Olive Oil Builds Bones

UPDATE: 17 August - Oil Gets Low Grade

...many of the imported oils failed to meet international and U.S. standards for EVOO. Worse, sensory panelists found that some oils tasted rancid, fusty and musty. Apparently, they had oxydized–or deteriorated, like the above-mentioned 1989 Taurus–and were adulterated with cheaper oil and/or made from poor quality or overripe olives. California-produced oils did better; only 10 percent failed the tests. Some of the best-known brands didn’t qualify as EV: Bertolli, Pompeian, Colovita, Carapelli, Newman’s Own, Mezzetta and Mazola. Even Rachael Ray’s EVOO underperformed. McEvoy Ranch and Caliornia Olive Ranch were the top scorers, but turning in a not too shabby performance was Kirkland Organic, which comes to you courtesy of humble Costco. READ more

Is it true that the less expensive olive oils on the market are inferior to the expensive ones?

Unfortunately, the best quality olive oils are also usually the most expensive. The best quality oil is an extra virgin olive oil made from organically grown olives.
Extra virgin olive oil is made from the first pressing of the olives, contains the lowest level of acidity (the marketplace standard for labeling is less than 1%), the best taste, and the highest level of antioxidant phytonutrients. The next best after extra virgin would be virgin olive oil. While it is also made from the first pressing of the olives, it has less antioxidants, more acidity (up to 2% is allowed), and a taste that is not as rich as extra virgin olive oil.
You'll notice that "pure" olive oil and "light" olive oils are less expensive, but in this case you get what you pay for. These olives oils are by no means as beneficial (let alone flavorful) as extra virgin olive oil.
"Pure" olive oil is actually refined oil that is created through chemical processing. One method of refining olive oil involves the use of a strong sodium hydroxide solution to "wash" the oil; other methods involve steam distillation of the oil. All refinement methods expose the oil to heats of at least 140-160˚F (60-71˚C).
"Light" olive oils are only light in terms of their taste and color; they are not lower in calories or fat. To a certain extent, the richer and deeper shades of color in an olive oil correspond to the concentration of polyphenol phytonutrients in the oil. These polyphenols may be the most heart-supportive nutrients that olives have to offer. Once they are processed out, the oil may become classified as "light," but light and other refined olive oils are nutritionally inferior to extra virgin and virgin olive oils because of this more extensive processing.
The other consideration would be whether or not to buy organic olive oil. There's no question about organic olive oil being your best choice. Although the nutrient richness of the organic oil may not be vastly greater than the nutrient richness of non-organic oil, the presence of toxic residues is likely to be very different. You're very likely to get fewer toxins in the certified organic oil-especially pesticides and fungicides. from WHFOODS.

Olive Oil and Health

UPDATE: 10 May DHA “appears to be a vital constituent of marrow” and enhances bone mineral content

UPDATE:20 April, 2010 MORE HEALTH BENEFITS FROM OLIVE OIL
More on Fats

How olive oil helps 'switch off' genes which lead to conditions including heart disease and arthritis
By Jenny Hope, 20th April 2010

Olive oil's health-giving benefits stem from its ability to help 'switch off ' genes that inflame conditions ranging from heart disease to arthritis, claim researchers.

Their discovery shows how the much-praised Mediterranean diet can suppress chronic disorders.

Spanish researchers identified almost 100 genes whose inflammatory activity is dampened by consumption of olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil.
Spanish researchers have found a whole new use for olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil

Spanish researchers have found a whole new use for olive oil, in particular extra virgin olive oil

Greeks are the biggest consumers of olive oil in the world - eating 20 times more than Britons - while Italians eat ten times as much.

Eating healthy mono-unsaturated fats such as olive oil is known to lower the risk of heart disease.

In Britain, which has one of the highest heart attack rates in the world, much higher levels of animal or saturated fats are eaten.

In the study, 20 patients with metabolic syndrome, which puts them at high risk of developing cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, were asked to eat breakfast foods covered in two types of olive oil.

One was extra virgin olive oil high in phenol compounds - natural antioxidants - while the other type of oil had low levels of phenols.

