WantToKnow.info: Health News

How Federal Health Agencies Downplayed the Risk of Myocarditis and Other Adverse Events Following COVID-19 Vaccination

Wed, 21 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

This interim report highlights records the Subcommittee has reviewed regarding HHS’s awareness of and response to cases of myocarditis—a type of heart inflammation—following COVID-19 vaccination. [Some] documents ... have remained hidden from the public and Congress for years. U.S. health officials knew about the risks of myocarditis; Those officials downplayed the health concern; and U.S. health agencies delayed informing the public about the risk of the adverse event. The records [show]: The Israeli Ministry of Health notifying officials at the CDC in late February 2021 of “large reports of myocarditis, particularly in young people, following the administration of the Pfizer vaccine.” Discussions among CDC officials in May 2021 on whether to issue a HAN [Health Alert Network message] on myocarditis, noting that health care professionals across the nation may not be aware of the risk because “providers aren’t reporting these cases to VAERS [Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System].” A CDC official providing up-to-date information on the status of the HAN to Pfizer Inc. (“Pfizer”) and Moderna, Inc. (“Moderna”) representatives, indicating CDC’s preference to keep the vaccine companies more informed about vaccine adverse events, rather than the American people. Draft meeting notes from late May 2021 exchanged between U.S. public health officials which included the question: “Is VAERS signaling for myopericarditis now?”; and the answer: “For the age groups 16-17 years and 18-24 years, yes.”

Note: Our Substack investigation, The Nuanced View on COVID Vaccine Injuries and Lawsuits, examines how whistleblowers, FDA advisers, and vaccine-injured people exposed irrefutable evidence of COVID vaccine harms, data integrity issues, and failures within the VAERS reporting system. The investigation also explores how Big Tech platforms, pharmaceutical companies, and health organizations engineered the information environment around COVID through censorship and media manipulation.

- Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Modern Ag Alliance is a Bayer lobbying and PR group

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Modern Ag Alliance, launched by Bayer in 2024, enables the company to lobby and campaign through an entity that looks like a coalition of farm organizations, not a single giant chemical corporation. MAA represents itself as a “diverse coalition, founded by Bayer, that today represents more than 110 agricultural organizations.” But public records suggest it functions as a front group for Bayer’s interests. Tax records reveal that a Bayer vice president sits on the board of directors, and nearly all of its budget has gone to a public relations firm that also works for Bayer. Bayer itself describes the MAA as a key part of its lobbying. The company has portrayed the MAA – whose tagline is “Pesticides power America’s ag” – as its strategy for “fighting back” against glyphosate concerns and lawsuits. MAA is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization, a structure that allows it to raise unlimited funds for advocacy or lobbying while keeping donors secret. Disclosed members of the Modern Ag Alliance include large agribusiness trade groups, and national and state commodity crop growers’ groups. Many of these groups have financial relationships with Bayer and other pesticide firms, via sponsorships, partnerships or direct funding, though these ties are often opaque. The MAA lobbies for legislation that ... would make it harder for Americans to use state-law failure-to-warn claims to sue pesticide manufacturers for cancer and other injuries.

Note: Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Bayer/Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on corporate corruption and toxic chemicals.

- US Right to Know

Why are young people getting colon cancer? A common weed killer may be linked, scientists say

Tue, 21 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A new study suggests a common weed killer may be linked to the mysterious global rise of young colorectal cancer. The first-of-its kind study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Medicine, suggests that picloram — a herbicide used globally to kill woody plants and shrubs while keeping grasses intact — could explain the rising incidence of colon and rectal cancer cases in people under 50. [Senior study author Jose] Seoane's team found that certain "fingerprints" appeared in the DNA of young colorectal cancer tumors they studied, and those fingerprints were linked back to exposures, including: Smoking; Poor diets, lacking fresh vegetables, beans, nuts and other "Mediterranean" staples; Obesity; Educational attainment (which is also linked to poorer diets); and finally, the weed killer picloram. His team checked to see if this same pattern persisted across populations, comparing the incidence of young colorectal cancer in seven US states, including California, Connecticut, Georgia, Iowa, New Mexico, Utah, and Washington, to the level of county-wide pesticide use. The strongest pesticide signal of all tied to higher rates of young colon cancer was for picloram. (In second place was glyphosate.) Picloram, which was developed in the 1960s, was one of many herbicides used in the "agents" the US Military used to clear forest during the Vietnam War. It works by disrupting the way plant hormones normally function, and can persist in the soil for years.

