,” published on the Genetic Literacy website. According to the Globe, in an email to Jumanot, Monsanto’s Eric Sachs, head of regulatory policy and scientific affairs suggested a topic, a summary and a headline. Jumanot chose a different headline, but the gist of the article conformed to the PR firm’s agenda.
As the Globe, the Times and others outlined, the Jumanot was one of nine professors who received emails from Sachs. Krantz wrote:
His e-mail lays out the agribusiness giant’s strategy. A marketing company would “merchandize” the papers online, disseminate them to the media, and schedule op-eds, blog posts, speaking engagements, and webinars.
Jumanot told the Globe, which had also previously reported on Jumanot’s connection to Monsanto, that it was the publication’s responsibility, not his, to disclose the connection.
In the end, neither did.
Read the Boston Globe article here.
StarPhoenix: ‘no mention of Monsanto’s involvement’
Monsanto didn’t limit its influence to U.S. academics. Zeroing in on one of its own, Canada's StarPhoenix reportred on Peter W.B. Phillips, graduate chair at the U of S Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, who was also approached by Monsanto.
According to the StarPhoenix, owned by Canada’s largest newspaper publisher:
Phillips was asked to write about the "burdensome regulations" that "stifle innovation" in the biotech industry.
"Critics might lead you to believe that genetically engineered crops are not tested or regulated. That is wrong," read the opening line of the finished article by Phillips.
In his conclusion, Phillips stated: "Increased regulatory costs and an expanding approval process stifle innovation - the innovation that is needed to secure an adequate supply and, appropriate quality of food at affordable prices."
Like Jumanot, Phillips denied any wrongdoing, telling the StarPhoenix that he wasn’t paid for the article, and that he works with a host of corporations, governments and non-governmental agencies: "That's part of my job," he said. "The research world has changed."
Indeed it has. And, we would argue, not for the better.
You can read the entire StarPhoenix article here.
Other media outlets that have so far covered this story include: Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, The Intercept, Reaction Watch and PLOS Biology Community Blog.
Katherine Paul is associate director of the Organic Consumers Association.…
Added by Christopher at 10:58am on October 9, 2015
gnorance is no longer an excuse,” said Nobel Prize Winner Otto Warburg in a meeting of Nobel Laureates on June 30, 1966. Warburg is considered one of the 20th century’s leading biochemists. He was the sole recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1931. In total, he was nominated for the award 47 times over the course of his career.
To not understand how acid and low oxygen conditions influences cancer is to not understand cancer. Over 80 years ago, Warburg showed that cells could always be made cancerous by subjecting them to periods of hypoxia. Cancer cells survive by utilizing a process that is advantageous in low oxygen environments.
It is not only how they survive it is how they are created and as we need to see, there are many reasons for not enough oxygen reaching the cells. Unfortunately, except for Warburg’s studies, little work has been done to investigate the relationship between hypoxia and cancer.
However, researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has unearthed a previously unknown phenomenon. They found that important regulatory molecules are decreased when deprived of oxygen, which leads to increased cancer progression in vitro and in vivo.
One of the secrets to disease and this whole question of oxygen levels is that a very bad feedback loop is created that takes our respiration down. All over the Internet people are arguing about causes of cancer and what comes first, depressed oxygen levels and acidity, or normal oxygen levels, no acidity and then cancer comes along out of the blue to cause acidity.
It is absurd to think that people are perfectly healthy and then suddenly cancer comes in from mars. Everywhere we read about preconditions that increase the incidences of cancer and none of these preconditions are healthy. For instance, diabetics, heavy drinkers, those exposed to toxins, radiation, heavy metals, strong emotional upset, heart disease and a long list of nutritional deficiencies, and very importantly, faster than the medical norm breathing that takes down oxygen levels causing acidity at the same time.
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Cancer Secret
D F Treacher and R M Leach teach, “Oxygen transport from environmental air to the mitochondria of individual cells occurs as a series of steps. The system must be energy efficient (avoiding unnecessary cardiorespiratory work), allowing efficient oxygen transport across the extravascular tissue matrix. At the tissue level, cells must extract oxygen from the extracellular environment and use it efficiently in cellular metabolic processes.”
