Consumer Health Digest #14-28

August 1, 2004

Your Weekly Update of News and Reviews
August 3, 2014

Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by Stephen Barrett, M.D., with help from William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H. It summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement actions; news reports; Web site evaluations; recommended and nonrecommended books; and other information relevant to consumer protection and consumer decision-making.

British agency issues favorable fluoridation report. Public Health England (PHE), which is required by law to monitor the effects of England’s water fluoridation programs, has concluded that “fluoridation is a safe and effective public health measure.” [Water fluoridation: Health monitoring report for England 2014. Public Health England, March 14, 2014] Its 41-page report states:

  • Five-year olds in fluoridated areas are 15% less likely to have had tooth decay than those in non-fluoridated areas but when deprivation and ethnicity are taken into account, they are 28% less likely.
  • Twelve-year olds in fluoridated areas are 11% less likely to have had tooth decay than those in non-fluoridated areas, but when deprivation and ethnicity are into account, they are 21% less likely.
  • In fluoridated areas there are 45% fewer hospital admissions of children aged one to four for dental caries (mostly for extraction of decayed teeth under a general anesthetic) than in non-fluoridated areas.
  • The number of 12-year old children with moderate dental fluorosis or more is very low, at around 1% in fluoridated Newcastle and 0.2% in non-fluoridated Manchester, but children in Newcastle have less tooth decay.

The report also compared the overall death rate and the rates of hip fracture, kidney stones, Down’s syndrome, and cancers in fluoridated and nonfluoridated areas and found no cause for concern. Only about 12.5% of England’s population receives fluoridated water.

More fluoridation educational materials released. The Campaign for Dental Health and the National Network for Oral Health Access (NNOHA) have jointly developed five new publications for use by fluoridation advocates. Three are primarily intended for dentists and the other two are companion handouts to give to patients, parents, and caregivers.

Georgia court bans sale of illegal cancer products. A federal judge has ordered Gloria D. Raber, her husband Kelly Raber, and their company, BioAnue, to stop marketing drugs and/or dietary supplements with illegal claims that they are effective against cancers or other diseases. The judge’s order was accompanied by an injunction that specified large penalties if they resume doing so. For several years, the relevant products had been marketed through several Web sites that made the violative claims and linked to another site that processed the orders. In February 2012, the FDA warned Gloria Raber that at least six of BioAnue’s products—Bovine Cartilage, TumorX BioEnerGenics Co-Enzyme-Q10, TumorX Cardio Clean, Diabetic Mender, TumorX Formula CX and Stroke Mender—were being promoted with illegal therapeutic claims. Gloria Raber replied that the sites that made the claims were independent and not under her control, but the FDA—and ultimately the Court—concluded otherwise. From about 1995 through 2005, Kelley’s father, Dan Raber marketed some of the same or similar products with similar claims. In 2005, The New York Times reported the FDA agents had raided Dan Raber’s business, primarily because he had promoted bloodroot pastes for the treatment of skin cancers. [Flesh-eating paste promoted as cancer cure. The New York Times, Aug 29, 2005] BioAnue, which incorporated in 2009, appears to be a continuation, at least in part, of Dan Raber’s work, but whether he is still actively involved is not apparent.


2001 || 2002 || 2003 || 2004 || 2005 || 2006 || 2007
2008 || 2009 || 2010 || 2011 || 2012 || 2013 || 2014
2015 || 2016 || 2017 || 2018 || 2019 || 2020 || 2021
2022 || 2023 || 2024 || 2025

To subscribe, click here.

< Previous Issue || Next Issue >