Note: Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- Business Insider

Pesticide exposure linked to 150% higher cancer risk in major study

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A major new study published in Nature Health has found a strong connection between environmental exposure to agricultural pesticides and an increased risk of cancer. Pesticides are commonly found in food, water, and the surrounding environment, often as complex mixtures rather than single substances. This has made their health effects difficult to measure. Most previous research has focused on individual chemicals in controlled settings, which does not reflect how people are exposed in real life. By combining environmental monitoring, national cancer registry data, and biological research, scientists from the IRD, Institut Pasteur, University of Toulouse, and the National Institute of Neoplastic Diseases (INEN) in Peru provide new insight into how pesticide exposure may contribute to the development of certain cancers. Peru ... includes regions with intensive agriculture, diverse climates and ecosystems, and significant social and geographic inequalities. "We first modeled the dispersion of pesticides in the environment over a six-year period, from 2014 to 2019, which allowed us to create a high-resolution map and identify areas with the highest risk of exposure," explains Jorge Honles, PhD in epidemiology at the University of Toulouse. The team then compared these exposure maps with health data from more than 150,000 cancer patients recorded between 2007 and 2020. Regions with higher environmental pesticide exposure also had higher rates of certain cancers. In these areas, the likelihood of developing cancer was about 150% greater on average. The research also highlights how pesticide exposure may affect the body long before cancer is diagnosed. Molecular studies conducted at the Institut Pasteur, led by Pascal Pineau, show that pesticides can interfere with processes that maintain normal cell function and identity. These disruptions occur early and may accumulate over time without obvious symptoms. Vulnerable populations, including Indigenous and rural communities, may face the greatest risks.

Note: This landmark study demonstrates a significant link between pesticide exposure on a national scale and biological changes that increase the risk of cancer. Our Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on food system corruption and toxic chemicals.

- Science Daily

Indictment of Fauci adviser shines new light on efforts to conceal COVID-Era communications

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The indictment Tuesday of a top adviser to former NIAID Director Anthony Fauci on charges of conspiring against the United States casts a spotlight on years of efforts to subvert public records laws and conceal key COVID-era communications from the public. The adviser, David Morens ... is accused by federal prosecutors of using private email accounts to conduct government business, deleting records and coordinating with others to conceal communications related to COVID origins, high-risk coronavirus research and grant funding. According to the indictment, Morens and others agreed in writing to “intentionally hide” their communications from public records requests. Morens ... discussed strategies to “make emails disappear” to evade FOIA searches and avoided creating written records altogether – actions that Morens later admitted and apologized for during congressional testimony. Other records show Morens in ongoing contact with [Peter] Daszak and a small circle of allies after the pandemic’s onset. Their communications include strategizing about how to restore EcoHealth Alliance’s standing with federal funders, counter scrutiny from Congress and the media, and shape public narratives around the origins of COVID-19. While [Anthony] Fauci is not a direct participant in the communications cited in the indictment, the document refers to a “Senior NIAID Official 1” whose description corresponds with the former director.

Note: Watch our 15-minute video on the cover-up of COVID origins. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and the COVID cover-up.

- US Right to Know

Psychology says the single biggest predictor of happiness isn’t income, relationships, or health – it’s the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else

Mon, 27 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The single biggest predictor of how happy you are at any given moment isn’t your income, your relationship status, your health, your career, or the city you live in. It’s whether your mind is focused on what you’re doing right now or wandering somewhere else. That’s the whole finding. Present equals happy. Absent equals unhappy. Everything else is details. In 2010, Harvard psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert published a paper in the journal Science with a title that sounds like a Buddhist proverb: “A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind.” They developed an iPhone app that pinged 2,250 people at random intervals throughout the day, asking three questions: What are you doing? What are you thinking about? How happy are you? People’s minds wandered from what they were doing 46.9 percent of the time. And when their minds wandered, they were consistently less happy than when they were focused on whatever was in front of them. This held true regardless of the activity. What you’re thinking about matters more than twice as much as what you’re doing. You could have the perfect life — the career, the partner, the health, the house — and spend most of it mentally somewhere else, and the somewhere else would make you miserable. We don’t struggle with presence during peak experiences. Nobody’s mind wanders during their wedding or the birth of their child or the moment they land the job they wanted. Those moments are vivid enough to command attention. They handle presence for you. The problem is that peak experiences make up maybe two percent of your life. The other ninety-eight percent ... is ordinary, and your capacity to be present during ordinary moments determines the quality of your entire existence. That’s where happiness actually lives. In the ninety-eight percent. In the ability to be present in an ordinary moment without wishing it were something else.

Note: Explore more positive stories like this in our comprehensive inspiring news articles archive focused on solutions and bridging divides.

- Space Daily

In federal prisons, the grievance system is designed to reject nearly all complaints about medical care

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

When incarcerated people face abuse and mistreatment, they can typically file a formal complaint with jail or prison administrators. In federal prisons, the system for resolving these complaints is known as the “Administrative Remedy Program,” but it’s more commonly referred to as a “grievance system” in state prisons and local jails. Grievance systems are supposed to provide incarcerated people with a way to challenge issues they face behind bars — such as inadequate medical care, harassment by corrections officers, or unsanitary living conditions — and (hopefully) receive some kind of relief. In practice, however, incarcerated people who turn to grievance systems are forced to run a gauntlet of rules and regulations just to be heard, and very rarely succeed. This is especially true when it comes to medical complaints: our analysis of a decade of data from the Data Liberation Project finds that, between 2014 and 2024, a startling 98% of medical grievances were rejected for reasons ranging from the bureaucratic (such as using the wrong size sheet of paper) to the substantive (actually being denied on the merits of the complaint). Less than 1% of medical cases ended in a grant of relief. Conditions are so bad on the inside that since 2000, roughly half of all state prison systems have been court-ordered to improve mental and medical healthcare. In practice ... the grievance system is a black hole, a time-waster, and a deterrent to complaining at all.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on prison system corruption and inspiring articles on prison system reform.