What happens is that acidity depresses oxidation, and increasing alkalinity, even to a marked degree, greatly increases the rate of oxidation.[1] Meaning when acid conditions prevail the oxidative process inside the mitochondria is severely compromised and, its no surprize, as we switch to alkaline conditions we find that oxidation is remarkedly facilitated.
According to Warburg, damaged cell respiration causes fermentation, resulting in low pH (acidity) at the cellular level. “In every case, during the cancer development, the oxygen respiration always falls, fermentation appears, and the highly differentiated cells are transformed into fermenting anaerobes, which have lost all their body functions and retain only the now useless property of growth and replication. Thus, when respiration disappears, life does not disappear, but the meaning of life disappears, and what remains are growing machines that destroy the body in which they grow.”
The Warburg theory of cancer postulates that the driver of tumorigenesis is an insufficient cellular respiration caused by insult to mitochondria. In other words, instead of fully respiring in the presence of adequate oxygen, cancer cells ferment. Cancer is a metabolic disease, a fermentation caused by malfunctioning mitochondria, resulting in increased anabolism and decreased catabolism.
Hypoxia or anoxia results in a dramatic decrease in the levels of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Hypoxia is the stimulus that creates the need for a replacement for the lost ATP. If the cell wants to survive (not suffer cell death) it must turn to fermentation and it does. When oxygen becomes limiting, mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) is restricted and pyruvate is converted to lactate instead.
Very impactful to cellular health is the level of oxygen each cell receives. Most tissues do not experience oxygen levels at 20-21%. In our lungs, oxygen levels are around 14.5% and in peripheral tissues oxygen can be as low as 3.4-6.8%. The term physiological normoxia is used to define oxygen levels between 3-7%.
Pathological hypoxia may occur in certain instances of loss or occlusion of blood vessels or, in such cases as cancer, leaky and inadequate vasculature. In these examples, O2 levels tend to fall below 2%, but can range from 0.3- 4.2%.
The lowest level of O2, or being oxygen-free, is referred to as an anaerobic environment. Many microorganisms, including bacteria within the digestive tract of humans and at the bottom of the ocean are considered anaerobic species.[2] Since many of these species would be killed off by any trace of O2, these microorganisms must be studied by scientists within an environment completely devoid of O2.
Dr. Rockwell from Yale University School of Medicine (USA) studied malignant changes on the cellular level and wrote, “The physiological effects of hypoxia and the associated micro environmental inadequacies increase mutation rates, select for cells deficient in normal pathways of programmed cell death, and contribute to the development of an increasingly invasive, metastatic phenotype.” [3] In response to hypoxia, mitochondria generate an initial burst of ROS.[4]
Dr. Robert Rowan says, “Warburg emphasized that you can’t make a cell ferment unless a LACK OF OXYGEN is involved. In 1955, two American scientists, R.A. Malmgren and C.C. Flanigan, confirmed Warburg’s findings. They found that oxygen deficiency is ALWAYS present when cancer develops. Warburg found that you can reverse fermentation simply by adding oxygen – but only if you do it early enough. He incubated cells in nitrogen, starving them of oxygen for regular but short periods. Starving the cells of oxygen caused them to begin fermentation. Restoring oxygen promptly enabled the cells to recover. But the longer they were oxygen starved, the slower and less certain the recovery. With enough oxygen starvation, cells don’t recover. Once they reach a certain point, no amount of oxygen will return them to normal.”
Two papers appearing in the March 13 (2008) issue of the journal Nature conformed again Warburg’s theories. Led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Centre (BIDMC) and Harvard Medical School, the papers find that the metabolic process that has come to be known as the Warburg effect is essential for tumours’ rapid growth and identifies the M2 form of pyruvate kinase (PKM2), an enzyme involved in sugar metabolism, as an important mechanism behind this process.
As tumors grow, they can outgrow their blood supply, leaving some of the tumor with areas where the tissue is oxygen starved, a condition known as tumor hypoxia. Conventional wisdom would suggest the lack of oxygen would slow growth. However, the opposite is true. Hypoxia leads to tumor progression.
“We showed that that hypoxia causes a down regulation of, or decrease in, quantities of Drosha and Dicer, enzymes that are necessary for producing microRNAs (miRNAs). MiRNAs are molecules naturally expressed by the cell that regulate a variety of genes,” said Dr. Anil Sood, professor of gynecologic oncology and reproductive medicine and cancer biology. “At a functional level, this process results in increased cancer progression when studied at the cellular level.”
