In a New Aisle, Deadly Energy Drinks Sidestep Some Rules

Deborah Kennedy - In a New Aisle, Deadly Energy Drinks Sidestep Some Rules

- By BARRY MEIER - The New York Times - March 19, 2013

Fans of Monster Energy, the popular high-caffeine energy drink, may not notice the change: its ingredients will be the same and its familiar label bearing a green, clawlike monogram will change only slightly. But the drink’s maker has decided after a decade of selling it as a dietary supplement to market it as a beverage, a switch that will bring significant changes in how it is regulated.

In a New Aisle, Deadly Energy Drinks Sidestep Some RulesAmong them: Monster Beverage, the nation’s biggest seller of energy drinks, will no longer be required to tell federal regulators about reports potentially linking its products to deaths and injuries.

The company’s recent move, which follows a similar regulatory makeover by another brand, Rockstar Energy, comes amid intensifying scrutiny of energy drink safety. On Tuesday, a group of 18 doctors and researchers sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration urging it to take action to protect adolescents and children from the possible risks of high caffeine consumption. “There is evidence in the published scientific literature that the caffeine levels in energy drinks pose serious potential health risks,” the researchers wrote.

Monster Beverage’s new cans will also disclose caffeine content for the first time. A 16-ounce can of Monster’s most popular energy drinks will contain 140 to 160 milligrams of caffeine, compared with about 330 milligrams in a 16-ounce cup of Starbucks coffee.

The company is fighting back against critics on several fronts. This month, it held a news conference to dispute accusations in a lawsuit that the death of a 14-year-old girl was linked to high caffeine levels in Monster Energy. Separately, it threatened to sue a nutritionist who publishes a newsletter for elementary schools for statements that it said were defamatory.

The changes by Monster and Rockstar demonstrate the degree to which energy drink manufacturers can decide which rules to follow.

“We don’t have energy drinks defined by any regulation,” Daniel Fabricant, director of the F.D.A.’s dietary supplement division, acknowledged in an interview in October.

For a decade, Monster sold its products as dietary supplements, apparently as part of a strategy to convince consumers that they were different from beverages. But the company, like its competitors, has run into a spate of bad news, including the disclosure in October that the F.D.A. had received reports in recent years that mentioned its drinks in connection with deaths and injuries.

Since then, the F.D.A. has received three more death reports and 14 injury reports that cite Monster energy drinks, an F.D.A. spokeswoman, Tamara Ward, said in an e-mail. In recent months, the agency has also received added reports about other energy products; since October, for example, it has received 38 reports that cite the popular energy “shot” 5-Hour Energy, including five involving a death.

The mention of a product in an incident report filed with the F.D.A. does not mean the product played a role in a death or injury, and such reports may provide few details. Monster Beverage and the maker of 5-Hour Energy have insisted that their products are safe and unrelated to the reported episodes.

A spokesman for Monster, Michael Sitrick, said the company had decided to market its products as beverages for several reasons. One was to stop what he described as “misguided criticism” that the company was selling its energy drinks as dietary supplements because of the belief that such products were more lightly regulated than beverages. Another consideration, he said, was that consumers can use government-subsidized food stamps to buy beverages.

“Monster Energy drinks could equally satisfy the regulatory requirements” for either category, Mr. Sitrick said.

An executive vice president at Rockstar, Joseph Cannata, said the company had made the change because consumers found food labels easier to read. In January, all production of Rockstar energy drinks switched to those labels, he said.

Rockstar had previously disclosed its caffeine content.

A lawyer who represents supplement makers, Justin J. Prochnow, said companies like Monster and Rockstar might have had another incentive. Over the last two years, the F.D.A. has intensified its scrutiny of the supplement industry’s manufacturing practices, driving up production costs.

As beverage producers, Monster and Rockstar will face some reporting mandates, including some that are stiffer than the mandates for supplement makers. Such companies are required to notify the government when they think a product could cause injury, a rule intended mainly to limit the distribution of tainted food. In addition, they are required to maintain scientific data supporting the safety of any ingredients they use that are not already cleared by the government. They can also voluntarily notify the F.D.A. about adverse events possibly affecting individual consumers, a step Monster Beverage said it planned to take.

