(NaturalNews) Releases of mercury, PCBs, lead and dioxin into the environment increased significantly between 2006 and 2007, according to the annual "Toxics Release Inventory," published by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

"This information underscores the need for fundamental transparency and provides a powerful tool for protecting public health and the environment," said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson. "Serving the public's right to know is the crucial first step in reducing toxic chemicals in the places where we live, work and raise children."

The "Toxics Release Inventory" classifies all releases together, including legal and illegal dumping, disposal in mine reclamation ponds (which leach into groundwater) and disposal in toxic dump sites.

Between 2006 and 2007, PCB releases increased by 40 percent, due to disposal of supplies manufactured before the substances were banned in 1979. Mercury releases, mostly due to mining, increased by 38 percent. Dioxin releases increased by 11 percent, and lead releases increased by 1 percent. Overall releases of all persistent, bioaccumalitive and toxic chemicals or metals increased by 1 percent.

PCBs and dioxins are highly toxic to animal life, particularly birds. Both accumulate in animal (including human) bodies and disrupt the body's hormonal and reproductive systems. Lead and mercury can cause neurological and behavioral problems, particularly in children. All four pollutants are especially dangerous to pregnant women and children, due to their effects on the body's development.

According to the "Toxics Release Inventory," slight decreases in air and water pollution occurred between 2006 and 2007 -- 7 percent and 5 percent, respectively.

In December 2006, the Bush administration implemented a rule decreasing the thoroughness of the EPA's toxics release reporting program. In March of this year, however, President Obama signed a law overturning the Bush policy.

"The public has a right to know about chemicals in their air and water," said New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who authored the law. "The Bush administration watered down this law and let facilities hide critical data about their toxic chemical emissions. It is time to restore the public's right to know about the release of toxic chemicals in their communities." Sources for this story include: www.ens-newswire.com.

(NaturalNews) Today we've published an exclusive interview with Amy Philo, winner of the 2008 Human Rights Award from the Citizens' Commission on Human Rights (www.CCHR.org). After experiencing a horrifying episode of hallucinations following the taking of prescribed psychiatric drugs, Amy Philo was essentially kidnapped by psychiatric doctors and forced to undergo a doubling of the dosage, and at one point the side effects of the mind-altering drugs were so strong, she thought she was going to kill her newborn child.

Amy is now an outspoken opponent of psychiatric drugs, and she tells her story in an exclusive video interview just published on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9trXZrzWkvA

As a strong opponent of the MOTHERS Act (a dastardly law that would attempt to put expectant mothers on antidepressant drugs), Amy is working to educate moms about the significant dangers of psychiatric drugs. Several of her articles are available at www.UniteForLife.org

The psychiatric industry is attempting to place every human being on at least one prescription drug by diagnosing each person with one or more "disorders." From the day you're born to the day you die, there's something wrong with the chemicals in your brain, say the psychiatrists; and only drugs can "balance" your brain and make you "normal" again.

But psychiatrists aren't the only ones who can invent fictitious diseases: You can do it yourself, right on the web, with the help of the Disease Mongering Engine I invented a couple of years back:

http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-mongering-engine.asp

Just click the link above to try out the engine yourself and invent all the fictitious diseases and disorders you want! (Maybe you'll be offered a job in a Big Pharma marketing department...)

And don't forget to watch Amy Philo's video interview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9trXZrzWkvA

Spread the word about this interview to all expectant mothers. Antidepressant drugs do NOT belong in the body of a fetus or a newborn. Babies need nutrition, not drugs. This should be obvious from the start.

(NaturalNews) A recent study reveals new evidence that could turn the tide in the ongoing debate about which fats are the healthier choice: saturated fats like coconut oil or polyunsaturated fats like soybean oil. Many natural food experts will tell you without question that coconut oil is one of the healthiest fats, but since giants like the Food and Drug Administration and the American Diabetes Association maintain that saturated fats are bad, the public is tossed back and forth between two polar beliefs.

