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HavenWorks.com/health/archive/2003 |
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/ Archive
/ 2003
- 
- "New
restrictions ban ill cattle in food supply." ...
"The Agriculture Department dramatically upgraded the country's defenses
against mad cow disease Tuesday, banning meat from all so-called downer
cows and promising to create a nationwide animal tracking system, steps
long advocated by critics." ... "These are ``very aggressive actions,''
Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said Tuesday, one week after the first
case of mad cow disease surfaced on U.S. soil in a Washington state Holstein
slaughtered on Dec. 9." -AP
via -StarTribune.com
- "FDA
Expected to Ban Herbal Weight-Loss Treatment Ephedra."
... "After years of debate, federal health officials are expected today
to announce they will act to remove the herbal weight-loss treatment Ephedra
from the marketplace, the first time the Food and Drug Administration has
moved to ban a dietary supplement, Tuesday's Wall Street Journal reported."
... "Ephedra, once widely taken to enhance athletic performance and as
a weight- loss aid, has been linked to heart problems and strokes and was
fingered in the death earlier this year of 23-year-old Baltimore Orioles
pitcher Steve Bechler." -Contributions by Sarah Lueck,
Anna Wilde Mathews and Stefan Fatsis -WSJ.com
-DJ via -Quicken.com
- "U.S.
Reports First Case of Mad Cow Disease." ... "The
first U.S. case of the deadly mad cow disease, which devastated parts of
the European agriculture industry in the 1990s, was found in a sick animal
in Washington state, the Bush administration said on Tuesday." ... ""A
single Holstein cow from Washington state was tested as presumptive positive
for BSE or what is widely known as mad cow disease," U.S. Agriculture Secretary
Ann Veneman said at a news conference." (1, 2)
-By Randy Fabi and Richard Cowan-Reuters
- 
Anthrax
News
- "Judge
Halts Military's Required Anthrax Shots." ... "A
federal district judge ruled Monday that the Defense Department could not
compel members of the armed forces to be vaccinated against anthrax without
their consent." ... "The judge, Emmet G. Sullivan, issued a preliminary
injunction that prohibits Pentagon officials from "inoculating service
members without their consent."" ... "The judge found that the vaccine
in question, intended to protect military personnel against the potentially
deadly effects of inhaled anthrax, was "an investigational drug," being
used for an unapproved purpose." -By Robert Pear with
contributions by Thom Shanker -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- STEM
CELL NEWS
- GENETICS
- "Sperm
from stem cells fertilize egg: Lab-grown reproductive
cells could lead to fertility treatments." ... "Mouse sperm grown from
stem cells have successfully fertilized eggs. Laboratory-grown human sperm
could follow." ... "The achievement follows the production of fertile eggs
from stem cells earlier this year. It could lead to alternative ways to
help infertile couples conceive by in vitro fertilization. Such cells could,
for instance, help parents who have genetic defects to give birth to normal
children." -By Helen R. Pilcher -Nature.com
- 
- 
- "More
women aspiring to be doctors." ... "For the first
time ever, women outnumbered men among people applying to U.S. medical
schools for this fall -- a milestone in the slow but steady increase in
the number of aspiring female doctors." ... "Women have yet to surpass
the number of men actually entering medical school. Nationwide this fall,
women were closer than ever to making up the majority of new students,
constituting 49.7 percent of the entering class of more than 16,500."
-AP via -CNN
- 
- "Bush
Signs $400B[illion] Medicare Overhaul Bill." ...
"Overall, the new law will carry out the most extensive changes since Medicare's
creation in 1965. It adds a prescription drug benefit beginning in 2006.
At the same time, it encourages insurance companies to offer private plans
to millions of older Americans who now receive health care benefits under
terms fixed by the federal government. Leading Democrats have charged this
would lead to the destruction of the Medicare program as it was designed
at its inception during the Johnson administration."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
- "No
Exams Required: Pharmacist Nailed for Online Drug Sales."
... "Francine Haight will never forget the day she found her son Ryan,
a high school senior, lifeless, in his bed." ... "It turned out that some
of the drugs that killed the La Mesa, Calif., teen on Feb. 12, 2001 came
from nationpharmacy.com, a Norman, Okla.-based Internet drug store owned
by pharmacist Clayton Fuchs, who also ran other similar Web sites." ...
"In October, a federal jury convicted Fuchs, 33, on six felony offenses
including conspiracy to dispense a controlled substance, operating a continuing
criminal enterprise and money laundering. Prosecuted under the Drug Kingpin
Statute, he faces 20 years to life in prison when he is sentenced Feb.
