meds, bikes, arctic, carbon tax, hearing voices, ads, tar sands

Wed Jun 4 11:31:04 EDT 2008

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Happy World Environment Day - June 5!
This year's theme is "Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy."

The United Nations General Assembly established World Environment Day in
1972.

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Breathe deeply, stretch the body and the mind, act with generosity and
compassion, trust and be grateful. That's the best I can do these days...
Baer John McKinnon

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Adverse drug reactions send many patients to ER

More than 1 in 9 emergency room visits are due to medication-related
problems, many of which are preventable, a new study says.
In a study of more than 1,000 patients who visited Vancouver General
Hospital's emergency department, researchers found that 12 per cent of the
visits were for drug-related complications. The study also found that 68
per cent of the visits were preventable.
Of the drug-related emergency room visits, the researchers found that:
- More than 39 per cent were due to adverse reactions.
- Almost 28 per cent were due to patients taking medication incorrectly or
not at all.
- More than 11 per cent were due to taking ineffective, or incorrect, drugs.

Full story: 
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080602/drug_reactions_080602/20080602?hub=Health

http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/06/03/adverse-drugs.html

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Bike News

- To mark Earth Day (April 22) and the time surrounding it, Budapest
Critical Mass broke its own record with a staggering 80,000
participants.
http://budapest-guide.blogspot.com/2008/04/photoreport-on-critical-mass-2008.html
http://www.cyklojizdy.cz/?p=174

- On May 25, 1200 cyclists in Toronto cycled en masse for bike lanes on
Bloor. http://www.bellsonbloor.ca

- On May 30, 3-400 cyclists took over the Gardiner Hwy in Toronto for 7
kms.
<http://torontoist.com/2008/05/critical_mass_takes_over_the_gardiner.php?gallery4111Pic=2>http://torontoist.com/2008/05/critical_mass_takes_over_the_gardiner.php?gallery4111Pic=2

- On June 1st, Berlin hosted Sternfahrt - the largest bicycle ride on
earth, with a quarter of a million (250,000!) people participating. The ride
matched a previous record and included 18 different routes, 80
starting points and 1100 km, and converged in the centre and joined
the Environmental Festival at Brandenburg Gate.
http://www.adfc-berlin.de/home/sternfahrt2008

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Arctic Disintegration Stuns Scientists

Scientists returning from a tour of the Ward Hunt Ice Shelf in the Upper
Ellesmere Island region say they are astonished by what they have seen. 
Huge cracks, some 16 kilometers long, have torn the shelf into a jigsaw of
floating islands that can now simply float away.  Scientists consider the
fate of Ward Hunt, the largest ice shelf in the region, to be a key
indicator of climate change.

Watch the BBC video newscast:
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7417123.stm>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7417123.stm

Information and photos:
<http://www.madzu.com/ellesmere/Gallery.html>http://www.madzu.com/ellesmere/Gallery.html

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Current Prescriptions Of Psychotropic Drugs Are Irrational For The
Patients But Very Rational For The Big Pharma

<http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108816.php>http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/108816.php
27 May 2008

Consider the dynamics of prescribing within the pediatric mental health
field. Over the course of 25 years, the prescribing of stimulants to
children has grown exponentially primarily in North America. In this case,
clinicians readily juggle incompatible profiles on the one hand
amphetamines and cocaine are labeled threats to civilization, while
identical compounds are then given to the most vulnerable brains when
other options in many cases may be just as good. Or consider the
burgeoning prescription of antipsychotics to infants on the basis that
they have a bipolar disorder.

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Becoming a leader on global warming

Matt Horne, Special to the Sun
Tuesday, June 03, 2008

Just as British Columbia passes the first carbon tax in Canada into law, a
new poll by McAllister Opinion Research has revealed that more than 70 per
cent of Canadians support British Columbia's carbon tax as a "positive
step" towards reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

A separate poll by Harris/Decima published in The Vancouver Sun last week
found that 75 per cent of British Columbians are prepared to significantly
alter their behaviour to fight global warming, and 73 per cent believe
more government regulation will be necessary to help them do that.

It's not often a province receives praise for introducing new taxes, but
these recent polls confirm that Canadians, and British Columbians in
particular, understand the global importance of the climate change issue
and want governments to take action.