The study - which is yet to be published in print - included 40 women between the ages of 20 and 40 years old. All of the women were instructed to follow the same balanced, low-calorie diet while maintaining a moderate daily exercise routine over a 12-week period. Half of the women were given a 30 ml supplement of coconut oil each day, while the other half was given 30 ml of soybean oil. Over the course of the study, overall carbohydrate and caloric intake decreased. Fat, protein and fiber intake remained unchanged during the study.

One week before the study and one week after, the women were evaluated on a number of factors: waist circumference, lipid levels, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol were all noted, as well as the HDL:LDL ratio. At the beginning of the study there was no significant difference in these factors in either group of women.

At the end of the study, both groups showed a decrease in body mass index (BMI), but only the women taking coconut oil showed a notable decrease in waist circumference as well. Evidence shows that a decrease in waist circumference can significantly lower one's risk for conditions like type II diabetes and heart disease.

The study also showed that the women taking coconut oil had an improved cholesterol profile, with higher HDL levels and a higher HDL:LDL ratio. Those taking soybean oil, however, did not receive the same benefits. In fact, the soybean oil group had higher total cholesterol, higher LDL cholesterol, lower HDL cholesterol, and a lower HDL:LDL ratio.

In the words of the study authors: "It appears that dietetic supplementation with coconut oil does not cause dyslipidemia and seems to promote a reduction in abdominal obesity."

In layman's terms, results like this completely contradict what the FDA and other major associations have been spoon-feeding the public for decades while the rate of disease and obesity climb at alarming rates. Maybe it's time to rethink our conventional theories about fats.

For More Information:

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/content/view/17604/

http://www.foryourhealth.eu/content/effects-dietary-coconut-oil-biochemical-and-anthropometric-profiles-women-presenting-abdomin

Assuncao ML, Ferreira HS, Dos Santos AF, Cabral CR Jr, Florencio TM. Effects of Dietary Coconut Oil on the Biochemical and Anthropometric Profiles of Women Presenting Abdominal Obesity. Lipids. May 13, 2009. [Published Online Ahead of Print Publication.]

About the author
Elizabeth Walling is a freelance writer, specializing in articles about health and family nutrition. She is a strong believer in natural living as a way to improve health and prevent common illnesses.

(NaturalNews) The Border Patrol has temporarily postponed -- but refused to cancel -- plans to use helicopters to spray herbicide along the banks of the Rio Grande between the cities of Laredo, Texas and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, in order to kill a fast-growing river cane that provides cover for undocumented migrants, smugglers and other border crossers.

The controversial plan has drawn fire for its similarities to the U.S. government's defoliation strategy during the Vietnam War, in which the government sprayed more than 21 million gallons of "Agent Orange" and other herbicides in order to eliminate hiding places for Vietnamese guerillas. An estimated 4.8 million Vietnamese citizens and thousands of U.S. soldiers were exposed to the dioxin-based chemical, resulting in more than 500,000 birth defects and 400,000 deaths and disabilities among adults.

The Border Patrol proposed to begin by defoliating 1.1 miles of the river, possibly eventually expanding the program to 130 miles and perhaps even to other parts of the border.

Local citizens and environmentalists on both sides of the border have widely criticized the plan. The Mexican government has objected that there is insufficient scientific data over the health risks of imazapyr, the herbicide to be used, and that it wants to conduct its own assessment. The Border Patrol has postponed the plan, but has not promised to await the results of further studies.

"Nobody knows the impact of imazapyr," said Jay Johnson-Castro Sr., executive director of the Rio Grande International Study Center. "It's no different than Agent Orange."

Environmentalists say that in addition to killing the targeted carrizo cane, an invasive species, imazapyr would kill native plants and destroy the habitat of more than 1,000 animal species. Along with Mexican officials, they have raised concern about contamination of local water supplies.

"We don't believe that is even moral," Johnston-Castro said. "It is unprecedented that they'd do it in a populated area."

