Most baby formula health claims not backed by science: study

Yahoo – AFP, Daniel Lawler, 16 February 2023 

The vast majority of health claims used to advertise baby formula worldwide are not supported by rigorous scientific evidence, a study said Thursday, leading researchers to urge the breast milk substitutes be sold in plain packaging. 

The study comes a week after a group of doctors and scientists called for a regulatory crackdown on the $55-billion formula industry for "predatory" marketing which they said exploits the fears of new parents to convince them not to breastfeed. 

Breastfeeding is widely recognised to have huge health benefits for babies. The World Health Organization and the US CDC recommend breastfeeding exclusively during the first six months of a newborn's life. 

However that recommendation is followed for less than half of infants globally, according to the WHO. 

Daniel Munblit, an honorary senior lecturer at Imperial College London and an author of the new study, said researchers were not on a "crusade" against infant formula, which should remain an option for mothers who cannot or choose not to breastfeed.

"But we are very much against inappropriate infant formula marketing, which provides misleading claims not backed up by solid evidence," Munblit told AFP. 

Munblit and an international team of researchers looked at the health claims made for 608 products on the websites of infant formula companies in 15 countries, including the United States, India, Britain and Nigeria. 

The most common claims were that formula supports brain development, strengthens immune systems and more broadly helps growth. 

Half of the products did not link the claimed health benefit to a specific ingredient, according to the study published in the BMJ journal. 

Three quarters did not refer to scientific evidence supporting their claims. 

Of those that provided a scientific reference, more than half pointed to reviews, opinion pieces or research on animals. 

Just 14 percent of the products referred to registered clinical trials on humans. However 90 percent of those trials carried a high risk of bias, including missing data or the finding not supporting the claim, the study said. 

And nearly 90 percent of the clinical trials had authors who received funding from or had ties to the formula industry, it added. 

'Distressing' 

The most commonly cited ingredient was polyunsaturated fatty acids, which is in breast milk and is considered important for brain development. 

However there is no evidence of any added benefit when the ingredient is added to baby formula, according to a Cochrane systematic review. 

Munblit said the health claims were mostly used to advertise premium formula products, which could be "distressing" for parents who are misled into believing the ingredients are essential but cannot afford them. 

When asked what he thinks needs to be done to address the problem, Munblit was concise. 

"Plain packaging," he said. 

The study comes after a series of papers were published in the Lancet journal last week calling for global policy makers to end exploitative formula marketing. 

WHO infant health specialist Nigel Rollins, an author of one of the Lancet papers, said busy parents "lack the time to properly scrutinise claims" about infant formula. 

The new study showed that "governments and regulatory authorities must commit the necessary time and attention to review the claims of formula milk products," Rollins said in a linked BMJ editorial.

Fewer premature babies were born during lockdown: Erasmus MC

DutchNews, July 20, 2020   

Photo: Depositphotos.com 

Researchers from the Erasmus teaching hospital in Rotterdam believe that there was a decrease in the number of premature babies born in the Netherlands while the country was under lockdown. 

A similar drop was observed during the peak of the coronavirus outbreak in other European countries including Denmark and Ireland, according to the New York Times. 

Premature babies – those born before 32 weeks of gestation – are at greater risk of a variety of health problems, including neurological issues, vision and hearing problems and premature death. 

Irish and Danish doctors reported a 90% drop in significantly premature babies, born earlier than 28 weeks, but the fall in the Netherlands was said to be “slight,” reports NOS. 

It is unclear what was causing the decrease. Some researchers speculate that during lockdowns, pregnant women may have slept for more hours and spent less time on their feet. Others suggest that a decrease in air pollution may have played a role.

China birth rate hits lowest level since 1949

Yahoo – AFP, Beiyi SEOW, January 17, 2020

The number of births has now fallen for three consecutive years (AFP Photo/
NICOLAS ASFOURI)

China's birth rate dropped last year to its lowest level since the Communist country was founded in 1949, adding to concerns that an ageing society and shrinking workforce will pile pressure on a slowing economy.