- Prison Policy Initiative

Pharma bribery corrupts health care, puts patients at risk, new review warns

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Pfizer subsidiaries in multiple countries, including Italy and Russia, were accused by the SEC in 2012 of paying bribes over about a decade to foreign officials to secure regulatory and formulary approvals, boost sales, and increase prescriptions, [an] SEC complaint shows. In China, one subsidiary allegedly created “points programs” that let doctors earn gifts based on prescribing its medications, according to the SEC, while in Croatia, another offered a “bonus program” that reportedly rewarded doctors with cash, international travel, or free products. Pfizer and an indirect subsidiary agreed to pay more than $45 million in separate settlements, without admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC reported. In a parallel action, Pfizer H.C.P., an indirect, wholly-owned healthcare-focused subsidiary, agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve its investigation of FCPA violations after admitting to improper payments to foreign government officials, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. And in Greece, Poland, and Romania, Johnson & Johnson subsidiaries, employees, and agents were accused by regulators of using slush funds, sham contracts, and off-shore companies in the Isle of Man to reward doctors and administrators who ordered or prescribed its products, including surgical implants. The 2011 SEC complaint also accused the company of paying kickbacks in Iraq to obtain business.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Pharma profiteering.

- US Right to Know

Some top US lobbying firms are working both sides of the Pfas issue at the same time

Sat, 14 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Some top US lobbying firms are simultaneously working both sides of the Pfas “forever chemicals” issue, raising serious conflict of interest questions and concerns that their activity is slowing states’ efforts to rein in the public health threat. The review of six states’ lobbying records conducted by the non-profit F-Minus found a range of scenarios in which firms lobbied both sides. Most common Pfas are linked to cancer. The lobbying firm Holland & Knight works for the American Chemistry Council, which represents the nation’s largest Pfas makers, and aggressively opposes most regulations. Simultaneously, Holland & Knight lobbies for the American Cancer Society. The review found 26 healthcare systems, 11 public school systems, 15 wildlife groups and 132 local governments that share lobbying firms with Pfas makers or trade groups, including the American Chemistry Council and Cookware Sustainability Alliance. The lobbyists work across 36 states. The report comes amid a broad effort at all levels of the government that aims to rein in Pfas pollution and exposures. The chemicals are widely used in consumer goods and industry, and are linked to a range of health problems like cancer, birth defects, decreased immunity, kidney disease and hormone disruption. The public health effort has drawn an intense lobbying operation in opposition by the chemical industry, which has killed most Pfas legislation in recent years.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on toxic chemicals.

- The Guardian

Human connection to nature has declined 60% in 200 years, study finds

Sat, 09 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

People’s connection to nature has declined by more than 60% since 1800, almost exactly mirroring the disappearance of nature words such as river, moss and blossom from books, according to a study. The study by Miles Richardson, a professor of nature connectedness at the University of Derby, accurately tracks the loss of nature from people’s lives over 220 years by using data on urbanisation, the loss of wildlife in neighbourhoods and, crucially, parents no longer passing on engagement with nature to their children. In the research published in the journal Earth, Richardson also identified the disappearance of natural words from books between 1800 and 2020, which peaked at a 60.6% decline in 1990. The modelling predicts an ongoing “extinction of experience” with future generations continuing to lose an awareness of nature because it is not present. Increasing the availability of biodiverse green spaces in a city by 30% may look like radical positive progress for wildlife and people but Richardson said his study suggested a city may need to be 10 times greener to reverse declines in nature connection. Measures to increase popular engagement with the natural world were not effective at reversing long-term declines in nature connectedness. More effective, according to the study, are measures instilling awareness and engagement with nature in young children and families, such as forest school nurseries.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on mental health and environmental destruction.

- The Guardian

Nanoplastics sneak into brain cells, disrupting puberty and fertility hormones, new study finds

Sat, 14 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Tiny pieces of plastic, widely found in food, water, and air, can harm the development and function of specialized brain cells that regulate reproduction, new research reports. These cells, called gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) neurons, act like main switches for puberty and fertility. During early development, they must travel to the right place in the brain and then release hormones in a precise rhythm throughout life. However, in a study recently published in the journal Small, researchers found that polystyrene nanoplastics — fragments thousands of times smaller than a grain of sand — were able to slip into these cells through an unusual “side door.” Once inside, the particles reduced hormone levels, slowed cell movement, and altered genes required for reproductive health. The particles also accumulated in the GnRH neurons, increasing the potential for long-term effects. The results point to plastic pollution as a plausible environmental contributor to disorders such as GnRH deficiency, which is associated with conditions such as delayed puberty and infertility that cannot be fully explained by genetics alone. “These results suggest that [polystyrene nanoplastics] disrupt key physiological functions of GnRH neurons and may act as novel endocrine disruptors, contributing to the pathogenesis of reproductive disorders,” the researchers wrote. Even small disruptions can delay puberty, disrupt menstrual cycles, reduce sperm production or impair fertility.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- US Right to Know