Sources for this story include: www.chron.com; news.newamericamedia.org.

(NaturalNews) Bevacizumab is the generic name for the widely used Genetech cancer drug marketed as Avastin. It inhibits tumor growth by blocking angiogenesis, the formation of new blood vessels. But according to an article just published in the June edition of The Lancet Oncology, cancer patients treated with Avastin in combination with chemotherapy are at a heightened risk of experiencing a potentially catastrophic side effect. In fact, it's a side effect that could kill them before their malignancy does -- a gastrointestinal (GI) perforation (a hole in the wall of the stomach, small intestine or large bowel).

According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), gastrointestinal perforations lead to leakage of intestinal contents into the abdominal cavity, causing an inflammation known as peritonitis. Symptoms of this condition may include severe abdominal pain, chills, fever, nausea and vomiting. Treatment includes antibiotics and sometimes surgery. In a patient already weakened from previous surgery and chemo, additional major surgery and drugs clearly pose serious risks.

There have been concerns about the use of bevacizumab and GI perforation in the past, spurring the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue a black-box warning stating the drug should be discontinued in patients who already had a GI perforation. However, a direct link between the drug and perforation hasn't been firmly established -- until now.

A huge hole in your stomach
As reported in The Lancet Oncology, scientist Shenhong Wu and colleagues from Stony Brook University Cancer Center in New York conducted a meta-analysis of 17 randomized trials involving 12,294 patients with a variety of solid tumors to find out whether bevacizumab causes GI perforations. The researchers also investigated whether the dose of bevacizumab is related to an increased risk of developing GI perforations and whether having a specific type of cancer ups the risk, too.

The results of the study showed that the incidence of GI perforation was almost one percent, with two times the increased risk of GI perforation in patients receiving bevacizumab compared with controls. What's more, the researchers found a mortality rate of 21.7 percent in cancer patients who developed GI perforation.

The chance of developing a GI perforation was found to be dose-dependent. Lower doses of bevacizumab (2.5 mg/kg per week) increased the chance of GI perforation by 61 percent; while at a higher dose (5 mg/kg per week), the risk of a GI perforation increased by 167 percent. The incidence of GI perforation with bevacizumab also varied depending on what type of cancer the patient had. The highest incidence was found among patients with advanced colorectal cancer and renal cell cancer, and the lowest was in patients with pancreatic cancer.

"As bevacizumab is extensively used in routine cancer treatment...it will be increasingly important to recognize symptoms indicating perforation and intervene promptly to reduce morbidity and fatality...our study might help to identify a subset of patients receiving bevacizumab at high risk of bevacizumab-associated perforation," the study authors concluded in their article.

This is not the first time bevacizumab, a.k.a. Avastin, has had some bad publicity. First approved by the FDA in 2004 for metastatic colon and non-small cell lung cancer, the drug was also approved to treat metastatic breast cancer in 2008. That decision generated controversy because it went against the recommendation of the FDA's own advisory panel. The reason? FDA approval for late-stage cancer treatments is supposed to be contingent upon data showing a drug extends or improves the quality of patients' lives. According to Genentech's own application for the approval of Avastin, this drug does neither. For more information: http://press.thelancet.com/tloperforation.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/22/business/apee-drug.html?_r=1 http://www.nlm.nih.gov/MEDLINEPLUS/ency/article/000235.htm

From the Terrafugia Transition to Zero Pollution Motors and split-cycle Scuderi engines, which alternative technology has the most promise?

Parties are on my mind of late – we’ve been happily slogging through a bunch of birthday parties, end-of-school fairs, and plenty of summer gatherings. I’ve gotten several emails lately asking how to green these parties, including 4th of July celebrations. Here are my suggestions. Fittingly, I’m typing these on my own birthday.

FOOD

• Buy Local, Buy Organic
  'Tis the season to serve local food. Opt for organic local when you can find it. Why bother with cupcakes when you can serve a flat of local blueberries and first of the season peaches?