The volunteers had to avoid drugs, vitamins and other supplements for six weeks before the study started.

Dr Francisco Perez- Jimenez, from the University of Cordoba, said: 'We identified 98 differentially expressed genes when comparing the intake of phenol-rich olive oil with low-phenol olive oil.

'Several of the repressed genes are known to be involved in pro-inflammatory processes, suggesting the diet can switch the activity of immune system cells.'

Olive oil contains omega-6 fats, a form of 'healthy' polyunsaturates known to block the body's response to inflammation in chronic conditions such as heart disease and arthritis.

But the latest study, whose findings are published today in the science journal BMC Genomics, provides a gene-related explanation for some of the anti-inflammatory effect.

Dietitians say a Mediterranean diet also appears to improve vascular function - the flexibility of cells lining the walls of blood vessels, particularly in the heart and circulatory system.

Eating meat increases the risk of bladder cancer, according to research by scientists at the University of Texas.

Xifeng Wu, the 12-year study's lead author, said: 'People who eat a lot of red meat, particularly well-done red meat, seem to have a higher likelihood of bladder cancer.'

More than 10,000 Britons are diagnosed with bladder cancer every year.

OLIVE OIL BEAUTY BENEFITS - "Truly one of the world's best beauty secrets. It is a natural, hypoallergenic, inexpensive way to moisturize skin. It also provides valuable antioxidants, like Vitamins A and E that can help repair and renew skin that has been damaged from the sun, air pollution, and cigarette smoke. The antioxidants in olive oil help to stimulate health skin cell growth and return skin to a firmer, smoother, and healthier state. Olive oil can be applied to your face and body and helps to keep skin well-moisturized. You can use it as either a night cream or daily moisturizer. Just be sure to apply it to damp skin. Olive oil can also be used as an eye makeup remover, just add a drop or two to a cotton pad it gently removes eye makeup without irritating the delicate skin around the eye area. Over time, it can even help to smooth our under eye wrinkles."

ORIGINALLY POSTED 22 Feb, 09
Olive oil has women bone-preserving properties
by S. C.

A study from the Harokopio University of Athens (Greece) determines that adherence to a dietary pattern close to the Mediterranean diet, with high consumption of fish and olive oil and low red meat intake, has a significant impact in women skeletal health.

Results suggest that this eating pattern could have bone-preserving properties throughout adult life.

Diet is one of the modifiable factors for the development and maintenance of bone mass. The nutrients of most obvious relevance to bone health are calcium and phosphorus because they compose roughly 80% to 90% of the mineral content of bone; protein, other minerals and vitamins are also essential in bone preservation.

Traditional analysis has focused on the relation between a specific nutrient (e.g. calcium) and bone health. But, researchers of the Harokopio University of Athens, Greece, carried out a study in two hundred twenty adult Greek women, which is valuable for the understanding of the effect of meals, consisting of several food items, in skeletal mass.

Scientists examined whether adherence to the Mediterranean Diet, rich in plant foods and olive oil, low in meat and dairy products, and with moderate intake of alcohol, or other dietary patterns, have any significant impact on bone mass maintenance in adult Greek women. They determined that adherence to a dietary pattern with some of the features of the Mediterranean diet, i.e., rich in fish and olive oil and low in red meat and products, is positively associated with the indices of bone mass.

Teatro Naturalle, by S. C. 22 February 2009 TN 1 Year 1

Another Glitch May Impair Access Under New Health Insurance Law

Your benefits under health insurance reform can vary depending on where you live.

This clearly is representative of the failure to connect the dots before penning the law, and establishes the failure of the policy writers and planners engaged in this process.

Perhaps the taxpayers should be repaid for the extensive waste of money and resources in the fiasco that does little but line the pockets of Big Insurance.

Clearly this will raise costs and limit benefits.  It also suggests a bigger push toward privatization.

