Eagles Visions

2009-11-20T19:49:00.000-08:00

Overdosing our Elderly

A recent article published in the Wall Street Journal entitled Prescription Abuse Seen In U.S. Nursing Homes seems to have taken a lot of people by surprise.According to the report, it is estimated that 21% of nursing home patients who don’t have psychosis diagnosis are on antipsychotic drugs.

The article goes on to say “In recent years, Medicaid has spent more money on antipsychotic drugs for Americans than on any other class of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, AIDS drugs or medicine to treat high-blood pressure.”

In other words, we spend more money on keeping our elders docile.

Christie Teigland, director of informatics research for the New York Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, remarks “You walk into facilities where you see residents slumped over in their wheelchairs, their heads are hanging, and they’re out of it, and that is unacceptable.”

We have to look at the underlying problem - and begin to advocate for change in the laws which are now designed to minimally protect the most vulnerable in our society and generously line the pockets of corporations that have begun to purchase dozens of nursing homes.

According to survey data obtained from CMS and posted on http://www.memberofthefamily.net/qitrends, a registered nurse spends anywhere from 1/2 an hour to an hour per resident, with a total of 1.5 to 5 hours nursing care supervision per resident. A day has 24 hours - that lives a wide gap, doesn’t it?

“Revulsion against practices such as tying down and sedating disruptive elderly patients led to a landmark federal law in 1987, signed by President Reagan, that sets limits on how and when nursing homes can physically, or chemically restrain a patient.

Since then, a rising population of elderly people suffering dementia has entered nursing facilities, many of which have overburdened staff.”

According to the article, nursing homes often find it difficult to balance the demands of caring for certain patients against the pressure to keep staff costs down. The economics of elderly care can work in favor of drugs, because federal insurance programs reimburse more readily for pills than for people.

Rusty W., a registered nurse, comments, “My time has been spent with Dementia/Alzheimer’s patients. . . now I’m involved with the hospice care. This is something that is happening nationwide yet little is done to prevent it. The excuses are shortness of staff and too many patients (yes, the work load is hard especially when you may have 30 on a shift by yourself).”

Sedatives: Manufacturer’s Warning for Elder People

Sedatives will cause drowsiness - Avoid other sedatives, sleeping pills, and tranquilizers. They should NOT be taken while using them. Narcotics can increase the sedative’s effects, and can also decrease your breathing rate to the point of unconsciousness or coma. Do not take this drug with any other drugs that might slow the central system down, like another sedative. Only take this drug in small doses if over sixty and with CLOSE monitoring.

Improper dosage or use of sedatives can lead to another serious problem - accidental falls. The consequences of falls to our elder citizens are serious — only about 25 percent of hip fracture patients will make a full recovery; 40 percent will require nursing home admission; 50 percent will be dependent upon a cane or walker; and 20 percent will die within one year. And according to the NCIP, half of all elderly adults hospitalized for hip fracture cannot return home or live independently after the injury. According to the CDC More than one third of adults 65 and older fall each year in the United States (Hornbrook et al. 1994; Hausdorff et al. 2001).

Among older adults, falls are the leading cause of injury deaths. They are also the most common cause of nonfatal injuries and hospital admissions for trauma (CDC 2006). In 2004, 14,900 people 65 and older died from injuries related to unintentional falls; about 1.8 million people 65 and older were treated in emergency departments for nonfatal injuries from falls, and more than 433,000 of these patients were hospitalized (CDC 2006). The rates of fall-related deaths among older adults rose significantly over the past decade (Stevens 2006).

It is hard to measure how many elder deaths in nursing homes are attributable to falls due to sedative overdosing. Elder deaths in nursing homes are rarely investigated, and this is because according to Catherine C. McNamee, a Social Science Analyst at the National Institute of Justice, in Attitudes Hinder Investigations;

“Researchers also identified a propensity for medical examiners and coroners to exhibit ageism—a belief that focusing on nursing home deaths was “a waste of their time and resources…because of the poor health status of most nursing home residents… [who] would die anyway.”

As someone who has been personally touched by this tragedy, I can tell you that leaving an elder who has been medicated unsupervised for any length of time is a recipe for disaster.

According to Elder Advocate attorney Maria C. Gallo in Central Florida, “A good psychiatric nurse is worth his weight in gold, he/she knows about medications and why they are needed or not needed. She will be able to identify side effects and interactions with other medications, foods, etc.”

Everybody passes through different stages of life. If we loses our sensory and basic motor skills, we can supplement with technology. But if we loses our cognitive skills and memory, nursing homes will be the place where our families will prefer to park us. We will be at the mercy of the health care employee. Dementia is not a natural process in aging. Preventive measure can be implemented before serious degeneration of the brain-cell take place.

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-11-20T19:24:00.000-08:00

The Shrinking Brain

Medicine Net

A woman in her early 50s was admitted to a hospital because of increasingly odd behavior. Her family reported that she had been showing memory problems and strong feelings of jealousy. She also had become disoriented at home and was hiding objects. During a doctor's examination, the woman was unable to remember her husband's name, the year, or how long she had been at the hospital. She could read but did not seem to understand what she read, and she stressed the words in an unusual way. She sometimes became agitated and seemed to have hallucinations and irrational fears.

Patient undergoing a memory test

This woman, known as Auguste D., was the first person reported to have the disease now known as Alzheimer's disease * (AD) after Alois Alzheimer, the German doctor who first described it. After Auguste D. died in 1906, doctors examined her brain and found that it appeared shrunken and contained several unusual features, including strange clumps of protein called plaques and tangled fibers inside the nerve cells. Memory impairments and other symptoms of dementia, which means "deprived of mind," had been described in older adults since ancient times. However, because Auguste D. began to show symptoms at a relatively early age, doctors did not think her disease could be related to what was then called "senile dementia. "The word senile is derived from a Latin term that means, roughly, "old age."

The less aged brain (second) can receive more information and have faster processing speed.

It is now clear that AD is a major cause of dementia in elderly people as well as in relatively young adults. Furthermore, we know that it is only one of many disorders that can lead to dementia. The U. S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment estimates that as many as 6.8 million people in the United States have dementia, and at least 1.8 million of those are severely affected. Studies in some communities have found that almost half of all people age 85 and older have some form of dementia. Although it is common in very elderly individuals, dementia is not a normal part of the aging process. Many people live into their 90s and even 100s without any symptoms of dementia.

