Raise awareness of environmental health issues in order to better protect our children and future generations.

22 May 2012

Dr. Annie Sasco Silenced After London Conference on Childhood Cancer

On 26 April 2012, Dr. Annie Sasco, Director, Epidemiology for Cancer Prevention, INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherché médical, France) delivered a presentation at the Childhood Cancer 2012 conference in London under the topic, “What positive steps can be taken to reduce the risks of childhood cancer”.  When she returned to France, she was informed that she could not continue her teaching work at Segalen Bordeaux II University.  This may have been related to the fact that Dr. Sasco, who has 3 degrees from Harvard University and worked at the International Agency for Research on Cancer for 22 years, spoke up in the conference very clearly about the reasons for cancer and conflict of interests.  The conference was watched livestream on the internet internationally. 


In her lecture, Dr. Sasco devoted at least 10 minutes to the risks of electromagnetic fields emitted by wireless technology, particularly cell phones.  Her lecture was delivered in session number 12 (see here for full program and access to all the lectures and discussions).  Her comments on conflict of interests in the panel discussion which followed are available at the end of the same session.  Following session 6, she commented on the study on aspartame causing cancer in animals by Dr. Morando Soffritti where she spoke up about the similarity between cancer findings in animals and humans. Following is my résumé of her presentation at the conference, in part verbatim and also based on her slides.  Thank you to Microwave Factor for this information.


We cannot allow industry and others to bully experts who admirably and courageously speak the truth!

18 May 2012

Statin Controversy - UPDATED 18 May 2012

We are hearing more and more from health experts about harmful side effects of medications – certain painkillers, anti-inflammatory drugs, statins.  This article is being re-issued for a second time because there is more and more evidence that, among other serious side effects, statin-type cholersterol-lowering drugs, are associated with increased risk for type 2 diabetes and memory problems.  Statins are one of the biggest swindles that pharmaceutical companies have created.  They are being used widely in secondary prevention and even their effectiveness in primary prevention is being questioned.

UPDATE (7 July 2012):  An article published on 25 June 2012 in the Archives of Internal Medicine concludes:  Statin therapy is an effective intervention in the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events in both sexes, meaning, those who have already had a heart attack, but there is no benefit on stroke and all-cause mortality in women.   Click here for full article.

UPDATE (18 May 2012):  On 16 May 2012, the Television Suisse Romande (RTS) showed a documentary on statins as part of its health program "36.9". Worldwide, pharmaceutical companies earn $30 billion per year from the sale of statins. AstraZeneca, producer of Crestor, is the 5th largest pharmaceutical company in the world, representing total net sales of $33 billion per year, 17% of which is earned from statins. Originally developed for a specific cholesterol problem, diagnosed family hypercholesterolemia, these drugs are prescribed to millions more persons in the world: 20% of Americans take statins and 10% of Swiss. Insurance companies in Switzerland are paying out some $160,000 million per year for statin prescriptions without questioning their effectiveness or serious side effects. 

17 May 2012

Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection: Official Press Release and Abstracts of Presentations

Following is the Press Release from IndependentWHO on the Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection which took place in Geneva, 12-13 May 2012.   Please see:

The “Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection: from Chernobyl to Fukushima”, organised by the collective ‘IndependentWHO – for the independence of the World Health Organisation(WHO), took place in Geneva on Saturday 12th and Sunday 13th May.


Saturday 12th May was devoted to presentations by Dr Eisuke Matsui, Kolin Kobayashi, Aya Marumori, Wataru Iwata and Miwa Chiwaki (Japon); Dr Galina Bandajevskaia, Alexei Nesterenko and Vladimir Babenko (Belarus); Alexei Yablokov (Russia), Dr Youri Bandajevsyky (Belarus – now in Ukraine), Chris Busby (United Kingdom), Paul Lannoye (Belgium), Dr Michel Fernex (Switzerland) and Dr Sophie Fauconnier, Paul Jobin, Roland Desbordes and Michèle Rivasi (France).

Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection, Geneva, Switzerland, 12 May 2012: Personal Reflections

The Scientific and Citizen Forum on Radioprotection held in Geneva, Switzerland, 12 May 2012, and attended by over 200 persons, invites reflection.  The forum was organized by IndependentWHO, a group of individuals and associations supported by a broad coalition of NGOs whose major concern is that the World Health Organization (WHO), through its alliance with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), is unable to fulfill its constitutional mandate “to act as the directing and coordinating authority on international health work” and “to assist in developing an informed public opinion among all peoples on matters of health”, including in the area of radiation.  WHO has chosen to ignore the large body of research documenting the suffering of radiation victims from the fallout from nuclear weapons testing, the explosion of the reactors at Chernobyl and Fukushima and other accidents resulting from the use of depleted uranium weapons or “normal” emissions in water or air produced by the nuclear industry. (Résumés of the presentations and program are available here.)

The forum gathered together doctors, independent scientists, two members of the European Parliament (Paul Lannoye, member of the Commission on Health, Environment and Consumer Protection, and Michèle Rivasi, founder of the independent Committee for Research and Independent Information on Radioactivity, CRIIRAD, which is aiding the people of Fukushima), members of associations, and citizens, giving all an opportunity to share their knowledge and experience concerning the Chernobyl and Fukushima catastrophes.  The reasons for such a forum should never have existed.  There never should have been a Fukushima, Chernobyl, Hiroshima or Nagasaki.

05 May 2012

A Tribute to Swiss Pediatrician Dr. Beat Richner for His Care of Children in Cambodia

Dr. Beat Richner, founder of the Kantha Bopha
children hospital, died on 9 September 2018 at age 71.
Since 1991, Dr. Beat Richner, Swiss pediatrician, has set up five children’s “Kantha Bopha” hospitals and one maternity hospital in Cambodia’s major cities, including two in Phnom Penh and one in Siam Reap.  Over the last 20 years, one million seriously ill children have been treated in his hospitals and 10 million as out-patients.  Treatment is free of charge since 90% of the children come from families whose income is less than one dollar a day.  Most of the children are treated for Japanese encephalitis, malaria, dengue fever, thyroid and tuberculosis (TB) which is the number one killer in Cambodia.  The high TB rate is a direct consequence of the war.  The mortality rate in Dr. Richner’s treatment centers is very low – only 1%.