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Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Rebel gains in Syria embolden Lebanese Sunnis

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad?s increasingly tenuous hold on power is emboldening Sunnis in neighboring Lebanon to escalate their opposition to Hezbollah, the powerful militant Shiite movement and ally of Mr. Assad.

Lebanon has long been overshadowed by its larger neighbor to the east but with the Assad regime struggling for survival, many Lebanese Sunnis are sensing that the balance of power in the Levant is set to swing in their favor. If Assad and his minority Alawite sect are toppled from power, the majority Sunnis are likely to rule Syria and could cut support for Lebanon's Shiite Hezbollah.

?Hezbollah wants to govern the whole country, but I can assure you that it will not happen because we have an Islamic revolution in Syria right now, and this will bring Hezbollah down,? says Sheikh Zakaria al-Masri, a Sunni cleric, addressing a rally in the southern city of Sidon on Sunday attended by some 1,500 Sunni opponents of Hezbollah. Sheikh Masri was a guest speaker at the event, which was organized by Sheikh Ahmad al-Assir, a firebrand Salafist cleric from Sidon and outspoken critic of Hezbollah.

Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

Still, Hezbollah is the most powerful political and military force in the country, stronger even than the Lebanese Army, and it has demonstrated a will in the past to resort to the use of arms domestically when it feels threatened. In May 2008, Hezbollah and its allies briefly took over Sunni neighborhoods of Beirut when the then Western-backed government attempted to shut down the party?s private communications network. The move sparked a week of fighting that brought Lebanon to the brink of civil war.

Some analysts worry that the combination of a weak moderate Sunni leadership in Lebanon, the rise of new radical leaders such as Sheikh Assir, and a sense of Sunni triumphalism as the Assad regime teeters will inflame Sunni-Shiite tensions even further. The analysts worry this could lead to clashes or even suicide bomb attacks in Hezbollah-supporting strongholds, invoking a harsh response from the Shiite organization.

SUNNI SUPPORT FOR REBELS

Most Sunnis in Lebanon support the Syrian opposition against Assad?s rule and some have even joined armed rebel groups to fight Syrian government forces. On Sunday, Syrian state television broadcast footage showing several bodies that it said were part of a group of 21 Lebanese Salafist fighters who fell into an ambush near the town of Tel Kalakh having slipped into Syria from Lebanon. The men were reportedly from Tripoli and other areas of north Lebanon.

Furthermore, Okab Saqr, a Lebanese member of Parliament who, despite being a Shiite, is a member of the mainly Sunni Future Movement headed by former Prime Minister Saad Hariri, confirmed at the weekend that it was his voice heard on an audio recording released last week by a Lebanese television station in which he discusses an arms deal with a Free Syrian Army commander. For months rumors have circulated that Mr. Saqr was in Turkey helping provide arms and ammunition for the FSA, although he denied the accusation in a televised interview last month before the audio recordings were aired.

But Lebanese Sunnis are not alone in intervening in the Syrian civil war.

Hezbollah has been accused by the Syrian opposition and Western officials of dispatching fighters into Syria to assist regime forces crush the rebellion and to train Syrian troops and pro-regime Shabiha militiamen. Syria represents the geopolitical lynchpin connecting Hezbollah to its patron, Iran, collectively forming an ?axis of resistance? to challenge Israel and Western ambitions in the Middle East.

Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

The collapse of the Assad regime will blunt Iran?s ability to exert influence in the Middle East and risks weakening Hezbollah in the long-term, especially if a moderate Sunni regime emerges in Damascus.

REBELS MAKING GAINS

After months of grinding stalemate between the Syrian Army and rebel forces, the latter has been gaining some ground in recent weeks, capturing military bases, securing much of the eastern edge of the country, and pushing deeper into Damascus from the eastern suburbs.

It is too early to predict with confidence the imminent demise of the Assad regime which continues to enjoy logistical support from Iran and the diplomatic backing of Russia, but the regime?s setbacks have created a heightened sense of anticipation that the tide may be turning in the favor of the Syrian opposition. That expectation is fueling increasing Sunni assertiveness against Hezbollah?s pervasive influence in Lebanon.

