LS,
RN13 - July 2007
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First Study Transplanting Angina Patients' Purified Stem Cells Shows
Safety
Within three to six weeks after the severe angina patients were
injected with their own stem cells, many who used to experience pain
just from walking to the refrigerator, now only had pain when they
climbed two flights of stairs. This is the first human trial in which
patients' own purified stem cells, called CD-34 cells, were injected
into their hearts in an effort to spur regrowth of small blood vessels
that constitute the microcirculation of the heart muscle. Researchers
believe the loss of these blood vessels contributes to the pain of
chronic, severe angina.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=75309&
Warning against stem cell tourism
At their annual meeting in Cairns this week, members of the
International Society for Stem Cell Research discussed the possibility
of issuing guidelines for patients who hoped treatments being offered
in countries such as China and India would help with spinal injuries
and other conditions. "No reputable scientist thinks this is ready for
prime-time in humans. The people who are providing these therapies are
mavericks."
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/2007/1958206.htm
Safety of xenotransplantation questioned
A new article in The Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics calls for
a change in the regulations surrounding xenotransplantation, the
transplanting of animal cells, tissues or organs into humans. Although
few xenotransplantation procedures have been done to this time, there
appears to be a lack of awareness among potential xenotransplant
patients about the risk of the procedures, and the required lifetime of
infectious disease monitoring that come with it. This issue has become
particularly urgent recently, due to the theoretical risk that stem
cell trials may involve human cell lines that have been in contact with
animal tissue.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070628183838.htm
Claim that GM foods present health risk ‘irrefutable’
The known health risks of genetically modified (GM) foods present a
case that is “overwhelming and irrefutable” and it is now up to the
biotech industry to provide rigorous scientific evidence “to show they
are not risking the health of the population with food”. Mr Jeffrey M
Smith, author of Genetic Roulete made this claim at a recent briefing
on food safety and genetically modified organisms (GMOs) at the
European Parliament Office in Dublin, where he said there are 65
documented health risks from GM foods.
http://www.irishmedicalnews.ie/articles.asp?Category=news&ArticleID=19086
EFSA rejects concerns over Monsanto maize
"Following a detailed statistical review and analysis by an EFSA
Task Force, EFSA's GMO Panel has concluded that this re-analysis of the
data does not raise any new safety concerns," stated the European Food
Safety Authority's (EFSA) GMO panel.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=77768-monsanto-efsa-gmo-mon
Commentary: The Coming Biofuels Disaster
The biofuels hoax, as ecologist Eric Holt-Gimenez calls it, is
based on several misunderstandings that arise in the language of the
energy debate. Large-scale agricultural practices deplete soils,
contaminate water supplies and are vulnerable to pests and disease when
single crops (monocultures) are grown in large fields. The widespread
use of pesticides (manufactured using fossil fuels) is also
contributing to the cancer epidemic wreaking havoc on our communities.
Current agricultural practices also require non-renewable resources and
utilize vast distribution networks that are very high in resource
demand - including the need for lots of energy.In some areas, such as
Indonesia and Malaysia, entire forests are decimated to grow biofuel
crops. The plant-life destroyed in this process releases huge amounts
of carbon dioxide as the dead trees and undergrowth decompose,
exacerbating the problem they are meant to address. Biofuels are not
renewable! Soils are depleted. Water supplies are depleted. Highways
and factories deplete mineral resources. Entire forests are depleted.
http://freeinternetpress.com/story.php?sid=12464
It's not too late to change -- lowering cardiac risk later in life
researchers from the Medical University of South Carolina,
Charleston found that people 45 to 64 years of age who added healthy
lifestyle behaviors could substantially reduce their risk for
cardiovascular disease (CVD) and reduce their death rate.
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/31402/Its_not_too_late_to_change_--_lowering_cardiac_risk_later_in_life.html
Frequent brain stimulation in old age reduces risk of Alzheimer's
disease
How often old people read a newspaper, play chess, or engage in
other mentally stimulating activities is related to risk of developing
Alzheimer's disease, according to a study published June 27, 2007, in
the online edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American
Academy of Neurology.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2113256,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=18
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070627161810.htm
Galapagos Islands at risk, rules UN
Booming tourism and immigration threaten giant tortoises and
blue-footed boobies unique to the archipelago.
