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The Center for Science in the Public Interest has notified Bayer Healthcare
that it will sue the company if it continues to claim that the selenium
in its One A Day vitamins may reduce men's risk of prostate cancer, the
health group announced today.
Advertisements
and labels for One A Day Men's 50+ Advantage and One A Day Men's Health
Formula multivitamins claim that "emerging research" suggests that
selenium may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. "Did you know that
there are more new cases of prostate cancer each year than any other
cancer?" intones the narrator one such radio ad. "Now there is
something you can do."
But leading prostate cancer researchers say there is scant evidence to support such a claim and have joined CSPI in urging the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to put an immediate stop to the deceptive claims.
"Bayer
is exploiting men's fear of prostate cancer just to sell more pills,"
said CSPI senior nutritionist David Schardt. "The largest prostate
cancer prevention trial has found that selenium is no more effective
than a placebo. Bayer is ripping people off when it suggests otherwise
in these dishonest ads."
A seven-year, $118-million study funded by the National Institutes of Health
found last year that selenium does not prevent prostate cancer in
healthy men. The Selenium and Vitamin E Cancer Prevention Trial
(SELECT) involving 35,000 U.S. and Canadian men was halted in October
when researchers determined that selenium was not protecting the men
from prostate cancer and may have been causing diabetes in some of
them.
The only study to find that selenium might prevent prostate cancer in men was the Nutritional Prevention of Cancer (NPC) trial,
which unexpectedly found in 1996 that selenium supplementation seemed
to prevent prostate cancer in men with a history of skin cancer.
However, two later analyses of the NPC results determined that only a
small minority of men may have benefited from selenium supplementation
and that selenium almost tripled the risk of developing diabetes. That
led to a dramatic warning from the American College of Physicians that
"long-term selenium supplementation should not be viewed as harmless
and a possibly healthy way to prevent illness."
In an editorial
accompanying publication of the SELECT study results in the Journal of
the American Medical Association, Peter Gann of the University of
Illinois at Chicago urged that "physicians should not recommend
selenium or vitamin E-or any other antioxidant supplements-to their
patients for preventing prostate cancer."
Yet, Bayer still touts selenium's promise in preventing unspecified prostate "issues" and in reducing prostate cancer risk.
"With
these indefensible claims, Bayer is thumbing its nose at the Food and
Drug Administration, the FTC, and any number of state consumer
protection laws," said CSPI litigation director Steve Gardner. "A
courtroom would be treacherous territory for Bayer, whose executives
would be committing perjury just by reciting their ads under oath."
In recent years CSPI's litigation department has negotiated settlements or voluntary changes to marketing practices with Airborne, Anheuser-Busch, Frito-Lay, Kellogg, Pinnacle Foods, Quaker Oats, and others.
Besides
announcing its intention to sue Bayer, CSPI also filed a complaint
today with the FTC. That complaint states that because Bayer's ads have
for so long reinforced the false notion that selenium prevents prostate
cancer-and because selenium may actually increase the risk of
diabetes-the company should be required to run a corrective advertising
campaign. (Bayer is now running corrective advertising at the behest of
the Food and Drug Administration and state Attorneys General about yet
another one of its products, its birth control pill Yaz.)
CSPI says the prostate cancer claims for One A Day
supplements for men violate a consent decree the company signed with
the FTC in 2007. That year Bayer paid a $3.2 million fine related to
weight-loss claims made on behalf of One A Day multivitamin
WeightSmart, and agreed not to make unsubstantiated claims in the
future.
Separately, some of the most prominent prostate cancer
researchers in the United States wrote to the FTC in support of CSPI's
complaint about Bayer's advertising. The SELECT trial "was the largest
individually randomized cancer prevention trial ever conducted, and,
given its high rates of adherence and its statistical power, it is
unlikely to have missed detecting a benefit of even a very modest
size," wrote the researchers. "Bayer Healthcare is doing a disservice
to men by misleading them about a protective role for selenium in
prostate cancer."