Mr. Sitrick said Monster’s move to list caffeine content followed its decision to join the American Beverage Association, an industry trade group, which urges member companies to make such disclosures. He estimated that half of the company’s products would list caffeine content by April, and 90 percent by May.

In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Monster Beverage, which is based in Corona, Calif., said that negative media reports about energy drinks had created “softness” in demand. Its stock, which traded for $83.96 last spring, closed at $49.72 on Tuesday, a decrease of more than 40 percent. Rockstar is privately held.

The energy drink industry also faces several investigations from federal and state officials into claims that its products provide benefits lacking in other caffeine sources, like coffee. Researchers say there is little evidence to support these claims.

At a recent news conference, Monster Beverage denied accusations that it was responsible for the 2011 death of a Maryland teenager who had consumed two 24-ounce cans of Monster Energy. The company said that tests were never conducted on the 14-year-old, Anais Fournier, to determine caffeine levels in her blood.

A lawyer representing her family, Kevin Goldberg, said a state medical examiner had found that the teenager, who had an underlying heart condition, died of a cardiac arrhythmia caused by caffeine toxicity. A spokesman for the chief medical examiner’s office in Baltimore declined to comment, citing continuing litigation.

Monster Beverage also claimed recently that the March issue of a newsletter sent to elementary school students and their parents contained defamatory statements that had “materially damaged Monster and its well-known brand.” It objected to several statements in the newsletter, Build Healthy Kids, including one that said children had died from energy drinks and should “never drink” them.

In a letter dated March 4, the company demanded that Deborah Kennedy, a nutritionist who publishes the newsletter, retract and correct the statements within five days or face a lawsuit.

Ms. Kennedy, who lives in Connecticut, said in an interview that she was stunned by the threat, in part because the newsletter never mentioned Monster Energy or any other product by name, but focused instead on the need for children to cut down on sugar-laden beverages.

In response, she called on one of Connecticut’s United States senators, Richard Blumenthal, who is a critic of the energy drink industry. Mr. Blumenthal’s office contacted Monster, which agreed to withhold legal action pending a meeting with Ms. Kennedy.

Ms. Kennedy, who holds a doctorate in nutrition, said she thought the audience for her newsletter, children from kindergarten through fifth grade, should not consume energy drinks. “They are going after me for reaching that segment, and it boggles my mind,” she said.

Mr. Sitrick, the Monster spokesman, said that the 7-year-old son of a Monster employee had received the newsletter at his school and was upset by it. The boy showed it to his father, who brought it to the attention of a company lawyer.

“No child, much less a 7-year-old, should be falsely informed that his or her father’s employer is a child killer, especially since there are no facts to support the allegation,” Mr. Sitrick said. He added that Ms. Kennedy had yet to meet with a lawyer for Monster.

Last week, Senator Blumenthal and two other Democratic lawmakers, Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois and Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, sent a letter to Monster Beverage urging it to apologize for the tone of its letter to Ms. Kennedy and asking whether the company had threatened others with lawsuits.

Mr. Sitrick said the company was still reviewing the letter but continued to believe that Ms. Kennedy’s statements were defamatory.

Vaccines: Armed and Dangerous - Gary Null Vaccine Nation



Vaccines: Armed and Dangerous - Jon Rappaport from NoMoreFakeNews airs dirty secrets of the vaccine industry -- February 2012

Published on March 1, 2012

Join the Health Ranger as he interviews Jon Rappaport, co-creator of and brilliant mind behind the new course called "Vaccines: Armed and Dangerous." This astonishing program will teach you new, shocking facts about vaccines that you never could have imagined.

"Vaccines: Armed and Dangerous" teaches us what the REAL facts about vaccines are and what is actually propaganda,stories and lies. Learn more about this extraordinary collection of information from a man who has spent the last 15 to 20 years researching the truth about vaccines.

42 U.S. Code § 300aa–22 - Standards of Responsibility

The term “vaccine-related injury or death” means an illness, injury, condition, or death associated with one or more of the vaccines set forth in the Vaccine Injury Table, except that the term does not include an illness, injury, condition, or death associated with an adulterant or contaminant intentionally added to such a vaccine.