Healthy Neuron Activity - Younger Brain (Above)

Poor Neuron Activity - Aged Brain (Above)

Besides senile dementia, other terms often used to describe dementia include senility and organic brain syndrome. Senility and senile dementia are outdated terms that reflect the formerly widespread belief that dementia was a normal part of aging. Organic brain syndrome is a general term that refers to physical disorders (not psychiatric in origin) that impair mental functions.

Research in the last 30 years has led to a greatly improved understanding of what dementia is, who gets it, and how it develops and affects the brain. This work is beginning to pay off with better diagnostic techniques, improved treatments, and even potential ways of preventing these diseases.

Watch this prize-winning video produced by Vinn Bay and Tee Boon Leng for a video competition as part of the ADI (Alzheimer's Disease International) conference in March 2009.

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-08-24T23:57:00.000-07:00

Centenarians

John W. S.

We are no longer a youthful society. The proportion of individuals at

different ages has become increasingly similar. Since the beginning of

recorded history, life span, the maximum number of years an

individual can live, has remained at approximately 120 to 125 years

of age. Since 1900, improvement in medicine, nutrition, exercise, and

lifestyle have increased our life expectancy an average of 30 additional years.

In industrialized countries, the number of centenarians (individual 100

years and older) is increasing at a rate of approximately 7% each

year. In the United States, there were only 15,000 centenarians in

1980, a number that had risen to 77,000 in 2000, and it is projected

that this number will reach more than 800,00 by 2050. It is estimated

that 75 to 100 super centenarians (individuals 110 years or older) in

the United States and about 300 to 450 world wide. Many people

expect that “the older you get, the sicker you get.”

However, researchers are finding that is not true for some

centenarians. Nobel-winning chemist Linus Pauling argued that vitamin

C slow down the aging process.

Linus Pauling 1922

However there is a difference in life expectancy between male and

female. The overall life expectancy for female is 80.7 years of age,

male 75.4 years of age. Beginning in the mid-thirties, female out

number male; this gap widen in the remaining of the adult years.

By 75 years of age, more than 61% of the population is female;

for 85 and over, the figure is almost 70% female. Men are more

likely to die from leading causes of death such as cancer of the

respiratory system, motor vehicle accidents, cirrhosis of the liver,

emphysema and coronary heart disease.

X chromosome

In reality all species, females outlive males. Women have more

resistance to infection and degenerative diseases. The female’s

estrogen production helps to protect her from arteriosclerosis

(hardening of the arteries). The additional X chromosome that

women carry in comparison to men may be associated with the

production of more antibodies to fight off disease.

Life have just enter another stage!

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-08-09T23:25:00.000-07:00

Cool Candle

William Tan

For those who sleep in the air-cond room...

A friend of mine has passed away recently, please read the mail below and be careful.

Heard of a bad news regarding Charlene, who studied in MSMKL with some of us. She passed away last weekend due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

It happened when she lighted an aromatheraputic candle for the night in a room with air-conditioning on and all windows closed.

Due to lack of oxygen in the room, the burning of the candle cannot fully oxidized & thus forming dangerous carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide will prevent oxygen exchange in the lungs, resulting the person dozing off to state of unconsciousness & eventual lay death in less than 1 hour, depending on the room size.

I am posting this blog to increase awareness of such danger when lighting aromatheraputic candles in any unventilated rooms.

Information contributed by Mr William Tan

Like most urban legends (such as the Glade plug-in and gel candles rumors), this one provides very little verifiable information. Only earlier versions contain clues to the supposed victim's identity. Unfortunately, it's incomplete and no indication of date, location or any other data that would help us track down reliable accounts of this alleged tragedy are given. Searches on the tidbits that are given return only reposts of the letter above.

The spelling of the friend's name is alternately "Charliene" and her identity is often left out completely from newer versions of this chain. MSMKL stands for MAKTAB SAINS MARA, Kuala Lumpur, a technical college now known as the MARA Education Foundation College. That reference, coupled with the numerous peculiar spelling and grammatical errors seem to indicate that this "warning" originated in Malaysia and was translated into English.

No explanation is given for how the cause of death was ultimately decided to be asphyxiation by carbon monoxide - no authorities or other source of the conclusion are named. At best, what we have here is a lay person's supposition or misunderstanding of what might have caused the friend's death.

So, could it happen? It's possible, given a very specific, yet highly unlikely combination of factors. First, the room would have to be pretty airtight. Airtight facilities typically have oxygen exchange systems to remove toxins and keep the air breathable, so we'll have to assume this was not the case here. Second, most air conditioning systems can be set either to vent room air and replace or supplement it with outside air, or recirculate the room air (for maximum cooling). The tragedy described above could only happen if the latter was the case.

So, in an airtight, unventilated room with recirculating, unpurified and unsupplemented air, a burning candle could conceivably cause asphyxiation - a closed vault comes to mind. Such an environment would be an unhealthy place, indeed, with or without the burning candle. One's own breathing could be deadly in such an environment, as human respiration exchanges oxygen with carbon dioxide. Nonetheless, we're told that it was carbon monoxide produced by the burning candle which served to suffocate our victim. Just as humans need Oxygen to breath, candles need oxygen to burn. Most candles will suffocate themselves long before the levels of oxygen in a room get low enough to cause asphyxiation in humans.

A much more likely health risk from burning a candle in a poorly ventilated room is soot. Soot is the by-product of inefficient combustion. According to the Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences at the University of Florida, however, not much is known about the risk of soot from burning candles: "Although researchers have studied the health risks of soot from diesel exhaust and factory emissions, no studies have focused specifically on residential exposure to candles." Drafts from an air conditioner or fans can reduce the flame's efficiency and increase the candle's soot output by as much as 50 percent. Accumulation of tiny soot particles in the lungs can aggravate respiratory illness, but there are no known cases of asphyxiation from soot.

Nonetheless, University of Florida researchers recommend several tips for safe, clean candle burning:

Burn only hard wax candles and avoid soft or gel candles.
Unscented candles produce less soot than their aromatic counterparts.
Look for thin, braided wicks that curl when burned and avoid thick or wire-core wicks.
Keep the wick trimmed to ensure a low, even flame.
Avoid candles poured into jars and ceramic containers - tapers and votives burn more cleanly.
Check multi-wick pillar candles periodically to ensure even burning.
Read the instructions that come with some candles, as some require special maintenance.

This letter misses a much more likely threat and a warning that better serves most of us: Never burn a candle unattended. While it's not specifically stated, we're left to assume that "Charliene" intended to burn the candle as she slept, which is a bad idea no matter what kind of room you're in. Simply being in the same room with a candle is not enough to prevent fire and injury - A burning candle should always be carefully monitored.

Don't make the all too common mistake for leaving the "light" on.

