A move by lawyers to consolidate at least 14 lawsuits filed by eight different law firms in six different federal courts is a “telling sign” more lawsuits will be filed against the company over claims its weedkiller, paraquat, causes Parkinson’s Disease. Lawyers suing Swiss chemical company Syngenta are asking a U.S. judicial panel to consolidate more than a dozen similar lawsuits under the oversight of a federal judge in California. The move is a telling sign of the expansion of litigation that alleges the company’s weed-killing products cause Parkinson’s Disease.
According to the motion, filed April 7 by the Texas-based Fears Nachawati law firm with the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation, there are currently at least 14 lawsuits filed by eight different law firms in six different federal courts across the country. The lawsuits are all filed on behalf of plaintiffs who have been diagnosed with the neurodegenerative disorder, and they allege exposure to Syngenta’s weed killers made with a chemical called paraquat for the disease. Several other cases making the same allegations are pending in state courts. “The cases are excellent candidates for coordinated pretrial proceedings because they arise from the same poisonous toxin causing the same crippling disease resulting from the wrongful conduct of the same three defendants,” the Fears Nachawati brief in support of its motion states. “Movant expects that the number of similar cases filed in state and federal courts across the country will expand rapidly.” The motion seeks transfer specifically to Judge Edward Chen in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. Majed Nachawati, a partner with the Fears Nachawati firm, said the firm was still investigating the size and scope of the overall litigation but believes the paraquat litigation against Syngenta “will be significant and material in nature …” “Very soon, there is going to be litigation in dozens of federal courts across the country,” Nachawati said. The Miller Firm of Virginia, which helped lead the Roundup cancer litigation against Monsanto that resulted in an $11 billion settlement with Monsanto owner Bayer AG, is among the law firms joining in the paraquat litigation. The Miller firm supports the effort to consolidate the federal actions in California, where thousands of Roundup cases were also consolidated for pretrial proceedings, according to the firm’s lead attorney Mike Miller. Syngenta says that its paraquat products have been approved as “safe and effective” for more than 50 years and it will “vigorously” defend the lawsuits. Syngenta is owned by China National Chemical Corporation, known as ChemChina. Scientific studies Parkinson’s is an incurable progressive disorder that affects nerve cells in the brain, leading in advanced cases to severe physical debilitation and often dementia. Many Parkinson’s experts say the disease can be caused by a range of factors, including exposure to pesticides such as paraquat, as well as other chemicals. Several scientific studies have linked paraquat to Parkinson’s, including a large study of U.S. farmers jointly overseen by multiple U.S. government agencies. That 2011 research reported that people who used paraquat were twice as likely to develop Parkinson’s disease as people who did not use it. “Numerous epidemiological and animal studies have linked paraquat to Parkinson’s disease,” said Dorsey Ray, a professor of neurology and director of the Center for Human Experimental Therapeutics at University of Rochester in New York. Dorsey is also the author of a book about prevention and treatment of Parkinson’s Disease. “The evidence linking paraquat to Parkinson’s disease is probably the strongest of any pesticide commonly used,” he said. Some studies have not found any clear links between paraquat and Parkinson’s and Syngenta asserts that the most recent and authoritative research does not show a connection. Indeed, a study published in 2020 found connections between some other pesticides and Parkinson’s, but no strong evidence showing paraquat causes the disease. Upcoming trial One case filed in a state court is scheduled to go to trial next month. Hoffman V. Syngenta is slated for trial May 10 in St. Clair County Circuit Court in Illinois. A status conference is scheduled for the end of this month. Missouri lawyer Steve Tillery, who is representing the plaintiffs in the Hoffman case as well as several other plaintiffs in other paraquat lawsuits, said despite Syngenta’s assertions to the contrary, he has accumulated evidence that includes internal company records showing Syngenta has known for decades that its product causes Parkinson’s Disease. “They shouldn’t be selling this product, said Tillery. “This chemical should be off the market.” Originally published by U.S. Right To Know.
