More than 100 Belgian women suffered kidney failure after taking a slimming product containing
Posted in General on 29. Aug, 2010
More than 100 Belgian women suffered kidney failure after taking a slimming product containing Aristolochia, a herb that contains carcinogenic acids. Aristolochia is banned in Britain but is still found in dozens of remedies. In 1999, two British women suffered renal failure after taking unlicensed Chinese remedies for eczema.Heavy metals such as mercury and arsenic have been found in some remedies and creams for eczema and psoriasis can contain prescription-only steroids. Skin-whitening products containing psora- lea, a fruit extract, have left patients with severe blistering when exposed to sunlight.In the past year, the agency has prosecuted three suppliers for using arsenic and steroids, and issued 13 formal cautions about illegal ingredients. The agency wants the European Union to require labels identifying the therapeutic qualities and side-effects of all herbal remedies.
The directive would impose quality controls on manufacturers and suppliers for the first time. The agency is to extend the list of banned toxic ingredients to include Delphinium zalil, Euphorbia, Dryopteris and Solanum and the seeds of Gingko biloba.Michael McIntyre, chairman of the European Herbal Practitioners Association, welcomed the controls on a sector he said was “completely unregulated”. He urged consumers to consult professional practitioners who were insured to practise.. Medical charities have joined forces with pensioners’ groups to warn that the elderly will be plunged into poverty by the Government’s plans for long-term nursing care. Medical charities have joined forces with pensioners’ groups to warn that the elderly will be plunged into poverty by the Government’s plans for long-term nursing care.
The new funding arrangements for care homes were “unfair and unworkable” and would lead to confusion, the coalition claimed. It includes Help the Aged, Age Concern, the Alzheimers’ Society and Arthritis Care.The rules, which will be introduced on Monday, will award some pensioners as little as £35 a week towards the cost of their personal care. The low level of subsidy would mean that people requiring help with washing, eating and other personal care would continue to have to pay from their own savings, said the coalition, called The Social Policy on Ageing Information Network.Under the Government’s proposals, there will be three levels of financial help, £35, £70 and £110, available to those living in care homes in England who need nursing assistance.Even the top rate, of about £5,500 a year, meets less than a quarter of the real cost of living in a typical nursing home.
The charities also claim the new system of banding will create a fresh postcode lottery of care because pensioners in Scotland and Wales will receive much higher levels of payment.The coalition says the Government has broken its 1997 promiseto find a fair system of funding care for the elderly.. An Independent MP who caused one of the biggest upsets of the June election by campaigning for improvements to the health service has welcomed a proposed upgrade to his local hospital. An Independent MP who caused one of the biggest upsets of the June election by campaigning for improvements to the health service has welcomed a proposed upgrade to his local hospital.
Dr Richard Taylor, the MP for Wyre Forest who defeated the Labour incumbent, David Lock, a minister, said plans to increase beds at Kidderminster General Hospital represented the “biggest U-turn”.The report into Kidderminster hospital was commissioned by the Secretary of State for Health, Alan Milburn, in June and written by Professor Ara Darzi, of Imperial College, London. It recommends a new £14m unit at the hospital be expanded to include up to 20 more beds.Dr Taylor, a retired consultant, said yesterday: “This is the biggest U-turn because it recognises that there aren’t enough beds in Worcestershire. It comes on the day when they have admitted that they will be 80 beds short across the county even with the new PFI [private finance initiative] hospital being built in Worcester What they are offering us is, in fact, very welcome. It’s far, far less than we would want and need but it’s very welcome.”Dr Taylor said he and his supporters would still be pushing for full accident and emergency services to be restored to the town.The report found that the range of surgery provided, especially for common operations, should be increased, waiting times reduced and access improved. Other measures include installing an extra operating theatre and forging better links between Kidderminster and other county hospitals.Dr Taylor warned that the scheme would only be successful if Kidderminster was used as a county-wide facility to free beds in places such as Redditch and Worcester.The Health minister John Hutton agreed with the report that the concept of dedicated service provision was “fundamentally sound” but the range of services and capacity needed to be increased..
Medically qualified asylum-seekers should be drafted into the National Health Service to ease the acute staff shortage in Britain’s hospitals, Liberal Democrats said yesterday. Medically qualified asylum-seekers should be drafted into the National Health Service to ease the acute staff shortage in Britain’s hospitals, Liberal Democrats said yesterday.. The chart-topping boy band Five became none yesterday when they announced their decision to split up. Putting a philosophical bent on it, they said in a statement they could “no longer do justice to our fans or to each other”. The chart-topping boy band Five became none yesterday when they announced their decision to split up. Putting a philosophical bent on it, they said in a statement they could “no longer do justice to our fans or to each other”.
The band, which notched up three number ones in their four years together, said the decision had come after “lengthy discussions”.
They said: “We’ve matured and developed massively as a band over the last three and a half years and have also grown as individuals. As the band has got bigger on a global scale, the commitment levels have had to increase and, at times, that has been hard on us all.”Five achieved 10 top 10 hits, the first with “Keep On Movin” at the end of 1999. They returned to the top with “We Will Rock You”, their collaboration with Queen.Suggestions that the band might call it a day had been prompted by Sean Conlon’s continual non-appearances in the line-up. He was replaced in the video for “Let’s Dance”, their latest hit, and on television appearances by a cardboard cut-out. His absence was put down to glandular fever.The band spoke about their decision to split on MTV yesterday, with J and Ritchie looking visibly upset.. On Monday evening, a completely new organ will be unveiled in a recital at the church of St Lawrence Jewry, next to Guildhall in the heart of the City of London. It was a Wren church until gutted by firebombing in 1940, but rebuilt much in its former style after the War.