• Serve Grass-fed Beef (or Why Not Squash?)
  The number one way to reduce the impact of a BBQ party is to serve grass-fed hamburgers. The environmental toll of conventional meat is gargantuan. It’s also totally inhumane. See the excellent film Food Inc. for an education (or a refresher course) on hamburger patties, agribusiness chickens and more. Grilled “squash burgers” are another fabulous option – cut pattypans into thick rounds and grill.

• Be Careful with Your Condiments
  Don’t forget about going organic for mustard, ketchup, pickles, buns and more. If you’re using charcoal, buy sustainable briquettes (Whole Foods carries some or try these and never use lighter fluid. It’s highly toxic.

• Avoid Fishy Fish
  If you’re serving fish, choose wisely. ...

Media nationwide -- including The Daily Green -- reported on the May 15 ceremony near the small upstate New York village of Fort Edward marking the start of General Electric's cleanup of PCBs it had dumped in the Hudson River. One speaker at the event rightly called it "a historic day for a historic river."

It was a particularly satisfying moment for environmental groups in the Hudson Valley -- including Scenic Hudson, which I head. We've been crusading for a quarter century to compel GE to remove these 1.3 million pounds of toxins that made the Hudson the most PCB-polluted waterway in America. Polychlorinated biphenyls not only have been linked to cancer, thyroid disease and immune-system disorders in humans, but adversely affect fish, forcing New York State to close or impose severe restrictions on lucrative recreational and commercial fisheries all the way to New York Harbor, 200 miles downriver.

While this is a great victory, it's far from complete. ...

(NaturalNews) In response to several readers concern over the issues presented by the article Watch Out for Flying Syringes, GMO Food Vaccines, and Forced Vaccinations, here are some solutions. Most of the solutions suggested are for vaccination induced disease syndrome (VIDS) or post vaccination syndrome (PVS). Some are for the flu itself.

Especially among the very young whose immune systems are not fully developed, there have been many almost immediate, terrible consequences of VIDS or PVS. Understand that though you may have had vaccinations and walked away on your own two feet, there are residual, latent dangers that can cause auto immune problems later in life. There are several thousand Gulf War I veterans who can attest to that!

Vaccination by inoculation is not immunization. Immunization occurs when you are stricken with a disease and survive, or if you`re exposed to pathogens and your immune system beats them. Even without the hazardous materials usually present in vaccines, bypassing the normal path of the immune system by injection into the bloodstream with pathogens from unusual sources causes more long term chronic stress on the immune system. This chronic immune system stress manifests in illness or disease later in life.

This Article`s Format

There will be a brief descriptive summary of vaccination legal or medical assistance preceded by a number in bold that corresponds to the source in the sources section below. If you wish to pursue any topics further, those numbered source links can help you. If a link doesn`t work for you, then simply try copying the URL and pasting it into the blank browser address window and pressing the go button. There is an abundance of remedies to be explored beyond the scope of one article.

Many of the antidotes to VIDS or PVS are homeopathic. They usually require a personal approach to determine the exact homeopathic agents, their strengths, and protocol. So details are important. Homeopathy is effective and safe. It was around before the allopathic AMA started shoving it out of public view in America. During the 1918 so called Spanish Flu pandemic, most of those who survived used homeopathy or nothing at all. Many of those who were vaccinated died!

Over the last two decades, homeopathy has been applied successfully to VIDS or PVS victims of all ages. If there is no homeopath or other holistic practitioner available in your area who specializes in handling VIDS or PVS, then it`s recommended that you take some of the information from whatever source you investigate to your local holistic practitioner or contact someone in that source directly.

(1) Homeopathy for Everyone offers a comprehensive overview of homeopathy. From there you may find a list of homeopaths, perhaps one close to you. Only the homeopaths who signed up to this directory are listed, however. But the information you get from any of the sources below can be taken to a holistic practitioner in your area

What About a Pandemic Flu Episode?