Recycling lead for U.S. car batteries is poisoning people

Tue, 18 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Poisonous dust falls from the sky over the town of Ogijo, near Lagos, Nigeria. It coats kitchen floors, vegetable gardens, churchyards and schoolyards. The toxic soot billows from crude factories that recycle lead for American companies. With every breath, people inhale invisible lead particles and absorb them into their bloodstream. The metal seeps into their brains, wreaking havoc on their nervous systems. It damages livers and kidneys. Toddlers ingest the dust by crawling across floors, playgrounds and backyards, then putting their hands in their mouths. As the United States tightened regulations on lead processing ... finding domestic lead became a challenge. So the auto industry looked overseas to supplement its supply. In doing so, car and battery manufacturers pushed the health consequences of lead recycling onto countries where enforcement is lax, testing is rare and workers are desperate for jobs. Seventy people living near and working in factories around Ogijo volunteered to have their blood tested. Seven out of 10 had harmful levels of lead. Every worker had been poisoned. More than half the children tested in Ogijo had levels that could cause lifelong brain damage. Manufacturers that use Nigerian lead make batteries for major carmakers and retailers such as Amazon, Lowe’s and Walmart. All this is avoidable. Lead batteries can indeed be recycled as cleanly as advertised. But that requires millions of dollars in technology.

Note: This exposé reveals a brutal human and environmental toll behind cobalt used in batteries for phones and electric vehicles, where men, women, and children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo dig toxic, uranium-laced earth with bare hands and face deadly tunnel collapses, widespread disease, miscarriages, birth defects, sexual violence, and extreme poverty—while much of this suffering remains hidden within global supply chains. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on toxic chemicals.

- The Examination

6 Ways Big Pharma and Big Food Are Trying to Control the Natural Healthcare Industry in the U.S.

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The U.S. spends more on healthcare than any country in the world [yet] consistently ranks near the bottom of high-income nations for life expectancy, chronic disease burden and preventable deaths. While many drugs are lifesaving and essential, prescription medications are now recognized as the third leading cause of death in industrialized countries, behind only heart disease and cancer. Research consistently shows that up to 80% of chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers, could be prevented or significantly reduced through natural health approaches such as nutrition, lifestyle change, supplements and other preventive interventions. If this is the case, why are these approaches not more central to chronic disease prevention and care? Health outcomes ... are shaped by who writes the rules, who controls the market and by whom health information is controlled. Natural health is constrained at the level of evidence, where money determines what qualifies as “science.” In 1991, about 80% of industry-funded clinical trials were conducted in academic medical centers; by 2004, that figure had fallen to 26%, replaced by for-profit research organisations contracted by drug companies. This shift has untold impact: Study designs, publications, regulations and medical education reflect pharmaceutical interests, leaving natural therapies — without comparable capital — unable to produce the forms of evidence regulators, insurers and clinicians are structurally conditioned to demand. Following the Myriad case, naturally occurring substances are largely excluded from patent protection, leaving high research costs with little legal protection. Without intellectual property protection, investors see little upside, research dries up and innovation slows. Combined with regulatory capture and heavy pharmaceutical lobbying, control of money and markets systematically prioritises pharmaceutical over natural health and substances long before consumers are offered a real choice.

Note: Watch an educational presentation by WantToKnow.info director Amber Yang on the deepest challenges facing our media and public health systems today, including real world solutions that move beyond disease-care. For more along these lines, check out our Substack, Inspiring Remedies to the Chronic Illness Crisis.

- Science, Public Health Policy and the Law

Declassified CIA files reveal chilling blueprint to manipulate Americans' minds through covert drugging with vaccines

Mon, 23 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

A newly released CIA document reveals a chilling blueprint to manipulate minds through covert drugging experiments. The report, added to the CIA's reading room in 2025, details the government's once top-secret Project Artichoke that ran from 1951 to 1956, focusing on behavior control, interrogation techniques and psychological manipulation. The seven-page document, titled 'Special Research for Artichoke,' with an attachment labeled 'Suggested Fields for Special Research Relative Artichoke,' outlines proposals to develop chemicals capable of altering human behavior. It discusses drugs designed for both immediate effects, like truth serums and long-term influence, potentially administered through food, water, alcohol or cigarettes. Researchers also suggested that such substances could be disguised in medical treatments such as vaccinations or injections. The CIA was also looking into methods beyond chemicals, listing hypnosis, sensory deprivation, gases and other psychological methods for interrogation and behavioral control. Artichoke served as a precursor to the CIA's MKUltra program, which later broadened mind-altering experiments on a larger scale. The researchers involved in the secret program emphasized that long-term compounds should be capable of producing 'an agitating effect (producing anxiety, nervousness, tension, etc.) or a depressing effect (creating a feeling of despondency, hopelessness, lethargy, etc.).'

Note: Learn more about the CIA's MKUltra Program and the mind control techniques perfected by Nazi scientists through disturbing WWII experiments in concentration camps. For more, read our concise summaries of news articles on intelligence agency corruption and mind control.

- Daily Mail

Palantir Gets Millions of Dollars From New York City's Public Hospitals

Sun, 15 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

New York City's public hospital system is paying millions to Palantir, the controversial ICE and military contractor. Since 2023, the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation has paid Palantir nearly $4 million to improve its ability to track down payment for the services provided at its hospitals and medical clinics. Palantir, a data analysis firm that's now a Wall Street giant thanks to its lucrative work with the Pentagon and U.S. intelligence community, deploys its software to make more efficient the billing of Medicaid and other public benefits. That includes automated scanning of patient health notes to “increase charges captured from missed opportunities,” contract materials reviewed by The Intercept show. It's Palantir's work with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that is drawing the most protest today. The company provides a variety of services to help the federal government find and deport immigrants. ICE's Palantir-furnished case management software, for example, “plays a critical role in supporting the daily operations of ICE, ensuring critical mission success,” according to federal contracting documents. Palantir's contract with New York's public health care system allows the company to work with patients' protected health information, or PHI. With permission from New York City Health and Hospitals, Palantir can “de-identify PHI and utilize de-identified PHI for purposes other than research,” the contract states.

