1) Flood relief for drug firm?! by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 2) Destruction of Cambodian woodlands by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 3) Revolutionary new treatment for arthritis with no side effects by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net> 4) (CN) Chinese circus animals dumped by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 5) (SG) Labelling law needed by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 6) (CA) The bear facts about a killer by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 7) Re: (CN) Chinese circus animals dumped by Vadivu Govind <kuma@cyberway.com.sg> 8) US Farmers death sparks BSE fear by bunny <rabbit@wantree.com.au> 9) Re: Lori Gauthier, Animal Rescuer in Kentucky by KnoxHumane@aol.com 10) National Horse Day by ighahorseaid@earthlink.net (IGHA/HorseAid Volunteer) 11) PMU Farms on Fox Network's MILLENNIUM TV show. by ighahorseaid@earthlink.net (IGHA/HorseAid Volunteer) 12) positive health publicity for National Salad Month by Vegetarian Resource Center <vrc@tiac.net> 13) by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 14) [CA] Manitoban's consider themselves lucky dogs by David J Knowles <dknowles@dowco.com> 15) LA Times: Transgenic Livestock by Marisul@aol.com 16) Re: (MY) Mangrove forest threatened--UNSUBSCRIBE by PonyJumpin@aol.com 17) Canned lion hunts in South Africa by Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 21:27:30 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Flood relief for drug firm?!
Message-ID: <336ABEB2.7381@worldnet.att.net>
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Drug company wants to be added to the bill sending the Midwest funds
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (May 2, 1997 4:08 p.m. EDT) -- A bill to send emergency flood
aid to the Midwest may also provide fast relief for a Swiss
pharmaceutical company that is trying to use the measure to extend
patent protection for one of its prescription drugs.
Lobbyists for the drug company, Hoffman-LaRoche, approached key
lawmakers over the past several weeks, pointing out that their drug's
patent is due to expire on May 16. They argued that the drug was the
victim of a glitch in trade law that in effect shortened its monopoly
protection by 14 months.
But the generic drug industry, which would like to begin competing for
the $154 million market for the drug, said the provision would cost
consumers money and give Hoffman-LaRoche an unfair windfall.
It would also provide a legislative end-run around a U.S. appeals court
decision last year that limited the ability of drug companies to seek
patent extensions.
The drug, Toradol, was used on President Clinton during his surgery to
repair a torn tendon in his knee six weeks ago. It is a pain reliever
and anti-inflammatory medicine in the same class as aspirin and
ibuprofen, but more potent. It is used mainly in hospitals and
administered by injection.
The drug maker's lobbyists failed to get the provision attached in the
House Appropriations Committee, which originated the spending bill. The
measure provides $8.4 billion in new spending for flood relief and to
support U.S. military missions in Bosnia and the Middle East. The House
didn't want to bog the measure down with unrelated provisions, said
aides in both parties.
But in the Senate, Hoffman-LaRoche struck paydirt. Sen. Lauch Faircloth,
R-N.C., took the lead in lining up Republican support for the provision,
while Democrats Ernest Hollings, D-S.C., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J.,
provided Democratic backing. The pharmaceutical company has plants in
the home states of all three senators.
The patent extension is emblematic of a recent trend toward drug
companies seeking legislative help for lucrative drug patents that are
about to expire. Last April, G.D. Searle won a two-year reprieve for its
drug Daypro by including a few lines in an emergency spending bill to
keep the government running. At least four similar maneuvers for other
drugs failed.
The Generic Pharmaceutical Industry Association said the proliferation
of patent-extension attempts points to a need for an orderly review
process for such requests, rather than a system in which those with the
most political clout rise to the top.
Hoffman-LaRoche has a substantial political presence in the capital. In
the last two-year election cycle, the company's political committee gave
$128,393 in contributions to candidates for the House and Senate, and an
additional $52,000 in unregulated "soft money" gifts to the Republican
Party, according to the nonprofit Center for Responsive
Politics.
The company maintains a four-person Washington lobbying office, which
spent $1.4 million trying to influence the government in 1996. It also
has a stable of nine outside lobbying, law and consulting firms in
Washington.
The company says the Food and Drug Administration subjected Toradol to
unnecessary delays as it was going through the approval process, and is
claiming relief under a 1995 trade bill that extended patents on many
drugs.
"It's a fairness issue with us," said Maury Lane, a spokesman for
Hollings. "Congress intended to give all drug companies equal
protection" when it extended patents as part of the General Agreement on
Tariffs and Trade bill in 1995, he said.
But opponents say the company already has been granted one patent
extension and now is simply trying to keep at bay several generic
competitors that are ready to hit the market.
