Report: Many urban tap water systems loaded with SSRI antidepressant drugs

As you may recall, the Associated Press (AP) released the results of a groundbreaking investigation it conducted back in 2008 concerning the presence of pharmaceutical drugs in the water supply. In this report, it was revealed that at least 41 million Americans are exposed daily to tap water containing trace amounts of antibiotics, sleeping pills, and even sex hormones. Now, a new report by TheFix.com brings to light the presence of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, in the water supply, and the genetic havoc they may potentially be wreaking on human health.

If you are an avid NaturalNews reader, you have probably already seen some of our many reports on the dangers of SSRIs. Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, under his pseudonym Amethios, actually released a music video back in 2012 entitled "S.S.R.Lies" that tackles the issue of SSRIs, and how these potent drugs can severely alter mood and even induce suicidal or homicidal tendencies in those that take them. You can view the music video in the link below this article.

But it now appears that many Americans do not even have a choice whether or not to willingly take SSRIs anymore, as the toxic chemicals are being quietly piped through water taps unseen. Though they are in far lower doses than what comes from the pharmacy, and in heavier dilution, these trace amounts of SSRIs can add up, especially when consumed perpetually over long periods of time. And since they are also accompanied by many other types of pharmaceutical drugs, their effects on the environment and humans are largely unknown.

"There's a good chance that if you live in an urban area, your tap water is laced with tiny amounts of antidepressants (mostly SSRIs like Prozac and Effexor), benzodiazepines (like Klonopin, used to reduce symptoms of substance withdrawal) and anti-convulsants (like Topomax, used to treat addiction to alcohol, nicotine, food and even cocaine and crystal meth)," writes Matt Harvey. "Whether or not this psychoactive waste has any effect on the human nervous system remains unclear, but when such pharmaceuticals are introduced into the ecosystem, the fallout for other species is demonstrable -- and potentially dire."

Exposure to SSRIs found to damage DNA, induce neurological damage

A 1999 paper published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives revealed that a steady stream of pharmaceuticals continuously makes its way back into water supplies due to inadequate filtration techniques. Pharmaceutical substances are often smaller than the filtration devices used at municipal water treatment plants to carry out solid waste, which means unknown levels of such substances make it right back into your water glass if you drink tap water.

Beyond this, Harvey cites the fact that studies have linked SSRI exposure to genetic defects and other health problems. Minnows subjected to tap water spiked with a combination of SSRIs and anti-convulsants at the University of Idaho, for instance, exhibited 324 genetic alterations associated with neurological disorders like autism -- and these small fish were only exposed to the tainted water for a mere 18 days!

"Studies have shown that regular doses of SSRIs can sometimes damage human DNA, most notably in sperm," adds Harvey. "The minnows offer evidence that even trace amounts of SSRIs can infiltrate DNA."

So what can we all do to avoid this unwelcome pharmaceutical exposure? The first thing would be to install a whole-house water filtration system capable of capturing and removing drug particulates, especially if you live in an area served by a municipal water source. You can also contact your local water treatment facility and request information about its filtration methods, and whether or not they capture drug traces.

Source: Natural News

Hacker demonstrates how to hijack an airplane using an Android app

A security consultant by the name of Hugo Teso claims he has created an Android app called PlaneSploit that would allow him to remotely attack and hijack commercial aircraft. He recently presented his findings at the Hack in the Box security conference in Amsterdam where, among other things, he exposed the fact that a number of aviation and aircraft systems have no security in place.

Teso, a trained commercial pilot for 12 years, reiterated that the Automated Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) is unencrypted and unauthenticated which can lead to passive attacks like eavesdropping or active attacks such as message jamming and injection. Furthermore, the Aircraft Communications Addressing and Reporting System (ACARS) – a service used to send text-based messages between aircraft and ground stations - also has no security.

With these vulnerabilities in mind, he used virtual planes in a lab to demonstrate his ability to hijack a plane rather than attempting to take over a real flight as that was “too dangerous and unethical.” He used ACARS to gain access to the plane’s onboard computer system and uploaded Flight Management System data.

Once in, he demonstrated how it was possible to manipulate the steering of a Boeing jet while it was in autopilot mode. The security consultant said he could cause a crash by setting the aircraft on a collision course with another jet or even give passengers a scare by dropping down the emergency oxygen masks without warning.

A pilot could thwart an attack by taking the plane out of autopilot although he pointed out that several newer systems no longer include manual controls. Some systems could be updated to patch the vulnerabilities but many legacy systems would be difficult, if not impossible, to update.

Source: Techspot

The Grocery Store Blacklist: 12 Food Companies to Avoid (and 95 Sneaky Aliases)

A genetically modified rose by any other name may smell sweet, but it could still have frankenthorns that might independently detach themselves and lop off your finger while you’re smelling it.  That’s not unlike a trip to the grocery store these days. There are a lot of ugly surprises in pretty, charmingly-named packages.