To avoid a demographic crisis, the government relaxed its one-child policy in 2016 to allow people to have two children, but the change has not resulted in an increase in pregnancies.

In 2019, the birth rate stood at 10.48 per 1,000 people, down slightly from the year before, according to data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday.

The number of births has now fallen for three consecutive years, still, there were 14.65 million babies born in 2019.

He Yafu, an independent demographer based in southern Guangdong province, said the number of births was the lowest since 1961, the last year of a famine that left tens of millions dead. He said there were around 11.8 million births that year.

US-based academic Yi Fuxian, senior scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told AFP that even though China has abolished its one-child policy, there has been a shift in the mindset of the population, with people now used to smaller families.

He added that a higher cost of living is also a factor, noting that daycare is expensive and inconvenient in China, posing another deterrence.

He believes that China's population is over-estimated, and according to his work, the real population "began to decline in 2018".

According to official figures, China's population stood at 1.4 billion by the end of 2019, increasing by 4.67 million from the year before.

While China's limit on family sizes could be removed altogether eventually, the demographer He said citizens are still being punished for having three children, even though some areas have reduced punitive measures.

The government relaxed its one-child policy in 2016 to allow people to have two 

children, but the change has not resulted in more pregnancies (AFP Photo/Ed Jones)

'Slow, long-term problem'

China has signalled that it might end limits on family size as a draft of the new Civil Code -- due to be introduced at the annual session of the rubber-stamp parliament in March -- omits all mention of "family planning".

The one-child policy was introduced by top leader Deng Xiaoping to curb population growth and promote economic development, with exceptions for rural families whose first-born was a female, and for ethnic minorities.

The measure was mainly enforced through fines but was also notorious for forced abortions and sterilisations.

The result was dramatic: fertility rates dropped from 5.9 births per woman in 1970 to about 1.6 in the late 1990s. The replacement level for a population is 2.1.

This could pose a problem for the economy in the future, as the country's workforce continued to shrink last year.

The NBS said there were 896.4 million people aged between 16 and 59 -- its population of working age -- a drop from the 897.3 million in 2018.

This marks the eighth consecutive year of decline, and the workforce is expected to decline by as much as 23 percent by 2050.

"The demographic problem is a slow, long-term one," He told AFP.

He noted that ageing Japan, which saw rapid growth in the 1980s, has seen almost zero percent growth in recent years.

China's economy grew by 6.1 percent in 2019, its slowest pace since 1990 as it was hit by weaker demand and a bruising trade war with the United States.

"Because China's education levels have been going up, in the short term, the population issue should not impact growth too much," he said.

"But in the long run, if the trend continues, it would pose a huge drag on economic growth."

Babies born on floor as Zimbabwe's health system totters

Yahoo – AFP, Ish MAFUNDIKWA, with Zinyange AUNTONY in Bulawayo, December 4, 2019

Where a child is born: Esther Gwena, 69, who acts as a midwife but has no
training, lays down sheets in her rundown apartment -- a makeshift maternity
unit (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

Harare (AFP) - The floor is dusty, the walls filthy and the furniture decrepit, but for two weeks last month a tiny flat in a Harare township was transformed into a maternity clinic where scores of babies were born.

Its owner, 69-year-old Esther Gwena, says she helped to deliver 250 infants as Zimbabwe's health sector tottered -- a feat that earned comparisons to Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing.

Hundreds of junior medics at state hospitals began a strike three months ago because their salaries -- less than $200 a month -- are not enough to live on in a country gripped by 500 percent inflation.

Nurses are only working two days a week.

Those who can't afford private care -- the majority of the 14 million people reeling under an economic crisis compounded by acute food shortages -- suffer at home or seek help from people like Gwena.

Senior doctors, in a letter last week, said state hospitals had become a "death trap" and warned of a "slow genocide".

Gwena, a widow and member of the local Apostolic Faith sect, is a self-taught midwife.

When the health services strike peaked last month, she came to the rescue.

