LS,

RN05 - November 2006
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Global Warming And Your Health
Although heat related illnesses and deaths will increase with the temperatures, climate change is expected to also attack human health with dirtier air and water, more flood-related accidents and injuries, threats to food supplies, hundreds of millions of environmental refugees, and stress on and possible collapse of many ecosystems that now purify our air and water.
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061023192524.htm]

Diabetes Gene Carries Similar Risk To Obesity
Carrying two copies of a common variant of a particular gene doubles your chances of developing diabetes and puts you in a similar risk category to being clinically obese, according to a collaborative study led by University College London researchers.
[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=54945]

Many Seizure-Prone People Continue to Drive
University of Florida researchers surveyed more than 300 epilepsy patients in northeast Florida and southeast Georgia. They found that nearly 20 percent of those who had at least one seizure a year drove. Even more alarming, nearly 25 percent of patients who suffered daily seizures still drove occasionally.
[http://health.yahoo.com/news/168284]

Threat From Plummeting Biodiversity Qualified
Accelerating rates of species extinction will pose substantial problems for humanity in the near future, since biodiversity is intrinsically linked to the ecological "services" that nature provides to humanity. Think of composting, pest control, sequestering of pollutants and the absorption of greenhouse gases.
[http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20060926231715data_trunc_sys.shtml]

Extensively Drug-resistant Tuberculosis Is Emerging Threat
Risk of tuberculosis disease is greatly increased in people with HIV infection, and multidrug-resistant (MDR) tuberculosis is emerging as a major cause of death in these patients. The term extensively drug-resistant (XDR) tuberculosis has recently been used to describe strains that are resistant to second-line drugs—i.e., drugs that are used if the recommended first drug treatment regimen fails.
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061027153528.htm]

Climate change, fungal disease threaten frogs
A deadly fungal disease linked to climate change is wiping out huge numbers of amphibians in Spain and could push some species to the brink of extinction. The infectious illness that has already killed entire populations of frogs in Central and South America has now been spotted in Europe.
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20061025/sc_nm/environment_frog_dc]

Plutonium Or Greenhouse Gases? Weighing The Energy Options
Can nuclear energy save us from global warming? Perhaps, but the tradeoffs involved are sobering: thousands of metric tons of nuclear waste generated each year and a greatly increased risk of nuclear weapons proliferation or diversion of nuclear material into terrorists' hands. University of Michigan professor Rodney Ewing shows that nuclear power generation would need to increase by a factor of three to ten over current levels to have a significant impact on greenhouse gas emissions. We currently have 400-plus nuclear reactors operating worldwide, and we would need something like 3,500 nuclear power plants. Even if they could be built and brought online quickly, that many power plants would generate tens of thousands of metric tons of additional nuclear waste annually. So the real question is: "Plutonium versus carbon---which would you rather have as your problem?"
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061024010401.htm]

Gene variation affects risk of chronic pain
A new NIH-funded study shows that a specific gene variant in humans affects both sensitivity to short-term (acute) pain in healthy volunteers and the risk of developing chronic pain after one kind of back surgery. Blocking increased activity of this gene after nerve injury or inflammation in animals prevented development of chronic pain.
[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/nion-gva101806.php]
[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/mgh-mdt101706.php]

Pope warns scientists not to risk fate of Icarus
Pope Benedict told scientists that by believing only in "artificial intelligence" and technology they risked the fate of the mythical Icarus, whose home-made wings melted when he flew too close to the sun.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-22T032824Z_01_L21745170_RTRUKOC_0_US-POPE-SCIENCE.xml]

High bread consumption linked to renal cancer risk
A case-control study of more than 2300 Italians has found a significant association between high bread consumption and renal cell carcinoma. Eating a lot of pasta and rice may also raise the risk, while eating many vegetables may lower the risk.
[http://www.scienceblog.com/cms/high-bread-consumption-is-associated-with-increased-risk-of-renal-cancer-11793.html]
[http://www.newstarget.com/020837.html]