Note: Listen to an audio clip of Jeffrey Epstein promoting Palantir to Ehud Barak. Read how Palantir helped the NSA spy on the entire planet. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on Big Tech and the disappearance of privacy.

- The Intercept

Trump order seeks to protect weedkiller at center of barrage of lawsuits

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Donald Trump has signed an executive order protecting production of glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup, which some bodies and studies have linked to cancer and which are the subject of widespread US litigation. The order also protects domestic production of phosphorus, which is used in making glyphosate and other agricultural chemicals, as well as a range of other products, including some in military defense. Ensuring “robust domestic elemental phosphorus mining and United States-based production of glyphosate-based herbicides is central to American economic and national security”, the order states. Neither the executive order nor the fact sheet the White House put out accompanying the order discloses that glyphosate-based herbicides have been linked to an array of cancers and other health problems in multiple independent research studies and by cancer experts of the World Health Organization (WHO). The move by the White House comes as Roundup maker Bayer is facing tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging the company’s glyphosate herbicides cause cancer and the company failed to warn farmers and other users of the risks. The company, which inherited the litigation when it bought Monsanto in 2018, has already paid out billions of dollars in settlements and jury verdicts and said this week it was proposing to pay $7.25bn in a class action settlement to try to head off future lawsuits.

Note: In addition to increasing cancer risk by 41%, glyphosate is linked to severe depression and cognitive decline. Our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on government corruption and toxic chemicals.

- The Guardian

Tracing Bayer’s ties to power in Trump’s Washington

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The White House invokes the Defense Production Act to guarantee supplies of elemental phosphorus and glyphosate-based herbicides. Regulators reapprove dicamba, a Bayer herbicide twice blocked by federal courts, and clear the way for new pesticides containing toxic, persistent PFAS “forever” chemicals. And the U.S. Justice Department urges the U.S. Supreme Court to erase billions of dollars of Bayer’s liability for its glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer – placing the weight of the executive branch on the side of a foreign company against thousands of Americans who say Bayer’s products caused their cancers. Over the past year, the administration under President Donald J. Trump has delivered a string of victories to Bayer, the German agrichemical and pharmaceutical giant that merged with Monsanto in 2018 to become the world’s leading manufacturer of genetically modified seeds and pesticides. These favors to Bayer clash with Trump’s promise to “Make America Healthy Again,” which many supporters understood as a pledge to confront industries linked to chronic disease. Our review of Bayer’s access in Washington found 22 key administration officials with ties to Bayer’s lobbying or legal network. Bayer and its lobbyists have access to people in power at the White House, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Environmental Protection Agency and even those in high level positions closest to Trump.

- US Right to Know

Trump administration asks Supreme Court to back Bayer again, aided by officials who came from Bayer’s law firms

Tue, 03 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Trump administration yesterday handed Bayer another win, urging the Supreme Court in a new brief to side with the German pesticide company in a high-stakes legal case that could wipe out thousands of cancer lawsuits and potentially billions of dollars in liability tied to glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer. Three out of nine U.S. officials who signed the brief previously worked for law firms that have represented Bayer, raising questions about whether the Trump administration is providing special favors and benefits to Bayer and siding with a foreign corporation against Americans with cancer. In the new filing, the Justice Department and Environmental Protection Agency urged the Court to rule in Bayer’s favor on the central legal issue: whether federal approval of a pesticide label under federal law preempts state failure-to-warn claims. If the Court accepts that argument, individuals would be barred from suing Bayer under state law for failing to warn that Roundup may cause cancer. The salvo for Bayer is the latest in a series of favorable actions the Trump administration has provided to Bayer. On February 18, the White House invoked the Defense Production Act to guarantee supplies of glyphosate-based herbicides and elemental phosphorus, a raw element used in production of fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and a wide range of industrial and military chemicals. Our Bayer lobby tracker provides information about ... 45 lobbyists registered to lobby for Bayer.

- US Right to Know

The Truth About Roundup Herbicide

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

In 2000 a study was published in the journal Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology that deemed the active ingredient in Roundup (glyphosate) was safe and not a human health risk. Since then, that study has been cited consistently as proof of Roundup’s safety. Numerous other studies have shown that glyphosate could cause cancer and that the inert ingredients that are part of the patented Roundup formulation increase the toxicity of glyphosate. Further, the practice of using Roundup as a desiccant on small grain crops (oats, wheat and barley) prior to harvest, puts Roundup directly on grain that enters the human food chain. Since acquiring Monsanto in 2018, Bayer has paid out about $11 billion to settle almost 100,000 cancer-related lawsuits, with approximately 61,000 still pending. In December of 2025, another blow to the claimed safety of Roundup when the Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology journal withdrew the 2000 article that had touted Roundup’s safety. While the study claimed to be independent and peer reviewed, it has come to light that Monsanto’s scientists played a significant role in conceiving and writing the article. Oops. For decades, Roundup has been sold as an effective herbicide, one that was safe to humans and the environment and without it, “consequences would be dire”. Companies like Bayer ... claim to produce safe products that help farmers thrive— real independent research refutes that.

