Beware: These Best-Selling Products Can Make You Sick
Print<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...><http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
May 28 2012 | 77,396 views
-
-
-
-
-
- 19
[image: Email to a friend] Email
Story at-a-glance
- The chemical, biotech, pharmaceutical, and processed food industries
have become wellsprings of fraud, deception, and all manner of criminal
behavior in pursuit of profits
- When it comes to making money many industries throw ethics and
integrity out the window. A star witness for the manufacturers of flame
retardants was recently exposed for fabricating heart-wrenching cases of
infants burned to death in fires in a passionate testimony before
California legislators. The incidents he cited never occurred, and the
infant victims did not exist. The doctor has defended his use of bold-faced
lies to influence legislators, stating he was not under oath
- Since lifting the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising three decades
ago, the US healthcare system has metamorphosed from a public service
network into one of the largest corporate profit machines on the planet.
Nineteen drug companies made AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate Criminals
List for the 1990s
- A bi-partisan probe of drug marketing practices was recently triggered
by the huge jump in deadly overdoses from painkillers known as opioids,
which now surpass overdose deaths caused by cocaine and heroin combined.
Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus and Senator Chuck Grassley
have sent letters to three major drug makers, demanding documents about
their financial connections to seven medical groups that may have promoted
misleading information about the risks and benefits of opioid use while
receiving financial support from the manufacturers
- In the largest bust to date, federal agents have charged 197 people in
schemes that cheated the Medicare system out of $452 million. The
government also suspended payments to 52 provider organizations as part of
the bust
Most Popular
1
Germier Than Toilet Seats, But You Touch Them Every
Day<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/27/mrsa-on...>
2
Opting for This "Cheaper Food" Could Make You Age
Faster<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/26/monsant...>
3
8 Reasons to Do This Misunderstood
Exercise<http://fitness.mercola.com/sites/fitness/archive/2012/05/25/darin-ste...>
4
Worse than a Disease Diagnosis - This Mistake Can Land You in the
E.R.<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/23/can-med...>
5
The Drug Shock of the Year - FDA Approved, But
Beware<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/22/gmo-on-...>
Related Links:
-
You'll Ignore Conventional Health Advice - Once You See These Ugly
Facts<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/04/lobbyis...>
-
How Corrupted Drug Companies Deceive and Manipulate Your
Doctor<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/18/how-cor...>
-
The 6 Top Thugs of the Medical World... As Ranked by "Top 100 Corporate
Criminals" List<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/18/drug-co...>
*By Dr. Mercola*
How far will companies go to ensure they continue making money on products
that make you sick? Answer: No extreme is too extreme, including bold-faced
lying, if it means keeping the bucks rolling in.
This article will cover an assortment of examples of how you're being
deceived by four of the largest industries the chemical, biotech,
pharmaceutical, and processed food industry.
Lies, Damn Lies!
One of the biggest lies that toxic chemical companies have told so far
includes the heart-wrenching stories of babies dying agonizing deaths in
fires. Throwing integrity out the window, the company hired professional
experts to lie as they were not under oath. The babies didn't actually
die--in fact, they never even existed.
The *Chicago Tribune* learned this recently when it wanted to know more
about a 7-week-old baby who a burn doctor testified as having died in agony
because she was on a pillow that lacked flame
retardantsi<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>.
Lo and behold, the entire story was a fabrication, from beginning to end.
It turns out other tiny patients the doctor had described in testimony
supporting toxic flame retardant materials didn't exist either.
According to the *Chicago Tribune*:
*"... [Dr. David] Heimbach's passionate testimony about the baby's death
made the long-term health concerns about flame retardants voiced by
doctors, environmentalists and even firefighters sound abstract and petty.