Conclusion
If the level of carbon dioxide in the blood is lower than normal, then this leads to difficulties in releasing oxygen from hemoglobin. Carbon dioxide and its twin sister bicarbonate control the pH of the blood. (Next week this will be fully explained in an essay entitled ‘Hypocapnia (Lowered CO2) in the Blood Leads to Reduced Oxygenation.’)
Unless the body’s PH level is slightly alkaline it cannot heal itself. Health is only possible when the PH of the body is normal. If your body’s PH is not correct one cannot effectively assimilate vitamins and minerals. Our body PH affects everything.
The human body is ‘alkaline by design but acidic by function,’ so everything that effects balanced pH in the body matters. Every living cell in the body creates metabolized waste, which is acidic. The nutrients from our food are delivered to each cell, the cells burn with oxygen to provide energy for us to live. The burned nutrients become metabolized waste. If there is any impedance, whether into our out the cell walls, acid wastes build, create inflammation in the capillaries, cutting oxygen transport.
All waste products are acid; the body discharges the waste through urine, bile and perspiration. Without proper elimination, the acid waste produces the perfect environment for fungus, bacteria and viruses to flourish. Although our bodies work hard to dispose of acidic waste, eating acidic foods makes it harder for the body to eliminate waste.
In another chapter we will discuss in depth another major point made by Warburg. “If our internal environment was changed from an acidic oxygen deprived environment to an alkaline environment full of oxygen, viruses, bacteria and fungus cannot live.” The fact is that these infections are another major cause of cancer.
Special Note: I recently published Grand Unification Theory of Cancer to this essay in part as a response to other people’s abuse and misrepresentation of Warburg’s work on cancer. Certain people just cannot understand how much oxygen matters, how deficient it can get in certain areas of the body, and how that leads to most diseases and then on to cancer. The next essay in this series is entitled ‘Hypocapnia (Lowered CO2) in the Blood Leads to Reduced Oxygenation,’ which is all about Danish scientist Christian Bohr, who noticed more than a century ago that hemoglobin binds oxygen more tightly at high pH than it does at low pH.
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…
d on and on forever? Didn’t you love to hear the news of yet another nuclear accident in Russia? How about the news that doctors are one of the main causes of cancer when they use cancer causing radiation to treat cancer?
Amid a renewed radiation scare sparked by news Tokyo is seriously considering dumping radioactive water from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the Pacific Ocean, KBS has obtained a list of Japanese food imports from which radioactive materials were detected over the past five years. The list includes household food items like coffee and chocolate.
We are supposed to love nuclear energy but who wants to live anywhere near a nuclear plant? They have never solved the problem of nuclear waste but lets have more nuclear plants. And it is nice to know that we can destroy the entire human race just in case we get tired of ourselves.
One just has to love the subtitle to a recent Helen Caldicott essay, “The Morrison Government has opened the door to the notion of nuclear power as peddled by the nuclear sociopaths.” We humans have a hard time learning our lessons. Nuclear radiation is a problem as shown from the earliest moments. Believe it or not, France Is Still Cleaning Up Marie Curie’s Nuclear Waste. Her lab outside Paris, dubbed Chernobyl on the Seine, is still radioactive nearly a century after her death.
Radiation (1) damages the DNA of any biological species and leads to cancer; (2) cause oxidative damage that can cause premature aging; (3) disrupt cell metabolism; and (4) potentially leads to other diseases through the generation of stress proteins.
The Forever Squad
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The IAEA International Remediation Expert Mission examines Reactor Unit 3 at TEPCO’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plan (Image by Giovanni Verlini / IAEA)
Now that the “nuclear renaissance” seems dead and buried following the Fukushima catastrophe (one-sixth of the world’s nuclear reactors were closed after the accident), the corporations invested in making nuclear plants and radioactive waste –including Toshiba, Nu-Scale, Babcock and Wilcox, GE Hitachi, General Atomics and the Tennessee Valley Authority – are back and are planning on mass producing small modular reactors (SMR), which can be sold around the world. We should add these companies to our list of favorite corporations.
With all this panic going against the nuclear industry they have to do something to stem the tide that is threatening to mothball the industry and they did.
“Pollution from coal-fired power plants is responsible for more than 100,000 deaths per year, whereas the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant is unlikely to kill a single person.”