References: University of Florida

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-05-24T23:08:00.000-07:00

APVs Vs The Keys Makers
Choose Your Side

In the world we stand today, there are a lot of talented and very well educated individual. There are people with Master degree, some with Multi-Discipline-Bachelor. We are referring to the smartest people with great brain and intelligent who are graduated from recognized institute.

Now the question is, armed with that piece of certificate, does it makes us successful by default? Does it immune us from economic recession? Pay-cut? High interest rate? Illogical tax rate?

Our journey in Life, we are provided with different types of key that helps us overcome obstacles and challenges at different stages of our life. The keys are given to us One at a time. It comes in different forms, sometime the key disguise itself as a painful experience. Before we learn how to walk, we must first learn how to fall. After a few painful experiences, we can choose to give up or learn to acquire the key to balancing. At every cross road junction of our journey, we have at least four choices. Left, Right, Forward or Standstill. Before success is awarded to us, we have to learn how to fail, or at least learn how other before us failed.

Many people labeled keywords like: disgrace, incapable, good-for-nothing, emabarssment and many other negative thoughts that link to the word failure. These people are confused either by their teaching from the school/parents or maybe their circle of friends. They probably find it hard to accept that success and failure comes in a package.

* If you have come across anyone (whom you personally know) that had learned walking without falling or a great achiever whom never encounter any difficulty in their path of success, please drop us an email, we will like to meet that person!

There is no such thing as the best choice or the best path. Life is filled very countless variable, we are not able to anticipate or predict outcome that is why life is interesting and filled with surprises! We are accountable for every choice we make, could it be career, course of studies, business decision, life-time partner, house, investment, how we use our time and the list goes on. We can either enjoy or cry-over the final result of our cumulative choices right at the end of the road.

What happen in the real world is that majority of the population are consumed with this emotional response known as Fear. Who does not have fear? Does a President have fear? Does a kindergarten school kid have fear? The fact is that everyone have fear living within us and that include you and me.

There are two types of people who response to this emotional stimulant differently. The first type of people analyze the problems and generate a chain of negative thoughts. What if I flunk the exam? What if everyone get to learn about my embarrassment? What if she reject my proposal? What if....list goes on. As we can see, this category of people paralyze over their own negative thoughts and come to a standstill at the cross road. These people never get to earn their rightful key which open new doors to a more desirable and meaningful life for themselves. The world naturally move on without them. Years later, the world forgot about them until they surface for help. We call them APV (Analysis Paralysis Victim).

Here comes the second type of person who also analyze the problem. This category of individual analyze the problems and create a solution. They are no different from the APV just that they are able to see the opportunity and reward beyond the problem. They create win-win solution, they create new keys for new doors. This people spent more time solving problem than analying them. We call them the Key-maker. People who create opportunity. They help to open new industry, new products, new demand and create new job opening for the majority of the population.

Photos of Popular Key Makers that provide job opportunities for millions

Analysis Paralysis

Analysis Paralysis is where we can’t make any forward progress because we bog ourself down in details, tweaking, brainstorming, research and … anything but just getting on with it.

Regardless what certificate we are holding, it is seen as one of the Key that allow us to access different career door. The key itself does not bring success, it is how the owner of the key use it that makes a different. Many left the world with regrets, knowing that all along they possess the key but relantance to use it. These people are not difficult to spot, they usually use the word "What if" the most.

Unlock your fear, Unlock your life.

Contact Us Today.

Article Contributed by:
Richard StandField

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-05-09T20:38:00.001-07:00

Influenza A virus subtype H1N1

Wikipedia

Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, also known as A(H1N1), is a subtype of influenza virus A and the most common cause of influenza (flu) in humans. Some strains of H1N1 are endemic in humans, including the strain(s) responsible for the 1918 flu pandemic which killed 50–100 million people worldwide. Less virulent H1N1 strains still exist in the wild today, worldwide, causing a small fraction of all influenza-like illness and a large fraction of all seasonal influenza. H1N1 strains caused roughly half of all flu infections in 2006. Other strains of H1N1 are endemic in pigs and in birds.

In March and April 2009, hundreds of laboratory-confirmed infections and a number of deaths were caused by an outbreak of a new strain of H1N1.

The 2009 outbreak of influenza A (H1N1) virus is an epidemic of a new strain of influenza virus identified in April 2009, and is commonly referred to as "swine flu." The source of the outbreak in humans is still unknown but cases were first discovered in the U.S. and officials soon suspected a link between this and an earlier outbreak of late-season flu cases in Mexico. Within days, hundreds more suspected cases, many resulting in death, were discovered in Mexico, with more cases found in the U.S. and several other countries. Soon after, the U.N.'s World Health Organization (WHO), along with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), became concerned that it could become a worldwide flu pandemic, and WHO then raised its pandemic alert level to "Phase 5" out of 6 maximum, as a "signal that a pandemic is imminent".

Although virologists have noted that the outbreak is so far relatively mild and less fatal than previous pandemics, other health officials, including CDC Director Richard Besser, worry about what might happen later in the year, saying that "we are not seeing any sign of this petering out. We are still on the upswing of the epidemic curve. The number of cases is expected to rise as the new flu spreads across the country."

The new strain is an apparent reassortment of four strains of influenza A virus subtype H1N1.Analysis by the CDC identified the four component strains as one endemic in humans, one endemic in birds, and two endemic in pigs (swine). However, other scientists have stated that analysis of the 2009 swine flu (A/H1N1) viral genome suggests that all RNA segments are of swine origin, and "this preliminary analysis suggests at least two swine ancestors to the current H1N1, one of them related to the triple reassortant viruses isolated in North America in 1998." One swine influenza strain was widespread in the United States, the other in Eurasia. In a step towards understanding the outbreak, and developing a vaccine, Canadian scientists have completed the full genetic sequencing of H1N1 swine flu virus.

Symptoms and severity

The symptoms seen in U.S. cases resemble those normally seen in influenza, with fever, cough, sore throat, runny nose, headache, and muscle soreness. However, about 38% of patients had vomiting or diarrhea, which is unusual in infections with other strains of influenza.

The CDC does not fully understand why the U.S. cases' symptoms were primarily mild while the Mexican cases had led to multiple deaths. However, research on previous pandemic strains has suggested that mortality can vary widely between different countries, with mortality being concentrated in the developing world.Differences in the viruses or co-infection are also being considered as possible causes. In 1918, influenza weakened the infected, and it was then lung infections such as pneumonia which killed 3% of them. In the current outbreak, the first deaths (13 and 21 April) were diagnosed as 'atypical pneumonias', a pneumonia which, helped by the flu, becomes more dangerous. The CDC's flu chief Nancy Cox said that genetic analysis of the swine flu strain did not reveal the markers for virulence found in the 1918 flu virus.