- Counterpunch

Syngenta says it will stop making pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease

Wed, 04 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Syngenta, maker of a controversial pesticide linked to Parkinson’s disease, said on Tuesday that it would stop making its paraquat weed killer by the end of June. The announcement comes as the company is facing several thousand lawsuits brought by people in the US who allege they developed Parkinson’s disease due to their exposure to Syngenta’s paraquat products. The company did not mention the litigation in its announcement. Paraquat has been used in the US since 1964 as a tool to kill broadleaf weeds and grasses. Though banned in several countries, including throughout Europe, Syngenta’s paraquat-based Gramoxone herbicide brand has remained popular with US farmers for use in growing soybeans, cotton and corn, as well as in growing grapes, pistachios, peanuts and many other crops. Numerous scientific studies have found that paraquat damages cells in the brain in ways that can lead to Parkinson’s, and more than 8,000 lawsuits are pending in US courts over the Parkinson’s allegations. The New Lede, in conjunction with the Guardian, obtained and revealed many of Syngenta’s internal corporate files, which show that not only was Syngenta aware of research linking paraquat to Parkinson’s decades ago, but it also sought to secretly influence scientific information and public opinion regarding those links. Lawmakers in multiple states have introduced legislation to ban paraquat, and several federal lawmakers have also called for bans.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- The Guardian

‘Safe’ BPA substitutes tied to fertility damage, fetal harm, and generational effects, review finds

Wed, 18 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Chemicals increasingly used to replace the toxic plastic additive bisphenol A (BPA) may disrupt fertility, fetal development, and reproductive health through many of the same biological mechanisms, according to a narrative review of human, animal and laboratory studies. Concerns about BPA have led some manufacturers to phase it out and replace it with structurally similar compounds, most commonly bisphenol S (BPS), bisphenol F (BPF) and bisphenol AF (BPAF). While BPA exposure has declined, BPS and BPF use is rising, especially in North America and Asia. The review, published this month [February 2026] in Archives of Medical Research, found that these BPA substitutes—widely used in plastics, processed food and food packaging, children’s toys, and paper receipts—can interfere with the same hormone systems and gene-regulation pathways that control reproductive development in both males and females. “Although these compounds were originally synthesized to be safe for human use, they have also exhibited endocrine-disrupting activity similar to BPA, which affects reproductive function,” the researchers wrote. “These changes can lead to reproductive disorders and negative long-term and transgenerational consequences.” The [BPA] substitutes can mimic estrogen or block hormone activity. They also appear to induce epigenetic changes, altering the chemical signals that control how genes are turned on or off.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- US Right to Know

Epstein plotted to create ‘superior gene pool’ with victims, documents suggest

Tue, 03 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Jeffrey Epstein may have forced an underage victim to carry his child in a “Nazi”-like effort to create a “superior gene pool,” according to documents released by the Department of Justice. Among the more than three million Epstein files released last week is a harrowing diary penned by an alleged victim, who wrote that she was a “human incubator” for Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Minutes after giving birth, she wrote that the child was snatched away from her. The contents of the diary have not been verified, and the woman’s accusations against an Epstein associate have been disputed in court. The DOJ has cautioned that the newly published files may contain “fake or falsely submitted” materials. The first-person narrative makes several references to New Mexico, where the deceased sex offender owned a sprawling ranch outside Santa Fe. Epstein planned to use the estate to impregnate women in an effort to “seed the human race with his DNA,” The New York Times reported in 2019, citing his acquaintances and public records. The woman claims to have given birth around 2002, when she would have been either 16 or 17 years old. In the entry, she recounts the experience of going into labor, claiming that a doctor and Maxwell were both present, and that her bed was soaked in blood. In her posthumous memoir, Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre also claimed that Epstein and Maxwell asked her to carry their child in 2002.

Note: In our latest Substack, "Epstein Files Pt. 2: Beyond Sex Trafficking—Zorro Ranch and a Darker Scientific Agenda," we explore the diary entries mentioned in this article and how they fit neatly into the larger picture now emerging from the newly-public information. Specifically, Epstein's deep ties to the scientific elite and their active exploration into eugenics, designer babies, human cloning, social engineering, and other ethically questionable human experimentation practices.

- The Independent

Campbell’s Soup executive called its products food for ‘poor people’, lawsuit alleges

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A Campbell’s Soup Company executive has been put on temporary leave after he allegedly referred to the firm’s offerings as “shit for fucking poor people” – a remark purportedly caught on an audio recording and attributed to him in a former employee’s wrongful termination lawsuit. The lawsuit was filed last Thursday in Wayne county circuit court in Michigan by Robert Garza, who had joined Campbell’s New Jersey headquarters remotely in September 2024 as a security analyst. Garza alleges he was fired in January after he raised concerns about comments made by Martin Bally, Campbell’s vice-president of information technology – including referring to one of the company’s ingredients as “bioengineered meat” while going off on a racist tirade. In audio recordings captured by Garza after sensing that “something wasn’t right,” which were later reviewed by the Michigan news outlet WDIV, a voice can be heard saying: “We have shit for fucking poor people.” The voice adds: “Who buys our shit? I don’t buy Campbell’s products barely any more. It’s not healthy now that I know what the fuck’s in it ... bioengineered meat. “I don’t wanna eat a piece of chicken that came from a 3D printer.” Garza says he felt “pure disgust” after the meeting but kept the recording private until January, when he reported Bally’s behaviour to supervisor JP Aupperle, according to WDIV. Garza said he was dismissed from Campbell’s 20 days later and without any prior disciplinary action.