Some States Are Lacking in Health Law Authority

By ROBERT PEAR and KEVIN SACK, New York Times

WASHINGTON — Faced with the need to review insurance rates and enforce a panoply of new rights granted to consumers, states are scrambling to make sure they have the necessary legal authority to carry out the responsibilities being placed on them by President Obama’s health care law.
Insurance commissioners in about half the states say they do not have clear authority to enforce consumer protection standards that take effect next month.
Federal and state officials are searching for ways to plug the gap. Otherwise, they say, the ability of consumers to secure the benefits of the new law could vary widely, depending on where they live.
Meanwhile, state governments that have for years allowed insurers to set premiums virtually at will are gearing up to establish procedures to review rate increases.
Under the new federal standards, insurers generally must offer coverage to children under 19 and must allow adult children up to age 26 to stay on their parents’ policies. Insurers cannot charge co-payments for preventive services or impose a lifetime limit on benefits; must allow consumers to appeal a denial of benefits; and cannot rescind coverage, except in cases of fraud or intentional misrepresentation.
States have the primary role in enforcing many of the new standards. If a state fails to enforce a standard, the federal government will step in to do so — as it did in several states after passage of a health insurance law in 1996.
The federal government recently surveyed states to assess their enforcement capabilities, and the results suggest a patchwork of protections.
California, Florida, Hawaii, Michigan, Nebraska, Oklahoma, Virginia and Wyoming, among other states, said they did not have authority to enforce federal law.
Some state regulators said they would ask state legislators to expand their authority by putting the federal standards into state law next year. Others said they would rely on their powers of persuasion, the good will of insurers or general state laws that ban unfair or deceptive trade practices.
By contrast, Maryland passed a bill in April that explicitly authorizes its insurance commissioner to enforce consumer protections in the new federal law. Similar bills were signed in June by Gov. Bev Perdue of North Carolina and in July by Gov. John Lynch of New Hampshire.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, said she realized that “some states may lack the full authority they might need or desire to fully enforce” the new market rules.
The administration said its general approach was to have “states take a lead role in providing consumer protections, with federal enforcement only as a fallback measure.”
Sara Rosenbaum, a professor of health law and policy at George Washington University, said this was an awkward arrangement. “The new law creates detailed federal standards for insurance, but does not give consumers a right to sue if insurers don’t live up to their obligations,” Ms. Rosenbaum said.
Kim Holland, the Oklahoma insurance commissioner, said, “We will have to seek explicit authority from our State Legislature to make sure we can adequately enforce all the new provisions of federal law.”
Ken Ross, the Michigan insurance commissioner, said, “I fully expect insurers to comply,” even though his office “does not currently have clear authority to enforce the consumer protections enacted in federal law.”
Arizona said it was unlikely to pass legislation authorizing any state agency to enforce federal insurance standards, in view of its participation in a lawsuit challenging the federal law. Moreover, it said, Gov. Jan Brewer has “instituted an indefinite rule-making moratorium, so we have no plans to adopt rules related to enforcement” of the law.
Some states hope to secure compliance by using their power to review insurance policy forms and contracts.
In a recent bulletin, the Texas Insurance Department encouraged insurers to file amendments to standard policy forms that would bring them into compliance with federal law. John Greeley, a spokesman for the department, emphasized the word “encouraged.”
“We don’t have authority right now to require it,” Mr. Greeley said.
Florida said that if insurers did not voluntarily revise their contracts, the state “has no legal authority to force them to do so.”
The Nebraska Insurance Department said it did not have “specific authority to order compliance with federal law in the face of a refusal to comply.”
Wyoming said it did not have the authority, under its insurance code or its Unfair Trade Practices Act, to enforce federal law even if it received consumer complaints.
New Jersey, New York and Ohio said they believed they had the power to enforce federal standards.
Gov. David A. Paterson of New York said his state would require insurers to rewrite their contracts to include the new consumer protections. State officials have developed model language. In addition, Mr. Paterson said, the Legislature will consider amending state insurance laws so they “meet or exceed” federal requirements.
Within days, the Obama administration is expected to announce up to $51 million in grants to states to help them perform one of their new duties: reviewing “unreasonable increases in premiums.”
Thirteen states currently have no authority to review proposed health premium increases for most forms of coverage, according to the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. About a dozen have limited power to review increases after they take effect, while half the states require some form of state approval.
With insurers proposing heavy rate increases this year, possibly in anticipation of tougher regulation, several states have exerted their rate review authority with new vigor.
Sandy Praeger, the Kansas insurance commissioner and chairwoman of the health committee for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said states were eager to toughen their procedures to ward off federal interest in obtaining that authority. “The pressure is on us to prove that what we do is effective, and for states that don’t have the authority to get it done,” Ms. Praeger said. Many states will require legislation to change their rate review systems, she said.
States are also waiting for the federal Department of Health and Human Services to define unreasonable rate increases.
“That’s the big question,” Ms. Praeger said. “Unreasonable is a rather nebulous term.”