Signatories include Peter Gann and Maarten Bosland of
the University of Illinois at Chicago, Ed Giovannucci of the Harvard
Medical School, Alan Kristal of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research
Center, William Nelson of the Johns Hopkins Medical School, Tim Byers
of the University of Colorado, Larry Kushi of Kaiser-Permanente in
Oakland, Lawrence Kolonel of the University of Hawaii, and Michael Thun
of the American Cancer Society.
Since 1971, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been a strong advocate for nutrition and health, food safety, alcohol policy, and sound science.
"We welcome the White House's statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur's killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate," said the family of Aysenur Eygi.
The family of the U.S. citizen killed by Israeli forces in the illegally occupied West Bank last week issued a statement over the weekend demanding that the Biden administration order an "independent investigation," arguing a probe by Israel's military would not be enough to establish the facts and pursue justice.
The statement from Aysenur Eygi's family was posted to Instagram on Saturday by a friend of Eygi, a 26-year-old Turkish American citizen who was volunteering for the pro-Palestinian International Solidarity Movement in the West Bank. According to eyewitnesses, Israeli soldiers shot Eygi in the head during a protest against the expansion of unlawful Israeli settlements near the West Bank city of Nablus.
"Like the olive tree she lay beneath where she took her last breaths, Aysenur was strong, beautiful, and nourishing. Her presence in our lives was taken needlessly, unlawfully, and violently by the Israeli military," the family's statement reads. "A U.S. citizen, Aysenur was peacefully standing for justice when she was killed by a bullet that video shows came from an Israeli military shooter."
"We welcome the White House's statement of condolences, but given the circumstances of Aysenur's killing, an Israeli investigation is not adequate," the statement continued. "We call on President [Joe] Biden, Vice President [Kamala] Harris, and Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken to order an independent investigation into the unlawful killing of a U.S. citizen and to ensure full accountability for the guilty parties."
A spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said in the wake of Eygi's killing, which sparked global outrage, that "we are deeply disturbed by the tragic death of an American citizen" and "have reached out to the government of Israel to ask for more information and request an investigation into the incident." The U.S. is Israel's chief diplomatic ally and arms supplier.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF), for its part, claimed that soldiers "responded with fire" in the direction of "a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them." The IDF said it is "looking into reports that a foreign national was killed as a result of shots fired in the area."
But one eyewitness who was present when Eygi was killed told reporters that "it was quiet" when the deadly shot was fired, contradicting the IDF's account.
"There was nothing to justify the shot," said Israeli activist Jonathan Pollak. "The shot was taken to kill."
Longtime Israeli activist Jonathan Pollack describes the “intentional killing” of American Aysenur Eygi in the West Bank:
“It was quiet. There was nothing to justify the shot. The shot was taken to kill.” pic.twitter.com/2eTOYDEqpI
— Ryan Grim (@ryangrim) September 6, 2024
Ghassan Daghlas, the governor of Nablus, toldCNN on Saturday that an autopsy conducted at a nearby university "confirmed that Eygi was killed by an Israeli occupation sniper's bullet to her head."
Eygi was at least the third U.S. citizen killed by the IDF in the West Bank since the Israeli military launched its assault on the Gaza Strip following a deadly Hamas-led attack on October 7. The IDF is notorious for refusing to hold its soldiers accountable for massacring civilians, mostly Palestinians.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said in a statement Friday that "to date, the U.S. has not received satisfactory responses from the Netanyahu government about the two other Americans killed in the West Bank since October 7th, and the Biden administration has not been doing enough to pursue justice and accountability on their behalf."
Van Hollen said he has "repeatedly raised these concerns" with top administration officials, including Blinken.
"The Biden administration must do more to hold the Netanyahu government accountable and use American influence to demand the prosecution of those responsible for harm against American citizens," the senator said Friday. "If the Netanyahu government will not pursue justice for Americans, the U.S. Department of Justice must."
A spokesperson for Iran's Foreign Ministry called on Israel's allies to "stop supporting and arming it."
The Israeli military carried out a series of airstrikes on central Syria late Sunday, reportedly killing more than a dozen people and prompting a furious response from Syrian ally Iran.
"We strongly condemn this criminal attack," Nasser Kanaani, a spokesperson for the Iranian Foreign Ministry, said during a press conference in Tehran.