Note: Read our Substack article on how the US government turns a blind eye to the corporate cartels fueling the chronic health crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and food system corruption.

- The Guardian

Health department to launch study on cellphone radiation

Fri, 16 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will launch a study on cellphone radiation, a department spokesman said on Thursday, building on Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s criticism linking them to neurological damage and cancer. Last year, the department said 22 states had restricted cellphone use in schools to improve the mental and physical health of children under the “Make America Healthy Again” movement. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration also took down old webpages saying cellphones are not dangerous. “The FDA removed webpages with old conclusions about cell phone radiation while HHS undertakes a study on electromagnetic radiation and health research to identify gaps in knowledge, including on new technologies, to ensure safety and efficacy,” said HHS spokesman Andrew Nixon. “The study was directed by President Trump’s MAHA Commission in its strategy report,” Nixon added. However, some webpages of agencies such as the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention continue to say that to date there is no credible evidence pointing to health problems from cellphone radiation. The National Cancer Institute, under the National Institutes of Health, says “evidence to date suggests that cellphone use does not cause brain or other kinds of cancer in humans.”

Note: Unlike the US, many countries have regulations in place to protect people from cell phone radiation exposure. Check out this comprehensive list of countries with official recommendations and policies on cell phone radiation exposure. A ProPublica investigation found that the FCC brushed aside findings from other government scientists showing evidence of rare cancers linked to cellphone radiation. In 2011, the World Health Organization's cancer research arm classified wireless radiation as "possibly carcinogenic to humans,” and in 2018 a major US government study found “clear evidence” that cellphone radiation caused cancer in laboratory animals. Read more about how Big Wireless made us think cell phones carry no cancer risks.

- NBC News

We cannot ignore the dangers of radiation in our national parks

Sat, 29 Jul 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The recently proposed Connect Our Parks Act calls for increased cell service in parks but does not weigh the damaging impacts of wireless radio frequency (RF) radiation — emitted by cellular installations — on all living creatures. Introduced by Sens. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) and Angus King (I-Maine), this new bill does not consider the many ways that cell tower radiating equipment can impair ecologically sensitive areas and every living thing in its wake, ranging from insects to mammals to the plants and trees on which their survival depends. The Parks Act is one of several congressional proposals that unwittingly set the stage for dramatically increasing ambient exposures to wireless radiation, an agent that the government’s own studies have found causes cancer and DNA damage in animals. Unsurprisingly, the natural environment is also vulnerable. Studies have documented adverse impacts on birds, bees and trees, including impairment of massive seasonal migrations and the exquisitely sensitive processes of reproduction on which their continuity rests. A shocking regulatory gap exists. Not one federal agency has a mandate to assess the harmful effects of wireless radiation from cell towers, nor is any monitoring regularly conducted of the levels of wireless radiation in our environment from the several hundred thousand operating towers in the U.S. The public generally assumes cell tower radiation has been thoroughly tested for safety. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Note: California firefighters' unions successfully fought to exempt cell towers from being placed on or adjacent to fire stations after firefighters reported serious neurological health problems following cell tower installations. Read the official position opposing cell towers on fire stations from The International Association of Fire Fighters. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on the risks and dangers of wireless technologies.

- The Hill

‘I was contaminated’: study reveals how hard it is to avoid pesticide exposure

Fri, 24 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

For decades, Khoji Wesselius has noticed the oily scent of pesticides during spraying periods when the wind has blown through his tiny farming village in a rural corner of the Netherlands. Now, after volunteering in an experiment to count how many such substances people are subjected to, Wesselius and his wife are one step closer to understanding the consequences of living among chemical-sprayed fields of seed potato, sugar beet, wheat, rye and onion. “We were shocked,” said Wesselius ... who had exposure to eight different pesticides through his skin, with even more chemicals found through tests of his blood, urine and stool. “I was contaminated by 11 sorts of pesticides. My wife, who is more strict in her organic nourishment, had seven sorts of pesticides.” Regulators closely monitor dietary intake of pesticides when deciding whether they are safe enough for the market, but little attention has been paid to the effects of breathing them in or absorbing them through the skin. According to a new study, even people who live far from farms are exposed to several different types of pesticides from non-dietary sources. The researchers got 641 participants in 10 European countries to wear silicone wristbands continuously for one week to capture external exposure to 193 pesticides. In laboratory tests, they detected 173 of the substances they tested for, with pesticides found in every wristband and an average of 20 substances for every person who took part.

Note: Our latest Substack, "The Pesticide Crisis Reveals The Dark Side of Science. We Have The Solutions to Regenerate," uncovers the scope of Monsanto's media propaganda machine and the widespread conspiracy to poison our food, air, and along with the powerful remedies and solutions to this crisis. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on food system corruption and toxic chemicals.