Sheikh Assir, the Sunni cleric, held his rally on Sunday to commemorate the deaths of two of his supporters last month in a clash in Sidon with members of Hezbollah. Hundreds of Sunnis from Sidon and other cities and towns across Lebanon gathered outside the Bilal bin Rabih mosque where Assir preaches on the outskirts of the city. Many of them were dressed in black and sported thick beards and shaved lips in the Salafist style. Black banners inscribed with ?There is no God but God? and flags of the rebel Free Syrian Army fluttered in the breeze as the crowd began marching down the hill toward the city center. ?Terrorist, terrorist, the Party of Satan is terrorist,? the crowd chanted playing on Hezbollah?s name which is Party of God in Arabic.

?We are against the Iranian project in Lebanon,? says one middle-aged man in broken English. ?Hezbollah has put his hand on all the Shiites and let Iran run Lebanon.?

But don?t rallies such as this with its strong anti-Shiite sentiment only worsen sectarian relations in Lebanon?

?Yes, the situation is going to get much worse between Sunnis and Shiites,? the man says. Another marcher overhears the conversation and breaks in.

?No we are not against the Shiites. We want to live in peace with the Shiites. We Sunnis are against Hizbushaitan [the Party of Satan] only,? he says.

Anti-Hezbollah rhetoric was also aired in Tripoli in north Lebanon on Sunday at an event commemorating the 40th day since the assassination of Wissam al-Hassan, a top intelligence chief who was close to Hariri?s Future Movement. In the wake of the car bomb assassination, the anti-Hezbollah March 14 parliamentary coalition called for the resignation of the government, which is dominated by Hezbollah and its allies.

Sunni opponents of Hezbollah have accused the Shiite party of Hassan?s death along with many of the other dozen assassinations, successful and failed, since 2004.

?We are facing a dangerous stage, a stage in which they [Hezbollah] will try to impose Iranian tutelage over Lebanon,? Ahmad Fatfat, a Sunni member of Parliament with the Future Movement, told the rally in Tripoli. ?But we say that they must realize that Hassan?s martyrdom has opened the battle for Lebanon?s martyrdom. Therefore, we fear only God. We will face them with a civilian resistance. As we have won over Assad in Lebanon, we will win over Iranian tutelage.?

Sunni and Shiite Islam: Do you know the difference? Take our quiz.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Delta among suitors for Virgin Atlantic stake: sources

LONDON/SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singapore Airlines is in talks to sell its 49 percent stake in British carrier Virgin Atlantic, with sources saying Delta Air Lines is among the suitors keen to access Virgin's lucrative slots at London's Heathrow airport.

Richard Branson's Virgin Group wants to keep its 51 percent stake in Virgin Atlantic and work with Delta if the U.S. carrier pulls off a deal, a source familiar with Branson's thinking added on Monday.

Singapore Airlines said in a brief statement it was in talks with interested parties but did not name them. It also cautioned the discussions might not result in a deal.

Airlines like Delta have long hoped to break into London's capacity-constrained Heathrow airport, a lucrative hub for corporate passengers where landing slots are generally hard to acquire. Virgin Atlantic is the second-largest carrier at Heathrow after IAG's British Airways.

Delta has been considering ways to partner with Air France-KLM , which could also take a stake in Virgin Atlantic, one person familiar with the matter said.

The European Union requires that EU carriers be under European control, meaning Delta would need an EU airline as a partner if it wanted majority control of Virgin Atlantic.

If Air France-KLM were to buy a small percentage of Branson's stake, then Virgin Atlantic could continue to be European controlled. However, the source close to Branson signaled the British entrepreneur was not looking to sell.

"As far as he (Branson) is concerned, it is just Singapore Airlines' 49 percent stake that is up for sale - he is keen to maintain control of Virgin Atlantic and form a stronger airline," the source said, adding Branson supported a deal with Delta because it would make Virgin Atlantic stronger on routes between Britain and the United States.

Delta, the second-largest U.S. airline by revenue after United Continental , has been looking to acquire a stake in Virgin Atlantic for more than two years but previous talks broke down over price and other issues, and there is no guarantee that its recent discussions would result in a pact, two people familiar with the matter said.

