Tag Archives: McCain

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Tattoo Kits & Infections


 

 

08/07/2014 08:30 AM EDT
Contaminated tattoo ink can cause potentially serious infections. After investigating a multi-state outbreak, FDA offers strategies for controlling your risk.

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Union of Concerned Scientists


This week is National Farmers Market Week! I love this time of year. Living in the Northeast, we don’t have access most of the year to flavorful, local, fruits and vegetables. But right now, markets are popping up in all parts of the city with healthy, local, delicious food. At a time when our federal government is paying farmers to grow virtually the opposite of what it recommends we actually eat—spending billions of dollars to subsidize ingredients that go into sugary processed food—it’s critical that we take time to celebrate forward-thinking food initiatives that can set a model for new, national policies. With your support, we’re working to create smart food and farm policies—including investments to increase every American’s access to fresh fruits and vegetables—that will prioritize healthy people, a healthy environment, and nutritious food over junk food profits. —Karla
Science in Action
label added sugar Ensure food nutritional labels identify amounts of added sugar.Powerful sugar interests are working hard to keep us in the dark about how much added sugar they put in our foods and drinks—even in the face of scientific evidence that links high sugar consumption with heart disease, obesity, and diabetes. You deserve the ability to make informed decisions about what you eat! Encourage the FDA to follow through on their proposed update to the Nutritional Facts label to include information about added sugar.Click Here to take action
Buzz from the UCS Blog: The Equation
  John Rogers: Which States are the Clean Energy Superstars?  Ken Kimmell: New Jersey, Come Back! An Open Letter to Governor Christie on RGGI
  Aaron Huertas: Too Many Food Companies Still Attack Science, Despite Push for Greater Transparency  Dave Cooke: On Cars, Trucks, and Beauty in the Backcountry: 4 Lessons from a Summer Roadtrip
MORE
Cartoon of the Month
We are what we eat
Click to view larger image.
 		  We want to hear from you! What more can be done to build support for sustainable agriculture and food that is healthy, affordable, and accessible?  Newsweek:Sugar lobby buries science on health effects. Not just healthy fruits and vegetables—farmers markets have economic benefits too!
Ask a Scientist
Deborah BailinDeborah Bailin, Ph.D.
Democracy Analyst,
Center for Science and Democracy 

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Deborah’s blog >>

 This month, Deborah Bailin, an analyst with the UCS Center for Science and Democracy, gives us tips for how to interpret the food nutrition labels on the back of the foods we buy—and flags some things we should all look out for!The nutrition facts label is the familiar black and white panel, that, for the last 20 years, you’ve been able to find on all packaged foods and beverages in the United States. But these labels can be tricky to read. For instance, sugar is labeled in grams—but how many of us know how much sugar that really is? You might be surprised to find out, for instance, that one serving of new “Cheerios Protein Oats and Honey” cereal has four teaspoons of sugar in it! READ MORE 

Do you have a question for UCS scientists? Submit your question today.
This Just In
sugar cubes Two new UCS reports expose sugar industry deception.
Sugar. We think of it as a sweet treat, but it hides in everything from barbeque sauce to yogurt, added to foods that are often sweet to begin with. Scientific evidence has shown that overconsumption of sugar has serious health consequences. But powerful sugar interests work hard to keep us in the dark about sugar’s dangerous health effects and divert our attention away from all the added sugar in their products—many of which are marketed to us as “healthy.” Two new UCS reports expose the industry’s deceptive marketing tactics, how it’s obscured the science, and how it undermined public health policy. READ MORE
~ politics petitions pollution and pop culture

Roslyn City Council …WA

Roslyn City Council: The purpose of this petition is to lift the moratorium on recreational marijuana in the City of Roslyn.

CAUSE-M
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Betrayal!


 Private prison companies make $5 billion a year from abusing tens of thousands of Black youth and adults — and fund inaccurate Temple research to cover their tracks.
The private prison industry is working to control Temple’s research and faculty.Temple UniversityPres. Theobald must be held accountable. Please chip in $15 to place a billboard outside the President’s office:

Join Us

Matt Nelson, ColorOfChange.org

Private prison companies make $5 billion a year from abusing tens of thousands of Black youth and adults — and fund inaccurate Temple research to cover their tracks.1 Outrage from ColorOfChange members and our allies pushed university officials to respond, who are now attempting to sweep this corruption and influence-peddling under the rug.2

We have a small window of opportunity to stop them. With thousands of students returning to school in August, this is our chance to ensure Temple Pres. Theobald takes definitive action to stop private prisons from corrupting academic integrity.

Can you help hold Pres.Theobald publicly accountable by running an eye-catching advertisement near the President’s office? A billboard costs $4,500 and we can only make it happen with your help.

Temple Professors Simon Hakim and Erwin Blackstone’s failure to initially disclose their study’s private prison funding had devastating real-world consequences.3 After the media covered the Temple Study, Michigan passed a harmful prison food privatization bill that led to maggot-riddled meals and increased corruption.4 For-profit prisons are responsible for some of the worst human rights violations of the past 30 years and depend on university research to distort public opinion, win over politicians on false premises, and corrupt our democracy.5

A billboard outside of Temple will send our message loud and clear: The university must create new policies to prevent corporations from corrupting the research process. Temple has an obligation to ensure that all faculty operate according to academic principles of honesty, transparency and integrity. Pres. Theobald has a choice to make — either uphold the university’s commitment to ethical and honest research or allow private prisons to manipulate the university’s resources in the name of abuse, torture, and racial prejudice. We need your support to ensure that Pres. Theobald moves forward policies to prevent this corruption and shilling for the private prison industry.

A billboard on the main thoroughfare to Temple is sure to catch Pres. Theobald’s attention. If enough people chip in we have a real chance at moving Pres. Theobald to do the right thing, dealing a major blow to the private prison industry’s ability to harm our communities.

Thanks and Peace,

—Matt, Rashad, Arisha, Lyla and the rest of the ColorOfChange.org team
August 6th, 2014

References

1.”Temple profs criticized for paper touting private prisons,” Philadelphia Tribune 07-10-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3722?t=6&akid=3546.1174326.a_5EIE

2.”Temple University Takes Steps to Distance Itself from Unethical Private Prison Study” ColorOfChange, 07-16-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3723?t=8&akid=3546.1174326.a_5EIE

3. “PLN managing editor’s Temple University ethics complaint profiled,” Prison Legal News, 06-11-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3578?t=10&akid=3546.1174326.a_5EIE

4.”How a Bogus, Industry-Funded Study Helped Spur a Privatization Disaster in Michigan,” Bill Moyers, 07-17-2014
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/3724?t=12&akid=3546.1174326.a_5EIE

5.”The Dirty Thirty: Nothing to Celebrate About 30 Years of Corrections Corporation of America,” (.pdf) Grassroots Leadership, 06-01-2013
http://act.colorofchange.org/go/2918?t=14&akid=3546.1174326.a_5EIE

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Gluten … Free


08/05/2014 12:15 PM EDT

 

In August 2013, the Food and Drug Administration issued a final rule that defined what characteristics a food must have to bear a label that says “gluten-free.”
As of August 5, 2014, any food product bearing a gluten-free claim labeled on or after this date must meet the rule’s requirements.

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