Indonesia disaster shows risks of mud volcanoes
isks from volcanoes that ooze mud rather than spew lava have long been underestimated worldwide, even with a cataclysmic mudflow in another part of Java that has swamped an area the size of Monaco and forced 10,000 people from their homes.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-20T184050Z_01_L20561069_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-VOLCANOES.xml]

Older People With Diabetes Have ATwo-fold Higher Mortality Risk From Cardiovascular Disease
Diabetes is on the rise, likely to affect twice as many people worldwide in 2030 as today, and a serious global health problem, because, despite available treatments, most people with diabetes develop serious long-term health problems. One of these is cardiovascular disease, the number one killer in the US and other developed countries.
[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=54339]
[http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/546242]

Flu Drug Could Ravage Environment
Lead researcher Dr Andrew Singer, said "An antiviral drug has never been widely used before, so we need to determine what might happen. During a flu pandemic, millions of people will all take Tamiflu at the same time. Over just 8 or 9 weeks, massive amounts of the drug will be expelled in sewage and find its way into the rivers. It could have huge effects on the fish and other wildlife."
[http://www.sciscoop.com/story/2006/10/19/71240/819]

Climate change threatens supplies of water for millions
Recent research suggests that by 2050, five times as much land is likely to be under "extreme" drought as now. Citing research by the Oxford academic Norman Myers, Tearfund suggests there will be as many as 200 million climate refugees by 2050.
[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6068348.stm]

Paper firm posing threat to Indonesian forest
Asia Pulp and Paper, one of the world's largest paper companies, poses a threat to a massive peatland forest sheltering rare animals on Indonesia's Sumatra, conservation group WWF said. APP has pulped close to a million hectares of Riau's natural forests since it began operation in 1980s, the report said.
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20061019/sc_afp/indonesiaenvironment]

Brain changes may suggest suicide risk
People, who commit suicide show distinct changes in their brain that are independent of any mental illness they may be suffering from, according to studies presented on October 15 at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in Atlanta, Georgia. Such work could lead to new tests for suicide risk, say some of those behind the research.
[http://www.ngrguardiannews.com/science/article04]

Vacuum-fishing threatens Antarctic waters
Pirates seeking Chilean sea bass and fishing vessels that vacuum up tiny shrimp-like creatures that are a staple for whales, seals and penguins are menacing Antarctic waters. Both kinds of fishing could undermine the complex ecosystem of the Southern Ocean around Antarctica, U.S. conservation experts said.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-10-20T025402Z_01_N19449354_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-ANTARCTICA.xml&WTmodLoc=SciNewsHome_C2_scienceNews-8]

Do the risks of eating fish outweigh the benefits? Yes
Fish is high in protein and omega-3 fatty acids. But concerns have been raised in recent years about chemicals found in fish from environmental pollution, including mercury, PCBs and dioxins. That has led to confusion among the public--do the risks of eating fish outweigh the benefits? Included with the paper, which appears in the October 18, 2006, issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, is the first comprehensive summary of levels of omega-3 fatty acids, mercury, PCBs and dioxins in various species of fish and other foods, including chicken, beef, pork, butter and eggs.
[http://www.health.am/ab/more/do-the-risks-of-eating-fish/]

Bees and other pollinators may be declining
Research has suggested that pollinators are already in short supply in many parts of the world, and this could spell trouble for farmers and ecosystems alike. A parasitic mite may be to blame in some cases. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria and spreading populations of Africanized honeybees also are hurting North American honeybees.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-19T000210Z_01_N18354813_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-POLLINATORS.xml]

Summit: Nuclear energy growth not a weapons risk
The global expansion of nuclear energy is not a threat to the non-proliferation regime, but the greatest risk is from terrorists who could build a dirty bomb with nuclear waste from a medical facility, industry experts said.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-16T074136Z_01_SP161065_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-NUCLEAR.xml]