Malaria: Get to something that works

Millions spent on malaria but problems remain

We have to ask just how much profit from a program that isn't effective is going to Big PhRMA rather than to help people and solve this problem 

By MARIA CHENG, AP Medical Writer  – Apr 19, 2010

LONDON – Health groups have spent more than a billion dollars and bought millions of bednets to fight malaria, and 20 African countries have increased their bednet coverage at least fivefold, new research says.
In a report on the status of malaria in Africa issued on Monday by UNICEF and Roll Back Malaria, a U.N.-led partnership, the authors said $1.8 billion was spent last year, a 10-fold jump since 2004. More than 150 million insecticide-treated bednets to protect against the mosquito-borne disease have been produced and donors have purchased 160 million drug treatments.
If the bednets are indeed getting to people at risk, that number puts some countries on target to reach a U.N. goal of providing a bednet to all 350 million people at risk of malaria by the end of this year, officials said.
But other experts said the figures are an artificial symbol of success against the disease.
"These are meaningless input measures that tell us only (the UN) is effective at spending other people's money," said Philip Stevens, a health-policy expert at the London think tank International Policy Network.
Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, an Africa and US-based advocacy group, said measuring malaria spending and the numbers of drugs bought did not always mean more Africans had access to them.
Tren said he had once been in Uganda when the central warehouse had plenty of malaria drugs but clinics throughout the country had none. "They had no trucks to deliver anything," he said.
There are few data to prove people are actually sleeping under these bednets. According to UNICEF and partners, the percentage of children sleeping under bednets ranges from 4 percent in Cameroon, Swaziland and Guinea to 62 percent in Zambia. In some countries like Tanzania and Malawi, more bednets go to the rich than the poor, though the poor are most at risk from the potentially fatal disease.
There is also little evidence sick kids are getting the drugs. "The proportion of African children receiving (a malaria medicine) is still very low," the report said.
According to its most recent figures from 2008, the World Health Organization estimated there were about 250 million malaria cases including 850,000 deaths. Africa accounts for 90 percent of the world's cases. Before 2008, WHO guessed there were nearly 500 million malaria cases and 1 million deaths. The agency doesn't issue yearly figures but estimates based on household surveys and national statistics so there is little concrete proof to show what difference programs are making.
Tren said U.N. policies have skewed toward bednets and that it should focus on other proven tools like pesticides. But convincing donors to pay for pesticide spraying is a harder sell than bednets, especially with strong lobbying from environmentalists calling for reduced pesticide use.
The U.N. insisted its initiatives are saving lives and more money is needed. "We cannot afford to relax our efforts," said Coll Seck, executive director of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, in a statement.
The U.N. said based on mathematical modeling, more than 10 million children were saved from malaria thanks to bednets.
Tren agreed some progress was being made in countries like Rwanda and Ethiopia, but said countries needed to take responsibility themselves and that the U.N. shouldn't shy away from criticizing countries when problems like corruption compromised aid efforts. In Uganda, for example, three top officials in charge of the malaria program were recently arrested for stealing drugs and embezzlement.
"(The U.N.) spends too much time telling the good news and not the bad news," Tren said. "If we aren't upfront about the problems we're having now, there will be much bigger problems down the line."