In need: Monica Bepu, 33, heavily pregnant with her second 

child, sits on a bench in the passage outside Esther Gwena's 

two-room flat in Harare (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

'I had to do something'

"A man came to me and said there were two women in advanced labour at (a nearby clinic) but the place was closed because the nurses were on strike," she told AFP in her two-room flat in Mbare township.

She rushed there and found that one of the women had a baby which had died.

"I took the other one to my place, where I helped her. The baby survived. From that time, I knew I had to do something," she said.

Word that she was helping deliver babies for free spread quickly.

The state-owned television ZBC described her as "a modern Zimbabwean version of Florence Nightingale" and First Lady Auxillia Mnangagwa visited Gwena and donated food, detergents and blankets.

A funeral services company chipped in with a mobile water tank and pitched a tent outside to serve as a waiting room for women before they went into advanced labour.

"I helped to deliver 250 babies ... (they) are alive and kicking and at home with their mothers," Gwena said.

Two weeks later, the government asked her to stop after a nearby maternity clinic reopened.

Winnie Denhere, 35, cradled her two-day-old baby boy outside the clinic, where she had taken him for an immunisation injection.

"Everything went very well, she didn't ask us for money," she said, speaking of Gwena, who brought her child into the world.

A moment for prayer: Gwena belongs to an Apostolic religious sect where she 

says she got her calling to take up midwifery. She says she has delivered as 

many as 250 children (AFP Photo/Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

'People dying'

But while some laud Gwena as a selfless do-gooder, doctors worry that she exposed herself, the mothers, the babies to infection.

"We need to do something about our facilities so no one goes to her," Harare's director of medical services Prosper Chonzi, said.

Medicines have been in short supply and broken machines go unrepaired.

The government has fired 448 junior doctors for striking.

Senior doctors last week also stopped work in protest over the sacking of junior colleagues. Dozens marched in Harare on Monday.

"People dying has become the order of the day in our hospitals," said the vice-president of the Senior Hospital Doctors Association Raphael Magota.

He told AFP machines were breaking down and that intensive care units were only able to treat two or three people "due to lack of equipment".

A senior doctor, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the situation has become untenable.

Gwena collects water in a bucket as she prepares for a long day (AFP Photo/

Jekesai NJIKIZANA)

"There is no public health in Zimbabwe at the moment; everything has come to a standstill," he said.

Even the scarce equipment is often not right.

"One needs gloves that fit just right when performing delicate operations, but we get old gloves that are too big," said another doctor.

A UN special rapporteur on food security, Hilal Elver, last week spoke of "disturbing information" that public hospitals had exhausted food stocks, forcing them to seek humanitarian aid and that medical equipment in some cases was "no longer operational".

In the second largest city of Bulawayo, Zimbabweans living abroad are helping in a small way by crowdfunding and sending money back home to offer health care for the vulnerable.

One such initiative is Citizwean Clinic, which opened its doors last month and attended to hundreds of patients in the first five days -- providing free consultation and drugs.

"We go to the hospital these days it's bad, there are no doctors. We heard that there were doctors here," said hypertensive patient Elina Dzingire, 63.

"We've really been helped here," she told AFP from the clinic in the city's Cowdray Park township.

Health Minister Obadiah Moyo admitted the situation in hospitals is constrained but says the government will soon advertise the posts left vacant by the sacked doctors.

Human-like neural activity detected in lab grown mini brains

Yahoo – AFP, Issam AHMED, August 29, 2019

A cross-section of a brain organoid, showing the initial formation of a cortical
plate, with each color marking a different type of brain cell (AFP Photo/HO)

Washington (AFP) - Scientists reported Thursday they had picked up human-like electrical activity in lab-grown brains for the first time, paving the way to model neurological conditions and answer fundamental questions on how our gray matter develops.

It's not clear whether the pea-sized brains are conscious: the team behind the breakthrough suspect they're not because the activity resembles that of preterm babies, but they cannot say for certain, opening up a new ethical dimension to this area of research.