By JIM DRINKARD Associated Press Writer
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 21:37:58 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Destruction of Cambodian woodlands
Message-ID: <336AC126.15A5@worldnet.att.net>
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Loggers use loophole to decimate Cambodia's disappearing forests
The Christian Science Monitor
(May 2, 1997 08:32 a.m. EDT) -- Once home to pristine forests that
covered more than 70 percent of its territory, Cambodia may be on the
verge of an ecological disaster.
Fueled by civil war, political strife, and greed, unchecked logging is
contributing to the rapid disappearance of remaining woodlands.
Between 1973 and 1993, 3.6 million acres of the country's forest were
lost and much of the remaining area was negatively affected, says a
report by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
And there are few signs that the rate of deforestation has diminished.
In fact, loggers are using a loophole to circumvent a recently adopted
ban on timber exports from Cambodia.
"The process is really out of control," says Masakazu Kashio, an
official for the FAO in Bangkok.
The biggest threat is to Cambodia's Tonle Sap (Great Lake), which has
been described as one of the richest freshwater fishing grounds in the
world. As a result of deforestation, the lake is silting up.
Cambodian Environment Minister Mok Mareth warned that at the present
rate, the lake could disappear within 25 years.
Concerns about the government's lax logging policy led the International
Monetary Fund (IMF) last year to halt a $20-million loan to Cambodia.
And in response to international pressure, Cambodian officials also
instituted a complete ban on the export of logs at the end of last year.
But Thai loggers are taking advantage of a legal loophole in the ban by
setting up sawmills in Cambodia and shipping the timber across the
border as "processed" wood.
Directly across the border from this Thai village a thriving weekend
furniture market has sprung up. Until a few years ago this region was a
stronghold of the Khmer Rouge, the Maoist revolutionaries who killed
more than 1 million Cambodians during their reign of terror from 1975 to
1979. Now, a constant stream of rough-cut furniture flows past bored
soldiers in what one Thai shopper described as "a mountain of wood"
waiting for sale on the Cambodian side.
Some 40 miles east of Chong Chom, in the Thai town of Khu Khan, a
sawmill said to be on land owned by the fearsome one-legged Khmer Rouge
Gen. Ta Mok sits silent. Chang Gao, who claims to run the mill, says
that the place used to employ 40 workers but has been shut for eight
months. Everyone has gone to work in Cambodia, he adds, including his
son, one of some 500 Thais now said to be working at sawmills that have
sprung up across the border.
"The logging industry still exists," says Supalak Ganjanakhundee, a
local journalist who covers the timber trade. "They've just changed
their location and form of operation."
For a long time, the Khmer Rouge has been blamed by the Cambodian
government for much of the logging mayhem. According to Global Witness,
a London-based environmental and human rights group that monitors the
timber trade, the guerrilla group was making between $10 million and $12
million a month by selling timber to Thai logging firms from its
strongholds along the northern and eastern border regions.
But Khmer Rouge involvement in the trade has dropped considerably over
the past year due to the defections last summer of some of its top
leaders. The Thai government has also cracked down on the movement of
logs from Khmer Rouge areas as a result of provisions in the US
government's 1997 Foreign Operations Act, which prohibits aid to the
military of any country which "is not acting vigorously" to stop the
logging trade.
But the role being abandoned by the Khmer Rouge is being picked up by
others, says Simon Taylor of Global Witnesses. Cambodia's co-prime
ministers, Prince Norodom Ranariddh and Hun Sen, have been accused by
his group of doling out huge concessions to international logging firms
equivalent to the country's entire remaining forested areas.
"More than $400 million should have been generated from timber that we
know went out in 1995 and 1996, yet by December 1996 only $10 million
had ended up in the Cambodian Finance Ministry," he notes. "An amount
equivalent or greater to the entire national budget has just been
spirited away."
Last March, Phnom Penh reached an agreement with the IMF in which it
pledged to improve its management of the timber trade. But many doubt
its ability to control logging in ex-Khmer Rouge areas, which are only
nominally controlled by the government.
"The Cambodian government has no means to stop or even monitor the
people working in those areas," Mr. Ganjanakhundee says.
Date: Fri, 02 May 1997 21:46:11 -0700
>From: Andrew Gach <UncleWolf@worldnet.att.net>
To: ar-news@envirolink.org
Subject: Revolutionary new treatment for arthritis with no side effects
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An inexpensive treatment for arthritis
The Associated Press
(May 2, 1997 1:26 p.m. EDT) -- If your knees ache with arthritis,
walking for an hour a day is probably the last thing you want to do.
But now, doctors say exercise such as walking is one of the best things
you can do to relieve the pain of osteoarthritis.