(2) First, understand that flu victims who die usually do as a result of complications from the flu, especially pneumonia or other lung inflammation. During the last swine flu hysteria (2009) that occurred in Mexico City, a few homeopathic doctors banded together and came up with a protocol for curing that specific episode with a very high success rate. Their report was translated into English and posted.

(3) Then there are inexpensive black elderberry tinctures, which have been tested successfully on several different flu virus types. The swine flu was not available for those tests. Those can be ordered on line or made in large quantities at home. If you make your own tincture, don`t forget to let it season for at least a month avoiding sunlight, and shaking the mixture daily while seasoning. There is more information on that in the Natural News article Elderberry Trumps Tamiflu for Flu Remedy.

Avoiding Forced Vaccinations

(4) More and more states in the USA are forcing vaccinations through the school system or workplaces. Attorney Alan Phillips, author of Dispelling Vaccination Myths, specializes in VIDS or PVS cases nationwide. He got interested in the subject when he noticed the warning on a vaccination that was about to be administered to his infant child. The warning clearly stated that the odds of death from the vaccination were considerably higher than death from the diseases it was supposed to immunize. He challenged the perplexed doctor, refused the vaccination, and after more investigation dedicated his legal practice to claiming monetary damages for VIDS victims.

(5) The Vaccination Liberation Movement has lots of free detailed information on state vaccination exemptions and sample letters. These are effective for locally enforced vaccinations required by school systems, or workplaces and even the military. There is no guarantee that all the information is up to date. But if not, this could be a starting point to check on current local state laws.

(5A) Natural News writer Barbara Minton's informative, recent feature article, Sign the Universal Declaration of Resistance to Mandatory Vaccination is where you can sign a petition to halt forced vaccinations. It is hoped to have an impact on the right people if enough sign up and submit it. Barbara also has more information on what the nature and motives are behind what is going on with the current pandemic scares and forced vaccinations.

(6) According to Dr. Rima E. Laibow, the Nuremberg Trails condemnation of dangerous medical experimentation on humans sets an international legal precedent. Since a rush by the pharmaceutical companies precludes proper testing, and since by law the vaccine producers are now exempt from vaccine damage liability, forced vaccinations due to pandemic alerts is dangerous human medical experimentation! Dr. Laibow also has a free white form to request a legal self imposed quarantine during an epidemic and resist a forced vaccination.

So far, home schooling, private schools, and utilizing legal exemptions have enabled some parents to protect their children from vaccinations forced by the public school systems. The legal exemptions also have helped others avoid enforced vaccinations in the workplace or even the military. But the white form may be the only legal out eventually.

(7) How long the legal loopholes will remain, and what will happen after the powers that be (sinister as they are) will declare a pandemic emergency to unleash a huge forced vaccination campaign in North America and perhaps elsewhere, is unknown. Natural News article Watch Out for Flying Syringes . . . contains some evidence of those North American forced vaccination plans and even control from the U.N. health czar can occur.

Then there is also the possibility of leaving the country and settling in areas such as South or Central America (except Columbia) if possible, where forced vaccinations do not exist or would be too difficult to enforce. In case none of the above options may be available to you, it would be wise to brace yourself for the worst and investigate remedies for VIDS (vaccination induced disease syndrome) or PVS (post vaccination syndrome) to ameliorate the potential vaccination damage.

VIDS or PVS Remedies

According to Sheri Nakken, a homeopath who specializes in VIDS or PVS remedy and recovery, Vaccine Safety Manual for Concerned Families and Health Practitioners: Guide to Immunization Risks and Protection, by Neil Z. Miller and The Vaccine Guide, by Randall Neustaedter are the best available books on the subjects of vaccination injury and remedy.

(8) Fulvic Acid is inexpensive and immediately accessible on line. Besides being a safe and effective chelation agent that removes much of the heavy metals present in vaccines, it provides a body with all the minerals, trace elements, and micro-nutrients needed. It has been clinically tested successfully in China for difficult lung disorders. And the lungs are where the flu and pneumonia reside!