0 Comentarios
As we’ve pointed out over and over again, diet-related and environmental-driven chronic diseases are the underlying “comorbidities” that make people far more vulnerable to hospitalization and even death triggered by COVID-19. These often-preventable underlying conditions include obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, liver disease, and cancer. Over 8,300 people die per day in the US, with 3,300 of these being people 80 years old and older, and 3,200 per day recently listing COVID-19 or PIC (pneumonia, influenza, and coronavirus) as a contributing factor on their death certificates. As more and more scientists are pointing out, a strong immune system, adequate levels of Vitamin D, and a healthy gut microbiome and digestive system are likely our best defenses against an epidemic of chronic disease and COVID-19. Unfortunately, Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, sprayed on genetically engineered crops and foods, cotton fields, roadsides, and timber plantations, is everywhere. The written testimony of FUCOBI's first president, Dra. Acacia Alcívar-Warren, will be first published as case study soon. She has been a first hand witness of the symptoms of non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and symptoms of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, both associated with Glyohosate exposure. And guess what? Roundup (glyphosate) destroys our immune system and gut microbiome, even at the “legally allowed doses” that our indentured politicians and regulatory officials allow. Source: https://www.organicconsumers.org/newsletter/food-tyranny-and-mad-science/bayermonsanto’s-roundup-killing-us #FUCOBI and #GIRi will be beneficiaries of the patent for the genome sequence of the shrimp SPF Penaeus vannamei from USA prepared by Dr. Acacia Alcívar-Warren, for the discovery of the white spot virus already integrated in the genome of the SPF shrimp that We take Taura, published in Genes,: "The Complete Genome of an Endogenous Nimavirus (Nimav-1_LVa) From the Pacific Whiteleg Shrimp Penaeus (Litopenaeus) Vannamei". White spot syndrome virus (WSSV), the lone virus of the genus Whispovirus under the family Nimaviridae, is one of the most devastating viruses affecting the shrimp farming industry. Knowledge about this virus, in particular, its evolution history, has been limited, partly due to its large genome and the lack of other closely related free-living viruses for comparative studies. In this study, we reconstructed a full-length endogenous nimavirus consensus genome, Nimav-1_LVa (279,905 bp), in the genome sequence of Penaeus (Litopenaeus) vannamei breed Kehai No. 1 (ASM378908v1). This endogenous virus seemed to insert exclusively into the telomeric pentanucleotide microsatellite (TAACC/GGTTA)n. It encoded 117 putative genes, with some containing introns, such as g012 (inhibitor of apoptosis, IAP), g046 (crustacean hyperglycemic hormone, CHH), g155 (innexin), g158 (Bax inhibitor 1 like). More than a dozen Nimav-1_LVa genes are involved in the pathogen-host interactions. We hypothesized that g046, g155, g158, and g227 (semaphorin 1A like) were recruited host genes for their roles in immune regulation. Sequence analysis indicated that a total of 43 WSSV genes belonged to the ancestral/core nimavirus gene set, including four genes reported in this study: wsv112 (dUTPase), wsv206, wsv226, and wsv308 (nucleocapsid protein). The availability of the Nimav-1_LVa sequence would help understand the genetic diversity, epidemiology, evolution, and virulence of WSSV. See full article here: China Ocean Group Development Co. has signed on to build a sizeable pelagic fisheries base in Ecuador, SeafoodSource reported this month. The distant-water fishing firm recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Mercado Común Del Sur (Mercosur), as a number of other corporate executives, government officials, researchers, and retired diplomats looked on at the Sheraton hotel in Shenzhen. Paul Penaherrera, Ecuador’s commercial counselor in Guangzhou, who also heads the local office of export promotion agency Pro Ecuador, said that the base still requires approval from the Ecuadorian government. He also noted that the company has not yet detailed which species it will focus on. “It’s not approved by government,” Penaherrera said. “The company is planning to present proposals to [Ecuador’s] government to see if it will be approved or not.” China Ocean Group Development Co. stated in a filing to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange that it will send 100 vessels to Ecuador and build the base in Manta, which is regarded as a hub of South America’s tuna-fishing industry. “Pursuant to the memorandum, the parties intend to build a deep-sea fishery base in Manta, Ecuador, which shall include offshore fishery docks, breeding, cold storage, processing