"London obviously is the premier market and Heathrow is by and large the market leader. It's the lynchpin transatlantic market in terms of size and revenue, particularly premium traffic revenue," said George Hamlin, an aviation consultant in Fairfax, Virginia.

A deal with Delta would also give Virgin Atlantic access to hundreds of markets on a one-stop connecting basis in the United States, he added.

Delta and Air France-KLM declined to comment.

"We are always talking to many airlines on a number of different matters but we never comment on the details of these discussions," a Virgin Atlantic spokeswoman said.

If Delta succeeds with its bid, Virgin Atlantic, which is not a member of a global airline alliance, would almost certainly join Delta and Air France's SkyTeam, the source close to Branson said. SkyTeam trails its oneworld and Star Alliance counterparts in slot access at Heathrow.

"Delta now finds itself going up against the combination of American Airlines and British Airways," said Hamlin, referring to the two anchor members of the oneworld global alliance.

"British Airways brings along a feed from other destinations - both Europe and intercontinental - at Heathrow. Delta is basically a dead-end at this point."

VIRGIN SALE OPTION

Singapore Airlines (SIA) bought 49 percent of Virgin Atlantic for 600 million pounds ($962 million) in 1999, but has been open to selling its stake since at least mid-2011 when a price of $500-$600 million was mooted in markets, a banking source familiar with the talks said at the time.

At the same time, SIA has been refocusing on its key markets where it is under pressure from low-cost airlines, launching its own budget carrier, Scoot, and bolstering its Asian regional carrier, SilkAir.

Virgin Atlantic, like other European carriers, has been battered by rising fuel prices and the euro zone crisis, and posted a loss of around 80 million pounds in its last full year.

"If Virgin is valued on an earnings basis, then it's hard to see SIA getting a good price. On the other hand, SIA is not desperate for cash and they probably won't sell it at a fire sale price," said Andrew Orchard, a regional airlines analyst at CIMB Research.

Branson, who set up Virgin Atlantic in 1984, has been weighing the airline's future for years and two years ago appointed Deutsche Bank to examine offers.

Virgin Group - made up of more than 400 companies worldwide - has a track record of selling down its stakes in businesses, while retaining a minority interest.

Last year Virgin Group sold a 51 percent stake in its fitness chain Virgin Active to private equity group CVC Capital Partners for $700 million and did a $560 million deal with U.S. investor Wilbur Ross for a 45 percent stake in Virgin Money.

Branson has also reduced his initial 49 percent stake in Virgin Australia Airlines to 26 percent in recent years.

Virgin Atlantic lost out in the battle to take over smaller UK carrier bmi last year to IAG, giving the owner of British Airways and Iberia more than 50 percent of Heathrow's slots.

Virgin has since won the rights to the remaining slots that IAG was forced to give up after the bmi deal was cleared.

(Additional reporting by Soyoung Kim in New York, Anjuli Davies and Luke Jeffs in London, and Karen Jacobs in Atlanta; Editing by Mark Bendeich and Mark Potter)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/delta-among-suitors-stake-virgin-atlantic-sources-013813846--finance.html

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Israel faces European backlash over settlement plan

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel faced concerted criticism from Europe on Monday over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to expand settlement building after the United Nations' de facto recognition of Palestinian statehood.

Britain, France and Sweden summoned the Israeli ambassadors in their respective capitals to hear deep disapproval of the plan to erect 3,000 more homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.

Ahead of a Netanyahu visit this week, Germany, considered Israel's closest ally in Europe, urged it to refrain from expanding settlements, and Russia said it viewed the Israeli moves with serious concern.

Angered by the U.N. General Assembly's upgrading on Thursday of the Palestinians' status in the world body from "observer entity" to "non-member state", Israel said the next day it would build the new dwellings for settlers.

Such projects in the past, on land Israel captured in a 1967 war and which Palestinians seek for a future state, have routinely drawn almost pro forma world condemnation.

But in a dramatic shift that Netanyahu would have certainly realised would raise the alarm among Palestinians and in world capitals, his pro-settler government also ordered "preliminary zoning and planning work" for thousands of housing units in areas including the so-called "E1" zone east of Jerusalem.