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2007/10/politics-and-hivaids-mos.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/04/responding-to-anti-supplement.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/11/who-endorses-traditional-medicine.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/02/supplements-reduce-malaria-toll.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/05/malaria-resistant-to-drugs.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/01/bill-gates-needs-few-lessons.html

Diet soda linked to heart risks

UPDATE: 29 April
New information, or I should say confirmation of very old and well known information about phosphates and phosphorus in soda, diet or sweetened, reinforces negative health effects. Worse is the chemical reaction between phosphorous-containing compounds and aluminum cans.

Early death by junk food? High levels of phosphate in sodas and processed foods accelerate the aging process in mice

ScienceDaily (2010-04-28) -- High levels of phosphates may add more "pop" to sodas and processed foods than once thought. That's because researchers have found that the high levels of phosphates accelerate signs of aging. High phosphate levels may also increase the prevalence and severity of age-related complications, such as chronic kidney disease and cardiovascular calcification, and can also induce severe muscle and skin atrophy. ... > read full article

UPDATE: 22 April, 2010
What the ABC News report did not state, is that most sweetened soda and other such beverages contain HFCS, not fructose. There is a difference. Also to be considered is that over 90% of corn used in food products is known to be genetically modified (GMO)and/or controlled by Monsanto as Round-Up Ready. Round-Up is a carcinogen. Atrazine, another very toxic chemical, is used in growing corn crops.
High fructose corn syrup (HFCS)
A sweet problem: Princeton researchers find that high-fructose corn syrup prompts considerably more weight gain
See also - Death of HFCS, this and this.
Originally posted 7/23/07

Dr. Vasan Ramachandran might be on to something. Something the FDA already knows and has known for many decades, according to the history of aspartame toxicity and the extreme measures utilized to cover it up.

Not much is different about sucralose (marketed as Splenda). Both were originally developed as insect poisons.

The only cautions I will offer is to check with the experts on this subject and ignore Ramachandran's advice to use these products moderately.

I'll also mention that diet drinks DO cause weight gain and that study has been done. (Once again no thorough search of the literature Vasan). They also cause diabetes, cancer and other serious health problems.

My advice is not to use them at all. Especially when there are more than 92 registered complaints against aspartame on file with the FDA, and the ones on sucralose are mounting.

Safe sweeteners are available - Stevia and Just Like Sugar are in many of the same products as the toxic ones, and there is no health risk.

Study: Diet soda linked to heart risks

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer

People who drank more than one diet soda each day developed the same risks for heart disease as those who downed sugary regular soda, a large but inconclusive study found.

The results surprised the researchers who expected to see a difference between regular and diet soda drinkers. It could be, they suggest, that even no-calorie sweet drinks increase the craving for more sweets, and that people who indulge in sodas probably have less healthy diets overall.

The study's senior author, Dr. Vasan Ramachandran, emphasized the findings don't show diet sodas are a cause of increased heart disease risks. But he said they show a surprising link that must be studied.

"It's intriguing and it begs an explanation by people who are qualified to do studies to understand this better," said Vasan, of Boston University School of Medicine.

However, a nutrition expert dismissed the study's findings on diet soda drinkers.

"There's too much contradictory evidence that shows that diet beverages are healthier for you in terms of losing weight that I would not put any credence to the result on the diet (drinks)," said Barry Popkin, of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who has called for cigarette-style surgeon general warnings about the negative health effects of soda.

Susan Neely, president of the American Beverage Association, said the notion that diet drinks are associated with bulging waistlines defies common sense.

"How can something with zero calories that's 99 percent water with a little flavoring in it ... cause weight gain?" she said.

The research comes from a massive, multi-generational heart study following residents of Framingham, Mass., a town about 25 miles west of Boston. The new study of 9,000 observations of middle-aged men and women was published Monday online in the journal Circulation.

The researchers found those who drank more than one soda per day — diet or regular — had an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, compared to those who drank less than one soda. Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of symptoms that increase the risk for heart disease including large waistlines and higher levels of blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol and blood fats called triglycerides.

At the start of the study, those who reported drinking more than one soft drink a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of metabolic syndrome compared to those who drank less soda.