plants, logistics, comprehensive supplies, maintenance and repair of fishing vessels, training and research of the fishing industry, and logistics trade, the company will organize a total of 100 fishing vessels to go to Ecuador and Colombia and other countries to carry out fishing,” the filing stated. The plans for the base arise after tensions simmered between Ecuador and China this summer, in the wake of the latter’s squid fleet encroaching upon Ecuador’s waters. Due to the way that China Ocean is structured – it is listed in Hong Kong and registered offshore – it does not to come under mainland China’s pledged effort to limit the size of its fleet. Source: https://www.seafoodsource.com/news/supply-trade/chinese-distant-water-firm-to-build-fishing-base-in-ecuador?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWTJRMk16WTVNR0V6WVRSayIsInQiOiJ4VFJ4RmxHXC9TbDBBRFdpTDJGOEF1a2ZWOW91ZGdsKzYxWGplT1FYdHphVDNRYWI4UEU5VHdVTVl5UGo4NldkaXhGaXUxSWQ1OGNiZ3ZcL1VXU2E1VFk0czE1N1wvelNJTDBLUkFiWjVrUVZQREFBZndISHg3eFM5WjljWFlwU3dxNiJ9 As COVID-19 continues to inflict illness and misery across the Asia-Pacific region, three international organizations have vowed to collaborate and intensify their joint efforts to respond to all health threats, including zoonotic influenza, rabies, antimicrobial resistance and those affecting food safety, through a One Health approach. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have reaffirmed their joint commitment to work with their Members through multi-sectoral coordination. A joint Statement of Intent to Coordinate was signed by Asia-Pacific representatives from the organisations in support of the Tripartite One Health Coordination Group. The Regional Tripartite partners are committed to work with Members through multi-sectoral coordination efforts to support countries’ efforts to prevent and manage health threats and strengthen their coordinated efforts, with the aim of protecting the health of animals and people. The Tripartite One Health Coordination Group for Asia and the Pacific undertakes joint activities including regional workshops on multisectoral collaboration at the animal-human-ecosystems interface. In October 2020, regional representatives from the Tripartite organisations signed a Statement of Intent to Coordinate. This statement acknowledges the importance of close coordination and communication across sectors, and commits to working together to partner with their Member States and regional organisations to strengthen coordinated efforts to fight existing and emerging health threats. If you want to learn more about the holistic concept of #UnaSalud #OneHealth visit our UNA SALUD / ONE HEALTH project that aims to conserve biodiversity, and encompasses the holistic concept of maintaining healthy ecosystems, to obtain healthy animals and protect public health . https://www.fucobi.org/una-salud-one-health.html Source:: https://rr-asia.oie.int/en/news/covid-19-reignites-drive-for-a-one-health-approach-to-tackle-preventable-illnesses-at-the-animal-human-ecosystems-interface/ This article is an abridged version of the Mangrove Action Project summary on the practice of the 'Restoration Community-Based Ecological Mangrove Restoration (CBEMR), which deals with mangrove restoration and focuses on facilitating natural regeneration. This summary has been developed for groups who want to start their own restoration project. Every site is different, and there is no one-size-fits-all solution for restoration. However, there are some general scientific principles to which all mangroves in the world adhere. The Mangrove rehabilitation is NOT like forest plantation in drylands, as the objectives are different: plants have to deal with salt and flooded soils, and elevation relative to sea level is of vital importance. Fortunately, there is a significant amount of published research, and the practical experience of MAP can be drawn on to avoid the mistakes that compromised previous projects. Read the full article in Spanish here:
Source: https://mangroveactionproject.org/ Pesticide literature compilation approach and results (AGR-Pesticide-Literature-Review-FY20)11/10/2020 This memorandum summarizes the methods and results of a literature compilation conducted pursuant to the procurement AGR-Pesticide-Literature-Review-FY20. This compilation is based on readily available, key documents describing the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators. The principal product associated with this effort is a Microsoft Excel file that summarizes the key features of referenced documents, including document and study type, funding source(s), pollinator species or taxa, contaminant(s), and multiple other characteristics (see “Document Characterization” below). We have also developed an EndNote database of the included articles, which are listed in Appendix A to this memorandum.