A manufacturer who produces and sells a defective vaccine that creates a risk of significant injury to the recipient is liable to any person injured by that defect under the principles stated in section 402A of the Restatement of Torts 2d. This is thought to be the law in every American jurisdiction.

Included in this interview:

* The mythology of so-called flu fatality numbers

* True number of people harmed or killed by vaccines

* How the CDC and vaccine industry hoax the public about factious pandemics (including swine flu) with scare tactics



"Are Vaccines Safe?" Mary Tocco http://www.youtube.co...

"The True Weapons of Mass Destruction" Dr Carley http://www.youtube.co...

"Vaccines: The Toxic Truth" http://www.youtube.co...

"How Vaccines Hurt You" -- Dr. Russell Blaylock on Alex Jones http://www.youtube.co...

Robert F Kennedy Jr on the Vaccine Autism Coverup http://www.youtube.co...

"Mercury, Autism & The Global Vaccine Agenda" Dr David Ayoub M.D. http://www.youtube.co...

"Vaccines , The Risks, The Benefits, The Choices" Sherry Tenpenny DO http://www.youtube.co...

"What's coming through that needle" http://www.youtube.co...

Robert F Kennedy jr http://www.youtube.co...

Truth about vaccines Ted Koren DC http://www.youtube.co...

"Lethal Injection: The Story of Vaccinations" http://www.youtube.co...

"Vaccination, The Hidden Truth" http://www.youtube.co...

"Special Report: Dangerous Inoculations" http://www.youtube.co...

"Mercury, Autism and the Global Vaccine Agenda" http://www.youtube.co...

Vaccines safety: A Crime Against Humanity" http://www.youtube.co...

"Dangers of Vaccines" Dr Tenpenny http://www.youtube.co...

Vaccine Damaged Children

Secret Government Database Reveals

Vaccine Damaged ChildrenThe general public is essentially unaware of the true number of people -- mostly children -- who have been permanently damaged or killed by vaccines. In fact, most parents would be surprised to learn that the government has a secret computer database, listed below filled with several thousand names of disabled and dead babies, children who were healthy and alive just prior to receiving the vaccines. Of course, the medical establishment and federal government don't readily disclose this information because they know it's likely to frighten parents into seeking other ways to protect their children. In other words, parents just might think this issue through on their own and decide to reject the shots.

Federal Admission of Vaccine Risks:

In 1986, Congress officially acknowledged the reality of vaccine-caused injuries and death by creating and passing The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (Public Law 99-660). The safety reform portion of this law requires doctors to provide parents with information about the benefits and risks of childhood vaccines prior to vaccination, and to report vaccine reactions to federal health officials. Doctors are required by law to report suspected cases of vaccine damage. To simplify and centralize this legal requisite, federal health officials established the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) -- operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Ideally, doctors would abide by this federal law and report adverse events following the administration of a vaccine. However, the FDA recently acknowledged that 90 percent of doctors do not report vaccine reactions. They are choosing to subvert this law by claiming the adverse event was, in their opinion, not related to the shot. In fact, every year between 12,000 and 14,000 reports of adverse reactions to vaccines are made to the FDA (data initially accessible only through the Freedom of Information Act). These figures include hospitalizations, irreversible brain damage, and hundreds of deaths. Considering that these numbers may represent just 10 percent, the true figures could be as high as 140,000 adverse events annually. However, even this figure could be conservative. According to Dr. David Kessler, former head of the Food and Drug Administration, "Only about 1 percent of serious events [adverse drug reactions] are reported to the FDA." Thus, it is entirely possible that millions of people are adversely affected by mandatory vaccines every year.

Maybe it doesn't matter that doctors won't report vaccine reactions, because the federal government won't investigate them. Government officials claim VAERS was designed to "document" suspected cases of vaccine damage. No attempt is being made to confirm or deny the reports. Parents are not being interviewed, and the vaccines that preceded the severe reactions are not being recalled. Instead, new waves of unsuspecting parents and innocent children are being subjected to the damaging shots.

Who Pays for Compensation?