- The Guardian

What a Spring Chicken Knows That the New 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines Don’t

Wed, 07 Jan 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Popular dietary narratives that romanticize meat heavy or so-called ancestral diets collapse when confronted with the realities of modern food production. What may have made sense in ecological contexts defined by pasture, seasonality, and low chemical inputs no longer maps onto an industrial system dependent on genetically engineered feed, pervasive herbicide use, and routine pharmaceutical intervention. The newly released Dietary Guidelines for Americans double down on that disconnect. Rather than grappling with how food is actually produced in the United States today, they reinforce dietary advice that assumes a food system that no longer exists. The guidelines promote increased consumption of meat and dairy while remaining almost entirely silent on how those foods are produced, what they contain, and whether our land, water, animals, and bodies can bear the cost. In the United States today, the overwhelming majority of meat, eggs, and dairy come from highly intensive industrial systems. These systems rely on confinement, routine drug use, chemically saturated feed, and enormous waste burdens. Animals are routinely administered antibiotics, hormones, beta agonists, coccidiostats, and other pharmaceutical agents, many of which accumulate in animal tissues and enter the human food supply. Health policy that ignores these realities is not reform. It is avoidance.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and factory farming.

- The Kucinich Report

Study Probes Link Between Pesticides and ALS

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Research on ALS, a debilitating condition also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease that leads to muscle weakness and death, has found a link between exposure to pesticides and disease development. A new study led by ... Alison O’Neil provides insight into how a specific pesticide damages the nerve cells affected in ALS patients. The paper, published in the prestigious multidisciplinary journal PLOS One, is a follow up to another study O’Neil conducted on the pesticide known as cis-chlordane, which is banned but persists in the environment. “The goal of the study was to try to figure out why cis-chlordane is able to kill motor neurons,” which are the nerve cells that die in ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis), she said. “It turns out that [the pesticides] are affecting the mitochondria, which are the powerhouse of the cell,” said O’Neil. Without mitochondria, the motor neurons weaken and die. This insight points to potential for more effective treatments for a disease when current therapies extend life by only a few months. “The implications of that finding helps us determine what kind of drugs people need,” said O’Neil. Since there is clearly an environmental component in most cases of ALS, said Clackson, the research can help pinpoint what is contributing to the disease and potentially change disease trajectory. “If we see these early biomarkers, say pesticides in the blood, then we can perhaps treat them earlier and have a completely different outcome,” he said.

Note: It's recently come out that the popular pesticide paraquat probably causes Parkinson's disease. For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- Wesleyan University

Atrazine probably causes cancer in humans, WHO cancer agency says

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The World Health Organization’s cancer research agency has classified atrazine – the second most widely used herbicide in the United States – as “probably carcinogenic to humans,” adding to growing concerns about toxic exposures in the nation’s farm belt. The evaluation means the first and second most widely used herbicides in the U.S. – glyphosate and atrazine – are now both considered probable human carcinogens by the world’s leading independent cancer-hazard authority. Atrazine is banned in the European Union and other countries due to health and environmental concerns, but remains widely used in the U.S., where it is a common contaminant in drinking water, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Despite these concerns, U.S. regulators allow its continued use. The new assessment by the WHO’s cancer agency comes 10 years after the agency’s landmark finding that glyphosate, the world’s most heavily used herbicide, is also “probably carcinogenic to humans.” Both atrazine and glyphosate are also endocrine disruptors, meaning they can disrupt key hormone systems that regulate growth, development and metabolism. Both herbicides are also largely produced by companies outside the United States. Syngenta, owned by ChemChina, produces most of the atrazine used in the U.S., while Bayer, based in Germany, is the dominant producer of glyphosate. The cancer designation for atrazine comes amid reports of rising cancer rates across the U.S. Corn Belt.

- US Right to Know

‘Toxic chemicals emitted by those facilities can ravage the human body’

Tue, 09 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Imet my best friend, Ursula Guidry, in college. Ursula died from cancer when her children were in preschool. We’ll never know if her death was pure “bad luck,” or whether it had something to do with growing up amidst plastics-manufacturing facilities. What we know for certain is that the toxic chemicals emitted by those facilities can ravage the human body. It’s against that backdrop that I watch Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin work feverishly to dismantle the safeguards protecting people from toxic chemical exposures. The U.S. averages one chemical spill, fire, or explosion every three days, but Zeldin’s attacks almost guarantee an increase. Every part of the petrochemical supply chain puts communities at risk, including the nation’s millions of miles of pipelines. In Satartia, Miss., a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide used in oil drilling ruptured from heavy rains and floods, spewing carbon dioxide for hours. The carbon dioxide displaced oxygen in the air, so car engines stopped running and people could not escape. Dozens were hospitalized. Acute CO2 emissions cause heart malfunction and death by asphyxiation. Extreme flooding can also submerge Superfund toxic waste dumps. Nearly 1 in 4 Americans live within three miles of a Superfund site. Zeldin’s plans are a gift to the fossil fuel and petrochemical corporations. For the rest of us, they are an explosive and hostile attack on our children, our families, and our best friends.

Note: For more along these lines, read our concise summaries of news articles on health and toxic chemicals.

- Time