But there was a problem with his testimony: It wasn't true.*
*Records show there was no dangerous pillow or candle fire. The baby he
described didn't exist. Neither did the 9-week-old patient who Heimbach
told California legislators died in a candle fire in 2009. Nor did the
6-week-old patient who he told Alaska lawmakers was fatally burned in her
crib in 2010.*
*Heimbach is not just a prominent burn doctor. He is a star witness for the
manufacturers of flame retardants. His testimony, the Tribune found, is
part of a decades-long campaign of deception that has loaded the furniture
and electronics in American homes with pounds of toxic chemicals linked to
cancer, neurological deficits, developmental problems and impaired
fertility.*
*The tactics started with Big Tobacco, which wanted to shift focus away
from cigarettes as the cause of fire deaths, and continued as chemical
companies worked to preserve a lucrative market for their products,
according to a Tribune review of thousands of government, scientific and
internal industry documents.*
*These powerful industries distorted science in ways that overstated the
benefits of the chemicals, created a phony consumer watchdog group that
stoked the public's fear of fire and helped organize and steer an
association of top fire officials that spent more than a decade campaigning
for their cause..."*
Unfortunately, these lies do not just result in profits for the chemical
industry it may not otherwise have enjoyed. These lies directly impact and
harm your health, and the health of your children--children who, contrary to
the infants in Dr. Heimbach's fantasy drama, are very much alive and
dependent on adults to make appropriate decisions.
According to Patricia Callahan and Sam Roe, reporters with the *Chicago
Tribune*, between 1970 and 2004, blood levels of certain flame retardant
chemicals *doubled* in American adults *every two to five years*, and
American infants are born with the highest levels of these chemicals in
their systems of any other nation on the planet. Why? Because of lies that
tug at heart strings rather than provide *evidence* of safety and
effectiveness of the chemical in question.
Health Hazards of Flame Retardant Chemicals Abound...
Incredibly, certain common flame retardants, such as PBDEs, have been
detected in the blood of up to 97 percent of U.S. residents, at levels that
are 20 times higher than those of Europeans. Californians have some of the
highest exposures due to the state's strict flammability laws.
Research has shown that pregnant women with higher blood levels of
PBDEs,<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/07/06/flame-r...>
a
common class of flame retardants, have altered thyroid hormone levels -- a
fact that could have implications for fetal health.
PBDEs, or polybrominated diphenyl ethers, are organobromine compounds now
found in household items such as carpets, electronics and plastics, and
these chemicals are known to accumulate in human fat cells. Although the
mechanics of how PBDEs affect your thyroid are still unclear, it is
believed that PBDE chemicals mimic your thyroid hormones.
Another study published two years ago found an inverse link between
exposure to fire retardant chemicals and the time it takes for exposed
women to become
pregnantii<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>.
Higher exposures were associated with decreased fertility.
PBDEs<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2001/12/12/breast-...>
are
also showing up in breast milk, and in various foods, including wild fish,
and in the sewage sludge being applied as fertilizer on food crops across
the U.S. This is yet another tragic case where lack of foresight and safety
testing has turned out to have very significant, "unanticipated" human and
environmental health risks.
Do Flame Retardants Even Work?
Making matters worse, it appears the science does not even support the
industry's claims of *effectiveness*, so the health risks you're exposing
yourself and your children to are not even for a valid cause! According to
the *Chicago Tribune*:
*"People might be willing to accept the health risks if the flame
retardants packed into sofas and easy chairs worked as promised. But they
don't. The chemical industry often points to a government study from the
1980s as proof that flame retardants save lives. But the study's lead
author, Vytenis Babrauskas, said in an interview that the industry has
grossly distorted his findings and that the amount of retardants used in
household furniture doesn't work. "The fire just laughs at it," he said.
Other government scientists subsequently found that the flame retardants in
household furniture don't protect consumers from fire in any meaningful
way."*
Biotech--An Industry Built on "Adjustable Truths"
Another flaming example of a corporate giant that gets caught lying again
and again is Monsanto which, in 2009, was found guilty by France's highest
court of false advertising<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/11/21/France-...>
for
claims that its toxic weed killer Roundup is biodegradable and leaves "the
soil clean."