How many people do you think are going to buy the ultimate propaganda lie, “In fact, the disaster shows how safe nuclear reactors actually are,” writes the least trustworthy media outlet in the world, The Guardian.
Seems like the nuclear industry paid for a counterattack or a competition against fear of radiation to calm the public. One has to love this one. “The partial meltdown of three reactors at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in 2011 led to mass evacuations that many experts now say resulted in more deaths than the earthquake and tsunami that caused the accident.”
Or how about this? “Experience in Nagasaki, Chernobyl and Fukushima has taught Shunichi Yamashita that anxiety and disruption can hurt people far worse than radiation itself.” The medical industrial complex would have us fear more the sun then the increasing amount of radiation exposure from the nuclear industry that includes all the cancer causing radiation used to diagnose and treat cancer.
I prefer this telling of Fukushima:
“Over the past 8 years, Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) has scrambled like a Mad Hatter to construct emergency storage tanks (1,000) to contain upwards of one million tonnes of contaminated radioactive water, you know, the kind of stuff that, over time, destroys human cells, alters DNA, causes cancer, or produces something like the horrific disfigured creature in John Carpenter’s The Thing! That’s the upshot of a triple nuclear meltdown that necessitates constant flow of water to prevent further melting of reactor cores that have been decimated and transfigured into corium or melted blobs. It’s the closest to a full-blown “china syndrome” in all of human history.”
The officially accepted story, no matter what news outlets say, is that exposure to radiation, such as being close to an atomic blast, or exposed to repeated CT, PET or mammograms, and especially to cancer radiation treatments, can cause acute health effects such as skin burns and acute radiation syndrome (“radiation sickness”). It can also result in long-term health effects such as cancer and cardiovascular disease. Bottom line to radiation exposure IT CAN KILL YOU. But don’t worry, that probably does not mean you. (CT scans can expose you to as much radiation as 200 chest X-rays.) Lets not even talk about what that can do to pregnant women and the fetus they are carrying.
In a year, the average person gets about 3 millisieverts (mSv), the units that scientists use to measure radiation. Each CT scan delivers 1 to 10 mSv, depending on the dose of radiation and the part of your body that’s getting the test.
Scientists have long known that radiation can cause cancer in humans but radiologists do not like to brag about that. Radioactive energy waves and particles are so small that they can pass through the body and harm a person’s genetic make up in their DNA. This is why you see strange mutations in animals and humans exposed to large amounts of radiation or smaller amounts with exposure over long periods of time.
But hey listen, to the nuclear people, its all safe, nothing to worry about unless you are one of the unfortunate ones whose low dose happens to hit your DNA causing a cancer causing mutation. Then that’s just bad luck Jack, and don’t you come back no more.
American sailors on the USS Ronald Reagan were exposed to radiation from Fukushima. Many are sick. Some have died. Why can’t they get justice?
Nuclear waste is piling up and nobody in the nuclear industry wants to talk about the fact that there is no real answer except to increasing pollute our planet with nuclear materials.
Killing the Children in Japan
Katsutaka Idogawa, former mayor of a town near the disabled Fukushima nuclear plant, told RT News that in his country radiation contamination is affecting Japan’s greatest treasure – its children. Compared with Chernobyl, radiation levels around Fukushima “are four times higher.”
According to Idogawa, there are about two million people residing in the prefecture who are reporting “all sorts of medical issues,” but the government insists these conditions are unrelated to the Fukushima accident. Idogawa wants their denial in writing.
“They believe what the government says, while in reality radiation is still there. This is killing children. They die of heart conditions, asthma, leukemia, thyroiditis… Lots of kids are extremely exhausted after school; others are simply unable to attend PE classes. But the authorities still hide the truth from us, and I don’t know why. Don’t they have children of their own? It hurts so much to know they can’t protect our children.”
“They say Fukushima Prefecture is safe, and that’s why nobody’s working to evacuate children, move them elsewhere. We’re not even allowed to discuss this.” It is the same everywhere from the official medical world. Radiation travels quickly and easily in the winds and comes down on the rains. The International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW) clearly are not buying the optimistic assurances of the United Nations that there is nothing to worry about with nuclear radiation and exposure to it.
