Finnish scientists trucked in real forest dirt and grass and laid it over the gravel at four daycare yards. They let the kids dig around in it for a month. The blood tests came back with changes the researchers hadn’t expected to see so fast or so clear.
The study ran at ten daycares in two Finnish cities with 75 kids aged three to five. Four of the yards got the forest treatment: about a tennis court worth of soil and grass laid over the gravel, plus planters and peat blocks the kids could dig and climb on. Three others stuck with their normal gravel yards. The last three were daycares where the kids were already visiting real forests every day.
After one month, the variety of bacteria living on the kids’ skin shot up, and the kind that helps train the skin’s immune defenses jumped the most. Their gut bacteria started to look like the gut bacteria of the forest-visiting kids. Their blood showed more of the immune cells whose job is to keep the body from freaking out at harmless stuff like pollen and peanuts, and overall inflammation dropped. The kids on the plain gravel yards showed none of this.
Childhood asthma in the US doubled between 1980 and 1995. Food allergies in kids jumped 50 percent between 1997 and 2011, then jumped another 50 percent between 2007 and 2021. And peanut allergies in one-year-olds tripled between 2001 and 2017.
The Finnish researchers think one of the reasons is simple: kids today don’t get dirty enough. 37 percent of American preschoolers now spend an hour or less outside on a normal weekday. Their immune systems are getting trained in environments stripped of the bacteria humans have always lived around.
Aki Sinkkonen, who led the study, put it in plain words: “It would be best if children could play in puddles and everyone could dig organic soil.” The Finnish government is now helping pay for daycares across the country to make the same changes.
NHS DESTROYED THE WOMAN WHO CAUGHT ITS DOCTORS STEALING FROM IT
Sharmila Chowdhury @sharmilaxx gave 30 years of spotless service to the @NHS. Not one disciplinary mark. Not one complaint. She was the budget holder for radiology at Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, which means she could see exactly where the money was going.
What she saw was two consultant radiologists billing the NHS for shifts they were spending at a private hospital down the road. The Trust lost £250,000 of public money through those arrangements.
She reported it to her line manager. Her medical director. HR. Counter Fraud. The Department of Health. The Treasury. Number 10.
She had a paper trail so airtight that @ITV undercover surveillance later caught the same consultants still absent during paid hours, and caught Miranda Harvie and Akkib Rafique taking direct cash payments from patients for private ultrasounds inside the NHS building, money going straight into their own account.
So what did the Trust do with this documented, camera-confirmed, publicly broadcast fraud?
They sacked her. On fabricated counter-allegations from a subordinate she had herself reported for breaching patient safety. The man who filed those allegations later sent an email signed off with "0800-F***-YOU-B****." He received a Top Mentor award from the Trust that same year.
Sharmila won the Interim Relief Hearing. She won the internal appeal. The judge asked the Trust to reinstate her. The Trust said no and refused to let her return. She was blacklisted. Job offers were withdrawn the moment employers discovered who she was. She settled out of court in 2012 with two years pay, out of which she had to pay £77,500 in legal fees alone. 38 Degrees38 Degrees
In July 2013, she was diagnosed with breast and lung cancer. Multiple consultants believe this is a direct result of the sustained stress of her treatment as a whistleblower.
The consultants she reported kept their jobs.
George Osborne said he could not get involved. Andrew Lansley said he could not get involved. David Cameron said he could not get involved. Every single official body, every single minister, every single department looked at a proven, camera-documented NHS fraud case and decided it was an employment matter.
Read Sharmila's full case: sharmilachowdhury com
Sources: Health Select Committee written evidence | @DailyMail | @Independent | @BBCNews | @Channel4 | @guardian | @thetimes | @DailyMirror | @Channel4News | @ITV
@SeddSezz A study needs to be done to show how many businesses have shut down and people lost jobs to RR tax hikes. Still won't do anything about all the cheats selling through Amazon that avoid every tax-VAT, Council Rates, Income tax etc...