So-called "cerebral organoids" derived from adult stem cells have been around for a decade or so but have never previously developed functional neural networks.

"If you had asked me five years ago 'Would you think that a brain organoid would ever have a sophisticated network able to generate a brain oscillation?' I would say no," Alysson Muotri, a biologist at the University of California San Diego, told AFP.

A paper published by Muotri and his colleagues in the journal Cell Press said that two factors were responsible for the breakthrough. The first was a better procedure to grow stem cells, including optimizing the culture medium formula.

The second was initially surprising, but also intuitive when the researchers thought about it: simply allowing the neurons adequate time to develop, just as babies' brains develop in the womb.

"The very early stages of human neurodevelopment are encoded in our genome," explained Muotri.

The team began to detect bursts of brain waves from organoids from about two months.

The signals were sparse at first and all at the same frequency, a pattern seen in very immature human brains. But as they grew, they produced waves at different frequencies, and the signals appeared more regularly, suggesting further development of their neural networks.

Researchers then compared the brain wave patterns with those of human brains in early development, by training a machine learning algorithm with the activity recorded from 39 prematurely born babies.

The program was successful in predicting how many weeks the organoids had been developing in their dishes, suggesting they shared a similar growth trajectory to brains in their natural setting.

Pea-size brain organoids at 10 months old; so-called "cerebral organoids" derived

from adult stem cells have been around for a decade or so but have never 

previously developed functional neural networks (AFP Photo/HO)

The point at which newborn babies attain consciousness, and the definition of consciousness itself, are both contested among scientists.

A French study in 2013 that looked at the brain activity of babies found they began to think about images of faces they were shown from the age of five months, appearing to store the visuals in their temporary "working memory" -- a faculty they linked to perceptual consciousness.

Applications and ethics

Earlier, less sophisticated organoids were used to model what happens when the brain is exposed to diseases like the Zika virus which causes physical malformations.

But there are also a host of neurological conditions such as autism, epilepsy, and even psychiatric conditions where problems arise from how the brain network is wired, not from malformations.

By creating brain organoids from the stem cells of individuals with these conditions, scientists could better model them and perhaps one day find cures.

They also hope to answer more fundamental questions. Muotri said the organoids development plateaued around nine to 10 months, for reasons that aren't yet clear.

"I'm curious about that. I wonder if it's because we don't have a vascularization system to allow the nutrients to get inside, or it could be that we are just lacking stimulation" in the form of sensory input.

He hopes to test both hypotheses.

About whether the brain organoids are conscious, Muotri said he suspects not because of its early stage of development.

"But if you ask me, 'How do you know?' I would say I have no evidence either way, because we don't even know how to detect consciousness in other systems," he said.

"As we get closer to the human brain, all of these ethical questions will appear," he admitted, proposing that the field be subject to agreed-upon limits and regulation.

Related Articles:

Human muscle tissue grown from stem cells: US study

"The Addictive Old Energy" + "Timing", US (3), August 12-13, 2017(Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)  (The Addictive Old Energy - Text version)

"... Is He Alone? How About You?

What kind of addiction does the old energy have for you? Are you continuing to do things that you think are absolutely correct, working with perceptions that have been given to you in an old energy that you are still wallowing in? Of course, reading this you will say, "Not me." Remember the Korean leader. He still thinks he is right and never saw it. How invested in struggle are you? I have some news. You can't do it for long. First, you lose friends. You can't claim to be one thing and be another anymore.

So let's start extending this teaching. If the darkness is so attractive, is it affecting anything else? The answer? It is absolutely affecting everything else. There's an entire industry we have told you about that will eventually fail because it has been developed in an older energy, worked in an older energy, and has no integrity. The industry is Big Pharma. We've told you that its fall is imminent and the attributes will come from the ones within it, who will expose it. When this actually happens is up to you, since this is free choice of the developing consciousness of your country. However, let's look for a moment, not at the event, but what it may then lead to.

