Free Republic

People who are trying to do good for their families and the planet by living a simple life based on traditional skills are facing yet another assault. Artisanal soap makers say new regulations, proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), will put them out of business. The view of Sen. Feinstein and her corporate backers (listed below) is that the Personal Care Products Safety Act (Senate Bill S.1014) will make the world a safer place by scrutinizing “everything from shampoo and hair dye to deodorant and lotion.” She says the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act...

People who are trying to do good for their families and the planet by living a simple life based on traditional skills are facing yet another assault. Artisanal soap makers say new regulations, proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-California) and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine), will put them out of business. Many soap makers are rural “kitchen table” operations that rely on the income to fund their simple living lifestyle. Some use milk from goats they raise and ingredients they harvest from the land. The Handmade Cosmetic Alliance posted this form on its website that can be used to reach out...

A New Jersey lawmaker wants to ban an organic herb fueling the latest drug craze among teens. As WCBS 880’s Sean Adams reported, Kratom gives a high similar to heroin. The substance is legal and kids can buy it, Adams reported. The plant is related to coffee; it is native to southeast Asia and has long been used as an herbal pain reliever. But it is also psychoactive and can cause hallucinations and addictions, says New Jersey Assemblyman Ron Dancer, who wants to make the substance illegal. “According to the FDA, there is a known toxicity in multiple organs that...

The Food and Drug Administration is tearing into several Kind fruit and nut bars, blasting the company's claims they are healthy.Apparently there is a federal criterion for what is considered healthy, and Kind doesn't meet it, according to a recent FDA warning letter to the company.The agency singled out the labels for four Kind bars: almond and apricot, almond and coconut, peanut butter-dark chocolate and protein, and dark chocolate-cherry cashew and antioxidants.The agency took aim at several claims that the bars were "healthy," including that they were low in sodium and were a good source of fiber.

The World Health Organisation’s cancer agency has declared that one of the UK’s most widely used weedkillers is “probably carcinogenic to humans”.Amateur gardeners and professional farmers have been urged to “think very carefully” about using the popular herbicide Roundup, which contains glyphosate. A summary of the International Agency for Research on Cancer's (IARC) report, published in The Lancet Oncology, said that the herbicide had been detected “in air during spraying, in water, and in food”.It had also been detected “in the blood and urine of agricultural workers, indicating absorption”....The IARC's report said that its use has increased sharply with the...

One of the world’s most popular weed killers—and the most widely used kind in the U.S.—has been labeled a probable carcinogen by the International Agency for Research on Cancer. The decision was made by IARC, the France-based cancer research arm of the World Health Organization, which considered the status of five insect and weed killers including glyphosate, which is used globally in industrial farming. […] The new classification is aimed mainly at industrial use of glyphosate. Its use by home gardeners is not considered a risk. Glyphosate is in the same category of risk as things like anabolic steroids and...

I don’t know what’s worse; that Big Guy keeps making videos like this while ISIS continues to kidnap, rape, torture and kill it’s way across the Middle East…Or that he looks so natural while doing it.In fact, he’s so good at acting that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences could have avoided all the bad press about being too white simply by awarding Barry a well deserved Lifetime Achievement Oscar.Butt getting back to Lady M’s big 5 year anniversary:Okay, get on your mark, get set…5 sit ups:Our “sitting” president5 mile run 5 vegetables:Now get out there and #gimmefive! In...

In honor of the five (5!) year anniversary of Lady M’s Let’s Move! initiative, in conjunction with her “Eat Brighter” campaign, launched in 2013… A tip for “eating brighter:” put the mic down first and keep your tongue in your mouth. The federal committee responsible for nutrition guidelines (the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, or DGAC) has finally issued a 571-page report of recommendations that calls for:  the adoption of “plant-based” diets, taxes on dessert, trained obesity “interventionists” at worksites, and electronic monitoring of how long Americans sit in front of the television. So nothing real intrusive; it just wants to fundamentally...

President Barack Obama wants to create a new government agency dedicated to keeping the nation’s food safe. The proposal in the president’s budget released Monday comes after outbreaks of illnesses linked to chicken, eggs, peanuts and cantaloupe in recent years. More than a dozen federal agencies oversee food safety, and consumer advocates have long called for bringing all those functions together in a single home. […] The budget proposes consolidating the Agriculture Department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and all of FDA’s food safety oversight into one new agency within the Department of Health and Human Services. The new agency...