Colourised transmission electron micrograph of Avian influenza A H5N1 viruses (seen in gold) grown in MDCK cells (seen in green). Courtesy of CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith, Jacqueline Katz, and Sharif R. Zaki, Public Health Image Library, http://phil.cdc.gov/Phil/home.asp

At a press briefing on April 27, acting CDC director Richard Besser stated that out of 40 confirmed cases in the United States at that point, only one individual was hospitalized. He also revealed that the median age was 16 years "with a range in age of 7 to 54 years". By May 5, with 642 confirmed cases in the U.S., the age of the patients ranged from 3 months to 81 years, with 60% of cases occurred in people less than eighteen years old. In all, 36 patients (9%) required hospitalization and two people died.

Whereas most influenza strains affect the elderly and young children worst, most early deaths from this strain were in people aged 25–50, and the WHO expressed some concern over the unusual age profile of the deaths. However, more recent cases have a younger age profile, with more than half of Mexico's confirmed cases being in people aged under 20. By May 6, almost half of Mexico's confirmed swine flu deaths were in people aged under 30.

MIT Team Solves Mystery of 1918 Pandemic that Killed 50-100 Million Worldwide

MIT researchers have explained why two mutations in the H1N1 avian flu virus were critical for viral transmission in humans during the 1918 pandemic outbreak that killed at least 50 million people -believed more than that taken by the Black Death, and higher than the number killed in World War I.

The 1918 flu pandemic -commonly knownas the Spanish flu- was an influenza pandemic that started in the United States, appeared in West Africa and France and then spread to nearly every part of the globe in three waves lasting from March 1918 to June 1920, spreading to the Arctic and remote Pacific islands. It was caused by an unusually severe and deadly Influenza A virus strain of subtype H1N1. In contrast to most influenza outbreaks which predominantly affect juvenile, elderly, or otherwise weakened patients, the Spanish Flue also claimed healthy young adults, resulting from infection rates of up to 50% and the extreme severity of the symptoms, suspected to be caused by cytokine storms.

The disease was first discovered at Fort Riley, Kansasand Queens, New York , in 1918. In August 1918, a more virulent strain appeared simultaneously in Brest, France, in West Africa at Freetown, Sierra Leone, and in the U.S. at Boston, Massachusetts. The Allies of World War I came to call it the Spanish Flu, primarily because the pandemic received greater press attention after it moved from France to Spain in November of 1918.

The MIT team showed that the 1918 influenza strain developed two mutations in a surface molecule called hemagglutinin (HA), which allowed it to bind tightly to receptors in the human upper respiratory tract.

"Two mutations dramatically change the HA binding affinity to receptors found in the human upper airways," said Ram Sasisekharan, MIT's Underwood Prescott Professor of Biological Engineering and Health Sciences and Technology.

In January, Sasisekharan and colleagues reported in Nature Biotechnology that flu viruses can only bind to human respiratory cells if they match the shape of sugar (or glycan) receptors found on those cells.

The glycan receptors found in the human respiratory tract are known as alpha 2-6 receptors, and they come in two shapes-one resembling an open umbrella, and another resembling a cone. To infect humans the MIT team found that avian flu viruses must gain the ability to bind to the umbrella-shaped alpha 2-6 receptor.

In the current study, the team discovered that two mutations in HA allow flu viruses to bind tightly or with high affinity to the umbrella-shaped glycan receptors.

"The affinity between the influenza virus HA and the glycan receptors appears to be a critical determinant for viral transmission," said Sasisekharan.

The researchers used the 1918 influenza virus as a model system to investigate the biochemical basis for hemagglutinin binding to glycans, which leads to viral transmission.

Click to Enlarge Image

This new work could aid researchers in monitoring the HA mutations in the H5N1 avian flu strains currently circulating in Asia. These mutations could enable the virus to jump from birds to humans, as many epidemiologists fear will occur.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on the varying infectiousness of these strains last year, but the PNAS study is the first that explains the exact biochemical reason underlying these differences.

Table 1: Antigenic Shifts and Pandemics*
	Designation	Resulting Pandemic	Death Toll
1889	H3N2	Moderate	?
1918	H1N1 ("Spanish")	Devastating	50-100 million
1957	H2N2 ("Asian")	Moderate	1 million
1968	H3N2 ("Hong Kong")	Mild	1 million
2009			??????????

* H = haemagglutinin; N = neuraminidase

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-04-01T06:12:00.001-07:00

Is this carrots Good for You?

Baby Carrots you buy in the Supermarkets

The following is information from a farmer who grows and packages Carrots for IGA, METRO, LOBLAWS, etc.

The small cocktail (baby) carrots you buy in small plastic bags are made using the larger crooked or deformed carrots which are put through a machine which cuts and shapes them into cocktail carrots .

Most people probably know this already. What you may not know and should know is the following: once the carrots are cut and shaped into cocktail carrots they are dipped in a solution of water and chlorine in order to preserve them (this is the same chlorine used your pool) since they do not have their skin or natural protective covering, they give them a higher dose of chlorine.

You will notice that once you keep these carrots in your refrigerator for a few days, a white covering will form on the carrots, this is the chlorine which resurfaces. At what cost do we put our health at risk to have esthetically pleasing vegetables which are practically plastic?

We do hope that this information can be passed on to as many people as possible in the hopes of informing them where these carrots come from and how they are processed. Chlorine is a very well known carcinogen.Please let us make this information available to as many people as possible. If you care about your family and friends, pass it on.

Information Sponsored by:
Corrine Loh

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-01-28T06:43:00.000-08:00

Insanity

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts -Albert Einstein

The prophecy had came true! Global stock markets are charging South, hundred and thousands had lost their job in the last couple of months. Guess what? This is only the preview stage! Many more axes are coming down and coming down hard in the next few quarters. We have came across the prophecy of financial melt down five years ago.

Many massive ships (giant company e.g. Motorola) had dissolved in this economic storm! More than ten years ago, a position in Lehman Brothers was considered a "hot" job! No one had predicted that this giant money lender had filed for bankruptcy protection!

For the past many years of our working life, many of us have lost our direction in life. We work hard and faithfully for our company. We sacrifice our family time burying ourselves under extensive stress in our job. We are clocked by our time-card and chained to our desk pushing endless workload behind our office desk. Instead of spending time with our love ones, we are obligated either to entertain our clients or company associates after work .