11." (1, 2,
3)
-By Greg Hunter -ABCNEWS.com
- Tucson
News - "High
court clears Raytheon in refusal to rehire worker:
Drug user accused Tucson [Arizona] plant of bias." ... "[U.S. Supreme Court]
Justices ruled 7-0 that a Raytheon Co. plant in Tucson has a legitimate
reason to refuse to rehire workers who break rules, including former employees
with addictions." ... "But the court dodged the more significant question,
whether the more than 5 million workers with substance-abuse problems have
workplace protection under the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act."
-By Gina Holland -AP
via -azcentral.com
-
- 
- 
- "White
House Seeks to Soften Mercury Rules." ... "The Bush
administration is working to undo regulations that would force power plants
to sharply reduce mercury emissions and other toxic pollutants, according
to a government document and interviews with officials." ... "The Nov.
26 document makes the case that the Environmental Protection Agency, under
President Bill Clinton, misread the Clean Air Act's requirements and that
there are less onerous ways to reduce the emissions." -By
Eric Pianin -WashingtonPost
- "Google
stops accepting ads from unlicensed pharmacies."
... "Google Inc. has stopped accepting advertisements from unlicensed pharmacies,
joining other popular sites that have bowed to pressure to limit access
to the drugs, such as Vicodin." ... "The crackdown on unlicensed pharmacies
comes as regulators and Congress intensify their focus on third parties
- Web sites, credit companies and shipping companies - that make it easier
for illicit operators to sell potentially dangerous drugs." -By
Michael Liedtke -AP
via -Miami/Herald
-
- "Seniors'
drug bill survives in House: GOP's late moves
win changes in Medicare." ... "After an extraordinary overnight session
of arm-twisting and parliamentary tricks, House Republican leaders narrowly
staved off defeat yesterday and passed a Medicare prescription drug benefit
that represented the most sweeping overhaul of the program in its 38-year
history." ... "The measure would provide nearly $400 billion in prescription
drug aid to seniors, and for the first time, allow private health care
firms to offer Medicare services long guaranteed by the federal government.
Its passage spared President Bush a political embarrassment over one of
his top priorities as the administration fought to push through his agenda
in the waning days of the legislative session." -By
Susan Milligan -Boston/Globe
- "Human
testing for Ebola vaccine: Testing has begun
on humans for an experimental vaccine against the deadly Ebola virus, US
researchers have said." ... "The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases is administering the vaccine to 27 volunteers." ... "In August,
the institute said the same vaccine had worked to protect monkeys from
the virus in a single shot." ... "The virus for one of the world's most
lethal diseases originated in Africa and the US has expressed fears that
it could be used as a biological weapon." -BBC/News
-
- "14
states fight EPA maneuver that weakens Clean Air Act."
... "More than a dozen state attorneys general yesterday sought to block
the federal government from implementing a rule change they argued would
lead to more air pollution from the nation's power plants." ... "They want
to block the EPA's loosening of Clean Air Act regulations that would allow
older power plants, refineries, and factories to modernize without having
to install expensive pollution controls. "If these rules go into effect
even temporarily," said New York state Attorney General Eliot Spitzer,
"utilities will get the green light to spew forth pollution and violate
the clear meaning of a statute that has for decades protected the quality
of the air that we breathe."" -By Devlin Barrett
-AP via -Boston/Globe
- 
- 
- 
- "U.S.
Carries Out Terror Drill in Arizona: Terror
Drill Along United States-Mexico Border in Arizona Tests Law Enforcement
Readiness." ... "A mock suicide bomber and a quick succession of blasts
were part of a terrorism drill designed to test the responsiveness of health
and law enforcement officials along the U.S.-Mexico border." ... "The Arizona
Office of Homeland Security said about 1,000 people took part in the drill
Sunday morning, which started when a man walked into the Mariposa Port
of Entry compound, shouted the name of a mythical terrorist group and set
off an explosion. The man was actually a firefighter in a protective suit."
-AP via -ABCNEWS.com
-
- "Federal
judges in New York, San Francisco halt abortion ban."
... "With the ink barely dry on legislation banning a controversial abortion
procedure, federal judges in San Francisco and New York yesterday put a
halt to the measure and set the stage for the most important legal tussle
over abortion rights in three decades." ... "The judges found that the
congressional ban on the procedure — known medically as "intact dilation
and extraction" but referred to by opponents as "partial-birth abortion"
— is likely to be unconstitutional because it provides no exceptions for
a woman's health, thus running afoul of a 2000 Supreme Court ruling that
struck down a similar Nebraska statute. President Bush signed the latest
ban into law Wednesday." -By Howard Mintz -Knight
Ridder via -SeattleTimes.NWsource
-
-
- "Federal
Judge Blocks New Abortion Law for Some Doctors."