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=1001172007
New Tool Determines Landslide Risk In Tropics
The risk rating system relies on data commonly available in
developing countries. The engineers use information about the history
of landslides, the type of bedrock underlying a slope, the inclination
of the slope and the type of vegetation growth to determine an area's
hazard rating, which they then look at in combination with land use and
population density to determine the overall risk rating.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070626140346.htm
GMOs Threaten Organic Standards
EU Agricultural Ministers have decided to allow organic food
accidentally contaminated with genetically modified organisms to be
classified as organic as long as the GMO presence is less than 0.9%.
Furthermore, consumers would not be notified of any GM presence below
this 0.9 per cent threshold. "Organic farmers and producers must aim
for zero GMO contamination, they must have the processes and procedures
in place to protect the purity of organic produce. Any contamination
over 0.1% should be clearly labeled."
http://www.healthy.net/scr/news.asp?Id=9201
GM labelling 'may push up organic food prices'
EU agriculture ministers last week agreed that food accidentally
contaminated with up to 0.9 per cent genetically modified content could
be labelled "GM free". campaigners argue that the EU ruling will lead
to far more GM crops being grown across Europe, potentially
contaminating organic crops. This will make it increasingly difficult
for food producers to track down pure organic supplies, pushing up
their costs, which they will be forced to pass on to consumers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/06/21/ngm121.xml
http://www.theage.com.au/news/opinion/the-high-cost-of-opening-the-door-to-gm-crops/2007/06/11/1181414213677.html
Can Blindness Be Prevented Through Diet?
Increasing intake of the omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, found in
popular fish-oil supplements, may protect against blindness resulting
from abnormal blood vessel growth in the eye, according to a study in
Nature Medicine. The study was done in mice, but a clinical trial at
Children's Hospital Boston will soon begin testing the effects of
omega-3 supplementation in premature babies, who are at risk for vision
loss.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070624141851.htm
Do It Yourself Anti-satellite System? Military And Civilian
Satellites Need Protection
Satellite tracking software freely available on the Internet and
some textbook physics could be used by any organization that can get
hold of an intermediate range rocket to mount an unsophisticated attack
on military or civilian satellites. Such an attack would require modest
engineering capability and only a limited budget.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070622090716.htm
U.S. general: Google Earth danger to security
The head of U.S. Air Force intelligence and surveillance on
Thursday said data available commercially through online mapping
software such as Google Earth posed a danger to security but could not
be rolled back. The U.S. military is not trying to implement
restrictions or blackouts on imagery of some areas but governments may
try to mitigate the effect through camouflage, concealment and
deception.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19360119/
Dangerous employees: How to deal with a potential threat
Every physician-employer should have procedures in place to help
identify people likely to explode in violence. But, most medical
consultants say, forget the advice from TV's talking head profilers.
Loners, people fixated on video games, people who can't make eye
contact and people with emotional problems aren't necessarily
violence-prone people. If you single out employees based on personality
type, you may be asking for legal trouble.
http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/06/25/bisa0625.htm
New Study Slams Male Circumcision As HIV Preventative
Male circumcision, which had previously been found to lessen the
risk of contracting HIV, is largely irrelevant, suggests a new study.
Rather, it is the number of prostitutes in a country that determines
the spread of HIV infections, says researcher John R. Talbott, in the
journal PLoS ONE.
http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/20070520204700data_trunc_sys.shtml
Researchers isolate new risk marker for overweight children
A study of 40 overweight children in Edmonton has revealed they all
share something in common aside from being heavy: each one of them has
high levels of apoB48, a structural protein found in intestinal
cholesterol. The children displayed high levels of apoB48 even as their
LDL cholesterol levels, which are typically high in overweight adults,
remained in the normal range.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-06/uoa-rin062107.php
Impotence Indicates Risk Of Heart Disease
In some cases, impotence can have neurological, psychiatric, and
other causes. But the most common cause, accounting for up to four
cases of five, is that the blood circulation in the penis has become so
poor that erection is impaired, or no erection can occur at all. And if
the circulation in these vessels has been affected by atherosclerosis,
then it is highly probable that the same process is under way in the
coronary artery in the heart.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070619193818.htm
Public Health In Developing Countries To Suffer Most From Climate
Change
Climate change is an emerging threat to global public health. It is
also highly inequitable, as the greatest risks are to the poorest
populations, who have contributed least to greenhouse gas emissions.