In order to pay for vaccine injuries and deaths, a surtax is levied on mandated vaccines. When parents elect to have their children vaccinated, a portion of the money they spend on each vaccine goes into a Congressional fund to compensate them if their child is hurt or killed by the shot.

The compensation portion of the law awards up to $250,000 if the individual dies, or millions of dollars to cover lifelong medical bills, pain, and suffering in the case of a living (but brain-damaged) child. To date, more than $1 BILLION has already been paid out for hundreds of injuries and deaths caused by mandated vaccines. Thousands of cases are pending.

Vaccine Injury Compensation Claims do not include private settlements, or the many families that become dependent on public assistance for medical and living expenses because of vaccine injuries. Therefore, taxpayers subsidize vaccine manufacturers and the federal government by paying for their vaccine-liability expenses.

How Are Vaccines Made?

Federal Admission of Vaccine RisksVaccine production is a disgusting procedure. To begin, one must first acquire the disease germ -- a toxic bacterium or a live virus. To make a "live" vaccine, the live virus must be attenuated, or weakened for human use. This is accomplished by serial passage -- passing the virus through animal tissue several times to reduce its potency. For example, measles virus is passed through chick embryos, polio virus through monkey kidneys, and the rubella virus through human diploid cells -- the dissected organs of an aborted fetus! "Killed" vaccines are "inactivated" through heat, radiation, or chemicals.

The weakened germ must then be strengthened with adjuvants (antibody boosters) and stabilizers. This is done by adding drugs, antibiotics, and toxic disinfectants to the concoction: neomycin, streptomycin, sodium chloride, sodium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, aluminum hydrochloride, sorbitol, hydrolized gelatin, formaldehyde, and thimerosal (a mercury derivative).

Aluminum, formaldehyde, and mercury are extremely toxic substances with a long history of documented hazardous effects. Studies confirm again and again that microscopic doses of these substances can lead to cancer, neurological damage, and death. Yet, each of them may be found in childhood vaccines.

In addition to the deliberately planned additives, unanticipated matter may contaminate the shots. For example, during serial passage of the virus through animal cells, animal RNA and DNA -- foreign genetic material -- is transferred from one host to another. Because this biological matter is injected directly into the body, researchers say it can change our genetic makeup.

Undetected animal viruses may jump the species barrier as well. This is exactly what happened during the 1950s and 1960s when millions of people were infected with polio vaccines that were contaminated with the SV-40 virus undetected in the monkey organs used to prepare the vaccines. SV-40 (Simian Virus #40 -- the 40th such virus detected since researchers began looking), is considered a powerful immunosuppressor and trigger for HIV, the name given to the AIDS virus. It is said to cause a clinical condition similar to AIDS, and has been found in brain tumors, leukemia, and other human cancers as well. Researchers consider it to be a cancer-causing virus.

What happens next, once this foul concoction -- live viruses, bacteria, toxic substances, and diseased animal matter -- is created? This witch's brew is forced into the healthy child.

Satanic Rituals:

Dr. Robert Mendelsohn often criticized modern medicine for its sanctimonious doctrine. He argued that "doctors are the priests who dispense holy water in the form of inoculations" to ritually initiate our loyalty into the larger medical industry. Dr. Richard Moskowitz agrees: "Vaccines have become sacraments of our faith in biotechnology. Their efficacy and safety are widely seen as self-evident and needing no further proof."

Others see a link between vaccinations and satanic rituals or witchcraft, where animals are sacrificed and their organs brewed in a hellish concoction of horrid substances: voodoo medicine by 21st century mad scientists. Sadly, our children are their unwilling subjects as society is slowly devoured by their insatiable appetite for human experimentation.


SECRET DATABASE!

Every year, the FDA receives thousands of reports of adverse reactions after vaccines. These include brain damage and death. This information is now available at the following link: VAERS Database. (We recommend starting with a basic search.)


Personal Stories of Vaccine Damage and Death


Preventing Vaccination’s Injuries and Deaths Support Groups

Who Cares?

Don’t you feel sad and highly disappointed, watching television networks and reading the newspapers so deeply focused on who is going to be the next Pedophile Emperor Pope of the house of lies, Vatican?  Men who dress as women, but they hate women, and do not want to be intimate with women, wearing stupid looking lustrous outfits, red shoes and idiotic hats, promoting themselves to the position of ambassador of a male god in charge of your life and your soul.