The French court noted that Roundup's main ingredient, glyphosate, is
dangerous for the environment and toxic for aquatic organisms. But that's
just one example of the lies Monsanto tells to keep on selling its
products; this company has a long history of fraudulent statements about
the safety of Roundup. They long used the slogans, "It's Safer than
Mowing," "Biodegradable," and "Environmentally Friendly" to describe
Roundup -- until the real effects of this toxic herbicide were revealed and
they were forced to discontinue their deceptive advertising.
Monsanto--who is in the convicted liar's club--has unfortunately managed to
work its way into a large number of high-level federal regulatory positions
in the U.S. government; many of which are positions meant to *protect* your
food safety!
<http://media.mercola.com/ImageServer/public/2012/january/study1-big.jpg>
Furthermore, the entire biotech industry is built on half-truths and claims
that are largely unsupported by independent scientific reviews. The
following video discusses and dispels some of these falsehoods.
Big Pharma Still Leads the Pack of Convicted Liars
But the chemical and biotech industries certainly do not have a monopoly on
using dirty tactics to maintain and increase market share and boost
profits. This honor probably goes to the pharmaceutical industry, which, in
terms of dollars and cents, is more powerful than 168 individual nations on
this planet. Just consider the ramifications of these statistics for a
moment... As of 2009, the global market for
pharmaceuticalsiii<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
was
worth more than $837 billion, and is expected to reach $1.1 TRILLION in
2014.
If Big Pharma's annual global market was compared to the GDP--the market
value of all the output produced in a nation in one year--then Big Pharma
would rank # 15 on a list of 183
nationsiv<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
. *That's* how BIG the pharmaceutical industry is!
Americans are disproportionally supporting this behemoth of an industry.
Americans, including children, are the most drugged people in the entire
world, with the average adult taking 11 prescription
drugs<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/06/09/average...>--each
of which comes with an average of 70 different potential side effects that
are then typically addressed with yet more drugs...
Direct-to-consumer advertising has played a major role in turning the U.S.
into a nation of over-medicated people with the most expensive health care
in the world, while continuously dropping in life expectancy and other
health indexes.
If you believe their advertisements, Big Pharma has a fix for just about
any physiological condition you can think of. Most of these fixes come in
the form of expensive prescriptions ordered by your doctor--that's why the
ads usually suggest that you ask your doctor if the product they're
promoting "would be right for you."
It's a subliminal message that makes you your own drug peddler, and it's a
profoundly successful strategy. In a recent AlterNet article, Jim Hightower
discusses how direct-to-consumer advertising--which about 30 years ago
wasn't allowed in the U.S.--carries a major responsibility for having
created a drugged-up
Americav<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>.
He rightfully points out that since lifting the ban on direct-to-consumer
advertising "America's healthcare system has radically metamorphosed from a
public service network (largely run by independent physicians and nonprofit
hospitals) into a corporate profit machine."
The situation has gotten so out of hand that a renowned former editor of
the *New England Journal of Medicine*, Dr. Arnold Relman, is accusing drug
makers of creating an epidemic that's endangering public health, jacking up
healthcare costs, and weakening the curative connection between health
professionals and patients.
Healthcare has Been Reduced to a "Buyer Beware" For-Profit Industry
It's a dishonorable way to generate sales of potentially deadly drugs, but
it works: according to Hightower, for every $1,000 that a drug company
spends on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising in the U.S. produces 24 new
patients. It's a bonanza that generates seven times more customers than if
the companies didn't advertise, and the results on public health are often
devastating, further driving up the nation's health care costs.
Take Vioxx, for example--Merck's failed drug that caused 140,000 cardiac
events, including more than 60,000 deaths, before it was pulled from the
market. Merck admits that Vioxx was never intended for the general public.
Yet Merck advertised it, and people saw the ads and started demanding it
from their doctors, and Merck sold 20 million prescriptions. Many people
died before Merck pulled both the ads and the drug. Vioxx became a
blockbuster drug, primarily through the use of aggressive DTC advertising.
And as a result, *thousands* of unsuspecting people died or suffered heart
attacks that would never have used the drug had they not been lured in by
the glossy adverts.