Such construction in the barren hills of E1 - still on the drawing board and never put into motion in the face of opposition from its main ally, the United States - could bisect the West Bank, cut off Palestinians from Jerusalem and further dim their hopes for a contiguous state.

The settlement plan, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, would deal "an almost fatal blow" to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Britain made clear it would not support strong Israeli retaliation over the U.N. vote, which Palestinians sought after peace talks collapsed in 2010 in a dispute over settlement building.

"We deplore the recent Israeli decision to build 3,000 new housing units and unfreeze development in the E1 block," a Foreign Office spokesman said. "We have called on the Israeli government to reverse the decision."

But a spokesman for British Prime Minister David Cameron played down talk of recalling Britain's ambassador in Tel Aviv.

"We are not proposing to do anything further at this stage," the spokesman said. "We are continuing to have conversations with the Israeli government and others."

France expressed "serious concerns" to the Israeli ambassador, reminding him that settlement building in occupied territories was illegal and an "obstacle" to reviving peace talks with the Palestinians.

A French Foreign Ministry official, responding to reports Paris might bring its Tel Aviv envoy home, said: "There are other ways in which we can express our disapproval."

RETALIATION

Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said Israel could not have remained indifferent to the Palestinians' unilateral move at the United Nations.

In Europe only the Czech Republic voted against the resolution while many countries, including France, backed it. Netanyahu also plans to visit Prague this week to express his thanks.

"I want to tell you that those same Europeans and Americans who are now telling us 'naughty, naughty over our response, understand full-well that we have to respond, and they themselves warned the Palestinian Authority," Steinitz told Army Radio.

Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said building in E1 "destroys the two-state solution, (establishing) East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine and practically ends the peace process and any opportunity to talk about negotiations in the future".

Sami Abu Zuhri, spokesman for the Hamas Islamist movement that governs the Gaza Strip, said the settlement plans were "an insult to the international community, which should bear responsibility for Israeli violations and attacks on Palestinians".

Only three weeks ago, Netanyahu won strong European and U.S. support for an offensive in the Hamas Islamist-run Gaza Strip, which Israel said was aimed at curbing cross-border rocket fire.

Favoured by opinion polls to win a January 22 national election, he brushed off world condemnation of his latest settlement plans and complaints from critics at home that he is deepening Israel's diplomatic isolation.

He told his cabinet on Sunday that his government "will carry on building in Jerusalem and in all the places on the map of Israel's strategic interests".

But while his housing minister has said the government would soon invite bids from contractors to build 1,000 homes for Israelis in East Jerusalem and more than 1,000 in West Bank settlement blocs, the E1 plan was still in its planning stages.

"No one will build until it is clear what will be done there," the minister, Ariel Attias, said on Sunday.

Israel froze much of its activities in E1 under pressure from former U.S. President George W. Bush and the area has been under the scrutiny of his successor Barack Obama.

Most world powers consider Israel's settlements to be illegal. Israel cites historical and Biblical links to the West Bank and Jerusalem and regards all of the holy city as its capital, a claim that is not recognised internationally.

Approximately 500,000 Israelis and 2.5 million Palestinians live in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.

(Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer, Dan Williams, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Jihan Abdalla in Ramallah, Sreve Gutterman in Moscow, Gareth Jones in Berlin, John Irish in Paris and Tim Castle in London; Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/britain-considers-recalling-israel-envoy-source-072852303.html

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Monday, December 3, 2012

Do antidepressants improve mood and/or lessen seizure frequency in patients with epilepsy?

ScienceDaily (Dec. 3, 2012) ? Epilepsy and depression are common co-morbidities. Concern for the potential of certain antidepressants to induce seizures has led to under-treating depression and anxiety disorders in epilepsy patients. Research presented today at the 66th American Epilepsy Society meeting suggests that antidepressants in normal dosage may have a positive impact on both mood and seizure frequency.

A research team at Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, conducted a retrospective study of 100 consecutive epilepsy patients started on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs). The purpose of the study was to establish the impact of these antidepressants on seizure frequency, and to determine whether an improvement in seizure frequency correlated with a decrease in depression and anxiety.(Platform C.05)

Changes in mood and anxiety data were obtained at three and six months. Excluded from the analysis were patients who had had anticonvulsant drug or procedure changes at the time of antidepressant introduction. Improvements and/or remission of symptoms were observed in 86% of patients who continued in the study.