The fabrication of the most barbaric, idiotic, man-made, patriarchal religious manuals of the 3 warmongering, murderous: Abrahamic, Adam and Eve based, misogynist religions: Judaism and its 2 derivatives: Christianity and Islam, the agents and promoters of ignorance, hate, violence, child molestation, slavery, women degradation, war, rape, murder, plunder, mediocrity and stupidity, has always been controlled and supported by the criminal elites for centuries, to divide and conquer, keeping people at each others’ throat.   

Why?  Because it would cost lot less and is much easier to dominate, rob, rape and murder people under a factious holy banner of religion.

Shouldn’t we know better by now?  We, the humanity, are facing so many life-threatening problems worldwide at the moment, caused by the very same criminal elites and the said religions, shouldn’t we be focused on them?

Who cares what, or whom is going to be the next pope?

The fabrication of the most barbaric, idiotic, man-made, patriarchal religious manuals of the 3 warmongering, murderous: Abrahamic, Adam and Eve based, misogynist religions: Judaism and its 2 derivatives: Christianity and Islam, the agents and promoters of ignorance, hate, violence, child molestation, slavery, women degradation, war, rape, murder, plunder, mediocrity and stupidity, has always been controlled and supported by the criminal elites for centuries, to divide and conquer, keeping people at each others’ throat.

 



Pope Wanted. Must Possess Magnetic Charm. And Grit.

- By LAURIE GOODSTEIN and DANIEL J. WAKIN - March 7, 2013 - The New York Times

ROME — No candidate for pope can have it all. But the cardinals who will elect the next pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church seem to be looking for someone who combines the charisma of Pope John Paul II with the grit of what one Vatican analyst called, only slightly tongue in cheek, “Pope Rambo I.”

Pedophile Emperor Pope

While it is too early to talk of front-runners, hints to the characteristics sought in a future pontiff can be discerned from the utterances of the cardinals who have spent the past week in meetings at the Vatican. Before Wednesday, when they stopped giving interviews, the cardinals frequently cited attributes the church now needs: a compelling communicator who wins souls through both his words and his holy bearing, and a fearless sheriff who can tackle the disarray and scandal in the Vatican.

Their focus on communication and good governance is in many ways an acknowledgment of the deficiencies of Pope Benedict XVI, who flew off in a helicopter to an unexpected retirement last week after a rocky eight-year tenure. But it is also a sign of the nostalgia for Benedict’s predecessor, John Paul II, a magnetic presence who commanded the spotlight on trips around the world and even as he lay dying.

On Benedict’s watch, the church lost sway in Europe, the United States and even Latin America. The central bureaucracy in Rome, the Curia, fell more deeply into dysfunction and even corruption. Cardinals from several countries commented this week that they were seriously troubled by recent reports in the Italian news media about a secret dossier that was given to the departing Benedict and was said to contain explosive evidence of sexual and financial blackmail. The confidential dossier is supposed to be shown to the next pope.

The fabrication of the most barbaric, idiotic, man-made, patriarchal religious manuals of the 3 warmongering, murderous: Abrahamic, Adam and Eve based, misogynist religions: Judaism and its 2 derivatives: Christianity and Islam, the agents and promoters of ignorance, hate, violence, child molestation, slavery, women degradation, war, rape, murder, plunder, mediocrity and stupidity, has always been controlled and supported by the criminal elites for centuries, to divide and conquer, keeping people at each others’ throat.

Few candidates come with the whole package of talents, and the Italian news media have even floated the notion that the cardinals are considering “tickets” that would pair a pastoral pope with a tough, savvy secretary of state who could act as an administrator and, if need be, enforcer.

The next pontiff may not need to execute a crackdown on Vatican infighting and misdeeds, but he must at least have the executive smarts to appoint a deputy fearless enough to confront the entrenched Vatican bureaucracy.

“The first thing he has to do is put greater order in the central administration of the Curia,” said Cardinal Edward Egan, the retired archbishop of New York. “He has to be willing to take criticism.”