The rapid economic development and the concurrent urbanization of
poorer countries mean that developing-country cities will be both
vulnerable to health hazards from climate change and, simultaneously,
an increasing contributor to the problem.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070618102411.htm
How the Atkins diet could increase your risk of bowel cancer
New research has discovered a link between eating less carbohydrate
and lower levels of a cancer-fighting chemical in the gut. The acid,
called butyrate, is produced by bacteria and helps kill off cancerous
cells.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/health/dietfitness.html?in_article_id=462844&in_page_id=1774&ICO=HEALTH&ICL=TOPART
Coasts "becoming dead zones"
"Sea Change," a new book by Richard Girling, was cited as saying
that sewage-related debris and plastics are turning pockets of UK
coastal waters into potential "dead zones." Mr Girling, an author of
books on the environment, was quoted as saying, "Anyone who ventures
out to sea to surf or swim risks a 10% chance of getting a
gastrointestinal disease."
http://www.extension.iastate.edu/foodsafety/news/fsnews.cfm?newsid=19571
Gene screening 'safe' for babies
There have been safety questions over this procedure because it is
relatively new and involves removing a cell from an embryo at around
three days old. But carrying out checks on embryos for genetic
disorders incurs no more risk than standard IVF, researchers suggest.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6755895.stm
GM bans threaten agriculture
State and territory moratoriums on genetically modified (GM) crops
are placing Australia’s agricultural sector at serious risk of being
left behind by our international competitors, Minister for Agriculture,
Fisheries and Forestry, Peter McGauran said. “The States and
Territories must remove their moratoriums on GM crops to allow farmers
to choose which crops they want to grow, and provide researchers and
investors with a clear pathway to the marketplace.
http://www.maff.gov.au/releases/07/07076pm.html
http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Feds-demand-states-drop-GM-moratoriums/2007/06/14/1181414449017.html
Report Calls For New Directions, Innovative Approaches In Testing
Chemicals For Toxicity To Humans
Recent advances in systems biology, testing in cells and tissues,
and related scientific fields offer the potential to fundamentally
change the way chemicals are tested for risks they may pose to humans,
says a new report from the National Research Council. The report
outlines a new approach that would rely less heavily on animal studies
and instead focus on in vitro methods that evaluate chemicals' effects
on biological processes using cells, cell lines, or cellular
components, preferably of human origin. The new approach would generate
more-relevant data to evaluate risks people face, expand the number of
chemicals that could be scrutinized, and reduce the time, money, and
animals involved in testing, said the committee that wrote the report.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=74076&
Freedom, not climate, is at risk
President of the Czech Republic Vaclav Klaus has published an
article in the Financial Times in which he seems to equate the current
global warming debate with totalitarian thought control: 'The dictates
of political correctness are strict and only one permitted truth, not
for the first time in human history, is imposed on us. Everything else
is denounced ... "the issue of global warming is more about social
than natural sciences and more about man and his freedom than about
tenths of a degree Celsius changes in average global temperature".
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/9deb730a-19ca-11dc-99c5-000b5df10621.html
Stand by science on GMO foods, EU trade chief says
It's time for Europe to reassess its skepticism towards genetically
modified (GMO) foods and trust scientists who have deemed them safe --
or risk more international lawsuits, the European Union Trade
Commissioner Peter Mandelson said.
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=scienceNews&storyid=2007-06-14T212911Z_01_KRA477330_RTRUKOC_0_US-GMO.xml
Antibiotic Use In Infants Linked To Asthma
A study, published in the June issue of CHEST, the peer-reviewed
journal of the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP), reports
that children receiving antibiotics in the first year of life were at
greater risk for developing asthma by age 7 than those not receiving
antibiotics. The risk for asthma doubled in children receiving
antibiotics for nonrespiratory infections, as well as in children who
received multiple antibiotic courses and who did not live with a dog
during the first year.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070611185240.htm
Food Safety Begins As Vegetables Grow
There have been outbreaks of E. coli and Salmonella for at least
the past decade, and the incidences of vegetable contamination are
increasing in frequency. "What we've found up to this point is that
most contamination is occurring while the plants are still growing in
the field," said Barak. "The most successful way to prevent
contamination of fresh produce is to intervene before the harvest, not
after," Jeri D. Barak, research microbiologist with the USDA-ARS in
Albany, Calif. said.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070611122233.htm
Simple test predicts 6-year risk of dementia
Risk factors: Age of 70 or older, poor scores on two simple
cognitive tests, slow physical function on everyday tasks, history of
coronary artery bypass surgery, body mass index of less than 18,
current non-consumption of alcohol. A simple test that can be given by
any physician predicts a person's risk for developing dementia within
six years with 87 percent accuracy, according to a study led by
researchers at San Francisco VA Medical Center (SFVAMC).