Too Much Radiation
Astronauts, airline crews and frequent travelers are having to deal with increasing cosmic ray exposures because of the grand solar minimum. Exposure to the heavy ion component of cosmic rays triggers a multitude of cellular changes, depending on the rate of exposure, the type of damage incurred and individual susceptibility.
Medical imaging has become a central component of patient care to ensure early and accurate diagnosis. Unfortunately, many imaging modalities use ionizing radiation to generate images. Ionizing radiation even in low doses can cause direct DNA damage and generate reactive oxygen species and free radicals, leading to DNA, protein, and lipid membrane damage. This cell damage can lead to apoptosis, necrosis, teratogenesis, or carcinogenesis. As many as 2% of cancers (and an associated 15,000 deaths annually) can be linked to computed tomography exposure alone.
Radiation therapy has become one of the main forms of treatment for various types of cancers. Cancer patients previously treated with high doses of radiation are at a greater risk to develop cardiovascular complications later in life. The heart can receive varying doses of radiation depending on the type of therapy and can even reach doses in the range of 17 Gy. We are talking about near lethal dosages. Multiple studies have highlighted the role of oxidative stress and inflammation in radiation-induced cardiovascular damage.
Higher levels of radiation shortens people’s lives and sickens children. It might all be silent and invisible but that makes it more deadly not less. Because the government knows exactly what is going on and does not warn the public, and does not endorse appropriate detox and chelation therapy, we have a gathering health crisis.
After Thought
Dr. David Brownstein made a universal call for heavy iodine supplementation because the nutritive type of iodine protects the thyroid from the radioactive type of iodine. One has to be a fool not to be taking iodine because approximately 95% of us are deficient in iodine, thus making our thyroids sitting ducks (sponges) for the radioactive type of iodine. Talking about mineral holes, a thyroid deficient in iodine becomes like an intense vacuum cleaner hungry for anything even looking like a halogen (fluoride, bromide, chlorine, or rocket fuel). Because so much blood goes through the thyroid it has a fantastic capacity to concentrate radioactive iodine and these halogens no matter how low the concentration of them is in the blood.
…
.): spike
"a plant with many leaf divisions, and a spike of flowers"
Synonymy:
None known
Eurasian water-milfoil is submersed. It tolerates a wide range of water conditions, and often forms large infestations.
Eurasian water-milfoil stems are reddish-brown to whitish-pink. They are branched and commonly grow to lengths of six to nine feet. The leaves are deeply divided, soft and feather-like. Leaves are about two inches long. The leaves are arranged in whorls of three to six leaves about the stem. The flowers of Eurasian water-milfoil are reddish and very small. They are held above the water on an emersed flower spike that is several inches long.
Habit:
o Eurasian water-milfoil is a submersed, rooted, perennial
o its stems can "top out" in 20 feet of water, but the plant is most often found in water 0.5 to 3.5 m deep (Aiken et al. 1979)
o often forms large infestations; often is the most abundant submersed species in a locale
o spreads and reproduces mainly by regrowth of plant fragments; spreads locally by stolons
o will halt boat traffic on rivers; will fill a lake surface from shore to shore
Habitat:
o an aquatic weed worldwide
o seems to prefer lakes, ponds and slow-moving rivers and streams but can also grow in fast-moving water (Newroth 1985)
o tolerates a wide range of water conditions, including spring water and even brackish water of tidal creeks and bays with salinity of up to 10 parts per thousand (Beaven 1960)
o temperature tolerance: Eurasian water-milfoil is winter-hardy, able to overwinter in frozen lakes and ponds in northern states and Canada; but is also able to grow in shallow, over-heated bays such as Chassahowitzka Bay in Florida
Myriophyllum spicatum L.
Original description: Linnaeus 1753
o dicot, perennial
o there are a number of water-milfoils, native and non-native, that are confusable; this water-milfoil has decidedly feathery-looking leaves
o plants submersed rooted, attached to the substrate
o stems slender, smooth, 6 to 20 ft. long; stems reddish-brown to whitish-pink; branching several times near the water surface
o leaves are olive-green, less than 2 in. long, soft, deeply divided, feather-like; each leaf with a central axis (midrib) and 14 to 24 or so very slender (filiform) segments on each side of the axis
o leaf whorls are arranged along the stems in whorls of 3 to 6 (usually 4) leaves; whorl nodes are about 3/8 in. apart
o flowers on an emersed spike, held erect above the water, the spike to 8 inches long; flowers reddish; arranged in 4-flowered whorls along spike; petals 4; petals 1/8 in. long; sepals 4; stamens 8; flowering in Canada from late July to early August
o fruit 4-lobed; splitting into 4 nutlets
o roots fibrous; often developing on plant fragments
Myriophyllum spicatum might be confused with a number of other submersed plants, including other water-milfoils and other submersed plants.