Are you in the same shoes? Feeling life is hectic, running all day, meetings, phone calls, paper work, appointments. Pushing yourself to the limits (close breaking point). Fall into the bed exhausted and all beat up, and getting up early the next morning to do it all over again? Do you feel you are torn apart, knowing your family is important but you can't really spent sufficient quality time with them? Living in constant conflict trying to juggle the demand between family and work?

At the end what is our reward? A retrenchment payout?
Is that it?

As the matter of fact we are definitely not getting younger everyday. Walking back into the interview room becomes harder each time as our skill obsolete and youth gone. If you missed your rightful opportunity to ride out of the economic storm with us in the first round, this is the best time to offer yourself the ticket for the second round!

We have studied the probability of success on many people who started out as a fresh business owner. Many of them are unable to progress very far in their business. We are indeed looking at the same products, payouts plan, market and company but the results differ. One of the few major factor that we have discovered is efficiency.

Efficiency is about "getting more done in less time". It makes good sense. We get more done. We reduce or even eliminate waste. We are streamlined. We are faster. We are leveraged. The increase in productive is incredible! But the underlying assumption is that "more" and "faster" are better? Is that necessarily true?

A business model or job is a constant, like a career map. The team and mentor that you are building business or working with is like a compass. A detailed map with a low magnetism compass may not accurately point you to the right direction. If we are an efficient players equipped with a low efficiency compass, we are simply getting to the wrong destination faster! Team integration is the key that lead to an incredible results! We believe in developing leaders with strong integrity and solid core values!

Most of us had fallen into a unimaginable situation. A wrong map! (Back in school, job is safe...study hard...work hard...). It is never too late, we are offering anyone anywhere in this planet who have a strong desire to take a look at our map which offer an exit to this hectic life. A full transformation on your current work life.

Don't worry there is plenty of room to go around. Try not to wait for your current ship to sink. We require time to reach you =)

Like you, we used to be a committed worker in our "secure job", we had made the necessary adjustment and are confident that our heads will not be on the chopping board when the axes comes down. What about you? Are you ready to made some small adjustment?

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
-Albert Einstein

EVI Management Wishes You A Happy New Year!

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2009-01-28T01:35:00.001-08:00

Your Form have been submitted Successfully!
Thank You for your precious time and interest.

We are looking forward to contact you soon!
Have a Great Day!

EVI Management Team

When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.
Henry Ford

2009-01-27T23:30:00.000-08:00

For more information, please leave your contact in the online form below. Our associate will get back to you as soon as possible.

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2008-11-08T23:13:00.000-08:00

The Spoon

A holy man was having a conversation with God one day and said,' God , I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.'

God led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in.

In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished.

They were holding spoons with very long handles, that were strapped to their arms and each found it impossible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful.

But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

God said, 'You have seen Hell.'

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one.

There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man's mouth water.

The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking. The holy man said, 'I don't understand.'

It is simple,' said God . 'It requires but one skill.

You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.'

Its estimated 93% won't share this article. If you are one of the 7% who will, forward this with the title '7%'.

I'm in the 7%

Remember that We will always share Our spoon with you.

Article Contributed by:

Corrine Loh

MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2008-11-08T22:17:00.001-08:00

Can I borrow $25 ?

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door.

SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?'

DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man.

SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?'

DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily.

SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?'

DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.'

SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down.

SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?'

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.'

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door.

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money?

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down , and started to think:

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door.

'Are you asleep, son?' He asked.

'No daddy, I'm awake,' replied the boy.

'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25 you asked for.'

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you daddy!' he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills.

The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again.

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father.

'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the father grumbled.

'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied.

'Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.'

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness.

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love.

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Do you treat your family time more seriously than your work?

Please help to spread this articles to those who still have time to make a change!

Information Sponsored by:
Mr William Tan
+65 9006 0768

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

2008-10-31T10:39:00.000-07:00

are_you_an_office_survivor?

2008-10-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

Are You Living Your Priority?

Your Free Analysis Report will be sent to you within 7 days!
Don't forget to submit your email after the Quiz.

Have Fun!

(The accuracy of the report varies base on the selected answers)

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="http://www.mystudiyo.com/act75473/mini/go/live_your_priority_"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;live_your_priority_&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Let us live life to the Fullest!

2008-10-20T22:55:00.000-07:00

Three Little Pig
(For Investor)

The story of three little pig by Joseph Jacobs (English Fairy Tales) have been a all time favourite bed time story for every kid. Let us bring back some sweet memories of this classic story in modern context !

Once upon a time, there was a mother pig who had three little pigs. One day the mother pig said to the three little pigs, "You are too BIG to live here." You have to move out and build your own house. Mother pig warned her children about the Big Bad Wolf. The three little pig unwillingly part with mother pig and moved out. The three of them decided to move to a place where there is good scenery, fresh water preferably with a nearby hawker center where people dislike pork chops and minced meat noodles.

On the way, first little pig came across a man carrying some straws. The first little pig asked the man for some straws. The first little pig was very happy after he got the straws. Within a day, he build a fine little straw house. He immediately placed an order for a 70" plasma TV and some Italian designer furniture. The first little pig bragged to his two older brother with a tone and a bad-bad attitude! The two older brother pig was upset and determine to build a much stronger house than their little brother. Second and third little pig left shortly after they watched Mission Impossible 4 from the new Plasma TV.

A few rivers away, the two little pigs met an old woodcutter. Second little pig asked for some sticks from the kind wood cutter. Within a week, the second little pig had constructed a grand looking house made from wood! The second little pig was very satisfy with his own workmanship. He claimed that the Big Bad Wolf can't lay a finger on his enormous hi-fi system and his brand new SONY laptop! Second little pig is a strong believer of saving. He always reserve cash for a rainy day. Just to show his neighbors his is in business, he blasted his hi-fi with "Can't touch this" by MC Hammer. The third little pig was so irritated by the loud music that he made a move without finishing his online game on the second little pig's laptop.

Not very far from the second little pig, the third little pig met a man carrying bricks. He asked the man for some bricks and started building his first house. Could be the lack of skills and knowledge, it took him a week to figure out how to construct a brick house. Weather turned cloudy and started to rain heavily. Third little pig had to suffer coldness in the rain without shelter. There was also time when the Sun'UV almost got him roasted! The third little pig was very determine to get his brick house build.

Some weeks later, the first little pig had purchased a brand new BMW and the second little pig had got himself a used Honda sedan. Both of them drove down to the third little pig house. They were shock to see that the construction of the brick house was not even 30% complete. First and second little pig strongly encourage their elder brother to bail out from his brick house project. They recommended the third little pig to work on "easier" alternative like the straw or stick house instead. Instant, fast and worry free. The third little pig responded with a weak smile and quietly continue to work on his project.