But Merck isn't alone in this; direct-to-consumer marketing is a general
practice by almost every drug company in America. The problem is that, like
Vioxx, some of the drugs being advertised are not what they appear; meaning
if you see it advertised, the old axiom, caveat emptor--let the buyer
beware--is something to remember. This is to be expected when you consider
the source, because pharmaceutical companies lead the pack when it comes to
corporate crime.
The Real Thugs of the Drug World
The "war on drugs" has focused nearly exclusively on the illegal
trafficking of drugs like cocaine, heroin and
marijuana<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/05/07/medical...>,
while the most powerful drug dealers of all -- the pharmaceutical companies
-- are allowed to grow their businesses with the U.S. government's golden
seal of approval. But make no mistake - the leading pharmaceutical
companies are also among the largest corporate criminals in the world, and
they are little more than white-collar drug dealers.
Although many fail to realize this, prescription drugs can be just as
addictive as illegal drugs. In fact, in many cases there's *no difference
between a street drug and a prescription drug*. For example, hydrocodone, a
prescription opiate, is synthetic heroin. It's indistinguishable from any
other heroin as far as your brain and body are concerned. So, if you're
hooked on hydrocodone, you are in fact a good-old-fashioned heroin addict.
But aside from the nature of their business, fraud, kickbacks,
price-setting, bribery and illegal sales activities are all par for the
course for big-name drug companies.
Two years ago, I set out to investigate some of the criminal
activities<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/18/drug-co...>
that
some of the largest pharmaceutical companies had been convicted of lately,
and the amount of gross misconduct, fraud and deceit I found was so
insidious, so massive, and so overwhelming that it shocked even me. In all,
no less than 19 drug companies made AllBusiness.com's Top 100 Corporate
Criminals List for the 1990s! You can read the grim details in full
here<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/11/18/drug-co...>,
but here's a sampling of what the top drug companies are up to:
- *Merck:* With a long list of deaths to its credit and more than $5.5
billion in judgments and fines levied against it, it was five years *
before* Merck made its $30-billion recall of the painkiller
Vioxx<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/01/02/painkil...>
that
I warned my readers that it might be a *real *killer for some people.
After the drug was withdrawn, and 60,000 had already died, Merck picked
up the pieces by getting a new drug fast-tracked and on the market. That
drug is Gardasil<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/01/24/hpv-vac...>,
a vaccine that so far has been linked to thousands of adverse events, and
at least 26 unexplained deaths in just ONE YEAR. It's a situation that the
FDA and CDC have repeatedly denied, keeping their heads buried in the sand
as adverse reports mount.
Meanwhile, over 90 percent of women infected with HPV clear the
infection naturally within two years, at which point cervical cells go back
to normal. Even more importantly, PAP smears can identify cervical changes,
thereby preventing cervical cancer deaths far more effectively than the HPV
vaccine ever will, because there's a sufficient amount of time to find and
treat any cervical abnormalities if you're getting regular PAP smears.
Alas, as the HPV vaccine is gaining favor, health officials are beginning
to argue against the routine use of PAP smears, despite the fact that no
one has ever died from this test, while the HPV vaccine is now harming
thousands each year.
- *Baxter:* Dozens of recalls of products that caused deaths and
injuries, at least 11 different guilty pleas to fraud and illegal sales
activity, more than 200 lawsuits - many of them stemming from selling
AIDS-tainted blood to hemophiliacs - and more than $1.3 billion in criminal
fines and civil penalties.
- *Pfizer:* In the largest health care fraud
settlement<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2009/09/26/Pfizer-...>
in
history, Pfizer was ordered to pay $2.3 billion to resolve criminal and
civil allegations that the company illegally promoted uses of four of its
drugs, including the painkiller Bextra, the antipsychotic Geodon, the
antibiotic Zyvox, and the anti-epileptic Lyrica.
FDA Approves HIV Prevention Drug
If I were to pick out the next blockbuster drug destined to wreak havoc on
public health, the brand new drug for HIV prevention would probably be it,
and this is primarily related to the fact that there is a strong likelihood
that through lobbying and pressure, it will likely be recommended to
everyone, just like vaccines, and enforced with similar rules so that the
vast majority of the population will be on it.