o native northern water-milfoil (Myriophyllum sibiricum = M. exalbescens):
-- has fewer than 12 leaf segments on each side of the leaf axis, whereas Eurasian water-milfoil leaves have 14 or more leaf segments on each side of the leaf axis; and has somewhat stouter stems than does Eurasian water-milfoil
o coontail coontail native coontail (Ceratophyllum demersum):
-- leaves are toothed and the plant feels rough when pulled through the hand, whereas Eurasian water-milfoil leaves are not toothed and the plant does not feel rough
Origin:
o there are about 40 species of Myriophyllum in the world
o Some experts believe that Myriophyllum spicatum, Eurasian water-milfoil, originated in Eurasia; others believe northern Africa
o occurs in Europe, Asia, India, Japan, Canada and the U.S.
Distribution in the U.S.:
+ Eurasian water-milfoil is present in most U.S. states and in British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec. The map on the left is based on the older data of Kartesz.
The best way to track the spread of invasive aquatic plants may be to identify the drainage basins (watersheds) they have been discovered in. Drainage maps give useful information to eco-managers because drainage maps show precisely where the plants are, making it easier for managers to infer where the plants might go next, and thus where to take preventive measures.
How it got here:
o Myriophyllum spicatum, Eurasian water-milfoil was probably intentionally introduced, possibly by federal authorities, into the U.S. and was first found in 1942 in Washington, D.C. (Couch & Nelson 1985); or the plant was introduced in the late 1800s, possibly in ship ballast, in the Chesapeake Bay area (Aiken et al. 1979)
o may have been spread as packing material for worms sold to fishermen in Oklahoma (Couch & Nelson 1985)
o was first observed in Ontario in the 1960s; was first observed in British Columbia in 1970 in Okanagan Lake
o first found in Minnesota in Lake Minnetonka, in 1987; by 1990 it was in 37 waterbodies; by 1991, 51; and in 1999 was found in 100 waterbodies (R.M. Newman, pers. com.)
o Eurasian water-milfoil is not on the U.S. Federal Noxious Weed List; it continues to be sold through aquarium supply dealers and over the Internet.
Potential to spread elsewhere in U.S.:
o Eurasian water-milfoil is being spread by transport of fragments from one water body to another, both by boats and other vehicles and by water currents (Aiken et al. 1979)
o Minnesota authorities found aquatic plants on 23% of all boats and trailers inspected (Bratager 1996)
o it is also cold hardy and tolerant of a variety of water quality conditions
Problems/Effects:
o Myriophyllum spicatum grows quickly to form dense infestations which shade out and replace native plants (Smith & Barko 1990; Madsen 1994; Madsen et al. 1991)
o Eurasian water-milfoil infestations negatively affect birds and fish (Aiken et al. 1979; Madsen et al. 1995)
o decaying mats of Eurasian water-milfoil reduce oxygen levels in the water (Honnell 1992)
Control:
Due to decades of university, state and federal research and experience with Myriophyllum spicatum in the U.S. and Canada, several methods have been developed to help in its management.
aquatic plant chopping machine the use of mechanical harvestors and chopping machines should be carefully considered because resulting plant fragments may easily regrow or be carried downstream to create new infestations; harvesting machines are effective at reducing a large biomass in a short time, however harvesting may have to be done several times per year
In Okanagan Lake, British Columbia, authorities have apparently successfully experimented with management by simultaneously rototilling plants and roots and underwater vacuuming (Newroth 1988)
Water level manipulation (drawdown) has been used effectively to control Eurasian water-milfoil in Tennessee reservoirs (Bates et al. 1985)
one insect biocontrol for Eurasian water-milfoil years of research to find insect biocontrols has resulted in the successful introduction of insects which are believed to be helping keep Eurasian water-milfoil under control; biocontrol fish also have been successfully used (Bonar et al. 1993.)
man applies aquatic herbicide helicopter applies aquatic herbicide registered aquatic herbicides such as endothall, 2,4-D and fluridone do provide temporary control of Eurasian water-milfoil, but efforts to eradicate the plant "are rarely, if ever, likely to succeed" (Smith & Barko 1990)
From the University of Florida Aquatic Weed Management Guide, Vandiver 1999:
According to this Guide, a number of aquatic herbicides may be used to manage "watermilfoil", including formulations of endothall, diquat, copper, 2,4-D, and fluridone. A concentration of 5 ppm 2,4-D for 1 h will kill all plants (Steward & Nelson 1972). As always, comply with federal law by following the herbicide label instructions, permissible sites and application rates.