Considering the catastrophic possibilities, it may be well worth your time to investigate the listed sources until satisfied with enough to remedy potential vaccination damage, PVS or VIDS. Some of these sources have made themselves available to the public at large via email or phone. These sources are passionate on the subject of protecting their fellow humans from VIDS or PVS.

(9) There are actually courses available that enable one to protect themselves or their children from vaccination damage. They are not expensive, and they use the two books mentioned above. Some courses also provide a list of other sources concerned about vaccination damage.

(10) The Vaccination and Liberation movement has an impressive list of products from various sources that are available to help recover from VIDS or PVS. And there is even a source for a homeopathic nosode, which is a safe form of immunization, to safeguard against pneumonia, which is the complication that often becomes a killer from any form of flu.

(11) Dr. Tinus Smit, a Dutch MD and homeopath and author of a free booklet entitled Post Vaccination Syndrome, is living proof of the efficacy of homeopathy for PVS or VIDS. He has an almost perfect track record of curing PVS clients throughout Europe and parts of Asia. He has even cured autistic children completely from mercury infested early childhood vaccinations. His free booklet is available on line in English.

(12) Some state enforcement agencies can and will play hardball with parents who won't allow their children to be vaccinated. Dr. Rebecca Carley had her only child taken into custody from her during her divorce proceeding in New York because she refused to have him vaccinated. She has since regained custody of her boy, and has become a court expert witness on vaccination damage in the Bronx Court System of New York City. She devotes her medical practice to VIDS or PVS.

(13) The Think Twice Global Institute is an excellent resource that includes a list of practitioners who specialize in VIDS or PVS. Some are listed with addresses and phone numbers and others have their websites linked. Many will not be in your local area, but may serve as a reference for practitioners in your locale or as a referral source for someone near you.

(14) A Homeopathy Ezine is available free off the Homeopathy for Everyone website with a direct link.

Don`t let all the bad news around us stress you. Safeguard your immune system in all the ways you know or discover. Be vigilant with equanimity. By accessing information from the sources listed below, you will have the tools to resist vaccinations or be cured from the aftermath of having been the victim of a forced vaccination campaign. You might want to bookmark these now and take time to decide which best serves your needs later. Just don`t wait too long. Things are beginning to happen.

Sources (and resources):

(1) Homeopathy for Everyone http://www.hpathy.com/

(2) Observations of Mexican Flu 2009 http://www.hpathy.com/papersnew/galicia-Observations-Mexican-Flu-2009.asp

(3) Elderberry Trumps Tamiflu http://www.naturalnews.com/026354_elderberry_Tamiflu_immune_system.html

(4) Alan Phillips (attorney) http://www.vaccinerights.com/index.html

(5) Vaccination Liberation http://www.vaccinetruth.net/index.htm

(5A) Resistance to Forced Vaccination Petition http://www.naturalnews.com/026496_NaturalNews_vaccination_the_WHO.html AND http://www.naturalnews.com/026503_pandemic_swine_flu_bioterrorism.html

(6) Health Freedom and white paper (Dr. Rima Laibow) http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/?p=2752

(7) Watch Out for Flying Vaccinations, GMO Edible Vaccines, and Forced Vaccinations http://www.naturalnews.com/026434_vaccines_vaccination_vaccinations.html

(8) Fulvic Acid http://www.naturalnews.com/026258.html OR http://www.naturalnews.com/026475_fulvic_acid_food_health.html

(9) Sheri Nakken (course) http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccineclass.htm (home page and list of other resources) http://www.nccn.net/~wwithin/vaccine.htm

(10) Vaccination and Liberation (letter from Donna Carillo) http://www.vaclib.org/chapter/donnaltr.htm

(11) Dr. Tinus Smit (home) http://www.post-vaccination-syndrome.com/3840/pvs.aspx (PVS info/ebook) http://www.post-vaccination-syndrome.com/3840/pvs.aspx

