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Nashville suburb officially ends water fluoridation

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Friday, 02 September 2011 12:45

Jonathan Benson
Natural News

(NaturalNews) A few weeks ago NaturalNews reported that officials from Spring Hill, Tenn., a fast-growing suburb of Nashville, were considering ending the city’s water fluoridation program. We are excited to report that, according to a recent report in The Tennessean, these same city leaders have officially and unanimously decided to stop fluoridating the city’s public water supply beginning on November 1, a move that will save taxpayers more than $21,000 a year.

It all began when various individuals, including Spring Hill’s water superintendent Caryl Giles, began questioning the city’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen about the need to fluoridate water. This sparked Alderman Amy Wurth, along with several others, to help lead the charge in removing fluoride from Spring Hill’s water supply, contending that because not everybody reacts the same way to its ingestion, forcing it on the entire population is wrong.

“I think we have to be responsible as parents and look at other options for fluoridation, but not put it in the water where it’s not needed,” said Alderman Keith Hudson, who supports Wurth and the others contentions that water fluoridation is outdated, expensive, and not even necessarily backed by sound science.

Reports indicate that fluoridation of Spring Hill’s water will officially end on September 30, 2011, which is several months shy of officials’ earlier estimates for its potential removal. Spring Hill’s water department will also send out a public notice within 30 days of this date to its nearly 30,000 residents, notifying them of the change.

This historic move by a large metropolitan suburb to end water fluoridation is a significant one that could snowball into many other communities following its lead, particularly those in states like Tennessee that do not have statewide mandated fluoridation laws.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.tennessean.com/article/2…

Gardening activities reduce lung cancer risk by 50%

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Monday, 25 July 2011 00:00

(NaturalNews) Not only is having a green thumb a great way to stay healthier and happier, but new research shows it can actually protect you from cancer.

Noted cancer treatment and research center M.D. Anderson, at the University of Texas, found in a study that time spent gardening once or twice a week can reduce the risk of cancer by 50 percent in lifelong nonsmokers. Moreover, researchers found, the same level of gardening activity by former smokers can reduce cancer risk by as much as 40 percent.

And while researchers said they weren't exactly sure if gardening reduced the incidence of cancer more than other physical activities, they did find that it was the most commonly shared trait among the study's participants.

The cancer-prevention benefits of gardening are also echoed by the American Institute of Cancer Research, which said that gardening is a physical activity that not only helps prevent cancer but also contributes to overall health and endurance.

People who garden tend to eat better food - food that is untainted by chemicals and poisons and food that is much tastier than what you're used to buying in a supermarket.

Along those lines, gardening means exposure to the sun and its known vitamin D-supplying qualities that have been linked to the prevention of some cancers and a wide variety of other illnesses and diseases.

In fact, along the lines of exposure to the sun, scientists now believe that exposure can actually help prevent skin cancer because sunlight exposure helps in the body's manufacture of vitamin D, a cancer-stunting agent in its own right.

"Melanoma (skin cancer) patients tend to avoid the sun as sunburn is known to increase the risk of melanoma. We use sunshine to make vitamin D in the skin, so melanoma patients' levels of vitamin D may be especially low," said Prof. Julia Newton Bishop of the Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine, and lead author of a recent study which found that higher levels of vitamin D were linked with better skin cancer survival odds.

Another reason why gardening may contain some anti-cancer, better health qualities, is because contact with soil, and the nutrients it supplies our garden-grown fruits and vegetables, tends to be good for us as well.

Finally, home-grown vegetables also contain anti-cancer nutrients and flavonols that can decrease certain cancers, like pancreatic cancer.

You may have thought you didn't have a thumb that was green enough to be able to grow your own food, but based on continuing research that verifies the healthy, cancer-busting qualities of such a wonderful, self-fulfilling activity, doesn't learning how sound like a fantastic opportunity to stay healthy?

Hungary Destroys All Monsanto GMO Maize Fields

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Friday, 22 July 2011 00:00

In an effort to rid the country of Monsanto's GMO products, Hungary has stepped up the pace. This looks like its going to be another slap in the face for Monsanto. A new regulation was introduced this March which stipulates that seeds are supposed to be checked for GMO before they are introduced to the market. Unfortunately, some GMO seeds made it to the farmers without them knowing it.