A drug that's already being used as a treatment for AIDS has now been
approved by the FDA as a preventive pill for use with people who have no
infection at all--a move that even AIDS activists say is the wrong thing to
do. According to CNN, more than 40 health professionals, AIDS advocates and
patients implored the FDA committee not to recommend the drug for the new
indicationvi<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>.
But the committee ignored their pleas and did it anyway. (The FDA doesn't
have to follow the recommendations of its advisory committees, but it often
does.)
The drug, Truvada, is manufactured by Gilead Sciences Inc. It's not cheap--a
month's supply costs about $1,200. The committee's approval gives Gilead a
whole new, wide-open market for selling the drug.
While currently approved only as pre-exposure prophylaxis for HIV-infected
homosexual men and the uninfected partners to HIV-infected individuals,
it's fairly easy to see how this will in short order be relaxed to include
literally *everyone*, regardless of age, sex or sexual preference (barring
only those who have committed to complete abstinence, I would presume),
just like Gardasil suddenly--against all reasonable logic--became a
recommended prophylactic necessity for young boys...
In case you think you have heard of Gilead Sciences before, you have if you
have been reading this newsletter for some time. Gilead Sciences is the
company that Donald Rumsfeld was the former chairman of, and received $7.1
billion dollars for the sale of government-recommended Tamiflu for the
non-existent Bird Flu that was projected to kill millions.
More Medical Corruption and Conflicts of Interest
Like a broken record, news of corruption and conflicts of interest between
drug makers and medical groups that promote the drugs has erupted again,
this time in an investigation led by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max
Baucus and Senator Chuck Grassley.
The bi-partisan probe of drug marketing practices was triggered by the huge
jump in deadly overdoses from painkillers known as opioids. According to
2008 statistics from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
opioids were involved in 14,800 overdose deaths that year, surpassing
overdose deaths caused by cocaine and heroin combined!
The Senate probe follows an investigation by ProPublica and *The Washington
Post*, which found that the American Pain Foundation received 90 percent of
its funding from the drug and medical device industry in 2010, while
simultaneously producing written guidance that downplayed side effects and
risks and highlighted the benefits of the drugs.
According to a recent Reuter's report, the senators have sent letters to
three major drug makers (Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals unit,
Endo Pharmaceuticals, and Purdue Pharma), demanding documents about their
financial connections to seven medical groups that may have been promoting
misleading information about the risks and benefits of opioid use while
receiving financial support from the
manufacturersvii<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
.
According to Baucus:
*"These painkillers have an important role in health care when prescribed
and used properly, but pushing misinformation on consumers to boost profits
is not only wrong, it's dangerous." .*
Crime Pays Off Big When You're a Corporation
In the medical world, there seems to be few crimes that don't pay off--as
long as you don't get caught (and even then, all you're bound to receive is
a slap on the wrist as long as you're large and important enough).
The U.S. government is constantly bilked of much needed funds through
fraudulent means. In the past few years, the Department of Justice busted
doctors, nurses, clinics, hospitals, nursing homes, and drug companies for
charging the Medicare and Medicaid system *billions of dollars* for
treatments, drugs, and medical devices that government investigators say
either weren't needed or were never provided at all.
MSNBC News recently reported that, in the largest bust to date, federal
agents have charged 197 people in schemes that cheated the Medicare system
out of a record $452
millionviii<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
.
The sweep included major cities such as Miami, Tampa, Chicago, Detroit,
Houston, Los Angeles and Baton Rouge. The government also suspended
payments to 52 provider organizations as part of the bust. The types of
medical care involved ran the gamut of health services. For example, in
Baton Rouge seven people who ran two community health centers are accused
of defrauding the government of $225 million in false claims. The health
centers allegedly rounded up drug addicts, homeless people and the elderly,
and used them to submit false claims for treatment.