(12) Dr. Rebecca Carley http://www.drcarley.com/

(13) Think Twice Global Institute http://thinktwice.com/reversal.htm

(14) A Homeopathy Ezine http://www.hpathy.com/ezine/2008nov.asp

About the author
Paul Fassa has managed to survive the normal American diet and his youthful folly by studying health matters informally with his wife over several years. He's graduated from eating processed foods and popping vitamin pills to becoming a vegetarian who goes organic, super foods, and herbs as much as possible. He also practices Chi-Lel Chi Gong, and he is trained as a polarity therapy practitioner. He feels fortunate to have been exposed to the right things after years of health ignorance enforced by the "Medical Mafia", and is motivated to share those right things to others, despite the attempts to keep us from exercising our health decisions.

(NaturalNews) Chemotherapy drugs used in standard cancer treatments are associated with a huge list of side effects, from hair loss and nausea to nerve pain, sexual problems and mouth sores. Now a new study from the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) pharmacovigilance program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine has identified another side effect caused by a commonly used chemotherapy drug -- death.

A startling number of women have died from a severe allergic reaction after being injected with Cremophor-based paclitaxel, a solvent-administered taxane chemotherapy. What makes this extra tragic is that the researchers found some of the dead women had already been treated for early stage breast cancer and could well have been cured -- if the chemo prescribed to prevent a theoretical recurrence of cancer in the future had not killed them.

The report, presented at the 45th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology held recently in Orlando, Florida, found there were 287 unique cases of hypersensitivity reactions submitted to the FDA's Adverse Event Report System between 1997 and 2007 in patients who received the solvent-laced chemo drug. Of these, an alarming 38 percent, 109, died. Because adverse event reports usually only document from one to 10 percent of the actual incidence of serious side effects, the number of hypersensitivity reactions as well as deaths is probably much greater.

The severe allergic reactions are believed to be caused by the chemical solvent used to dissolve some chemo drugs before they can be injected into the blood stream. Two of the women who died from an allergic reaction had early-stage breast cancer, which had already been surgically removed. They were being subjected to the Cremophor-containing paclitaxel to supposedly keep the cancer from returning.

Although both of these patients were given additional drugs before the chemotherapy to reduce the risk of hypersensitivity reactions, they still died. In fact, RADAR researchers found that 22 percent of all the deaths from the chemo drug occurred in patients who had been pre-treated with medications to prevent hypersensitivity reactions. Another 15 percent of these chemo patients experienced life-threatening respiratory arrest.

"The deaths of women with early-stage breast cancer are particularly disturbing because without the adverse reaction, they could have likely had 40 years of life ahead of them," study leader Charles Bennett, M.D., RADAR program coordinator and a professor of hematology/oncology at Northwestern's Feinberg School, stated in a media release.

"Patients receiving Cremophor-based paclitaxel should be given medications to prevent hypersensitivity reactions, but what is sobering, as the study has shown and as the black-box warning indicates, women suffer anaphylaxis despite receiving steroid premedication," he added. "Physicians may also want to consider exploring other alternative chemotherapy options that do not include Cremophor."

Cremophor-containing paclitaxel has been associated with a wide range of hypersensitivity reactions, ranging from mild skin irritations to cardiac collapse. "The results of our review suggest that physicians should be vigilant in monitoring the safety of their patients undergoing chemotherapy treatment," said Dr. Bennett, who also is the A.C. Buehler Professor in Economics and Aging at the Feinberg School and a member of the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University.

For more information: http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/paclitaxel http://www.oncolink.com/treatment/article.cfm?c=2&s=10&id=145&p=2

About the author
Sherry Baker is a widely published writer whose work has appeared in Newsweek, Health, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution, Yoga Journal, Optometry, Atlanta, Arthritis Today, Natural Healing Newsletter, OMNI, UCLA's "Healthy Years" newsletter, Mount Sinai School of Medicine's "Focus on Health Aging" newsletter, the Cleveland Clinic's "Men's Health Advisor" newsletter and many others.