Of participants who initially showed no signs of metabolic syndrome, those who drank more than one soda per day were at 44 percent higher risk of developing it four years later, they reported.

Researchers expected the results to differ when regular soda and diet soda drinkers were compared, and were surprised when they did not, Vasan said.

But Popkin said that result isn't that surprising. He said much of the market for diet sodas are people who have unhealthy lifestyles and know they need to lose weight — with the other portion being thin people who want to stay that way. That means many people drinking diet sodas have unhealthy habits that could lead to increased heart disease risks, whether they drink diet soda or not.

In studies in which some users were randomly given diet sodas and others were given regular soda, diet soda drinkers lost weight and regular soda drinkers gained weight, Popkin said.

In a statement, the American Heart Association said it supports dietary patterns that include low-calorie beverages.

"Diet soda can be a good option to replace caloric beverages that do not contain important vitamins and minerals," the association said, adding further study is needed before any association between diet soda and heart risk factors would lead to public recommendations.

Vasan also said poor overall health habits may be one reason diet soda drinkers did not show lower heart disease risks in the Framingham study, but there hasn't been enough research to say for sure.

Another possible reason is a controversial theory called "dietary compensation," which holds that if someone drinks a large amount of liquids at a meal, they aren't satisfied and will tend to eat more at the next meal, Vasan said.

Other theories, Vasan said, are that people who drink a large amount of sweetened drinks are prone to develop a taste for sweeter foods, or that the substance that gives soda its caramel color promotes resistance to insulin, which is needed to process calories.

Without a more definitive explanation, Vasan offers only this advice to diet soda drinkers: "Consume in moderation and stayed tuned for more research."
___

On the Net:

Framingham Heart Study: http://www.framinghamheartstudy.org/

American Heart Association: http://www.americanheart.org

http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/09/affecting-unborn.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/11/soft-drinks-with-artificial-sweeteners.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/02/maybe-its-pink-maybe-its-not-breast.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/04/words-on-water.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/10/bone-health-is-not-helped-with-soap-or.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/05/better-than-rx-for-gerd.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2005/07/nutraceutical-hype.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2008/12/problems-with-new-sweetener.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/12/zerose-zevia-or-what-ever-you-wish-to.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/heart-month-hype.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2009/12/lethal-science-of-splenda.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/02/soft-drinks-and-pancreatic-cancer.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2007/07/diet-soda-linked-to-heart-risks.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/03/diet-soda-for-kids-brings-more-obesity.html
http://naturalhealthnews.blogspot.com/2010/03/clintons-soda-deal-reinforces-obesity.html

The Deliberate Addicting of American Youth

UPDATE: 16 August - Your Brain NOT on Computers

from 15 Aug - Just as we begin to think about back to school, another effort to expose the dumbing-down process helps raise awareness.

American children are even more plugged in to new technology than ours – and are paying the price as electronic gadgets prove more addictive than heroin, says Hal Crowther. 

Will this digital obsession destroy the creativity of future generations?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/societybookreviews/7942896/One-Hundred-Fears-of-Solitude-by-Hal-Crowther-extract.html

Medicating Grief

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, or DSM, is the coding "bible" for those in the field of mental health and psychiatry.  Generally speaking it is the guide used to categorize "disorders" so you can get paid by third party payers.

The issue discussed in this article is not new to me because I have seen this model applied since the late 80s when I was working in community mental health.  The practice predates my experience.

I cannot think of a more inhumane treatment offered in health care.  To conspire to deprive people of the important participation in their grief is a grievous disservice. 

As Allen Frances, emeritus professor and former chairman of psychiatry at Duke University, writes : A startling suggestion is buried in the fine print describing proposed changes for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders — perhaps better known as the D.S.M. 5, the book that will set the new boundary between mental disorder and normality. If this suggestion is adopted, many people who experience completely normal grief could be mislabeled as having a psychiatric problem.

His complete article is here and I strongly encourage everyone to read this.