According to lead investigator Ramses Ribot, M.D., "SSRIs and SNRIs do not appear to worsen seizure frequency and yield a good therapeutic response independently of seizure frequency. Our studies also suggest these antidepressants may actually have an anti-seizure effect in patients with frequent seizures."

The findings are potentially of broad interest to treating physicians. However, the researchers say their findings need to be confirmed in prospective double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trials.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by American Epilepsy Society (AES), via Newswise.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/mind_brain/depression/~3/W0lY_pRDDkQ/121203121444.htm

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7 Stylish iPad Cases With Notepads

(Reuters) - A woman who underwent a full face transplant after being mauled by a chimpanzee will receive about $4 million from the estate of the animal's owner, who has since died, according to media reports on Thursday. Charla Nash was attacked in February 2009, when her friend's 200-pound chimpanzee went on a rampage and ripped off her nose, lips, eyes and hands. The chimp was shot and killed by a police officer. Nash's brother, Michael, filed a lawsuit on his sister's behalf, seeking $50 million from the estate of the chimp's owner, Sandra Herold, who died in 2010. ...

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/7-stylish-ipad-cases-notepads-164518563.html

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Clinton: New Israeli Settlements Set Back Cause of Peace (Voice Of America)

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Sunday, December 2, 2012

Skin Cancer Awareness Day And Its Puppet Masters |

4 December is ?Skin Awareness Day? in the European Parliament in Brussels.

?Skin Awareness Day? is a joint initiative by the Association of European Cancer Leagues (ECL), European Academy of Dermatology and Venereology (EADV) and Euromelanoma.

The host for ?Skin Cancer Awareness Day? is MAC (MEP?s Against Cancer) and the event will take place in the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels.

The subject to be discussed is: ?Sunbed Use and Skin Cancer Prevention: Status, Gaps, and Calls for Action?.

The ?Skin Awareness Day? at the European Parliament in Brussels will include an opportunity for MEP?s to get a free screening for skin cancer at the courtesy of the EADV.

What follows below can be considered to be a sort of an open letter to MEP?s and other politicians giving another angle to what you will be presented on 4 December. Please do not disregard this as a ?conspiracy theory from the tanning industry?, because it is not. Instead it is based upon facts available to anyone who wants to see it.

Follow the money and look at the full picture

Since both EADV and Euromelanoma are financed by L?Or?al and Nestl? (through some of their daughter-companies, see picture below) it is no surprise to find them behind this event.

Skin-cancer-awarenedss-day-and-its-puppet-masters

What is more remarkable is however that ECL and MAC, both organisations that should look at the full picture of cancer, are promoting the ?Skin Awareness Day?.

Could it be so that each type of cancer has its own subgroup (with their own sponsors) in ECL and MAC? At least in ECL this seems to be the case. This is how they are explaining their relationship to L?Or?al in a ?Response to the Consultation on Smart Regulation? to the European Commission:

?The running of ECL is funded mainly by annual fees from its member leagues. Selected specific activities are funded by industry sponsors, such as Garnier International for our melanoma actions.?

Industrial sponsoring of research is an unfortunate trend which leads to bias.

The involvement of the cosmetic- and pharmaceutical- industry in skin-cancer research could be beneficial for the public ? if it really was done with just an ounce of altruism.

But which are then the real reasons why L?Or?al and their largest shareholder, Nestl?, are spending millions, if not billions, of Euros on, supposedly, trying to find a cure against skin-cancer?

The answer is that obviously they do not want to find a cure. They just want to create more customers for their products. And they are extremely successful with this. The losers in this marketing game are the European citizens and governments.

Vitamin D, the miracle hormone and the new name on ancient wisdom

If EADV and ECL (inclusive all their members) really were interested in curbing the apparently rampaging skin-cancer epidemic, and, at the same time, reduce all other cancers with maybe as much as 50%, they should organise a ?Vitamin D? instead of a ?Skin Cancer? awareness day. And discuss how tanning beds could be used to give people in Europe Vitamin D in the best and safest way all year around.