It seems like no matter how hard you try to avoid them, GMOs and toxic foods creep into your life.

Take for example, the earthily-packaged “natural” foods that are showcased in your grocery store aisles. They cost twice as much, have obscure brand names, and tout their health benefits and natural sources.  You can almost smell the freshly tilled soil when you pick up the box.

Unfortunately, this is nothing more than corporate sleight-of-hand.

Many of the products that seem so good are actually just subsidiaries of the companies that were most complicit in blocking GMO labeling, aided and abetted by everyone’s favorite purveyor of death, Monsanto. (Monsanto, incidentally, donated $7,100,500.00 to the fight against the labeling of GMO-containing products.)

Don’t forget that Monsanto is now above the law due to the Monsanto Protection Act, a traitorous rider that Senator Roy Blunt managed to attach to a bill that was subsequently signed into law by President Obama. (you know, that guy in the White House, who made the labeling of GMOs one of his 2007 campaign promises?)

I wish I could make a comprehensive list, but there are more stealthily labeled toxins on the shelves every single day.  It all boils down to a these big companies that own nearly all of the foods sold in the United States. Some of the quietly owned subsidiaries may surprise you.  Included is the amount that the company (and its subsidiaries) donated to defeat California Proposition 37 which would have required GMO labeling.

Not every item on this list contains genetically modified ingredients. The list is based on the duplicitous marketing of the companies.  More consumers are trying to make healthy choices at the grocery stores, but it’s difficult when companies push their toxic wares and dress them up as health food. Young people in particular fall victim to these schemes.  You have to give a kid credit for purchasing something called “Vitamin Water” over a soda pop, and it’s infuriating that the kid, trying to make a good choice, has been tricked into the purchase by deceitful advertising and marketing.
Some of the products listed, may in fact be exactly what they are portrayed to be, but I choose not to financially support the corporations behind them.

Protect your health and help starve the beast by avoiding products distributed by these companies and their subsidiaries:

Campbell’s - $250,000.00

• Healthy Request
• Wolfgang Puck Soups
• Pace Foods
• Pepperidge Farms
• V-8

Cargill, Inc - $202,229.36

• Truvia Natural Sweetener
• Shady Brooks Farms
• Diamond Crystal Salt
• Liza
• Nature Fresh
• Peter’s Chocolate
• Wilbur Chocolate
• Honeysuckle White
• Rumba Meats
• Good Nature

Coca Cola -  $1,164,400.00

• Vitamin Water
• Smart Water
• Dasani
• Nestea
• Minute Maid
• Honest Tea
• Odwalla
• Vitaminenergy

Con-Agra - $1,076,700.00

• Orville Redenbacher’s Organic
• Hunt’s Organic
• Lightlife
• Alexia
• Healthy Choice
• Hebrew National

Dean Foods -  $253,950.00

• Horizon
• Silk
• White Wave

General Mills - $908,200.00

• Nature Valley
• Fiber One
• Cheerios
• Cascadian Farm
• Muir Glen
• Lärabar
• Gold Medal Organic
• Food Should Taste Good

Heinz/Hains Celestial - $500,000.00

(Hains is actually owned by Heinz, Phillip Morris, Monsanto, Citigroup, Exxon-Mobil, Wal-Mart and Lockheed Martin)

• Earth’s Best
• Spectrum Organics
• Garden of Eatin’
• Casbah
• Rice Dream
• Soy Dream
• WestSoy
• TofuTown
• MaraNatha
• Mountain Sun
• Walnut Acres
• Fruiti di Bosco
• Health Valley
• Bearitos
• Bread Shop
• Celestial Seasonings

Kellogg’s - $632,500.00

• Kashi
• Muslix
• Nutrigrain
• Bear Naked
• Morningstar Farms
• Gardenburger

Kraft - $551,148.25

• Snapple
• ReaLemon
• Triscuit
• SnackWell’s
• South Beach
• Boca
• Back to Nature
• Nabisco

Nestle -   $1,169,400.00

• Pure Life
• Pelligrino
• Perrier
• Poland Spring
• Gerber
• California Pizza Kitchen
• Tribe Mediterranean
• Sweet Leaf Tea

PepsiCo $2,249,661.61

• Miss Vickie’s
• Sun Chips
• Aquafina
• SoBe
• Harvest Crunch
• Dole
• Ocean Spray
• Tropicana
• Miranda
• Tazo
• Quaker
• Naked Juice
• Mother’s

Unilever – $467,000 (source)

• Salada
• Knorr
• Ben & Jerry’s

A little bit of good news…

It isn’t all bad news.  There are a few companies you can still count on – keep in mind that corporate mergers take place every day.  When businesses change hands, there is no obligation to notify the public.  One such cautionary tale took place with the company Dean’s, which acquired Horizon foods.  They quietly phased out the use of organic products without making any changes to the label and used non-organic milk produced under factory farm conditions.  As well, they dropped the quality of their organic soy and began purchasing cheaper harvests from Asia.  Meanwhile, unwitting retailers had no idea that the company had ceased producing the items organically, and continued to promote the products as they had previous to the acquisition.

