Our doctors and nurses carry as many harmful chemicals in their bodies as the rest of us. You might think that, being trained in chemistry and medicine (as most of us are not) and therefore perhaps more careful, not to mention highly-educated and relatively affluent, health care professionals would have found ways to avoid toxics. But they are in fact exposed to the same kinds of chemicals and hazards as workers in blue collar industries. A report published today by three nonprofit health-related organizations, "Toxic Chemicals Found in Doctors and Nurses," is the first examination of the ‘body burden' of 20 members of the medical profession. Every one of them carried toxic chemicals, every one carried 18 of the same chemicals, and each participant bore a burden of at least 24 individual chemicals of the 62 chemicals for which labs ran their analysis. That adds up to major chemical pollution with major potential for harm.

The bottom line from this study for all of us is, that we cannot shop or sanitize our way out of this problem. We need a shift in the way chemicals are made and sold and used.

The chemicals found in every one of these doctors and nurses include four that EPA is now considers top priority: bisphenol A (used to make rigid plastic polycarbonates), mercury, PFCs (for stain-resistant coatings), and phthalates (used in PVC plastics and cosmetics). Almost every participant also carried signs of flame retardants and the antimicrobial chemical triclosan, two other highly-suspect chemicals. One and all, these are endocrine disruptors, meaning they harm our hormonal systems. They can trigger reproductive problems, from testicular and breast cancer to lowered fertility, as well as altered brain development, and cancer, and they are linked to problems with our metabolism, such as obesity, high cholesterol, and diabetes.

On October 13, 2009 Gary Null provided a riveting testimony to the New York State Assembly on vaccination. During that testimony he brought forth a number of arguments that challenge the prevailing beliefs that vaccines are safe and effective. The following are some excerpts from that testimony as well as the actual videos. The videos contain much more information than the excerpts presented here.

"I could find no convincing evidence that any vaccine, at all, had long term double-blind placebo controlled study trials."

On the studies that CDC, FDA, and other organizations are using as their evidence of double-blind placebo studies, "You left out the virus part of the vaccine [for the placebo] but you included all the other ingredients including thimerosal and mercury and formaldehyde, etc. Well that's not a placebo. In good science you don't use that as a placebo."

But is there really no evidence?

In 2001, the French Agency for Food Safety performed an exhaustive and critical evaluation of the nutritional and sanitary quality of organic food. An expert working group of more than 50 people examined papers on well-defined and certified organic procedures. The main characteristics of organic agriculture entails the respect for the environment and animals, promotion of sustainable cropping methods, use of non-chemical fertilizers and control of pests, diseases, and weeds, and no use of genetically modified (GM) crops. After 2 years of work a final consensus report was issued in 2003. A review of this work was recently published in Agronomy for Sustainable Development Journal.

The World Health Organization, the UN agency (ir-)responsible for declaring a Phase 6 "PANDEMIC" global alert over what it calls H1N1 Influenza A or Swine Flu, whose chief Dr Margaret Chan has repeatedly warned that while Swine Flu to date had been rather mild, that the emergency declaration was necessary because it "could mutate" aggressively into a deadly pandemic killing millions, now admits well into the flu season in the Northern Hemisphere that H1N1 has apparently not mutated.

Margaret Chan, the head of the World Health Organization, at a meeting with health officials in her native Hong Kong, has just stated that the swine flu virus has not yet mutated into a more deadly strain. WHO Director of the Initiative for Vaccine Research, Dr Marie-Paule Kieny, reinforced that statement in a press conference September 24 in Geneva when she stated, "we are lucky that the pandemic is moderate in severity that most people experience a mild illness and recover spontaneously." That means recovery with no vaccination, no Tamiflu or other dangerous "antiviral" drugs. Just with letting nature take its course.

Last summer, when the WHO decided to declare a global "pandemic emergency" over what it called the H1N1 Influenza A global spread, it also announced in a notice buried among its press releases that most countries had stopped testing ill populations for H1N1, and that the WHO therefore simply arbitrarily "assumed" all patients with a stated set of symptoms were automatically H1N1 victims. So the H1N1 pandemic case counts, to quote the WHO, "no longer reflect actual disease activity."

BPA is an ingredient in hard plastics, such as #7 polycarbonate baby bottles, sippy cups and reusable sports water bottles, in the resins that line canned foods and soft-drink cans, in PVC pipes, even in dental sealants. BPA is one of the many chemicals, now a constant feature of today's world, that disrupt the way our hormonal systems work. Among all these chemicals, BPA tops the list in volume, at 6.4 billon pounds a year. It generates $6 billion a year for its manufacturers which include Dow and GE Plastic. Soda makers such as Coca-Cola and canned food companies such as Del Monte rely on BPA. These companies sent representatives to the spring meeting and their trade groups will foot the bill for the PR campaign.

BPA leaches into water even from new polycarbonate and resins at room temperature, accelerating with wear or heat. It shows up in the urine of 93 percent of all Americans and, just a few months ago, research found that it doesn't leave the body as easily as previously thought but seems to linger in our fatty tissues.

If it hadn't been for the Big Macs that Joannie ate pretty much three times a week, she wouldn't have gotten fat. If she hadn't been exposed while in her mother's womb to chemicals x, y and z, Joannie wouldn't have had the propensity to get fat. And if Joannie's mom had eaten more sensibly, both waistlines would be slimmer.

Fat people most likely are programmed to become fat before taking their first sip of milk. Today's news is that pesticides are among the chemicals responsible for this reprogramming.

Two of three U.S. adults are now classified as overweight. Type II diabetes has increased in like measure over the same decades, and so has heart disease. This is not a coincidence. These illnesses share common characteristics: they are triggered while in the womb by exposure to the same kinds of chemicals and the outcomes show up in adulthood. Scientists now call this pattern "the fetal origins of adult diseases."