The objective of this compilation is to provide a high-level characterization of readily available information on the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators, with an emphasis on managed and wild pollinators of relevance to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. As defined by Massachusetts Department of Agricultural Resources (MDAR 2017), managed pollinators in the Commonwealth include honey bees (Apis mellifera), bumble bees (Bombus spp.), alfalfa leafcutting bees (Megachile rotundata), and blue orchard mason bees (Osmia lignaria), while wild pollinators include an estimated 380 species of bees and 120 species of butterflies, including monarchs (Danaus plexippus). As described below, since 2010, several hundred research papers, reports, and white papers have been published on the effects of neonicotinoids on pollinators. It is beyond the scope of this review to cover all these documents; instead, we prioritized recent publications and reviews. This compilation may assist MDAR with identifying, planning, and managing future research and policy efforts related to neonicotinoids and pollinators but does not provide any policy recommendations with respect to the management, regulation, or use of neonicotinoids. Coordinators: Acacia Alcivar-Warren, Miriam Alcivar Arteaga, Elicio Mendoza Zambrano, et al.
A new publication by Hart and Halden from the University of Arizona shows wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a potential tool for assessing and managing the coronavirus pandemic. They concluded that the WBE approach will ‘save money, be broadly applicable worldwide, and potentially aid in precision management of the pandemic, thereby helping to accelerate the global economic recovery that billions of people rely upon for their livelihoods. Abstract With the economic and practical limits of medical screening for SARS -CoV -2/COVID -19 coming sharply into focus worldwide, scientists are turning now to wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) as a potential tool for assessing and managing the pandemic. We employed computational analysis and modeling to examine the feasibility, economy, opportunities and challenges of enumerating active coronavirus infections locally and globally using WBE. Depending on local conditions, detection in community wastewater of one symptomatic/asymptomatic infected case per 100 to 2,000,000 non-infected people is theoretically feasible, with some practical successes now being reported from around the world. Computer simulations for past, present and emerging epidemic hotspots (e.g., Wuhan, Milan, Madrid, New York City, Teheran, Seattle, Detroit and New Orleans) identified temperature, average in-sewer travel time and per-capita water use as key variables. WBE surveillance of populations is shown to be orders of magnitude cheaper and faster than clinical screening, yet cannot fully replace it. Cost savings worldwide for one-time national surveillance campaigns are estimated to be in the million to billion US dollar range (US$), depending on a nation’s population size and number of testing rounds conducted. For resource poor regions and nations, WBE may represent the only viable means of effective surveillance. Important limitations of WBE rest with its inability to identify individuals and to pinpoint their specific locations. Not compensating for temperature effects renders WBE data vulnerable to severe under - /over - estimation of infected cases. Effective surveillance may be envisioned as a two -step process in which WBE serves to identify and enumerate infected cases, where after clinical testing then serves to identify infected individuals in WBE -revealed hotspots. Data provided here demonstrate this approach to save money, be broadly applicable worldwide, and potentially aid in precision management of the pandemic, thereby helping to accelerate the global economic recovery that billions of people rely upon for their livelihoods Keywords: Wastewater-based epidemiology; modeling; global health; coronavirus Reference Hart O.E. and R.U. Halden. Computational analysis of SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 surveillance by wastewater-based epidemiology locally and globally: Feasibility, economy, opportunities and challenges. Science of The Total Environment, 2020; 138875 DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138875 Source https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7175865/pdf/main.pdf Below is a summary of the research by an anonymous group of researchers, which is intended to examine the evidence that can prove that the SARS-CoV-2 virus was present in a biological laboratory in Wuhan, China. The authors neither claim nor imply that the virus was deliberately designed as a biological weapon or released as one. They are also interested in distancing themselves from the anti-Chinese sentiment that is being fostered in some sections of the media around the laboratory escape hypothesis, calling this trend "racist." However, the document presents compelling evidence that the virus may have been the product of "gain-of-function" laboratory studies. Conclusion Up until this point, we have been presenting each of our claims in a vacuum. Let us put them together: At some point in late 2019, many people who visited the The Huanan Seafood Market fell ill due to a new disease. To date the origin of this disease is unknown. This market is less than 9 miles away from The Wuhan Institute of Virology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, which: * Collaborated with French authorities to construct its BSL-4 lab, however the company meant to inspect its safety standards bailed out of the project and