Right now, these are some labels to look for.

• 7th Generation
• Amy’s Kitchens
• Apple and Eve
• Applegate
• Azumaya
• Blue Diamond
• Bob’s Red Mill
• Bossa Nova
• Cal Organics
• Cedarlane
• Cell-nique
• Choice Organic Teas
• Clif Bar/ Nectar Fruit
• Coombs Family Farmers
• Cosorzio All Natural
• Country Choice
• Crystal Geyser Alpine Water
• Doctor Kracker
• Dr. McDougall’s
• Dr. Praeger
• Eat Raw
• Echo Farms
• EcoMeal
• Eddie’s Pasta
• Eden Foods (The only company NOT
• using harmful plastic in the lining of their
• cans as bonding agent!)
• Edward and Sons
• Endangered Species Chocolate
• Ener-G
• EnvironKiz
• Fantastic Foods.
• Giving Nature
• Golden Temple
• Go Naturally
• Greenway Farms
• Harvest Bay
• Hawthorne Valley
• Ian’s Natural Foods
• Koyo Organics
• Lakewood
• Lesser Evil
• Let’s Do…Organics
• LifeStream
• Living Harvest
• Lundberg Family
• Madhava
• Murray’s Chicken
• Nasoya
• Native Forest
• Natural by Nature
• Nature Factor
• Nature’s Path
• Newman’s Own Organic
• Organic Prarie
• Organic Valley
• Pacific Naturals
• Pamela’s
• Peace Cereal
• Petalumi
• Rapunzel
• Real Foods
• Republic of Teas
• Road’s End Organics
• San J
• Sensible Foods
• Seven Star Farms
• Sunergia
• Tasty Bite Indian
• Terra Nostra
• Texmati
• Theo chocolates
• Think Organic
• Turtle Mountain Toferky
• Vermont Mystic Pie
• Vitasoy
• Vita Spelt
• Vivani Chocolate
• Wizard’s Saucery
• Woodstock Farms
• XOXOXO chocolate
• Yogi Tea
• Zija
• Zoe’s Granola

Another way to avoid unscrupulous food producers is through an App called Buycott.  If you happen to have an iPhone, this App can be used to check a product that you see in the stores to see what corporate links exist.  You can find it HERE. (Thank you to Miranda for this link!) If I had a cellphone, I would definitely download this tool.

Of course, the best ways to avoid GMOs and toxic additives are to avoid packaged foods altogether.

Source: Activist Post

TEPCO may run out of space for radioactive water

Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said on Monday it does not have enough tank space should it need to move contaminated water from storage pits that started leaking over the weekend at its wrecked Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

Two years after the worst nuclear disaster in a quarter of a century, TEPCO is struggling with breakdowns and glitches in its jerry-rigged cooling system to keep reactors and spent fuel pools in a safe state known as cold shutdown.

About 120,000 liters of water contaminated with radiation leaked from two giant pits over the weekend. The cooling system has broken down twice over the past three weeks.

The utility does not have enough sturdy, above-ground tanks it is building to take the water from the pits, a TEPCO general manager, Masayuki Ono, said at a news conference at the company’s headquarters.

TEPCO engineers have not decided whether to transfer the water to above-ground tanks, Ono said. The plant’s seven storage pits are lined with water-proof sheets meant to keep the contaminated water from leaking into the soil.

An earthquake triggered tsunami waves that crashed into the power plant, setting off a chain of events that caused three reactors to melt down and forcing 160,000 people to flee from their homes.

In the immediate aftermath of explosions at the plant, TEPCO released some radioactive water into the sea nearby, prompting protests from neighboring countries. Many nations put restrictions on imports of Japanese food after the disaster.

“It is extremely regrettable that incidents keep occurring at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told reporters. “The government has instructed TEPCO to carry out a fundamental review of how it’s dealing with the problems.”

TEPCO President Naomi Hirose was summoned to the Industry Ministry to explain the leaks in the temporary storage pits and got a public dressing down from the minister, Toshimitsu Motegi.

TEPCO said on Friday it lost the ability to cool radioactive fuel rods in one of the plant’s reactors for about three hours, the second cooling system failure at the plant in three weeks.