A month pass quickly, the brick house was almost 50% complete. The first and second little pig drop by again. This time they muck and laugh at the third little pig for being a fool. They called him a time-waster.

Finally here came the last day of the third month. The ultimate bullet proof brick house was completed!

On the following Monday when the first little pig was about to leave his home for work, he heard a loud bang on his door! It is the Big Bad Wolf!" Open the door and let me in" the Big Bad Wolf demanded. The first little pig responded. "No way, by the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you in." The Big Bad Wolf was left with no choice but to the tow away the little pig's BMW. "Not the Beemer", cried the first little pig. The next day the Big Bad Wolf increased the interest rate of the loan for the 70" Plasma TV and the designer furnitures. As the town's court house had pass the verdict to repossess first little pig straw house as he could not service his property installment.

First little pig packed overnight and flee for shelter at the second little pig's house.

A week had past, there was a thunderous bang at second little pig's wooden door! This is the Big Bad Wolf!" Open the door and let me in" the Big Bad Wolf demanded. The second little pig responded. "No way, by the hair of my chinny chin chin, I will not let you in." The Big Bad Wolf was left with no choice but to the tow away the little pig's Honda sedan. "Not the ride", cried the second little pig. The next day the Big Bad Wolf doubled the property tax of the wooden house and increase the inflation rate by printing more money. That evening, the creditors force entry into the wooden house and repossess everything in the wooden property. The house was pulled down for fuel because the second little pig could not afford to pay his 22% increment on power and utilities bills.

The first and second little pigs shed tears and ran for the brick house.

The two little pigs could not locate the brick house. They were desperate. They were homeless, jobless and starving for food. As the second little pig was always a sound saver, he pulled out the only remaining note in his wallet and walked briskly to a nearby Mac-Dorner. He dropped on his knee as he saw that the price of the Harppy Meal had increased five times due to food- service tax and massive inflation!

At that point of time, they hear a faint little voice from the crowd. It was the third little pig. After a moment of catching up, the two homeless pigs realized that the third little pig had been building and reinvesting in property. Now he is a owner of a 30-room hotel. The third little pig invited his brothers to stay with him. The first and second pig was taken a back when they saw many other animals including their mother pig in the hotel. Third little pig explained that these animals was victims of commercial rape, they lost all their money and shelter in LehMan Brother's Mini Bonds. Now they have no choice but to rent a shelter from him.

Every time the economic gone bad, the third little pig have reported increase in rental revenue.

The third little pig collect passive rental and enjoy residual income for the rest of his life! The Big Bad Wolf pass by the third little pig's hotel and there goes the music "Can't touch this". The Big Bad Wolf shook his head and continue his journey look for more property and vehicle to repossess.

THE END

From the sharing of this story you can identify people around us that have certain mental similarity with one of these three little pigs. Some build their career and retirement plan with straws. Believing the 8 to 5 jobs can bring them to where they want. The spending pattern is almost a spot-on match. Like the first little pig they spent lavishly on gadgets or white elephant they don't need. Instead of spending their salary to repay loans or sound investment, they choose to spend on things that gives them instant gratification. They live from paycheck to paycheck, always complaining about life and work.

The second little pig operate in a "saver" mentality. He move-in on used items, always shaving corner to save some bucks. The sad thing is that these people never understand how inflation works. At the end of the tunnel, they usually learned their lesson the hardest way and the term inflation is probably the toughest lesson they learn in this entire life time. Inflation works hand in hand with time. The longer you hang on to the money the lesser in value it become. Like our second little pig, still thinking that he can purchase a Harppy Meal with his emergency note!
These people can be found spending most of their time cutting discount coupons and queuing up for discount items before the shops open. Look around, they are everywhere!

Oh, of course we have people like the third little pig who understands how inflation works and started off planing ahead. Unlike the rest, he spend more time learning the skills and knowledge to build his first brick house. Yes, it takes time. Little bit of suffering and set back, but that is part of the journey to success. It comes in a package. Everyone starts somewhere sometime, why not Now? Do ask yourself do you have friends like our third little pig? Robert T Kiyosaki? Warren Buffet? Donald Trump? Or at least a reputable millionaire to guide you?

If you are currently taking risks living in a house built from straw or wood, it is not too late to start building your first brick house in your backyard! Drop us a mail if you have a comment on this article or interested to find out more!

Who say that the Big Bad Wolf is a "Bona-fide Wolf in this story"?

You Decide!

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

target="_blank">
MySpace Music Playlist at MixPod.com

2008-10-05T22:28:00.000-07:00

The Bucket Story
Wealth is not for Everyone

Based on the original story by Robert Kiyosaki

Once upon a time there was this quaint little village. The village had no water unless it rained. To solve this problem the village elders decided to bid the contract to have water delivered to the village on daily basis. Two person Ah Beng and Ah Seng volunteered to take on the task. The elders award the contract to both of them. They felt that a little competition would keep the cost low.

Left: Ah Seng a.k.a. The Chosen One
Right: Ah Beng a.k.a. Bucket King

Ah Beng immediately ran out, brought two galvanized steel buckets and began running back and fourth along the trail to the lake which was a mile away. He immediately began making money as he labored morning to dusk hauling water from lake with his two buckets. He would empty them into the large concrete holding tank the village had built. Each morning Ah Beng had to get up before the rest of the village awoke to make sure there was enough water for the villager. It was hard work, but he was very happy to be making money and for having one of the two exclusive contracts for this business,

The second winning contractor, Ah Seng, disappeared for a while. He was not seen for months, which made Ah Beng very happy since he had no competition. Ah Beng was making all the money.

Instead of buying two buckets like Ah Beng, Ah Seng had written a business plan, created a corporation, found four investors, employed a president to do the work, and returned six months later with a construction crew. Within a year his team had built a large volume stainless steel pipeline which connected the village to the lake!

At the grand opening celebration, Ah Seng announced that his water was cleaner than Ah Beng's water. Ah Seng also announced that he could supply water 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! Ah Beng could only deliver water on weekday (he did not work on weekend). Ah Seng also announced that he would charge 75% less than Ah Beng did for this higher quality and more reliable source of water! The villager cheered and ran immediately for the faucet at the end of Ah Seng pipeline!

In order to compete, Ah Beng immediately lower his rate by 75%, bought two more buckets , added covers to his buckets and began hauling four buckets each trip. In order to provide better service, he hired two sons to give him a hand for the night shift and on weekends. When his boys went off to college, he said to them, "Hurry back because someday this business will belong to you."