The fabrication of the most barbaric, idiotic, man-made, patriarchal religious manuals of the 3 warmongering, murderous: Abrahamic, Adam and Eve based, misogynist religions: Judaism and its 2 derivatives: Christianity and Islam, the agents and promoters of ignorance, hate, violence, child molestation, slavery, women degradation, war, rape, murder, plunder, mediocrity and stupidity, has always been controlled and supported by the criminal elites for centuries, to divide and conquer, keeping people at each others’ throat.

And at the same time, “He has to be a man who understands the faith and can announce it in an attractive and uncomplicated way,” said Cardinal Egan, who voted in the conclave that elected Benedict, but is now just beyond the voting age limit of 80.

As of Thursday, all of the 115 cardinals eligible to vote and expected to come had arrived in Rome. But exactly when they will be locked into the Sistine Chapel to vote for the next pope remained uncertain. The cardinals have been meeting behind closed doors in the Vatican’s Paul VI hall every day this week, listening to one another speak about the challenges facing the church.

For those whose names have been circulated as “papabile,” or candidates for pope, the speeches serve in part as auditions.

The lag in scheduling the conclave indicated that the cardinals were still at the stage of assessing one another’s personalities, records and ideas, said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, in a news media briefing on Thursday.

Any serious papal candidate has to be prayerful, theologically sound and fluent in Italian, the language of the Vatican and of Rome, which is, after all, the pope’s own diocese.

Several cardinals have also said that the next pope must have had experience as bishop of a diocese. That description would exclude some cardinals who have served most of their years in the Curia and those with little pastoral experience, like Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi, the erudite Italian whom Benedict gave the honor of preaching at the Vatican’s recent Lenten retreat.

Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington, said in an interview, “Being a shepherd of a local church, I think, would be a very important factor if you’re going to be engaged in this idea of renewing the church spiritually.”

Several cardinals have also emphasized that a pope must be able to reach out to other faiths, improve relations with bishops around the world and forcefully present Catholic teaching.

Many of those mentioned as papabile are said to have proven talents as administrators, either in their archdioceses or in the Roman Curia, or both. These include Cardinals Angelo Scola, archbishop of Milan; Odilo Pedro Scherer, archbishop of São Paulo, Brazil; Peter Erdo, archbishop of Esztergom-Budapest and primate of Hungary; Leonardo Sandri, an Argentine with long experience in the Roman Curia; and Marc Ouellet, a Canadian who heads the Vatican’s powerful Congregation for Bishops.

But several of those prelates are known to be short on charisma or presence. Cardinals Erdo and Ouellet are said by associates and former students to be more comfortable reading from a prepared text than speaking spontaneously in front of crowds or giving interviews.

Other cardinals, meanwhile, have had their reputations climb with a proven ability to communicate with mass audiences, notably Cardinal Luis Antonio G. Tagle of the Philippines. But his age, just 55, works against him. He is the second-youngest cardinal, after Baselios Thottunkal of India.

Age is an important criterion, especially after the resignation of Benedict, who is 85. Many cardinals agree that the future pope would ideally be in his 60s, and Cardinal Wilfrid F. Napier of South Africa narrowed the age to the early 60s. He suggested in an interview that it was time for a longer papacy, to carry forward efforts to strengthen the church.

“You need more time to build on those foundations,” Cardinal Napier said. “I think we need a longer papacy to generate the energy and keep the momentum going.” He added, “From informal conversations, some of the other cardinals would be looking in that direction as well.”

In the past, it would have been unthinkable to have a serious papal contender from the United States, an economic and political superpower, but Vatican watchers say that for the first time ever, there is enthusiasm for two Americans who have both charisma and administrative strengths: Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, a garrulous presence, and Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley of Boston, a Franciscan friar.

While it remains unlikely that either will become pope, largely because the United States is still perceived as a global superpower whose interests do not always dovetail so smoothly with those of the Catholic Church, this conclave is the first to break the taboo.

“For the first time Americans are even being considered — that’s the news,” said Marco Politi, a veteran Vatican watcher in Italy.

Rachel Donadio, Michael Paulson and Jim Yardley contributed reporting.