Year: 2014

Four U.S. lawmakers joined with more than 200 food companies, organic farming groups, health and environment organizations and other groups on Thursday to urge President Barack Obama to require manufacturers to label food products that contain genetically engineered ingredients. The groups delivered a letter to the president dated January 16 reminding Obama of a campaign pledge the groups said he made in 2007 as he campaigned in Iowa to work to label so-called GMO foods. The issue is hotly contested, with more than 20 states considering laws to mandate labeling of foods made with gene-altered corn, soybeans, sugar beets and other biotech crops. Advocates of labeling say consumers deserve to know if the food they eat contains GMOs.

Filmmaker Lucy Walker, who received Oscar nominations for “Wasteland” (2010) and “The Tsunami and the Cherry Blossom (2011), follows Marianna Palka as she prepares to go to the doctor and open the envelope that will seal her fate. Her short documentary, “The Lion’s Mouth Opens,” premieres at the Sundance Film Festival Jan. 18.        

West Virginia officials said Thursday they have lifted a ban on drinking tap water for two-thirds of the customers affected by a chemical spill, but warned pregnant women to avoid it until the chemical is completely flushed from the pipes. One week after the spill into the Elk River prompted authorities to order some 300,000 people not to drink or wash with their tap water, officials have cleared more than 200,000 of them to start drinking the water again after tests showed levels below the 1 part per million level safety standard set by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But pregnant women should continue to steer clear of the water in an “abundance of caution” until the chemical is completely undetectable, West Virginia American Water said. The company said the CDC had advised there is still a “limited availability of data” on whether pregnant woman are more susceptible and advised that state water officials “consider an alternative drinking water source for pregnant women until the chemical is at non-detectable levels in the water distribution system.” The state attorney general, the U.S. Chemical Safety Board and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia are investigating the January 9 leak of about 7,500 gallons (28,000 liters) of 4-methylcyclohexane methanol, or crude MCHM, into the river.

Robert Epperson had a lung lavage. He was fitted with a chest percussor, a vest that shook his chest, while doctors intubated him, allowing one lung to breathe for two, and literally washed the other lung with a saline solution, cleaning out the excess surfactant from his air spaces. Then they switched lungs and washed the second one, all in the same procedure.        

China’s State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) on Thursday ordered local authorities to investigate media reports that allege skincare products company NU Skin Enterprises Inc distributes false information and conducts illegal business in China, state news agency Xinhua said. Xinhua quoted an SAIC spokesman as saying the administration would take legal measures against any legal violations if investigation results showed the media reports were factual. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party mouthpiece, said on Wednesday that NU Skin had been exaggerating its influence and creditworthiness in company brochures by passing advertisements for news reports, and organizing “brainwashing” gatherings. NU Skin said on Thursday that the article published the previous day contained “inaccuracies and exaggerations that are not representative of NU Skin’s business in China”.

The National Coordination Body, a Syrian opposition group that some rebels see as a front for President Bashar al-Assad, has decided not to take part in peace talks that will begin next week, international mediator Lakhdar Brahimi said on Thursday. The National Coordination Body is also known as the National Coordination Committee.