Kanaani went on to urge Israel's weapons suppliers, chiefly the United States and Germany, to "stop supporting and arming it" as its catastrophic assault on the Gaza Strip spills out across the region. Nearly 40 people were wounded in Israel's strikes on Sunday, according to a Syrian health official, and several are in critical condition.
Citing two unnamed regional intelligence sources, Reutersreported early Monday that the Israeli strikes hit a "major military research center for chemical arms production located near Misyaf."
The facility, according to Reuters, "is believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production."
Kanaani denied that the facility hit was connected to Iran.
"What official sources from the Syrian government have announced is that there were attacks on some Syrian facilities, including an attack on a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Defense and the Syrian army," he said.
Civilians were reportedly among those killed and wounded in Sunday's strikes, which came as the world awaited Iran's expected military response to Israel's assassination of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.
Israeli forces have carried out dozens of airstrikes in Syria—including one targeting Iran's consulate in Damascus—since the Hamas-led October 7 attack, which prompted Israel's large-scale assault on Gaza.
Al Jazeerareported that Israeli forces continued to pummel the Palestinian enclave on Monday, bombing "al-Amoudi street in the Sabra neighborhood, south of Gaza City." The outlet noted that "at least 10 people have been killed today in attacks across the Gaza Strip."
Unionized machinists are set to vote on the contract on Thursday.
A tentative deal made early Sunday morning between aerospace giant Boeing and the union that represents more than 33,000 of its workers was a testament to the "collective voice" of the employees, said the union's bargaining committee—but members signaled they may reject the offer and vote to strike.
The company and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) District 751 reached an agreement that if approved by members in a scheduled Thursday vote, would narrowly avoid a strike that was widely expected just day ago, when Boeing and the bargaining committee were still far apart in talks over wages, health coverage, and other crucial issues for unionized workers.
The negotiations went on for six months and resulted on Sunday in an agreement on 25% general wage increases over the tentative contract's four years, a reduction in healthcare costs for workers, an increase in the amount Boeing would contribute to retirement plans, and a commitment to building the company's next aircraft in Washington state. The union had come to the table with a demand for a 40% raise over the life of the contract.
"Members will now have only one set of progression steps in a career, and vacation will be available for use as you earn it," negotiating team leaders Jon Holden and Brandon Bryant told members. "We were able to secure upgrades for certain job codes and improved overtime limits, and we now have a seat at the table regarding the safety and quality of the production system."
Jordan Zakarin of the pro-labor media organization More Perfect Union reported that feedback he'd received from members indicated "a strike may still be on the cards," and hundreds of members of the IAM District 751 Facebook group replied, "Strike!" on a post regarding the tentative deal.
The potential contract comes as Boeing faces federal investigations, including a criminal probe by the Department of Justice, into a blowout of a portion of the fuselage on an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 jetliner that took place when the plane was mid-flight in January.
The Federal Aviation Administration has placed a limit on the number of 737 MAX planes Boeing can produce until it meets certain safety and manufacturing standards.
As The Seattle Timesreported on Friday, while Boeing has claimed it is slowing down production and emphasizing safety inspections in order to ensure quality, mechanics at the company's plant in Everett, Washington have observed a "chaotic workplace" ahead of the potential strike, with managers "pushing partially assembled 777 jets through the assembly line, leaving tens of thousands of unfinished jobs due to defects and parts shortages to be completed out of sequence on each airplane."
Holden and Bryant said Sunday that "the company finds itself in a tough position due to many self-inflicted missteps."
"It is IAM members who will bring this company back on track," they said. "As has been said many times, there is no Boeing without the IAM."
Without 33,000 IAM members to assemble and inspect planes, a strike would put Boeing in an even worse position as it works to meet manufacturing benchmarks.
On Thursday, members will vote on whether or not to accept Boeing's offer and on reaffirming a nearly unanimous strike vote that happened over the summer.
If a majority of members reject the deal and at least two-thirds reaffirm the strike vote, a strike would be called.
If approved, the new deal would be the first entirely new contract for Boeing workers since 2008. Boeing negotiated with the IAM over the last contract twice in 2011 and 2013, in talks that resulted in higher healthcare costs for employees and an end to their traditional pension program.