For some reason, after college, his two sons never returned. Eventually Ah Beng had employee and union problems. The union was demanding higher wages, better benefits, and wanted its members to only haul one bucket at a time.

Ah Seng, on the other hand, realized that if this village needed water then other villages must need water too. He rewrote his business plan and went off to sell his high speed, high volume, low cost, and clean water delivery system to villages throughout the world! He only makes a penny per bucket of water delivered, but he delivered billions of buckets of water everyday. Regardless he work or not billions of people consume billions buckets of water, and all that money pours into his bank account! Ah Seng had developed a pipeline system to deliver money to himself as well as water to the villagers.

Ah Seng live happily ever after and Ah Beng worked hard all his life and have financial problems forever after.

The End

Am I building a pipeline or hauling buckets?

Am I working hard or am I working smart?

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

Money do not make you rich. Business skills does!

Time is Money, don't drain it. Contact us Today!

2008-09-30T06:18:00.001-07:00

Toxin Now Available in Milk Form

Wikipedia (Picture by Business Weekly)

Chinese protein export contamination was first identified after the wide recall of many brands of cat and dog food starting in March 2007 (the 2007 pet food recalls), and eventually involved the human food supply. The recalls in North America, Europe and South Africa came in response to reports of kidney failure in pets. Initially the recalls were associated with the consumption of mostly wet pet foods made with wheat gluten from a single Chinese company. In the following weeks, several other companies who received the contaminated wheat gluten also voluntarily recalled dozens of pet food brands. One month after the initial recall, contaminated rice protein from a different source in China was also identified as being associated with kidney failure in pets in the United States, while contaminated corn gluten was associated with kidney failure with pets in South Africa.

China’s Tainted Milk: The Scandal Grows

The toll from China’s tainted-milk scandal continues to grow. Since the news first broke that Chinese dairy producers have been adding the industrial chemical melamine to milk, companies throughout Asia have yanked products from store shelves, and governments in Asia and Africa have banned Chinese imports. In China, more than 50,000 children—most of them babies—have fallen ill and more than 13,000 have been hospitalized. Several Chinese children have died so far.

Until recently, China was a potentially lucrative market for the country’s milk producers. Chinese milk consumption has long been much lower than in other countries, and with ordinary Chinese consumers growing wealthier and more health-conscious, companies had great hopes that demand would soar. Now, though, the industry is in the midst of its worst crisis ever. For more on China’s troubled milk business, read on.

The Chinese government was initially slow to respond. Both government officials and manufacturers went so far as to deny that vegetable protein was even exported from China and refused for weeks to allow foreign food safety investigators to enter the country. Ultimately, the Chinese government acknowledged that contamination had occurred and arrested the managers of two protein manufacturers identified so far and took other measures to improve food safety and product quality.

Sanlu Group

Based in the northern city of Shijiazhuang, the Sanlu Group is China’s biggest producer of powdered milk and is 43% owned by New Zealand’s dairy giant, the Fonterra Co-operative Group. Sanlu is at the epicenter of the scandal, having been the first identified in the Chinese media as selling tainted milk. According to the official Xinhua news agency, Sanlu officials knew about problems with the milk for months before informing the public.

The first and most easily identified contaminant in the vegetable protein is melamine. However, melamine is not considered to be especially dangerous to animals or humans, and so investigators have continued to examine the role of other contaminants found to be present in the proteins, including cyanuric acid. Current research has focused on the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in causing renal failure. Reports that cyanuric acid may be an independently and potentially widely-used adulterant in China have heightened concerns for both pet and human health.

China Mengniu Dairy

The Hong Kong-traded shares of Mengniu, the Inner Mongolia-based dairy company that is one of China’s largest producers of milk, were suspended on Sept. 17 after the Chinese government announced it was one of some two dozen implicated in the widening scandal. When Mengniu shares started trading again on Sept. 23, the stock collapsed 60%.

Both the wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate were found to actually be wheat flour, which contains wheat gluten as a component and is less expensive than separated gluten. Melamine and cyanuric acid were most likely added to fraudulently increase the apparent protein content of the flour to allow them to pass as concentrated vegetable proteins.

Inner Mongolia Yili Industrial Group

A month ago, Yili was riding high as the official dairy products sponsor for the Beijing Olympics. Now Yili is caught in the midst of the widening milk scandal. Like rival Mengiu and Sanlu, Yili pulled milk products from Chinese store shelves on Sept. 17. The company’s stock has been sinking ever since, down 25% in a week. That’s brought the Shanghai-listed shares year-to-date fall to 62% so far.

Reports of widespread adulteration of Chinese animal feed with melamine have raised the issue of melamine contamination in the human food supply both in China and abroad. On 27 April US FDA subjected all vegetable proteins imported from China, intended for human or animal consumption, to detention without physical examination, including: Wheat Gluten, Rice Gluten, Rice Protein, Rice Protein Concentrate, Corn Gluten, Corn Gluten Meal, Corn By-Products, Soy Protein, Soy Gluten, Proteins (includes amino acids and protein hydrosylates), and Mung Bean Protein. In a teleconference with reporters on 1 May, officials from the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture said that between 2.5 and 3 million people in the United States had consumed chickens that had consumed feed containing contaminated vegetable protein from China. Reports that melamine has been added as a binder in animal feed manufactured in North America also raise the possibility that harmful melamine contamination might not be limited to China.

Young Victims

Tian Yaowen, a 15-month-old from central Henan province with kidney stones, is a patient at a hospital in Wuhan. Thousands of Chinese babies have developed kidney stones after consuming melamine-tainted milk. Children in Hong Kong and Macao are also suspected of having milk-related kidney problems.

There has been widespread public outrage and calls for government regulation of pet foods, which had previously been self-regulated by pet food manufacturers. The United States Senate held an oversight hearing on the matter by 12 April. The economic impact on the pet food market has been extensive, with Menu Foods losing roughly $30 million alone from the recall.

Government Action

The central government is determined to quell outrage among ordinary Chinese and demonstrate it is responding to the crisis. Premier Wen Jiabao has issued an apology and visited a sick child in the hospital. Speaking in New York on Sept. 23, Wen also promised strong action to inspect factories and protect consumers. Several top officials, including the chairwoman of Sanlu and the mayor of Shijiazhuang, the city where the company is based, have already lost their jobs.

As of 7 May, United States food safety officials stated: "There is very low risk to human health from consuming meat from hogs and chickens known to have been fed animal feed supplemented with pet food scraps that contained melamine and melamine-related compounds"

In September 2008, Sanlu Group had to recall baby milk because it was contaminated with melamine. Over 6,000 babies became ill after drinking the milk; at least four babies died.