Big Pharma is invested in an old idea that designer chemistry is the answer to healing. This idea has been prevalent for decades and many feel that it is the highest technology available. However, instead, and in the light, there starts to appear another idea entirely: The Human body has an unrealized awareness and it is actually the master healer! The Human body is designed to self-correct. So, therefore, don't put foreign chemistry into it, but instead find out how to give it elegant, specific instruction sets to heal itself. Make them high-technology instruction sets to inform it to heal itself!

This is homeopathy expanded, you might say. There are processes coming that understand that this Human body of yours is so much better than any chemist has ever realized, and the new energy is starting to expose this fact. The answer to healing is not chemistry. The answer to health and healing is by addressing the "smart part" of the Human body, giving it instructions to utilize former unknown systems that are ready to create spontaneous remission and beyond.

Remember my channelling given on the "youthing template" or the fact that you all have dormant "genesis cells" within your body (cells that have the full body blueprint and a source for very young stem cells)? These both were expositions of systems that are smart and ready to create new cells and healing in ways that will seem miraculous! But they need to be "instructed". 

Funding Will Trail for Awhile

How much money do you think is invested in the old ways? Right now, there is an industry of investment that is going to fail. So, do you think all this money will then be invested into the new methods? The answer is NO, not right away. Just like the North Korean leader's blindness, the old ways are just too addicting. "Keep it the same," they will yell. "The fall is temporary," they will say. "It always worked before, and it always will." Many investors will lose fortunes. The dysfunction is already being seen clearly. When you turn on your media at night, much of what you hear in the commercial breaks is how the chemistry didn't work! Now you get a chance to join others and sue the pharma companies for bad chemistry! You think something is beginning to break? It is. You see, they are already wallowing in something that's going to make them fail. They are advertising how broken the very system is. Both big pharma and their investors don't see the light coming yet, even though it is becoming dysfunctional before their eyes.  ..."

Big daycare group says children who are not vaccinated will be sent home

DutchNews,May 1, 2019

Photo: Depositphotos.com

A large Dutch childcare group has gone public in saying that it will ban children who have not be vaccinated against mumps, measles and German measles from July 1, broadcaster NOS said. 

The Berend Botje daycare group, which looks after over 3,000 children in Noord-Holland province, has told parents that children who have not been inoculated will be sent home after that date. The aim is to protect children of pre-inoculation age. 

There have been four cases of measles at a daycare centre in The Hague in recent weeks. Several are under 14 months old, the age at which children are vaccinated against the three diseases. 

So far around 100 daycare groups in the Netherlands have said that they will not accept children who have not been inoculated, but Berend Botje is thought to be the first one which has said it will ban children who already use its facilities. 

It is currently illegal to discriminate against non-vaccinated children under discrimination legislation but legislation to make a ban possible is currently going through parliament. 

Parents 

Berend Botje looks after children in a variety of age groups at 50 different locations across the province. So far around 10 parents have asked for further information about the ban, which will come into effect on July 1, the organisation told NOS. 

At the moment 90.2% of Dutch children are vaccinated against potentially serious illnesses such as measles, polio and whooping cough. This is below the level of 95% the World Health Organisation considers safe. 

The last measles epidemic in the Netherlands hit the Dutch Bible belt in 2013. In total, 2,600 people were diagnosed with measles and the outbreak was concentrated in families with young children who had not been vaccinated for religious reasons. One girl, who had not been vaccinated, died.

Related Articles:

New York mandates vaccine to contain Brooklyn measles outbreak

Vaccination debate rages on, €2m allocated to answer parents’ questions

“To vaccinate or not to vaccinate, that is the question”

Kryon Q&A

Question (2003): Dear Kryon, I have a new grandson. He's going for his first vaccination in the next few weeks. If we're beginning to transmute toxins with reconnections to our endocrine system through our DNA, then what happens to our babies, who by law have to be vaccinated? What are your thoughts on this subject?

Answer: First, know that vaccinations are a God-given science that humanity earned. They're a tried and proven homeopathic method that have been with you for years. You were probably vaccinated yourself, and it worked.