Scientists studied 365 older adults with osteoarthritis of the knee,
stiffness and pain believed to be caused by normal "wear and tear" on
the joint.
They divided the adults, who were all ages 60 or older, into three
groups. One group walked for an hour three times a week. The second
group lifted weights for an hour three times a week, and the third
attended health education classes.
After 18 months of exercise, the walkers filled out out questionnaires,
and reported a 10 percent drop in physical disability and a 12 percent
drop in knee pain. They were also able to walk farther in a six-minute
test, and performed more quickly tasks like climbing up and down stairs,
lifting and carrying 10 pounds, and getting in and out of a car,
compared to the health education group. The weightlifters also improved,
but not quite as much as the walkers. The results of the study were
recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
In our society, only young people are encouraged to walk, run, swim,
play ball and lift weights. This study refutes conventional wisdom,
showing that exercise can be just as good for adults over 60 as
it is for kids.
This study did not examine why the exercisers felt better. Most people
know that exercise strengthens muscles, makes bones more dense and burns
excess fat, all of which make people less likely to fall and break
bones. Other experiments have shown that exercise boosts the immune
system, soothes insomnia, releases endorphins, the body's own natural
painkillers, and contributes to a general sense of well-being.
You don't need to know exactly how exercise eases pain to take advantage
of it. First, see your doctor, especially if you have osteoarthritis or
other health problems. Your doctor can give you valuable advice about
starting an exercise program.
Next, choose an activity. Many beginners find that joining a health
club, pool or taking a class provides instruction and encouragement.
Some walk with neighbors or take part in shopping mall walking programs
before business hours. Others enjoy socializing and exercising at senior
citizens centers. Still others prefer to buy exercise equipment and work
out at home.
Whether you choose an aerobic exercise like walking or a resistance
exercise like lifting weights, it is sure to help you. You don't have to
become an Olympic athlete. Any activity is better than sitting still.
That Haagen-Dazs ice-cream looks great, but . . . By Yasmeen Hameed
IN AMERICA, you are told that a serving of Haagen-Dazs ice-cream contains a lot of saturated fat.
Here in Singapore, you can polish off two helpings of the ice-cream, blissfully unaware that you could well have exceeded the day's recommended allowance of saturated fat.
This just goes to show that local labels on nutrition value are inadequate or misleading, said the Consumers Association of Singapore (Case) at a press conference yesterday. Products sold in America have different labels when they are sold here, Case pointed out.
To demonstrate, Dr Toh See Kiat, the president of Case, and Mr Bruce Silverglade, director of legal affairs, Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), brought out American and Singapore versions of M & Ms, Almond Rocas and Skippy peanut butter.
Said Dr Toh: "In fact, manufacturers go so far as to remove the nutrition labels in Singapore. That is unethical."
And why is it that manufacturers can get away with this?
Because local consumers do not question the labelling practices, he said.
Case is telling consumers in Singapore that they will benefit if they speak up and ask for better labelling of food products.
It is also urging the Government to speed up implementation of a law requiring food manufacturers to label their products properly, by giving detailed nutritional information.
Mr Silverglade highlighted another example of inadequate labelling: "One 335-ml can of Sprite contains roughly 10 teaspoons of sugar."
But consumers are not told this on the can.
He said: "So manufacturers can hide negative aspects of their products because laws are not tough enough here."
The CSPI is a non-profit, non-government consumer advocacy organisation based in Washington DC.
It campaigned in America for the Nutrition Labelling and Education Act 1990 to become law.
Since the Act took effect in 1994, US surveys have shown that a third of all Americans have stopped buying at least one food product.
And about 2,000 new food products containing low or reduced fat have been introduced in America since then.
The Sale of Food Act here does cover some aspects of food labelling. It stipulates that the volume or net weight of a product must be stated on the wrapper or container.
But Case recommends that for canned food and vegetables, manufacturers should also give the weight without the liquid.
For instance, said Dr Toh, selling a 500-g can of canned longan where the fruit weighs only 50 g is misleading, since it is the longan and not the syrup that the consumer wants to buy.
"That is why the label should read 'Drained weight -- 50 grams'," he said.
This will ensure that consumers can choose the product that offers better value.
With improved and standardised labelling, consumers can compare brands easily, choose one with the highest nutrition value, count calories and pick the best sources of vitamins and minerals.
Case also pointed out that even though a nutrition labelling scheme was proposed in 1995 by the Health Ministry, the Environment Ministry, the Singapore National Heart Association and Case, there has been little improvement in labelling.
"Campaigns are not enough -- a law is needed," said Dr Toh.
