Industry backed research often compares a new drug to a placebo or to an inappropriate drug of second choice in order to report a more positive result. Independent research favors comparing the best currently available drug to the new drug. This comparison is a more reliable indicator of whether a new drug is a true innovation rather than just marketing hype.

Comparisons of research funded by drug manufacturers vs independent sources consistently reveal an alarming pattern. Research funded by a drug manufacturer is far more likely than independent research to produce results that favor the manufacturer’s product. How much more likely?

In one example, researchers at the University of California in San Francisco examined 192 PUBMED studies comparing various statin drugs. When the results of the statin being tested were favorable, the manufacturer was 20 times more likely to have paid for the trial. According to lead researcher Lisa Bero the bottom line is that most of these 192 trials didn’t need to be done, they were performed purely for marketing purposes. The link between study funding and study outcomes was disturbingly consistent. She also pointed out that 8 of the 9 members on the US National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) had financial ties to the statin manufacturers.

In another example, researchers analyzed 30 previous studies done on different drugs between 1966 & 2002 and found manufacturer funded trials were four times more likely to report a favorable result vs independent studies. According to study leader Joel Lexchin, “What we found was that in almost all cases there was a bias -a rather heavy bias- in favor of a drug when the study was industry funded. It does have implications in terms of whether or not we can believe the results of research they are funding.”

Our patent based, monopolistic, profit driven system places the financial health of shareholders ahead of the health of average citizens who may be sick or vulnerable. How can any of us make informed health decisions when research results cannot be trusted?

Seems that other people are starting to catch on to this way of thinking as you can see in this short video of a discussion on the topic.  Sure, all those celebrities drive Priuses in an effort to make us believe they actually care about the planet so that seems like a sexier option but what they should be doing, apparently, is running through the classifieds for some diesel Volkswagen Golfs or something. Recent studies and discussions such as this one seem to support the idea that keeping an older car on the road tends to be more eco-friendly than buying a new Prius.

Or, of course, if you can find an older Prius, I’m sure that’s great too. However, keep in mind that we’re currently on the…third (I think) generation of that particular car and several improvements have been made on it since the launch of most hybrids earlier in the decade. Therefore, maybe keeping your Honda Civic for a few more years until we get ourselves some hydrogen power in our motor vehicles is a good idea.

No, seriously!  Look at this:

It’s a fun project but ultimately, biodiesel might not be ready for prime time. If you want to give it a shot, take a look at some of the research on its effects beforehand.

Well, some companies are taking this further by producing plastic packaging that dissolves easily (although not very quickly) in water and can be flushed down the toilet.  This post on Environmental Graffiti tell of the packaging which is as strong as any other plastic bag but dissolves away in warm water into components that aren’t harmful.  Personally, I was a bit skeptical but after seeing this video…well, as you can see, that bag is all but gone.

Actually, apparently there’s not even the need for water as the bag will naturally dissolves if you just toss it in your compost heap.  It says it should stand up to the rain since they don’t want products getting wet if it’s wrapped in this stuff and left outside by the postman which is why they design it for warm water…but heck, in some parts of the world like Taipei, the rain is almost hot during the summer.

If this goes into mass production, this will be a huge step in reducing the millions of pounds of waste the world sees in our landfills each year just simply from plastic packaging around all our various products.  Here’s to hoping this makes it to market sooner rather than later.

In addition, CFL’s are toxic products containing mercury. China has virtually no environmental or health regulations governing their production or handling. Each broken bulb becomes a toxic spill and millions of them are being thrown into landfills around the globe. This is contaminating the earth’s soil and  air.  The costs in illness and environmental degradation has not been calculated into the true cost of Compact fluorescent lights.

Gates cautions that violating the order of these steps leaves people frustrated and confused. When people spend a great deal of time, effort and money and still don’t get well, they may be doing the right things but in the wrong order.

Who says big business can’t help out the environment?  Let’s see if Coke is willing to make this change in their marketing and production.

It’s a seemingly small change but considering the amount of Coke being sold each day, reducing the production and recycling process by a single step and removing the amount of paint used from the equation is a very significant change.  Apparently around 75 billion (yes, billion) cans of various Coca-cola products are sold every year so even the thin layer of paint on each can adds up to a lot in the long run.  Removing that toxic paint from the environment as well as the energy used to apply it to the aluminum cans results in eliminating tons, literally, of waste.

And did I mention that the can now looks cooler than ever?  Sure, it may be missing a bit of that iconic flair but bare aluminum is always in style.

(via Gizmodo, picture from 7760.org)

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It is possibly the single most important thing on the planet for all living organisms and recent studies suggest that water is going to become an even more precious resource as world water demand exceeds the supply.  For many of us in first world countries, it is hard to imagine there being a shortage of something we can get every time we turn on our taps.  I mean, for those of us who live on the Pacific westcoast where it rains almost every day for at least half the year, suggesting that we’ll soon have a shortage of water seems absurd.  However, consider the difficulty that parts of the world have in getting clean drinking water and the fact that there is a limited supply of it for the ever growing population of our planet.

So what can you do about it?  Contrary to what some of us might think, saving water can be actually quite easy with some adjustments to our routines and a bit more thinking about how we use water everyday.  I mean, there are some that take it too far, in my opinion, and are rather gross (flushing the toilet once per day?!) but for the most part, using common sense will help immensely.  For example, if you have an air conditioner that has a built-in dehumidifier like I do, use the collected water for your lawn or plants.  Here’s some tips that each one of us can put to use without a huge amount of change to our everyday lives.

• use water efficient shower heads…and take shorter showers.
• turn the shower off when you’re shampooing your hair or soaping up.
• turn the water off while you’re brushing your teeth or shaving.
• use your dishwasher/washing machine only when they are full.  Put smaller loads together.
• soak your pots/pans rather than running them in water.  No one likes to scrub that hard anyways!
• fill the sink to wash your veggies and fruits rather than running the tap.
• use a water bottle for drinking to reduce the number of glasses/cups you need to wash each day.

There’s obviously a lot more ways to conserve water around the house.  If you have suggestions, we’d love to hear them.