Booming populations threaten East Asian coasts
Growing populations and booming economies are threatening fragile coastal areas in East Asia, and the region's coral reefs could face total collapse within 20 years, according to a new United Nations study. Fisheries, mangrove swamps, reefs, coastal wetlands and sea grass beds are all threatened, the report said.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-16T070446Z_01_PEK96751_RTRUKOC_0_US-ENVIRONMENT-ASIA.xml]

California growers fear biotech rice threat
The U.S. rice harvest is imperiled by the discovery of small amounts of experimental strains of genetically engineered rice in storage facilities holding crops destined for the food supply. It prompted the rice industry's biggest export customer — Japan — to prohibit some varieties and threaten to ban all U.S. imports. The
European Union is making similar threats because genetically engineered rice continues to turn up on grocery shelves in Europe.
[http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061015/ap_on_sc/biotech_rice]

Red wine can help prevent stroke damage: study
Red wine might work to protect the brain from damage after a stroke and drinking a couple of glasses a day might provide that protection ahead of time. The study showed that resveratrol increases levels of an enzyme in the brain -- heme oxygenase -- that was already known to shield nerve cells from damage.
[http://health.yahoo.com/news/167797]

New York Subway Noise Levels Can Result In Hearing Loss For Daily Riders
Exposure to noise levels in subways have the potential to exceed recommended guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). According to the research, as little as 30 minutes of exposure to decibel levels measured in the New York City transit system per day has the potential to result in hearing loss.
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012185519.htm]

Too Much Oily Fish Raises Risk Of Premature Birth
Some oily fish, consumed about twice a week, helps enhance the birth weight and brains of babies, as well as preventing premature births. However, shark, marling and swordfish contain substantial levels of mercury. Also, if you are pregnant and decide to take fish oil supplements, don't buy the ones that have high levels of vitamin A (retinol), as too much retinol is not good for the developing baby.
[http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=54190&nfid=crss]

Smoke from Indonesian forest fires puts Malaysia's fireflies, wildlife at risk
For many visitors, no trip to Malaysia is complete without a star-lit canoe ride to see the twinkling fireflies near the mouth of the Selangor river, but some residents fear memories could soon be all that remain of the insects. The haze dampened the light-emitting mating ritual of the fireflies, an attraction that draws thousands of visitors a year.
[http://today.reuters.com/News/CrisesArticle.aspx?storyId=KLR127372]
[http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/shownh.php3?img_id=13925]

Eating whole grains could slash diabetes type-2 risk
Nearly 2,000 cases of type 2 diabetes were diagnosed and it was noted that the women with the highest magnesium intake (about 244 milligrams a day, average) had a 35 percent lower risk for the disease than those with the lowest intake (an average of about 115 milligrams a day). Women who consumed the most whole grains (one or more servings a day) had a 31 percent lower risk for diabetes than women who consumed less than one serving a week.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020761.html]

Breast cancer risk tripled for women exposed to farm pesticides and chemicals
Researchers from the University of Sterling in Scotland conducted a study in Canada of 1,100 women, half of whom had already been diagnosed with breast cancer. The researchers found that women with the disease were nearly three times more likely to have been farm workers, most during adolescence.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020760.html]

New Analytical Tool Developed For Liquid Explosives Detection
The thwarted 2006 London airline bomb plot not only heightened summer travel fears and created new passenger screening inconveniences, but also greatly underscored the urgent need for improved national security measures. Ironically, it was Wang's research to benefit diabetes management and improve human health that led to his breakthrough in explosives detection.  "We took our expertise with blood glucose detection and our vision was to make something like a hand-held glucose meter, but toward the screening and detection of peroxide explosives" said Wang. The highly sensitive assay Wang has developed can rapidly detect the two most common peroxide-based explosives, triacetone triperoxide (TATP) and hexamethylene triperoxide diamine (HMTD), in trace amounts down to the part per billion level.
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061013104609.htm]