... "A federal judge in Nebraska on Wednesday blocked a new anti-abortion
law from being enforced against some doctors and their affiliates, minutes
after it was signed by President Bush." ... "Citing constitutional concerns,
U.S. District Judge Richard Kopf issued a temporary restraining order barring
U.S. Attorney John Ashcroft and the Justice Department from enforcing the
new law banning so-called partial birth abortions against four doctors
who practice in or are affiliated with practices in more than a dozen states."-Reuters
- "Plaque-reducing
protein shows promise." ... "Taking their cue from
nature, researchers have developed the first treatment shown to dramatically
shrink the fatty plaques that clog arteries, a study [in JAMA]
reports Wednesday." ... "The experimental drug is a synthetic version of
a protein discovered in a handful of Italian villagers who had healthy
arteries and lived long lives despite having low levels of good cholesterol,
called HDL." -By Steve Sternberg
-USATODAY
- "EPA
to ease sewage treatment rules." ... "The Bush administration
is shifting policy so cities and towns can skip a required treatment procedure
for sewage they pump into rivers, lakes and coastal waters during high
rains." ... "The Environmental Protection Agency plans to propose the policy
change this week, and there will be 60 days for public comment before it
can be finalized." -By Peter Eisler
-USATODAY
- Tucson
News - WEST
NILE VIRUS
- "Tucson
woman contracts West Nile: Victim near Downtown
has severe form of disease." ... "The West Nile virus has now struck at
the heart of Tucson, infecting an elderly woman near Downtown, who is struggling
to recover from severe illness." ... "This is the second human in Arizona
known to have contracted the disease in-state. Both cases have occurred
in Pima County, with the first reported west of the city - in Sells on
the Tohono O'odham Reservation - last week." -By Carla
McClain and Joseph Barrios -DailyStar.com
- "Patients
given artificial blood: Doctors have for the
first time successfully used artificial blood to treat patients." ... "The
product is a powder which can be stored for years, say scientists at Stockholm's
Karolinska Hospital." ... "It is made from donated supplies of real blood,
which normally has a shelf-life of just 42 days." ... "The powder can then
be mixed into liquid form when needed, and used immediately regardless
of the patient's blood type."-BBC/News
-
-
-
- "Senate votes
to ban abortion practice: Body, 64-34, joins
House in barring controversial ‘partial birth’ procedure." ... "The Senate
on Tuesday voted to ban the practice that critics call partial birth abortion,
sending President Bush a measure that supporters and foes alike said could
alter the future of U.S. abortion rights. A court challenge is certain."
... "Years in the making, the bill imposes the most far-reaching limits
on abortion since the Supreme Court in 1973 confirmed a woman’s right to
end a pregnancy." -AP
via -MSNBC
- 
-
-
- Tucson
News - "Limits
of disability act tested: The high court considers
Wednesday whether a former addict should be afforded employment protections."
... "Would a company that refuses to rehire somebody who says he's overcome
his drug and alcohol addiction be guilty of violating the Americans With
Disabilities Act (ADA)?" ... "That is the question the US Supreme Court
takes up Wednesday in an Arizona case with major implications for companies
with zero-tolerance hiring and firing policies." ... "The case stems from
a lawsuit filed by Joel Hernandez, a 25-year employee of the Hughes Missile
Systems Company in Tucson." -By Warren Richey
-CSMonitor
- "2
M.R.I. Pioneers Win Nobel Prize." ... "The Nobel
Prize in medicine was awarded today to two pioneers of magnetic resonance
imaging, the technology that allows doctors to visualize the body's tissues
without using radiation." ... "The recipients are Dr. Paul Lauterbur of
the University of Illinois at Urbana and Sir Peter Mansfield of the University
of Nottingham in England." ... "The two researchers took a technique used
by chemists to study solutions and developed it into a way of imaging the
human body, which, appearances to the contrary, is mostly water. Unlike
CAT scanning machines, which use radiation, magnetic resonance imaging
probes the body only with magnetic fields and pulses of radio waves." -By
Nicholas Wade -NYTimes
via -Google-News
- "EPA
lifts ban on selling PCB sites." ... "The Bush administration
has ended a 25-year-old ban on the sale of land polluted with PCBs. The
ban was intended to prevent hundreds of polluted sites from being redeveloped
in ways that spread the toxin or raise public health risks." ... "The Environmental
Protection Agency decided the ban was "an unnecessary barrier to redevelopment
(and) may actually delay the clean-up of contaminated properties," according
to an internal memo issued last month to advise agency staff of the change."
-By Peter Eisler -USATODAY
- WEST
NILE VIRUS
- "West
Nile found in Arizona mosquito: The virus is
found in one pest in Cochise County near San Simon." ... "A single mosquito
sample in Cochise County tested positive for West Nile virus, the first
sign that the disease has entered Arizona, officials said yesterday." ...