Parents Stop Palm Tree Cell Tower

NATURAL HEALTH NEWS EXCLUSIVE

UPDATE: 26 APRIL - In the most recent communication I have received from this great group of parents fighting to protect their children, the Gilbert School District (GSD) has decided to "table" this project.
Please take some time to contact the GSD and let them know it is important to deny any future action on this plan and also to move to remove them from other school locations.
The fact that Clearwire's plans call for one of the towers "every 1/4 mile or so" shows a total disregard for people living in communities everywhere. The fact that they do this is also an indication of the cell industry's failure to educate customers, and potential customers, of the risks inherent in this technology.
Consumers too should take much more of an effort to ferret out the facts.
UPDATE: 19 APRIL - I just learned that there is a group of opposing parents that are fighting to get the tower constructed.  The school also wants the tower.  It is important to understand the science and the science is not just associated with the beam and the Hz rating.  The fact that the beam is ON constantly and the fact that the effect of the beam falls in an array are very important.  Everything outside the school building will be effected and exposed to microwave radiation.
PLEASE HELP SUPPORT THE EFFORT TO STOP THIS TOWER.
You can contact the Gilbert, AZ school district at the following contacts -

Gilbert Public Schools
140 South Gilbert Road
Gilbert, Arizona 85296
Phone: 480-497-3300

District Office Regular Hours 
7:30 AM - 4:30 PM

http://www.gilbert.k12.az.us/board/boardmembers.php
http://www.gilbert.k12.az.us/superintendent/superintendent.php
http://www.gilbert.k12.az.us/schoolpgs/valvista/valvistainfo.php

Posted 15 April -
Clearwire had plans to erect a 65-foot tower, disguised as a faux palm tree, right on school grounds, just a few yards away from school buildings where students spend several hours each day.

As concerned parent Chris Handorf explained to me, the tower would have been less than 10 yards from the school building.

He also explained that Parker Leavitt, the reporter, misconstrued his emotional expression. Handorf had been concerned about his father's health and recent major surgery.

The good news, though, that I learned last evening, is that a small, concerned, and dedicated group of parents in this Phoenix area community stood up and slew the (telecommunication)giant.

Now all that remains is for the Gilbert school district to remove the cellular antennas at all its other schools.

Original article

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MORE INFORMATION - 

Cobb County in Marietta Georgia..  The situation is similar to ours with VVLE.  You can read the article.   

http://www.ajc.com/news/cobb/parents-speak-out-against-163168.html

I called the guy that was in the article, Rick Welkis.  He gave me good information: 

Rick's web site is: http://www.stopschoolcelltowers.org/

"One of the reasons that wi-fi companies are approaching the schools to build towers on school campuses is that schools are exempt from zoning and variance laws.  

The generators have thick cables of 12 strands and they're are 4 or more cables running from the generator to the tower.

There is little regulation of the tower once it's built.  Lack of regulation and co-location is a huge area of concern.

We have to be aware that this type of notification - vote from the Town - can also be done during the months when school is not in session.  So we have to stay on our toes."  From Gilbert parents group.

Breakdown the money per child:

If the school gets the $20K:

Currently there are 625 students enrolled at VVLE (according to their website)

$20,000/625 = $32 per student

$1,000/625 = $1.60 per student per month  x 10 months (Aug - May) = $16.00/ student for the school year

So for $48 per student GPS/ Town of Gilbert /School is willing to put our children's health at potential risk. 

The Los Angeles Board of Education has prohibited cellphone towers near schools.

http://www.lausd-oehs.org/docs/Press_Releases/CellPhoneTowers_PressRelease_2009_0529.pdf

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors & the City Council of Portland have passed resolutions that call on the FCC & FDA to revisit & update studies on the potential health effects of wireless facilities.  Some of the research that currently is being sited as saying that RF is safe is based on research done in the 1980's.  Now we have G3 & G4 technology and there aren't enough studies on that technology.

http://emfjournal.com/2009/06/04/los-angeles-county-board-of-supervisors-calls-for-repeal/

Photo: www.activecaptain.com

AND FROM AUSTIN TX -

No Cell Phone in School Zone' Signs Up