Every day during 2012 there have been in average more than 10 reports published about Vitamin D and almost all of them describing the benefits of this ?miracle hormone? in reducing the risk of different kinds of cancers.

Even so, the medical establishment, from WHO at the top and down to national and local health authorities, still considers the evidences about benefits from Vitamin D as ?non-conclusive?.

It doesn?t mean though, that they are right. The scandal around H1N1 (Swine-flu) influenza vaccine is an unfortunate example of that.

It is well known that the best and the only natural production of vitamin D come from exposing our skin towards UVB-photons.

The healing powers of UV-light have been known by mankind for thousands of years. Once upon a time, Niels Ryberg Finsen, who discovered how to use UV-light to cure tuberculosis, was awarded with the Nobel Prize for his work. In fact, until the invention of antibiotics and vaccine, sunlight was the most efficient treatment for most remedies. (And perhaps it still is today).

The invention of the tanning lamp, emitting the same kind of UVB photons as we can find in the sunlight, is therefore an invention well worth another Nobel Prize. And maybe it would have got one already if it wasn?t for the campaign against UV-light that started some 30 years ago and by now has managed to turn a whole generation (or two) from ancient wisdom and common sense to modern commercial quackery.

?Melanoma-marketing? is costing the European society enormous sums.

I will not go deeper here into the invention of ?melanoma-marketing? as a commercial tool for sales of sun-protection cosmetics and skin cancer therapies. You can find all about that at www.tannersrights.com.

The facts are that there are numerous indications of that the ?melanoma-marketing? campaign is creating an artificially built up fear of UV-light based upon spurious skin-cancer statistics and biased reporting.

Public screening events like ?Melanoma Days? have been invented and sponsored by L?Or?al and other manufacturers of skin remedies in order to fight skin cancer by the method of early detection. The problem is that obviously it doesn?t work like it should since the mortality doesn?t decrease. It does however create millions of new cases of diagnosed skin cancer (which means millions of new customers for the sponsors and billions of tax-payers? money in public health costs).

In the graphs below, you can clearly see the increased gap between incidences and mortality for melanoma and non-melanoma in the Nordic countries. The Nordic countries are among the few in the world to have an official register for non-melanoma skin cancers. The statistical improbable gap shows the number of new patients drawn into the ?illness-maintenance?-focused healthcare systems every year.

Still, and in spite of the increase in incidences, melanoma is a relatively small cancer compared to others as can be seen in the graph below.

Cancer-statistic E27

The control of media makes the fight against ?melanoma-marketing? a real David against Goliath battle

In addition to my findings of L?Or?al-sponsored research behind practically all reports of the dangers of tanning beds, there have been a few other critical voices against the ?science? behind ?melanoma-marketing?.

Here are some of them:

Dr. William Grant?s ?Critique of the International Agency for Research on Cancer?s meta-analyses of the association of sunbed use with risk of cutaneous malignant melanoma?¹⁾;

Prof. Earl J. Glusac?s report ?The melanoma ?epidemic?, a dermatopathologist?s perspective?²⁾;

Dr. Sam Schuster?s article in the Guardian: ?Don?t let the phoney melanoma scare keep you out of the sun.?³⁾

A real eye-opening report came however in the July 2012 issue of the Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology: ?Accuracy in melanoma detection: A 10-year multi-center survey.?⁴⁾

The purpose of the survey was to investigate the relationship between necessary excision of malign melanoma and unnecessary removals of benign lesions. And the findings presented by Dr. Giuseppe Argenziano and his colleagues confirmed all suspicions of inflated melanoma statistics.

Unfortunately, the report from the gigantic research (300,215 cases from 23 clinics in 13 countries) did not get even a fraction of the attention in media that another small report about claiming ?tanning addiction? among 17 students got.

This just highlights the problem MEP?s and other politicians are faced with when it comes to decide their attitude towards indoor tanning.

Because of their influence on mass- and glossy- media channels through their advertising budgets, L?Or?al and Nestl? control not only the research but also the communication about skin-cancer. And with that they decide the opinion of the public.