We have three answers: (1) God is not in a vacuum. Even the vaccinated Human Being who's older can modify and rework their DNA. So there's no time limit, and there are no rules that say "Once vaccinated, you're ruined." (2) The Human who is of the age of awareness can say, even as they are vaccinated, "Let nothing inappropriate enter my chemistry." This is a conscious instruction given to your "intelligent cellular structure" (the same one responsible for kinesiology and homeopathic results). This will result in your cells only using what they need and casting away everything else. (3) Finally, about babies: There has been a push by your science lately to vaccinate against many things at the same time. You'd be advised to seek out a doctor who will only vaccinate your child for only the basic diseases that have been known in the last 40 years. Eliminate the vaccinations for the new ones. This leaves you with approximately seven or eight - the very ones that have been used for years. What your science is not appreciating yet is the results of combining all the vaccination substances together. There's a problem that will show itself in time. Stick with the basic ones.

USAID launches latest clean-up for Vietnam War-era Agent Orange site

Yahoo – AFP, April 20, 2019

A Vietnamese soldier stands next to a sign warning of toxic hazard at Bien Hoa
air base, on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (AFP Photo/Thomas WATKINS)

Hanoi (AFP) - The US launched on Saturday a $183 million clean-up at a former Vietnam storage site for Agent Orange, a toxic defoliant used in their bitter war which years later is still blamed for severe birth defects, cancers and disabilities.

Located outside Ho Chi Minh City, Bien Hoa airbase -- the latest site scheduled for rehabilitation after Danang airbase's clean-up last year -- was one of the main storage grounds for Agent Orange and only hastily cleared by soldiers near the war's end more than four decades ago.

US forces sprayed 80 million litres (21 million gallons) of Agent Orange over South Vietnam between 1962 and 1971 in a desperate bid to flush out Viet Cong communist guerrillas by depriving them of tree cover and food.

The spillover from the clearing operation is believed to have seeped beyond the base and into ground water and rivers, and is linked to severe mental and physical disabilities across generations of Vietnamese -- from enlarged heads to deformed limbs.

At Bien Hoa, more than 500,000 cubic metres of dioxin had contaminated the soil and sediment, making it the "largest remaining hotspot" in Vietnam, said a statement from the US development agency USAID, which kicked off a 10-year remediation effort on Saturday.

The dioxin amounts in Bien Hoa are four times more than the volume cleaned up at Danang airport, a six-year $110 million effort which was completed in November.

"The fact that two former foes are now partnering on such a complex task is nothing short of historic," said the US ambassador to Vietnam, Daniel Kritenbrink, at Saturday morning's launch attended by Vietnamese military officials and US senators.

Hanoi says up to three million Vietnamese people were exposed to Agent Orange, and that one million suffer grave health repercussions today -- including at least 150,000 children with birth defects.

An attempt by Vietnamese victims to obtain compensation from the United States has met with little success. The US Supreme Court in 2009 declined to take up the case while neither the US government nor the manufacturers of the chemical have ever admitted liability.

While US officials have never admitted direct links between Agent Orange and birth defects, USAID on Saturday also issued a "memorandum of intent" to work with government agencies to improve the lives of people with disabilities in seven Vietnamese provinces.

Dutch fertility doctor secretly used his own sperm to father 49 children

DutchNews, April 12, 2019

The owner of a fertility clinic used his own sperm to father 49 children, according to DNA tests revealed on Friday. 

Jan Karbaat died in 2017, and after his death dozens of people came forward to say that they suspected that he had used his own sperm to impregnate their mothers, without their knowledge. 

A court case gave permission for materials containing his DNA to be collected and then the 49 Dutch people fought for the right to test their own DNA against these samples. 

Tim Bueters, lawyer for the group, has said that he is happy that an end has come to their uncertainty, reports the NOS . 

The doctor, who had a clinic in Barendrecht, had recognised 22 children.