Melamine Molecular Structure

Toxicity

Melamine by itself is nontoxic in low doses, but when combined with cyanuric acid it can cause fatal kidney stones due to the formation of an insoluble melamine cyanurate. Melamine is described as being "Harmful if swallowed, inhaled or absorbed through the skin. Chronic exposure may cause cancer or reproductive damage. Eye, skin and respiratory irritant.” However, the toxic dose is on a par with common table salt with an LD50 of more than 3 grams per kilogram of bodyweight.

Melamine is commonly use to create Laminate Board

Melamine is reported to have an oral LD50 of 3248 /kg based on rat data. It is also an irritant when inhaled or in contact with the skin or eyes. The reported dermal LD50 is >1000 mg/kg for rabbits. In a 1945 study, large doses of melamine were given orally to rats, rabbits and dogs with "no significant toxic effects" observed.

A study by USSR researchers in the 1980s suggested that melamine cyanurate, commonly used as a fire retardant), could be more toxic than either melamine or cyanuric acid alone. For rats and mice, the reported LD50 for melamine cyanurate was 4.1 g/kg (given inside the stomach) and 3.5 g/kg (via inhalation), compared to 6.0 and 4.3 g/kg for melamine and 7.7 and 3.4 g/kg for cyanuric acid, respectively.

A toxicology study conducted after recalls of contaminated pet food concluded that the combination of melamine and cyanuric acid in diet does lead to acute renal failure in cats.

Chronic Toxicity

Ingestion of melamine may lead to reproductive damage, or bladder or kidney stones, which can lead to bladder cancer.

A study in 1953 reported that dogs fed 3% melamine for a year had the following changes in their urine: (1) reduced specific gravity, (2) increased output, (3) melamine crystalluria, and (4) protein and occult blood.

Melamine Ware

A survey commissioned by the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians suggested that crystals formed in the kidneys melamine combined with cyanuric acid, "don't dissolve easily. They go away slowly, if at all, so there is the potential for chronic toxicity."

Poisoning and kidney failure caused by melamine cyanurate
Animal Feed Recall

Further information: 2007 pet food recalls and Chinese protein export contamination

In 2007 a pet food recall was initiated by Menu Foods and other pet food manufacturers who had found their products had been contaminated and caused serious illnesses or deaths in some of the animals that had eaten them. In March 2007, the US Food and Drug Administration reported finding white granular melamine in the pet food, in samples of white granular wheat gluten imported from a single source in China, Xuzhou Anying Biologic Technology as well as in crystalline form in the kidneys and in urine of affected animals.Further vegetable protein imported from China was later implicated.

In April 2007, The New York Times reported that the addition of "melamine scrap" into fish and livestock feed to give the false appearance of a higher level of protein was an "open secret" in many parts of mainland China, reporting that this melamine scrap was being produced by at least one plant processing coal into melamine. Four days later, the New York Times reported that, despite the widely reported ban on melamine use in vegetable proteins in mainland China, at least some chemical manufacturers continued to report selling it for use in animal feed and in products for human consumption. Li Xiuping, a manager at Henan Xinxiang Huaxing Chemical in Henan Province, stated, "Our chemical products are mostly used for additives, not for animal feed. Melamine is mainly used in the chemical industry, but it can also be used in making cakes." Shandong Mingshui Great Chemical Group, the company reported by the New York Times as producing melamine from coal, produces and sells both urea and melamine but does not list melamine resin as a product.

Melamine discovered in our favourite White Rabbit Candy!

Another recall incident in 2007 involved melamine which had been purposely added as a binder to fish and livestock feed manufactured in the United States. This was traced to suppliers in Ohio and Colorado.

Melamine found in four Marudai products
Sweets first said to be tainted with toxin linked to Chinese milk

OSAKA (Kyodo) The health authority in Osaka Prefecture said Friday that the toxic substance melamine has been found in four of the six food products sold by Marudai Food Co., the latest company to be embroiled in unfolding food-safety scandal involving tainted ingredients from China.

No health problems have been reported so far, Marudai said, adding that it is trying to recall as many tainted products as possible.

It is the first time the presence of melamine, an industrial chemical used to create fire retardant materials, has been confirmed in commercial food products sold in Japan.

Melamine, which can cause kidney stones in humans, was detected in four Marudai Food products, all of which used milk from major Chinese dairy Yili, according to data from the public health authority, based in Takatsuki.

The four products are Kurimu Panda, Guratan Kurepu Kon, Matcha Azuki Mirukuman and Kurimu Panda for commercial use.

The other two products — Kakuni Pao and Motchiri Nikuman — were found to be melamine-free, local health officials said.

So first we had China trying to kill off our pets with melamine, then they poisoned our toothpaste with anti-freeze, put lead in the paint on toys, made defective tires, and scr*wed up on food from the sea and elsewhere.

I think I’ve figured out the Chinese plan for world domination. It’s not efficient but it is subtle.

-Collateral Damage

MySpace Playlist at MixPod.com

China Toxin Milk Shocked the World!

Hong Kong New Report on China Toxin Milk

Money makes the World go round. Is there a possibility that the killer dairy product being strip off it original label and repack with a fresh label?

You Decide!

Stress Warning Signs and Symptoms
Cognitive Symptoms	Emotional Symptoms
Memory problems Indecisiveness Inability to concentrate Trouble thinking clearly Poor judgment Seeing only the negative Anxious or racing thoughts Constant worrying Loss of objectivity Fearful anticipation	Moodiness Agitation Restlessness Short temper Irritability, impatience Inability to relax Feeling tense and “on edge” Feeling overwhelmed Sense of loneliness and isolation Depression or general unhappiness
Physical Symptoms	Behavioral Symptoms
Headaches or backaches Muscle tension and stiffness Diarrhea or constipation Nausea, dizziness Insomnia Chest pain, rapid heartbeat Weight gain or loss Skin breakouts (hives, eczema) Loss of sex drive Frequent colds	Eating more or less Sleeping too much or too little Isolating yourself from others Procrastination, neglecting responsibilities Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing) Teeth grinding or jaw clenching Overdoing activities (e.g. exercising, shopping) Overreacting to unexpected problems Picking fights with others

Eagles Visions

Influenza A virus subtype H1N1

Symptoms and severity

MIT Team Solves Mystery of 1918 Pandemic that Killed 50-100 Million Worldwide

You Decide!

Does Plastic in Microwave Pose Health Problems?

Wall Street Journal 12oct98

Signs and symptoms of stress