Almost 1000 acres of maize found to have been grown with genetically modified seeds have been destroyed throughout Hungary deputy state secretary of the Ministry of Rural Development Lajos Bognar said. The GMO maize has been ploughed under, said Lajos Bognar, but pollen has not spread from the maize, he added.

Unlike several EU members, GMO seeds are banned in Hungary. The checks will continue despite the fact that seed traders are obliged to make sure that their products are GMO free, Bognar said.

During their investigation, controllers have found Pioneer and Monsanto products among the seeds planted.

The free movement of goods within the EU means that authorities will not investigate how the seeds arrived in Hungary but they will check where the goods can be found, Bognar said. Regional public radio reported that the two biggest international seed producing companies are affected in the matter and GMO seeds could have been sown on up to thousands of hectares in the country.

Most of the local farmers have complained since they just discovered they were using GMO seeds. With season already under way, it is too late to sow new seeds, so this years harvest has been lost.

And to make things even worse for the farmers, the company that distributed the seeds in Baranya county is under liquidation. Therefore, if any compensation is paid by the international seed producers, the money will be paid primarily to that company's creditors, rather than the farmers.

h/t AllAboutFeed

Source: Planet Save

Growing Nashville suburb may end water fluoridation

News - Good/Cool News

Saturday, 23 July 2011 16:51

(NaturalNews) The city of Spring Hill, Tenn., a suburb of Nashville located roughly 37 miles south of the Music City's central core, is reconsidering the use of toxic fluoride chemicals in its public water supply. After being asked by numerous individuals why the city still fluoridates its water, Spring Hill water superintendent Caryl Giles is now asking the same question to members of the city's Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

"Is it truly necessary that we continue to fluoridate water in this day and age?" Giles is quoted as asking in The Tennesseean. "Times have certainly changed."

And right they have. Countless studies in recent years have called into question not only the legitimacy of adding toxic fluoride chemicals to water supplies in the name of preventing tooth decay, but also whether or not the chemical is even safe to ingest at all.

Authorities already admit that ingesting too much fluoride causes an obvious condition known as dental fluorosis, where teeth become mottled and rotten. This is why the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) back in January adjusted its recommended "optimal" water fluoridation level from 1.2 milligrams per liter (mg/L) to 0.7 mg/L (http://www.naturalnews.com/030952_C...).

But even the CDC's adjusted level is questionable at best, as fluoride chemicals at much lower levels are known to deplete iodine from the body and cause thyroid and immune problems (http://www.naturalnews.com/031317_f...), as well as inhibit brain development and IQ levels in children (http://www.naturalnews.com/030819_f...).

Even a 2010 study published in the Journal of the American Dental Association found that fluoride lodges and builds up in teeth and other bodily tissues, while another study published in the journal Lancet identified fluoride as a "neurotoxic substance" (http://www.naturalnews.com/030123_f...).

Giles says she had been approached by a city employee, City Administrator Victory Lay, and Alderman Amy Wurth, about the issue of water fluoridation, within the past several months. And Administrator Lay reportedly used to work for the Tennessee town of Waynesboro, which ended its water fluoridation program several years ago.

"I believe there's a strong case to [sic] heard for terminating (fluoridation)," said Giles. "There's no supplement or medication that is tolerated by everyone the same. When you put it in there, you take away that choice."

Giles believes with proper deliberation, fluoride could be removed from Spring Hill's water supply as early as the first few months of 2012. And if it is removed, the city will save roughly $20,000 a year by not having to purchase the industrial waste product.

It is important to note that the way by which the fluoride issue even came about in Spring Hill was the direct result of concerned individuals simply asking questions and making their voices heard. It should serve as an inspirational example to thousands of other concerned citizens across the country to begin questioning their own water facilities about the legitimacy of fluoridation.

Sources for this story include:

http://www.newschannel5.com/story/1...

http://www.tennessean.com/article/2...