Hundreds of personal care products contain untested, unapproved nano-scale ingredients that may pose consumer safety concerns
A computer analysis of 25,000 personal care product labels -- conducted by nonprofit research organization, the Environmental Working Group -- found that hundreds of the products contain nano-sized or micronized materials, which can be very hazardous and unpredictable, according to the FDA.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020723.html]
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2006-10-11T123327Z_01_N10217773_RTRUKOC_0_US-NANOTECHNOLOGY.xml]

Poultry consumption and handling are risk factors for antibiotic resistance in humans
Antibiotic use as a livestock growth promoter increases the risk of human antibiotic resistance, a Marshfield Clinic researcher and his colleagues have found. “We’ve known for a long time that resistant bacteria can be found on retail poultry products, but our study is one of the first to show an association between human carriage of antibiotic resistance genes and eating poultry or handling raw poultry.
[http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/26810/Poultry_consumption_handling_are_risk_factors_for_antibiotic_resistance_in_humans.html]
[http://www.cbc.ca/cp/HealthScout/061013/6101312U.html]

New evidence for an association between periodontal disease and stroke
People missing some or all of their teeth or who have significant loss of bone and tissue surrounding their teeth may be at an increased risk for having a stroke, according to a new study that appeared in the October issue of the Journal of Periodontology
[http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/26801/New_evidence_finds_an_association_between_periodontal_disease_and_stroke.html]
[http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/10/061012185911.htm]

Psoriasis associated with increased risk for heart attack
Psoriasis is a common, chronic, disease that affects about 2 percent to 3 percent of the adult population. It is associated with markers of systemic inflammation, which have been linked to the development of atherosclerosis and myocardial infarction. Several hospital-based studies have indicated that psoriasis is associated with a higher prevalence of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attack, but these studies did not control for major cardiovascular risk factors.
[http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/26793/Psoriasis_associated_with_increased_risk_for_heart_attack.html]

Study: Some Alzheimer's drugs very risky
Three-fourths of the 4.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's disease develop aggression, hallucinations or delusions, which can lead them to lash out at caregivers or harm themselves. This behavior is the most common reason families put people with Alzheimer's in a nursing home. Doctors are free to prescribe drugs developed for schizophreniabut these drugs carry a strong warning that they increase the risk of death for elderly people with dementia-related psychotic symptoms, mainly because of heart problems and pneumonia, and that they are not approved for such patients.
[http://health.yahoo.com/news/167665]

Genetic mutation doubles breast cancer risk
A new genetic mutation in the gene, called BRIP1 which helps to repair damaged DNA doubles the risk of breast cancer in women who carry it. Mutations some of the other known breast cancer genes - BRCA1, BRCA2, and TP53 - raise the risk of breast cancer by 10- to 20-fold by age 60. Mutations in genes called CHEK2 and ATM roughly double the risk.
[http://www.int.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=117&art_id=qw1160373960587B243]
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,1890947,00.html]
[http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/news/nation/15767973.htm]

Study supports theory that pets cut allergy risk
A number of studies, for instance, have found that children exposed to a cat or dog early in life are less likely to develop allergies and asthma. On one hand, this could indicate a protective effect of pets on immune system development. But an alternative explanation is that families with a genetic tendency toward allergies often opt for a pet-free home, whereas those with an inherently lower risk are more likely to keep pets.
[http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyID=2006-10-07T010720Z_01_HO703979_RTRUKOC_0_US-ALLERGIES-PETS.xml&WTmodLoc=SciNewsHome_C1_%5bFeed%5d-1]

WTO GM food ruling ignores safety question
A 1,000-page final report, which was made public last week, reiterated the dispute panel verdict that the European Union's six-year moratorium on imports of genetically modified food and crops was illegal. But the ruling does not tackle the issue of whether GM foods are safe or whether the biotech products at issue in this dispute are 'like' their conventional counterparts.
[http://www.nutraingredients.com/news/ng.asp?n=70983-wto-gm-safety]