What can you do?
Transporting Eurasian water-milfoil fragments on boats, trailers, and in livewells is the main introduction route to new lakes and rivers. So, clean your boat before you leave the ramp!
But, there's plenty more you can do to help.
Laws and lists:
Myriophyllum spicatum
o is "state-listed" in Florida, Minnesota, North Carolina, South Carolina and Washington
+ is on the Florida Prohibited Plants list, Florida Department of Environmental Protection
o is on lists of government agencies and/or pest plant councils in 21 states
o is on the Florida Exotic Pest Plant Council list:
Category II - "species that have shown a potential to disrupt native plant communities in Florida"
Want to know more?
The information contained on this wep page was extracted from published scientific literature and agency reports. It is important to know that plant research, like most areas of scientific research, is still relatively young and incomplete--much may have been published about the physiology of one plant but not about its management; much may have been published about how to culture and grow another plant but not about its natural ecology. Thousands of research articles may have been published about one invasive plant, but perhaps only a dozen about another.
If you want to read the research yourself, perhaps to clarify or expand an area of information contained here, or to help determine your own line of research, you are welcome to query the world's largest collection of international scientific literature about aquatic, wetland and invasive plants, the APIRS bibliographic database, which contains more than 54,000 citations and their content keywords. Or you might want to ask us to do it for you and mail or e-mail the search results to you.
This is the literature about Myriophyllum spicatum that was used to develop this web page. More research items about this plant may be found at APIRS:
o Aiken SG, Newroth PR, Wile I. 1979. The biology of Canadian
o weeds. 34. Myriophyllum spicatum L. Canadian J. Plant Sci. 59:201-215 Barko JW. 1983. The growth of Myriophyllum spicatum in relation to selected characteristics of sediment and solution. Aquatic Botany 15:91-103
o Bates AL, Smith CS. 1994. Submersed plant invasions and declines in the southeastern United States. Lake and Reservoir Management 10(1):53-55
o Bertholdt W. 1958. Your aquarium needs Myriophyllum -- plant of delicate beauty. Aquarium Journal 29:106-107
o Bonar SA, Thomas GL, Thiesfield SL, Pauley GB, Stables TB. 1993. Effect of triploid grass carp on the aquatic macrophyte community of Devil's Lake, Oregon. North American Journal Fisheries Management 13(4):757-765
o Bratager M, Crowell W, Enger S, Montz G, Perleberg D, Rendall WJ, Skinner L, Welling CH, Wright D. 1996. Harmful Exotic Species of Aquatic Plants and WIld Animals in Minnesota. Annual Report. Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, St. Paul. 99 pp.
o Budd J, Lillie RA, Rasmussen P. 1995. Morphological characteristics of the aquatic macrophyte, Myriophyllum spicatum L. in Fish LAke, Wisconsin. Journal of Freshwater Ecology 10:19-31
o Couch R, Nelson E. 1985. Myriophyllum spicatum in North America. In: Anderson LWJ, ed., First International Symposium on Watermilfoil and Related Haloragaceae Species, 23-24 July 1985, Vancouver, BC. Aquatic Plant Management Society, Vicksburg, MS.
o Creed RP. 2000. The weevil-watermilfoil interaction at different spatial scales: what we know and what we need to know. J. Aquat. Plant Manage. 38:78-81
o Creed RP, Sheldon SP. 1995. Weevils and watermilfooil: did a North American herbivore cause the decline of an exotic plant? Ecological Applications 5:1113-1121
o Engel S. 1995. Eurasian watermilfoil as a fishery management tool. Fisheries 20(3):20-27
o Fernald ML. 1919. Two new Myriophyllums and a species new to the United States. Rhodora 21:120-124
o Goldsby TL, Bates AL, Stanley RA. 1978. Effect of water level fluctuation and herbicide on Eurasian watermilfoil in MElton Hill Reservoir. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management 16:34-38
o Holm LG, Plucknett DL, Pancho JV, Herberger JP. 1977. The world's worst weeds: distribution and biology. Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii. 609 pp.