The provincial government has become a leader on global warming with a
carbon tax that is one of the most comprehensive in the world (covering
virtually all fossil fuels), and the first in North America to focus
directly on reducing greenhouse gas pollution by changing the decisions
made by businesses and consumers. The ground-breaking tax is changing the
level of debate on carbon taxes in the rest of the country. <snip>

Full article:
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/editorial/story.html?id=66fb38bf-b26e-44f2-9def-208cfd6d0545

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Climate Change Collection in the Encyclopedia of Earth

<http://ethreemail.com/e3ds/mail_link.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.eoearth.org%2Farticle%2FClimate_Change_%2528collection%2529&i=0&d=3717CED3-BF09-4BD6-9356-D423E738E597&e=msurface@ncseonline.org>http://www.eoearth.org/article/Climate_Change_%28collection%29

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Mental Illness or Social Sickness?
by Susan Rosenthal / May 19th, 2008

http://www.dissidentvoice.org/2008/05/mental-illness-or-social-sickness/

While medical diagnoses are based on science, psychiatric “diagnoses” are
not at all scientific. They do not reveal what is wrong, what is the
preferred treatment, and what is the likely outcome. Nor are they
reliable. Different psychiatrists who examine the same patient typically
offer different “diagnoses.” Moreover, psychiatric “diagnoses” move in and
out of favor, depending on a variety of social factors.

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Twelve essential facts about the experience of hearing voices

<http://www.intervoiceonline.org/2007/9/8/some-interesting-facts-about-the-experience-of-hearing-voices>http://www.intervoiceonline.org/2007/9/8/some-interesting-facts-about-the-experience-of-hearing-voices

By Intervoice -- The international community for hearing voices

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Canwest sues Health Canada
by Barbara Mintzes, Common Ground, June 2008

An Ontario court case that is currently underway with very little
publicity could have enormous consequences for Canada’s healthcare system
and the public’s health.

Canwest MediaWorks, owner of Global TV and various newspapers across
Canada, including the Vancouver Sun, Province and National Post, is suing
the federal government in the Ontario Superior Court. The company claims
that the Food and Drugs Act’s prohibition of direct-to-consumer
advertising of prescription drugs is a breach of its freedom of expression
under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

If Canwest is successful, we may soon find our airwaves, news media and
many of our public spaces flooded with ads for prescription drugs. <snipp>

Full article: http://commonground.ca/iss/203/cg203_canwest.shtml

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Rally Against the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers - Investors
in the Destructive and Toxic Tar Sands!

Environmental and Human Rights Abuses Ignored While Profits Soar

As Alberta quickly gains an international reputation as a
climate criminal, the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers is
holding an Oil and Gas Investment Symposium in Calgary from June 16-18.

PLEASE JOIN US on June 16, 2008, at 11 am in front of the Hyatt Calgary

The event will bring together over 85 companies and 375 investors
from Canada, the USA, and around the world - many of these folks being
active and big funders in the Tar Sands, with others looking to expand
into that market. This year, a bunch of different groups are looking to
send them a clear message: Don't Invest in the Toxic Tar Sands!!!

While people living in communities downstream from tar sands developments
continue to experience devastatingly high rates of rare cancers, while
Alberta's lands and waters are contaminated with cancer-causing toxins and
are transformed from pristine Boreal forest into what former Alberta
Premier Lougheed refers to as a "moonscape," investors in the industry and
corporations continue to make record profits.

Just weeks after 500 ducks died landing on a toxic tailings pond
in Alberta's tar sands region, and Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach
announced his government's intention to launch a $25 million advertising
campaign to depict Alberta as an "Environmentally-friendly" province to
the rest of the world, investors in the most destructive project on Earth
are gathering to promote their interests and ensure the tar sands
continue to expand, at the expense of the environment and the health
of downstream communities!

We want these companies and investors, as well as the public to know that
when you invest in the tar sands, you are investing in one of the dirtiest
and deadliest energy projects in the world, as well as promoting human
rights abuses and environmental destruction. And we want them to know that
there will be no more business as usual when it comes to the tar sands, as
Canadians mobilize to stand in solidarity with downstream communities to
say No New Approvals and demand action and justice now when it comes to
the critical issues of community health, the environment, and the water.

PLEASE JOIN US on June 16, 2008, at 11am in front of the Hyatt
Calgary (Steven's Avenue entrance) and stand with us as we send a message
to investors in the tar sands that their money is NOT safe, and is
funding massive environmental and human rights violations! 

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