'Organic' doesn't mean safer or more nutritious
In the old days, when organic produce came from a few little farms, an occasional sick customer was no big deal. Often, the victim refused to believe organic food could cause the illness. But so many people now believe the organic hype that organic farms have gotten big and corporate and the manure-related consumer epidemics make national news. It is a bad moment for believers in the wonders of organic and natural foods. Deadly E. coli bacteria, lurking in spinach from one of the biggest organic farms in America, just killed one woman and hospitalized at least 29 other people with kidney failure. In all, the contaminated spinach sickened nearly 200, in at least 23 states and Canada.
[http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=14772]

Socially isolated children may become unhealthy adults
Adults who lack social support have been shown to be at higher risk for coronary artery disease and have a poorer prognosis once they develop the condition. In addition, evidence from an emerging field known as life-course epidemiology is beginning to suggest that early life experiences are also important in determining risk factors for disease in adulthood.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020642.html]

Global warming to cause massive drought over next 100 years, say climatologists
Extreme drought, which makes modern agriculture virtually impossible, is seen by a new study from the Hadley Centre for Climate Prediction and Research as possibly affecting about one-third of the planet in the next century. These predictions may actually be an underestimation, said the climate scientists who released the results of the study.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020649.html]

Consuming cola may up osteoporosis risk for older women
Katherine Tucker and colleagues analyzed dietary questionnaires and bone mineral density measurements at the spine and three different hip sites of more than 2,500 people in the Framingham Osteoporosis Study whose average age was just below 60. In women, cola consumption was associated with lower bone mineral density at all three hip sites, regardless of factors such as age, menopausal status, total calcium and vitamin D intake, or use of cigarettes or alcohol.
[http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/tu-ccm100306.php]

Protecting virus offers instant flu protection & converts flu infections into their own vaccines
Professor Nigel Dimmock at the University of Warwick has spent more than two decades investigating an entirely new method, that uses a ‘protecting virus’, which has a a huge but specific deletion in one of the virus’s genes. This deletion makes the virus harmless and prevents it from reproducing by itself within a cell, so that it cannot spread like a normal influenza virus. However, if it is joined in the cell by another influenza virus, it retains its harmless nature but starts to reproduce-and at a much faster rate than the new influenza virus. This fast reproduction rate-spurred by the new flu infection-means that the new invading influenza is effectively crowded out by the ‘protecting virus’. This vastly slows the progress of the new infection, prevents flu symptoms, and gives the body time to develop an immune response to the harmful new invader. In effect the protecting virus converts the virulent virus into a harmless live vaccine.
[http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/26710/Protecting_virus_offers_instant_flu_protection_converts_flu_infections_into_their_own_vaccines.html]
[http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1473252006]

Trans fatty acids are public health hazard, says author of "Poison in the Food"
Trans fats appear in the body when people consume fats that have been hardened to a butter-like state using hydrogenization. The oils are responsible for giving some fried foods their "crunchy" texture, but they are also responsible for a number of health issues, including raising LDL (bad) cholesterol and lowering HDL (good) cholesterol. "Poison in the Food," Adams said, is a resource for readers who want to know what dangers they are facing when they consume everyday foods, and how they can avoid these harmful ingredients.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020599.html]

Ultraviolet B (UVB) Radiation Reduces Risk of 16 Types of Cancer in U.S.
A study published this week in Anticancer Research confirms that solar UVB irradiance is associated with reduced risk of 16 sites of cancer, apparently through production of vitamin D. These cancers include 6 sites of gastrointestinal cancers, 3 cancers of female sites, 3 urogenital cancers, 2 types of lymphomas, and 2 upper aerodigestive tract cancers.
[http://www.newstarget.com/020610.html]

Red alert as climate change takes its toll on Scotland
Producing the first ecological audit of the whole country for ten years, SEPA said Scotland would continue to become warmer and wetter and that attempts to stop the decline of endangered species by 2010 would prove "challenging. The impact of climate change is already in evidence, with some species' ranges being reduced, others extended and food chains being disrupted".
[http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1461342006]

compiled by PBP
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