o Honnell D, Madsen JD, Smart RM. 1992. Effects of aquatic plants on water quality in pond ecosystems. In: Proceedings, 26 Annual Meeting, Aquatic Plant Control Research Program, Report A-92-2. US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS.
o Johnson RL, Van Dusen PJ, Toner JA, Hairston NG. 2000. Eurasian watermilfoil biomass associated with insect herbivores in New York. J. Aquat. Plant Manage. 38:82-88
o Keast A. 1984. The introduced aquatic macrophyte, Myriophyllum spicatum, as habitat for fish and their macroinvertebrate prey. Can. J. Zool. 62:1289-1303
o Lillie RA. 2000. Temporal and spatial changes in milfoil distribution and biomass associated with weevils in Fish Lake, WI. J. Aquat. Plant Manage. 38:98-104
o McCann JA et al. 1996. Nonindigenous aquatic and selected terrestrial species of Florida-Status, pathway, and time of introduction, present distribution, and significant ecological and economic effects. Southeastern Biological Science Center, Gainesville, 256 pp.
o Madsen JD, Smart RM, Dick GO, Honnell DR. 1995. The influence of an exotic submersed aquatic plant, Myriophyllum spicatum, on water quality, vegetation and fish populations of Kirk Pond, Oregon. In: Proceedings, 29 Annual Meeting, Aquatic Plant Control Research Program, US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS.
o Nelson LS. 1996. Growth regulation of Eurasian watermilfoil with flurprimidol. Journal of Plant Growth Regulation 15:33-38
o Newman RM, Biesboer DD. 2000. A decline of Eurasian watermilfoil in MInnesota associated with the milfoil weevil, Euhrychiopsis lecontei 2000. J. Aquat. Plant Manage. 38:105-111.
o Nichols SA, Buchan LA. 1997. Use of native macrophytes as indicators of suitable Eurasian watermilfoil habitat in Wisconsin lakes. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management 35:21-24
o Sheldon SP. 1994. Invasions and declines of submersed macrophytes in New England, with particular reference to Vermont lakes and herbivorous invertebrates in New England. Lake and Reservoir Management 10(1):13-17
o Smith CG, Barko JW. 1990. Ecology of Eurasian watermilfoil. Journal of Aquatic Plant Management 28:55-64
o Smith CG, Barko, JW. 1996. Evaluation of a Myriophyllum spicatum decline in reservoirs of the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. Tech. Report A-96-6, US Army Corps of Engineers Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS
o Solarz SL, Newman RM. 1996. Oviposition specificity and behavior of the watermilfoil specialist Euhrychiopsis lecontei. Oecologia 106:337-344
o Steward KK, Nelson LL. 1972. Evaluations of controlled release PVC and Attaclay formulations of 2,4-D on Eurasian watermilfoil. Hyacinth Control J. 10:35-37
o Stuckey RL, Moore DL. 1995. Return and increase in abundance of aquatic flowering plants in Put-in-Bay Harbor, Lake Erie, Ohio. Ohio J. Sci. 95(3):261-266
o Vandiver VV. 1999. Florida aquatic weed management guide. Univ. of FL, IFAS, Cooperative Extension Service, Publ. SP-55, 130 pp.
o Verma U, Charudattan R. 1993. Host range of Mycoleptodiscus terrestris, a microbial herbicide candidate for Eurasian watermilfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum. Biological Control 3:271-280
Download the Recognition Card of Myriophyllum spicatum (PDF 516 KB).
Other web sites that treat Eurasian water-milfoil:
USGS Nonindigenous Aquatic Species Fact Sheets
http://nas.er.usgs.gov/taxgroup/plants/docs/my_spica.html Biocontrol of Eurasian Watermilfoil -- University of Minnesota
http://www.fw.umn.edu/research/milfoil/milfoilbc.html
PCA Alien Plant Working Group Fact Sheet: Eurasian water-milfoil
See the UF/IFAS Assessment, which lists plants according to their invasive status in Florida.…
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