Unless caught, cheaters can make vast sums of money, sometimes upwards of a
billion dollars a year just through filing false or "upgraded" payment
claims! These types of health care fraud cost US taxpayers an estimated
$80-160 billion per year. The latest drug company to get caught is Abbott
Laboratories, which pled guilty to promoting its drug Depakote to nursing
homes and other healthcare providers for treatment of patients with
dementia. Abbott agreed to pay the government $1.5 billion to resolve the
criminal investigation.
Why is U.S. Congress More Concerned with Protecting Profits than Kids'
Health?
Another industry given free rein to wreak havoc on public health is the
food industry. Processed foods, which contain few nutrients and plenty of
disease-promoting sugar and poorly tested chemicals, are at the heart of
the obesity epidemic. But if you thought the federal government was really
going to do something about childhood obesity in America, all it takes to
change your mind is to follow the corporate money trail to Congress...
In a new report by the Sunlight Foundation Reporting
Groupix<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>,
researchers found that federal guidelines for marketing aimed at children
were stopped in their tracks by money thrown at politicians charged with
making the change happen. In a recent AlterNet article, Steven Rosenfeld
reviewsx<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
the
lengths to which corporate America will go to protect their profits. Common
tactics include:
- Campaign donations
- Attacking science
- Asserting constitutional rights, and
- Threatening federal agencies with smear campaigns
As a result of industry pressure, nearly 200 lawmakers buckled on the
marketing guidelines and ignored the nationwide health epidemic affecting
millions of children and teenagers, proving yet again that ingrained in
Washington is the impetus to protect corporate profits, as opposed to
standing up for the public interest.
Is There a Solution to these Travesties?
As discussed by former lobbyist Jack
Abramoff<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/12/04/lobbyis...>,
who served three-and-a-half years in federal prison after pleading guilty
to corrupting public officials, tax evasion and fraud, our current
political system basically runs on bribes. So one necessary step to have
any chance of quelling this out-of-control corruption, fraud, and criminal
activity is to prohibit all members of Congress and their staff from ever
becoming a lobbyist after their service on the Hill is over.
The good news is that increasing numbers of people are now waking up to
these harsh realities, and you, being among those who are informed, can
help share this knowledge with others. Remember that the definition of
fascism is a government system that has complete power in regimenting all
industry and forcibly suppressing opposition and criticism. What we have
here is a hybrid--a sort of corporate fascism, where industry has powerful
control over government, and forcefully suppresses anything that threatens
their monopoly on profits.
But, this doesn't mean that you have to buy into their agenda.
The goal is to ultimately have a critical mass of people refuse the
unnecessarily dangerous and counterproductive solutions currently offered
by all of these industries, and demand that our public servants serve the
public rather than corporate interests. That will serve as the powerful
stimulus to generate authentic change. More than 1.6 million people receive
this newsletter, and together we can make a huge difference.
*References:*
------------------------------
- i<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
Chicago Tribune May 6,
2012<http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-05-06/news/ct-met-flame-retar...>
- ii<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
Environmental Health Perspectives May
2010;118(5):699-704<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20103495>
- iii <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>IMSHealth.com
April 20, 2010<http://www.imshealth.com/portal/site/imshealth/menuitem.a46c6d4df3db4...>
- iv<http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>
Wikipedia.com List of countries by GDP
(PPP)<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28PPP%29>
- v <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>AlterNet.org
May 8, 2012<http://www.alternet.org/health/155331/ask_your_doctor_if_this_big_pha...>
- vi <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>CNN
May 11, 2012<http://edition.cnn.com/2012/05/10/health/hiv-drug/index.html?hpt=he_c2>
- vii <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>Reuters
May 9, 2012<http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/09/us-usa-painkillers-investig...>
- viii <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>MSNBC
News May 2, 2012<http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/05/02/11504338-feds-announce-b...>
- ix <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>Sunlight
Foundation Reporting Group, May 21,
2012<http://reporting.sunlightfoundation.com/2012/congressional_letter_wri...>
- x <http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/05/28/flame-r...>AlterNet.org
May 11, 2012<http://www.alternet.org/story/155394/one_in_5_kids_is_obese_yet_congr...>