Since politicians are elected to follow the wishes of their electorate, purging sunlight and tanning beds seem to be the very right thing to do even if many facts indicates that the public has been brainwashed with false information.

National Cancer Societies are digging in the wrong direction.

The national Cancer Societies are not very helpful when it comes to try to give their politicians an unbiased opinion. They continue to spend all their money on traditional cancer-treatments and practically nothing on the potential massive benefits of Vitamin D. Instead they are spending millions of Euros trying to ?keep us in the dark? by campaigns of how to avoid sunlight and tanning beds.

One example of this narrow view on skin-cancer can be found in a statement from the Swedish Cancer Society. They write like this (translated from Swedish) in a recent report: ?[We] believe that the vitamin D issue should not affect current strategies regarding the prevention of skin cancer.? I do believe they will regret this sentence only within a couple of years from now.

What about an alternative scenario?

So, what if there is no skin cancer epidemic and the use of tanning beds in Europe in reality is so infinitesimal that it is even statistically insignificant (as in the large case-control study of risk factors for skin-cancer by Dr. E de Vries et. al.: ?Known and potential new risk factors for skin cancer in European populations: a multicentre case?control study.?⁵⁾)?

And what if a wide-spread habit of regular short, non-burning, sessions in tanning beds really could give people in Europe enough levels of Vitamin D to achieve the reduction in cancers (including skin-cancer) which experts on the benefits of Vitamin D claim it can? Without increasing whatsoever (rather the opposite) any risk of skin-cancer.

Wouldn?t that motivate at least an attempt from MEP?s and other politicians responsible for our welfare to uncover the real truth about skin-cancer and its prevention?

Maybe instead of thinking about reducing the use, you should envision an alternative with a program teaching people of how to use this Nobel Prize worthy invention for the purpose of preventing cancer (with a general improvement of peoples? health as a bonus)?

Why not combine this with regulations for indoor tanning that even more reduce the potential risk? Not by any bans and limitations of usage but rather through better adopting both the technical specifications and the operating manuals to the potential health benefits (i.e. more UVB and less UVA).

What about teaching school children about the benefits of UV-light (from the natural sun or from the lamps in a tanning bed) and how to acquire those benefits in a safe way? And that is definitely not by slopping on sunscreen every day.

If nothing else, it would bring back some sanity and common sense into the debate.

What you will be told at the Skin Cancer Awareness Day

If you were to be presented with the latest research regarding the ?Relationship between sunbed use and melanoma risk in a large case-control study in the United Kingdom? ⁶⁾, done by Dr. Faye Elliott et. al. with the conclusion: ?Therefore, we have not found any evidence of a relationship between sunbed use and melanoma risk?, it would be one thing.

Unfortunately you will instead be fed and expected to react upon the old mantras from the people behind the decision in IARC about the dangers of indoor tanning. They will use recycled and further skewed meta-research (as described in Dr. Grant?s report) based upon spun (by the use of ?black-box like? ?adjusted for? manipulations) case-control studies, many of them funded by L?Or?al. And they will to try to prove that indoor tanning is a main culprit contributing with an unbelievable number of cases to the increasing number of skin-cancer incidences in Europe.

They are the same persons that, when asked about to provide proof of independency according to the rules for publication in the British Medical Journal, refused to disclose any affiliation with the founders and beneficiaries of ?melanoma-marketing?.

When you also will be asked to sign a document (White Book), you should know that it has been drafted by people on the payroll of one of L?Or?al?s companies.

Still, this is a too serious matter to be taken lightly

Now, having said all the above, I do not want to leave anyone with the impression that an increased mortality in melanoma and other cancers is something that should be neglected. It is just so that indoor tanning seems more to be a part of the solution than being a part of the problem.

References:

¹⁾http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3092569/

²⁾http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1600-0560.2010.01660.x/abstract

³⁾http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/jul/21/melanoma-myth-skin-cancer-sun

⁴⁾http://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622%2811%2900808-5/abstract

⁵⁾http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2133.2012.11081.x/abstract

⁶⁾http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21823115

Source: http://www.thetanningguru.com/skin-cancer-awareness-day-and-its-puppet-masters/

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