Federal health regulators have approved an attention deficit disorder drug for a new use: A first-of-its kind treatment for binge-eating disorder. […] The Food and Drug Administration originally approved Vyvanse in 2007 as a once-a-day pill for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. On Friday, the agency cleared the drug for adults who compulsively overeat. Vyvanse, known chemically as lisdexamfetamine dimesylate, is part of a family of drugs that stimulate the central nervous system. The drug’s prescribing label warns that Vyvanse has a “high potential for abuse and dependence,” and doctors should monitor patients for signs of dependence. …

I’m thinking, “Maybe not.” Yet, this sort of unethical practice goes on all the time. According to physician/activist Roy Poses, MD, there were at least four significant settlements of such cases during the last half of 2014 alone. And, by January 9th of our new year, another high profile case has already been settled. Officially, it is known as U.S. ex rel. Fragoules v. Daiichi Sankyo, Inc., Civil Action No. 10-10420 (D. Mass.). In accordance with the disposition of the case, the US subsidiary of Japanese pharmaceutical firm Daiichi Sankyo Co. Ltd. will pay $39 million to the US federal...

Just before Christmas, the deputy director of the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) told reporters that the agency had decided to lift the lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have had sex with men. While the details still have to be worked out, as does a period of public comment this year, the FDA intends to institute a one-year ban it says fits in with current evidence.And what evidence is that? According to the Associated Press: Marks said some of the most compelling evidence for changing the policy comes from Australia, which put in place a one-year ban...

FULL TITLE: FDA Approves Merck's HPV Vaccine, GARDASIL®9, to Prevent Cancers and Other Diseases Caused by Nine HPV types – Including Types that Cause About 90% of Cervical Cancer Cases KENILWORTH, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Merck (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved GARDASIL®9 (Human Papillomavirus 9-valent Vaccine, Recombinant), Merck’s 9-valent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, for use in girls and young women 9 to 26 years of age for the prevention of cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancers caused by HPV types 16, 18, 31, 33, 45, 52 and...

Regulation: Cures for cancer and Ebola having been found, the federal ubernannies have decreed that sprinkles should no longer adorn kids' ice cream because they contain the trans fat that liberal groups once pushed for. Come the New Year, the Food and Drug Administration, ignoring the principle that in most cases it's the dose that defines the poison, will issue new regulations designed to remove even trace amounts of hydrogenate oils, commonly known as trans fats, from our diets. Trans fats have been in our foods since the 1950s to increase shelf life and improve taste. A small amount appears...

The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it's easing restrictions on gay men donating blood, reversing a policy enacted during the outbreak of the AIDS epidemic decades earlier. In a statement released Tuesday, the FDA said easing the ban came after several years of research into the matter. "Following this review, and taking into account the recommendations of advisory committees to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the FDA, the agency will take the necessary steps to recommend a change to the blood donor deferral period for men who have sex with men from indefinite deferral...

The Food and Drug Administration announced on Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a change that experts said was long overdue and could lift the annual blood supply by as much as 4 percent. The F.D.A. enacted the ban in 1983, early in the AIDS epidemic. At the time, little was known about the human immunodeficiency virus, which causes the disease, and there was no quick test to determine whether somebody had it. But science — and the understanding of H.I.V. in particular — has advanced in the intervening...

<p>The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency approval for a new diagnostic kit to test blood for the deadly Ebola virus, even as doctors are reporting a survival rate in one hard-hit area that has climbed to about 70 percent.</p>

Early next year, the FDA is expected to finalize a new regulation intended to eradicate even trace amounts of partially hydrogenated oils, known as trans fats, from our diets. Although the amount of trans fats Americans consume has declined significantly in recent years, the FDA’s quest to completely eliminate a particular type of trans fat threatens to eliminate the noble “sprinkle,” used to decorate holiday treats and donuts. Even a small amount of joy is suspect in the FDA’s brave, new, food-monitored world. In recent years, research has determined that consuming large amounts of trans fats is harmful to the heart. Trans fats have been in...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) took to Twitter on Tuesday to criticize the FDA’s proposed new policy on blood donations from gay men, saying that while the recommendation is a “step forward” it is still “discriminatory.” The liberal legislator and potential 2016 presidential candidate tweeted that the FDA must “have courage to set policies based on science” in order to “commit to building a bigger, safer blood supply through risk-based screenings.” The policy, introduced Tuesday by FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, would replace a 30-year-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men with a new rule permitting donations from men...

Federal officials have moved closer to overturning a decades-old ban on blood donations from gay and bisexual men, but activists say the proposed alternative would continue to stigmatize men who have sex with men. The Food and Drug Administration said Tuesday it will recommend lifting the lifetime ban early next year, replacing it with a policy barring donations from men who have had sex with another man in the previous 12 months. The change would overturn a 31-year-old policy that many medical groups and gay activists say is no longer justified, given advances in HIV testing. But activists questioned whether...