China eyes bans for rogue scientists after gene-editing uproar

France24 – AFP, 27 Feb 2019

Chinese scientist He Jiankui has been placed under police investigation and the
government ordered a halt to his research work AFP/File

Beijing (AFP) - China has drafted new rules for biotechnology research, including fines and bans for rogue scientists, after a Chinese researcher caused a global outcry by claiming that he gene-edited babies.

Scientist He Jiankui's shock announcement that his experiment led to the birth of the world's first genetically-modified babies in November put a spotlight on China's lax oversight over scientific research.

He claimed to have altered the DNA of the twins to prevent them from contracting HIV by deleting a certain gene under a technique known as CRISPR.

The new rules unveiled on Tuesday propose to classify technology used for extracting genetic materials, gene editing, gene transfer and stem cell research as "high risk".

Health authorities under the central government would manage such research.

The State Council, China's cabinet, would be responsible for "the supervision and administration of clinical research and applications throughout the country," according to the rules.

The new draft proposes fines of between 50,000 and 100,000 yuan ($7,500 and $15,000) for scientists or institutions that carry out research without proper authorisation, and the government can halt and confiscate the work.

A scientist who earns "illegal income" from unauthorised research would be fined 10 to 20 times the amount of the illicit earnings.

Depending on the severity of the violation, a scientist can be banned from their field of work for six months to one year.

"If the circumstances are serious, their medical practice licence shall be revoked and the individual shall not engage in clinical research for life," the rules say.

He Jiankui has been placed under police investigation and the government ordered a halt to his research work.

A government probe found that He had "forged ethical review papers" and "deliberately evaded supervision", according to state media.

He had recruited eight couples for the gene-altering trial, and the investigation confirmed that a second woman became pregnant.

It is unknown if she has given birth yet.

Gene-editing for reproductive purposes is illegal in most countries, but China does not have a law banning it.

A brief regulation issued by the health ministry in 2003 prohibits gene-editing of human embryos, but does not stipulate any punishments for violators.

Following the storm sparked by He's announcement, scientists have called for an international treaty on gene-editing.

French watchdog sounds alert over chemicals in diapers

Yahoo – AFP, January 23, 2019

A French health agency said no medical study had proved health problems caused
by disposable diapers (AFP Photo/JOEL SAGET)

Paris (AFP) - A French public health watchdog issued a warning Wednesday about the risks of several chemicals found in disposable nappies, particularly artificial perfumes, leading the government to demand that manufacturers withdraw them from their products.

The Anses health body stressed there was no medical study which had proved health problems caused by disposable diapers.

But "we cannot exclude a risk... because we have recorded some substances that are above healthy limits," the deputy director of the Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health and Safety (Anses), Gerard Lasfargues, told AFP.

The chemicals identified in the study -- described as the first of its kind -- include two artificial perfumes as well as other complex aromatic products that are refined from oil, and potentially dangerous dioxins.

The French government called a meeting of nappy manufacturers on Wednesday morning and gave them 15 days to remove the products identified by the watchdog.

"I want to reassure parents: Anses says that there is no immediate risk for the health of our children," Health Minister Agnes Buzyn said after the meeting.

"Obviously we should continue putting nappies on our babies. We've been doing that for at least 50 years," she said, while adding that the report does not exclude "a health risk for children in the long term".

"That's why as a precaution we want to protect our children from possible effects," said Buzyn, who met the manufacturers along with the economy and environmental ministers.

In a statement on Wednesday, market leader Pampers, which belongs to US consumer products group Procter & Gamble, said its diapers "are safe and have always been so."

Scientists working for Anses tested 23 types of nappies in real-life conditions as they were worn by children, which it said was a world first.

"We calculated the amount (of chemicals) absorbed, calculated according to the time a nappy is worn, the number of nappies worn by babies, up to 36 months, and then we compared the results with toxicology standards," Lasfargues said.

An average baby in France wears 3,800 to 4,800 nappies, Lasfargues said, with the potentially hazardous chemicals found even in products marketed as environmentally friendly.

