Baby food or fuel?

Image by Stephen Poff via Flickr

Breast feeding children is the best way to a child’s health. But danger lurks even there. All parents of breast fed infants as well as those who formula feed their children are sitting up stunned in the USA.

Now U.S. officials have found yet another potentially dangerous ingredient in infant formula. This comes just a few months after the chemical melamine was found in infant formula in the U.S. making thousands of infants ill, and for causing four infant deaths, in China.

A study by Centers for Disease Control scientists has found a hazardous chemical, perchlorate at potentially dangerous levels in samples of 15 different brands of powdered baby milk formula.

Perchlorate, is a component of solid rocket fuel, flares, fireworks and some fertilizers. Perchlorate contamination, usually associated with defense and aerospace sites, has been known to affect thyroid function.

Perchlorate a potent thyroid toxin reduces thyroid hormone production and inhibits the uptake of iodide, which is required for healthy function of the thyroid gland which controls human metabolism, growth and development .Too little thyroid hormone, called hypothryroidism, leads to weight gain, low heart rate, water retention, poor muscle tone, and fatigue. It may interfere with foetal and infant brain development
However, the extent of the risk is hard to assess.

The chemical has been detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories and at low levels in food supplies. It has been found leaching into public water wells from military bases and bomb-building facilities..
Infants fed cow's milk-based powdered formula could be exposed to perchlorate from two sources -- tap water and formula.

When perchlorate-contaminated powdered formula is mixed with water that also contains traces of the chemical, the final concoction can become particularly harmful to babies. , infants may be more exposed than adults because of their body weight and from the potential double exposure from combining powdered formula mix and tap water to make a bottle of formula, the study said.

Iodine supplements at higher levels may offer some protection from the effects of perchlorate, but the scientists warn that even adequate iodine intake among formula-fed infants is not guaranteed to prevent "perchlorate-induced thyroid dysfunction.

“Millions of American babies are potentially at risk."

Perchlorate exposure is a serious issue and "a top priority. How best to protect children from perchlorate is a million dollar question. Setting a safe drinking water standard for perchlorate in water supply is not the ultimate solution. Will it help if the perchlorate level is so low that the amount of daily oral exposure is beneath a threshold called a reference dose which is the amount of perchlorate humans could consistently consume over the course of a lifetime without increasing their risk of harm.

Just as pressure to regulate perchlorate has mounted, so has lobbying from the chemical manufacturing and defense industries to stymie efforts to regulate the chemical.

Clarification on both the complex interrelationships among the thyroid, perchlorate, and iodide, as well as any potential public health risk with exceeding the perchlorate reference dose is an immediate necessity.

Perks or Pension

If you are a septuagenarian

There is nothing left to learn the hard way.

Things you buy now won't wear out.

People call at 9 PM and ask, "Did I wake you?"

In a hostage situation you are likely to be released first.

No one expects you to run into a burning building.

You can do without sex but not your glasses.

You can eat dinner at 4 P.M.

You enjoy hearing about other peoples operations.

You get into heated arguments about pension plans.

You have a party and the neighbors don't even realize it.

You no longer think of speed limits as a challenge.

You quit trying to hold your stomach in, no matter who walks into the room.

Your eyes won't get much worse

Your investment in health insurance is finally beginning to pay off.

Your secrets are safe with your friends because they can't remember them either.

Smoke with Fire

A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool on the other.

That’s how a cigarette, a cigar, a pipe, a beedi or a hookah or whatever you smoke is defined.

Absolutely no arguments against the fact that smoking kills by millions and costs a nation billions in medical expenses and lost productivity.

Innocent Non-smokers working in smoking environments inhale the tobacco chemicals throughout the day and suffer from the same health problems that smoker’s experience.

France, Ireland, Italy and Japan have restricted smoking in public places.

Some breathe deeply while others fume as tough anti-smoking rules catch on.

Governments of various nations have sounded the red alert to drastically minimize the hazards of smoking to human life and the environment.

The formula is simple: a prices rise and fewer people will buy cigarettes. Smoking rate in adult smokers will be reduced and it will prevent initiation of regular smoking by children and young adults.

A big hike in the federal tax on cigarettes taking effect on April 1 may prompt 1 million U.S. smokers to quit.

India’s anti tobacco law came into effect on October 2, 2008. The rules mandate that all public places including offices, restaurants, public institutions, bars and work places to go 100 per cent smoke-free.

The ultimate aim is to reduce the demand for tobacco - a Herculean task indeed.

The rapidly growing array of electronic cigarettes are drawing the attention of youngsters in China,USA,the Middle East and elsewhere .They are led to believe that e cigarettes are the modern innovation to correct smoking hazards.


The pressure from the tobacco industry working directly or indirectly through ministers and politicians, parallel advertising and, workers in tobacco industry prove to be major stumbling blocks. After all they make the vote bank.

Decline in cigarette sales could put thousands of people out of work mainly retail store clerks and cashiers, truck drivers who deliver cigarettes, warehouse workers, sales representatives and others. To make it worse this is recession time too.

Sigmund Freud once said, "Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar."

Any self-respecting cigar smoker, however, will tell you that a cigar is far less a cigar when the correct arts are not applied to the preparation of the cigar.

If you think cigarettes are simply tobacco leaves rolled in paper, you’re about 597 ingredients away from the truth. The tobacco industry has become master mixologists with the additives. Some ingredients are added for flavor. But the key purpose of using additives is to improve tobacco’s potency resulting in increased addictiveness. The additives used are shocking - no - horrendous

When a cigarette is burnt, the whole mess results in over 4,000 chemicals, including more than 40 known carcinogenic compounds and 400 other toxins.

The solution to the bitter-tasting cigarette was solved by adding taste-improving chemicals to the tobacco. A chemical similar to rocket fuel helps keep the tip of the cigarette burning at an extremely hot temperature. This allows the nicotine in tobacco to turn into a vapor so your lungs can absorb it more easily. That’s efficiency.

For a start, here’s the list of the most toxic ingredients used to make cigarettes tastier, and more quickly, effectively addictive:

Ammonia: Household cleaner.
Arsenic: Used in rat poisons.
Benzene: Used in making dyes, synthetic rubber.
Butane: Gas; used in lighter fluid.
Carbon monoxide: Poisonous gas.
Cadmium: Used in batteries.
Cyanide: Lethal poison.
DDT: A banned insecticide.
Ethyl Ferrate: Causes liver damage in animals.
Lead: Poisonous in high doses.
Formaldehyde: Used to preserve dead specimens.
Methoprene: Insecticide.
Maltitol: Sweetener for diabetics.
Napthalene: Ingredient in mothballs.
Methyl isocyanate: Its accidental release killed 2000 people in Bhopal, India, in 1984.

Now, that the facts are laid bare for a beginning it is up to each individual.

You may cut down on your cigarette.

But not in half.



images courtesy Google

Multitasking Mania