http://www.brightsurf.com/news/headlines/31048/Simple_test_predicts_6-year_risk_of_dementia.html
Scientists propose better profiling for GM crops
A new technique could result in better nutritional and safety
profiles for the coming generation of genetically modified organisms
(GMOs), Spanish scientists have reported.
http://www.foodproductiondaily.com/news/ng.asp?n=77249-gm-nutrition-amino-acids
Hotel Guests At Risk From Carbon Monoxide Poisoning
Carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning kills over 200 people every year in
the United States. Although inexpensive CO detectors have been
available since 1989, their use in hotels, motels and resorts is not
widespread. In fact, while every guest room in the U.S. must contain a
smoke detector, there is no federal mandate for CO detectors. In a
study published in the July issue of the American Journal of Preventive
Medicine, researchers from LDS Hospital report on the incidence and
impact of CO poisoning of hotel guests.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070605121058.htm
Low Testosterone Linked To Shorter Life In Older Men
A new US study suggests that having low testosterone may shorten
the lives of men over 50. Researchers at the Department of Family and
Preventive Medicine at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD)
School of Medicine conducted a long-term study involving 800 men over
an 18-year period and found that those with low testosterone carried a
33 per cent higher risk of death compared with those who had higher
levels.
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/healthnews.php?newsid=73360&
Up to 900 species of land bird at risk by 2050
As G8 countries try to hatch a plan to tackle rising CO2 emissions
(see "Climate wrangles"), a global analysis of the effects that human
activities will have on land birds is ruffling conservationists'
feathers. By 2050, up to 900 species of land birds could be threatened
by climate change and habitat destruction through activities such as
logging. By 2100, the number of bird species on the World Conservation
Union's Red List of threatened species may more than double.
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19426073.000&feedId=climate-change_rss20
Geoengineering: A Quick Fix With Big Risks
Radical steps to engineer Earth's climate by blocking sunlight
could drastically cool the planet, but could just as easily worsen the
situation if these projects fail or are suddenly halted, according to a
new computer modeling study.. The experiments, described in the June 4
early online edition of The Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, look at what might happen if we attempt to slow climate
change by "geoengineering" a solar filter instead of reducing carbon
dioxide emissions. The researchers used a computer model to simulate a
decrease in solar radiation across the entire planet, but assumed that
that the current trend of increasing global carbon dioxide emissions
would continue for the rest of this century.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/06/070604170712.htm
Experts express confidence in the safety of GM foods
Dr. Di Ciero is one of eight renowned experts and three farmers
worldwide who discuss the safety of genetically modified foods and
crops in a new video and podcast available on the Conversations about
Plant Biotechnology Web site at http://www.monsanto.com/biotech-gmo.
The video captures their confidence in the process used to ensure the
safe development of genetically modified crops and the safety of
genetically engineered food.
http://www.checkbiotech.org/green_News_Genetics.aspx?infoId=14838
Cancer Risks from Microwaves Confirmed?
According to a report by Dr. Mae-Wan Ho of the Institute of Science
in Society, microwaves from wireless mobile phone transmitters may be
more potent than lower frequency electromagnetic fields in promoting
cancer. Evidence linking weak electromagnetic radiation (EMR) to
leukaemia and other cancers has been fast accumulating in recent years
( Electromagnetic Fields Double Leukemia Risks , Mobile Phones &
Cancer , SiS 18; Electromagnetic Fields, Leukaemia and DNA Damage ,
SiS 24). Such ‘non-thermal' effects of EMR – due to levels well below
that sufficient to bring about any heating - have been observed even
before World War II [4] ( Non-Thermal Effects , SiS 17).
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/CRFMC.php
compiled by PBP
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