Last month, a senior TEPCO executive told Reuters in an interview that the company was struggling to stop groundwater flooding into the damaged reactor buildings and may take as long as four years to fix the problem.

Source: Japan Today

World’s First Perpetual Motion Machine?

Facebook now charges you for messages sent to celebrities and people you aren't friends with

Facebook has started charging UK users up to £10 to send messages to celebrities and people they aren't friends with.

The social networking giant says the moves are to stop users being bombarded with messages from strangers.

Facebookers can still communicate with friends and people with whom they share mutual friends for free.

Those who want to contact non-friends can now either pay a fee of around 71p to send the message directly to a person’s inbox along with an automatic alert, or send the message for free to a less visible folder. Many Facebook users do not even know this other folder exists.

Users can pay the fee online instantly with a credit or debit card, but under-18s are barred from doing so. They are also blocked from receiving unsolicited messages.

According to The Sunday Times, the company is testing a sliding scale of fees for celebrities based on how popular it perceives an individual to be.

A message to Olympic diver Tom Daley will cost £10.68, while US rapper Snoop Dogg commands a message fee of £10.08.

The price structure uses an algorithm that often takes into account the number of followers a user has on Facebook. Facebook keeps all the money raised by the fees.

The company insists that paid “priority messages” are aimed at preventing users from being bombarded with unwanted communications from strangers. There is also a cap on the number of paid messages any user can receive.

A roll-out of the premium service to British users began at the end of last month after a successful trial in America.

Facebook said in a statement: “The system of paying to message non-friends in their inbox is designed to prevent spam while acknowledging that sometimes you might want to hear from people outside your immediate social circle. We are testing a number of price points in the UK and other countries to establish the optimal fee that signals importance.”

Source: The Independent

Bemused Vladimir Putin and Angela Merkel confronted by topless Femen protester in Hanover

Vladimir Putin appears to have at last found a form of anti-government protest that he can support.

The Russian president was confronted by a topless protester with an obscene slogan insulting Mr Putin painted on her back - and, he admitted, he “liked” it.

Mr Putin was with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at at a trade fair in Hanover when the woman tried to push her way through to an amused-looking Mr Putin, but was blocked by aides. Her back was painted with an obscene slogan in Cyrillic script directed against the Russian president.

The activist was with two other women who also stripped to the waist and shouted slogans calling the Russian leader a “dictator”.

The women appeared to be members of the feminist group Femen, which has staged topless protests against the sex industry and religious institutions.

Speaking at a press conference afterwards, Mr Putin said: “As for the protest, I liked it. In principle, we knew that such a protest was being prepared.”

He said the organisers of the Hanover event should “say thank you to the Ukrainian girls, they helped you promote the trade fair.”

He added: “To be honest, I didn’t really hear what they were shouting because the security [guards] were very tough. These huge guys fell on the lasses. That seemed not right to me, they could have been handled more gently.”

Mr Putin appeared to show a flash of his well-known salty humour, adding: “I didn’t make out whether they were blondes, chestnut-haired or brunettes.”

The Russian president said protests by Femen activists were nothing new. “We’ve all got used to these demonstrations and I don’t see anything terrible here,” he said.

However, he added: “If someone wants to debate political questions, then it’s better to do it clothed rather than getting undressed. You should undress in other places, such as on nudist beaches.”

On their Facebook page, Femen said the protest was an “anti-dictatorial attack on Putin”. The group criticised the Kremlin, Russia’s Federal Security Service and the Russian Orthodox Church, saying that Femen was against “dictatorship, homophobia and theocracy”.

Femen protests have included burning a Salafist flag in front of the Grand Mosque in Paris, and chopping down an Orthodox cross with a chainsaw.

The group has criticized Mr Putin over the arrest and conviction of the feminist punk band Pussy Riot, for performing an anti-Putin song in a Moscow cathedral last year.

Russia has urged German authorities to punish the protesters. “This is ordinary hooliganism and unfortunately it happens all over the world, in any city. One needs to punish (them),” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

The trade fair in Hanover, which opened on Sunday, features exhibitors from more than 60 countries. Relations between Russia and Germany have come under strain recently over the Kremlin’s harsh line on opposition groups and non-governmental organisations, including raids on the offices of two German NGOs in Moscow and St Petersburg.

At the opening of the fair on Sunday, Mrs Merkel that Moscow should give “non-governmental organizations - the many groups that we in Germany know as motors of innovation - a good chance in Russia.”

Mr Putin was in Hanover to open the fair, where Russia has a pavilion, and hold talks with Mrs Merkel.

Later on Monday he will travel to Holland. He is expected to be met by gay rights activists protesting over recently introduced Russian legislation which bans “homosexual propaganda” among minors. The law, in effect in several regions, has been widely criticised as homophobic.

Source: The Telegraph