French scientists who were supposed to work there were never sent there * Developed chimeric SARS-like coronaviruses * Conducted ’dangerous’ gain-of-function research on the SARS-CoV-1 virus * Established a 96.2% match with SARS-CoV-2 and a virus they sampled from a cave over 1,000 miles away from Wuhan * Injected live piglets with bat coronaviruses as recently as July 2019: Paper 5, Paper 7, Paper 8 * Tested its disinfecting procedures with a bat coronavirus * Published a paper on a close descendant of SARS-CoV-1, MERS-CoV, in November 2019 * Collected bat samples with improper PPE even after a researcher was bitten by one * Was hiring researchers to work on bat coronaviruses as recently as November 2019 * The United States State Department claimed had ’inadequate safety’ * Deleted a press release detailing a U.S. State Department visit * Has not provided concrete evidence that one of their prior researchers is still alive, despite rumors on Chinese social media that they are "Patient Zero", despite one of their other top researchers coming out and swearing the virus had nothing to do with her lab * Had a researcher accuse the director of the Institute of selling infected lab animals to vendors on Weibo (with pictures of herself and her employee ID included); afterwards, she claimed she was ’hacked’ * Had staff trained by a Chinese-Canadian scientist at Canada’s only BSL-4 lab who has now been under RCMP investigation for nearly a year following a shipment of Ebola and Henipahvirus from that lab to a lab in China The market is also less than 3 miles away from the Wuhan Centre for Disease Control, which: * Was actually already accused of being the source of the outbreak from a now-withdrawn academic paper from a notable Chinese scholar at the South China University of China * Once kept horseshoe bats, a known reservoir of SARS-CoV-1, within its labs * Once performed surgery on live animals within its labs * Had a researcher who quarantined on two separate occasions; once upon coming into contact with bat blood after being ’attacked’ and another time when he was urinated upon in a cave while wearing inadequate personal protection Let us also look at the actions of China before and after the outbreak, which: * Had the SARS-CoV-1 virus escape from a lab in Beijing, twice * Compensated families after 27 students were infected with Brucella bacteria during an anatomy course in 2011 * Is currently investigating a similar Brucella outbreak amongst "over 100 Students and Staff" in December 2019 * Issued bio-safety guidelines to ’fix chronic management loopholes at virus labs’ * Arrested a ’top academician’ for illegally selling lab animals and ’experimental milk’ in January 2020 * Censored local medical professionals who attempted to report the outbreak * Ordered local labs to destroy any samples of the new virus * Withheld the virus’s genome nearly a week after they sequenced it * Continually insisted on no human-to-human transmission * Launched the largest national quarantine in human history once containment failed * Issued an order preventing the unauthorized publishing of any academic material related to SARS-CoV-2 * Allowed a Party spokesperson to accuse the United States Army of intentionally bringing SARS-CoV-2 to Wuhan * Is continuing to refuse an independent investigation into the outbreak origins and threatened Australia with boycotts if they investigated Also in January 2020, the United States Department of Justice arrested two Chinese nationals and the Chair of the "Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University" for allegedly receiving illegal payments from China, "acting as an agent of a foreign government," and "attempting to smuggle 21 vials of biological research to China." Back to the market: the The Huanan Seafood Market didn’t even have bats for sale, and most bats species in Wuhan would be hibernating at the time of outbreak. It was reported that 34% of cases had no contact with the market, and ’No epidemiological link was found between the first patient and later cases’. If an infected animal was indeed the culprit, why did it fail to infect a single person outside of the market? It could not have been infected at the market, because there were no bats that could serve as sources of infection. So, where were all the infected people outside of Wuhan by the time SARS-CoV-2 started spreading in the market? We hope that this document adequately addressed each claim with what evidence is available and fulfilled its secondary responsibility of educating you on biolaboratory safety. By now, we hope you understand that these claims are not impossible; they are in fact more than likely. We may never be certain of the truth. What we are certain of, however, is that these claims shouldn’t be discounted, and far more research must be done to disprove either one. Our work as a global community must continue. Source: http://www.gmwatch.org Validation of an extraction-free RT-PCR protocol for detection of SARS-CoV2 RNA This study offers front-line laboratories additional reagent options for performing extraction-free RT-PCR protocols https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.20085910v1.full.pdf A Rapid COVID-19 RT-PCR Detection Assay for Low Resource Settings This rapid RT-PCR can be implemented for sensitive and specific molecular diagnosis of COVID-19 in situations where sophisticated laboratory instruments are not available: https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.04.29.069591v1.full.pdf |
fucobiWe are an organization at the service of environmental health working for the conservation and recovery of our natural resources in defense of human health. CategoriesArchives
Octubre 2022
|