Babies wanted: Nordic countries crying for kids

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre-Henry DESHAYES with the AFP bureaux in the Nordic region, 17 January 2019

Norway's prime minister has underscored a growing concern: fewer and
fewer babies are being born in Northern Europe

"Norway needs more children! I don't think I need to tell anyone how this is done," Norway's prime minister said cheekily, but she was raising a real concern.

Too few babies are being born in the Nordic region.

The Nordic countries were long a bastion of strong fertility rates on an Old Continent that is rapidly getting older.

But they are now experiencing a decline that threatens their cherished welfare model, which is funded by taxpayers.

"In the coming decades, we will encounter problems with this model," Prime Minister Erna Solberg warned Norwegians in her New Year's speech.

"There will be fewer young people to bear the increasingly heavy burden of the welfare state."

In Norway, Finland and Iceland, birth rates dropped to historic lows in 2017, with 1.49 to 1.71 children born per woman. Just a few years earlier, their birth rates hovered close to the 2.1 level required for their populations to remain stable.

"In all of the Nordic countries, birth rates started dropping in the years after the 2008 financial crisis," University of Oslo sociologist Trude Lappegard told AFP.

"The crisis is over now but it's still falling."

From Copenhagen to the North Cape, from Helsinki to Reykjavik, demographics across the Nordics reveal two things: there are fewer large families, and women are waiting longer before having their first child.

There's no single explanation, but financial uncertainty and a sharp rise in housing costs are seen as likely factors.

An economist in Norway has suggested that women be given 500,000 kroner

(50,000 euros, $58,550) in pension savings for each child born

In the long term, this means there will be fewer people of working age to pay taxes that fund the generous state welfare systems.

These systems pay for, among other things, lengthy parental leaves, which in Sweden can last up to 480 days.

Paying for pregnancies

Experts present differing diagnoses and prescriptions to remedy the situation.

In Norway, one economist concerned about the effect the slowing demographics will have on economic growth has suggested giving women 500,000 kroner (50,000 euros, $58,550) in pension savings for each child born.

Another has suggested that, on the contrary, women in Norway who reach the age of 50 without having had a child should be paid one million kroner, since children also cost society a lot.

Finnish municipalities have already decided to loosen their purse strings to encourage locals to get busy under the covers.

The town of Miehikkala, home to 2,000 people, is offering 10,000 euros for each baby born and raised in the municipality.

"The number of childless individuals is growing rapidly, and the number of women having three or more children is going down. This kind of fall is unheard of in modern times in Finland," said Anna Rotkirch, a family sociologist at the umbrella organisation Finnish Family Federation.

In Denmark, Copenhagen has meanwhile turned its attention to men, who are in less of a hurry to become parents than women, with a campaign aimed at raising awareness about how sperm quality declines with age.

Syrian refugees Walaa Al Hodl,(L), and Kahled Al Hodl applied 

for asylum in Sweden with their six-month-old girl Nour in 2013

Immigration boost

The Nordic region already boasts a wealth of family-friendly initiatives, such as flexible working hours, a vast network of affordable daycares and generous parental leave systems.

But when all that is still not enough to encourage people to have more children, immigration can be a lifeline -- or a threat, depending on the point of view.

Sweden may have a falling birth rate, but it still comes in second in the EU behind France with 1.85 children born per woman in 2016.

That is largely due to Sweden's decades-long history of immigration: immigrant women tend to have more children than the average Swede.

With 2.6 children per woman in recent years, the town of Aneby in southern Sweden has one of the highest rates in the country, a phenomenon attributed to the fact that it opened its doors to immigrants two decades ago.

"Aneby welcomed around 225 Eritreans in the early 1990s and just after that (it took in) refugees from the Balkans. 1994 was a demographic record for the town," local official Ola Gustafsson told AFP.

But population growth among minorities has also fuelled fears.

A former justice minister in Norway, Per-Willy Amundsen of the populist far-right, made headlines when he called for family allowances to be reduced after a third child.

His stated goal was to stop Somalis who, he said, had a higher "birth production" rate than "ethnic Norwegians".

Related Article:

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”