"Arizona was one of four states to emerge unscathed from the disease last
year. Until this summer, no signs of the virus were ever detected in humans
or animals." ... "The specimen came from the San Simon area near the Arizona-New
Mexico border." ... "Only a small number of mosquitoes typically carry
the virus. So a positive test doesn't indicate a certain likelihood for
contracting West Nile, said state epidemiologist Dr. Bob England."
-TucsonCitizen.com
-
- "Racial
initiative ignites medical worries: Researchers
fear Prop. 54 will hinder collection of data." ... "Researchers are sounding
alarms over the potential health effects of Proposition 54 -- the initiative
to ban state government from collecting racial or ethnic data -- fearing
it will jeopardize efforts to pinpoint cancer hot spots, keep tabs on disease
outbreaks and fashion effective health messages." ... "Initiative backers
say that opponents are using scare tactics and that they have no intention
of interfering with legitimate health research -- including epidemiological
studies and health surveys." -By Ulysses Torassa
-SFGate.com
WEST
NILE VIRUS
- "West
Nile virus cases triple in one week." ... "Cases
of West Nile virus tripled in the past week and are well ahead of last
year's pace, federal health officials said Thursday. Armed with the most
recent data, they warned that the worst might be ahead." ... "Health experts
urged Americans to take steps to protect themselves and head off an epidemic."
-By Anita Manning -USATODAY
- 
- "Scientists
Enhance Ability to Feel: Method Might Restore
Sensory Function in Elderly, Improve It in Young." ... "The enhanced sensitivity,
achieved with a tiny stimulating device and a single dose of a drug, has
reversed fingertip numbness in older people, many of whom have trouble
performing everyday tasks such as buttoning shirts or turning switches
on and off. Researchers said they suspect it could also help blind people
read Braille. And applying the technique to the feet might prevent falls
in diabetics who have lost sensation in their toes, which are crucial for
balance.": ... "The ability to boost sensory sensitivity, scientists said,
could even allow people with normal function to achieve bionic supersensitivity
-- for work or recreational purposes -- enhancing the senses of taste or
smell or adding to the tactile pleasure of a romantic caress." -By
Rick Weiss -WashingtonPost
-
- 
- GENETICS
- "UK
babies may be genetically screened." ... "Every child
born in the UK could be genetically screened and the data stored to plan
their future healthcare under government proposals for a massive expansion
of genetic testing." ... "The controversial proposal for testing newborn
babies was announced in a White Paper that promised £50m to expand
the ability of the NHS to cope with the rapid advance in genetic testing.
It is likely to be studied by the Human Genetics Commission, the government
advisory group, as well as the National Screening Committee before firm
proposals are made on what diseases would be tested for." ... "The proposals
were welcomed by medical researchers, but opponents of genetic testing
said they raised the prospect of a world where imperfection was illegal
and a "genetic underclass" was unable to obtain health insurance, jobs
and mortgages." -By David Firn
-FT.com
- "22
States Limiting Doctors' Latitude in Medicaid Drugs."
... "In one of the most successful efforts to rein in the fast-rising cost
of Medicaid, the government health plan for the poor, states are limiting
which drugs doctors can prescribe for Medicaid patients." ... "Two years
ago, only three states had authorized the use of lists of preferred drugs
for such patients; since then, 19 other states have done so, though not
all their programs are up and running, according to the National Conference
of State Legislatures." ... "Preferred drug lists steer doctors away from
some of the most expensive drugs and toward different, less expensive ones
that the state deems equally effective, a practice that many private insurance
companies and employee health plans have adopted and that is being considered
by Congress as part of a government-subsidized drug benefit for 40 million
Medicare recipients." (1, 2)
-By Richard Pérez-Peña
-NYTimes via -Google-News
-
- "Experts
raise red flag over oceans: U.S., others urged
to overhaul pollution, fishing policies." ... "Making waves like never
before, conservationists this week issued appeals for mankind to save its
oceans and the marine life that live there, from pollution, overfishing
and too many people. The biggest waves came from a report — released
Wednesday after three years in the making — that urges the United States
to overhaul an ocean policy dating back to 1969 and reflecting what it
calls a “frontier mentality.”" ... "Having "Focused on oceans as a frontier
with vast resources ... we have failed to conceive of the oceans as our
largest public domain, to be managed holistically for the greater public
good,” the Pew Oceans Commission report concluded." ... "Financed by the
nonprofit Pew Charitable Trusts, the commission billed its work as the
most thorough review of U.S. ocean policy since 1969, when another commission
laid out what was to become guiding principles." -By
Miguel Llanos -MSNBC
- CLONING
NEWS
- "Mule
foal is first member of horse family to be cloned."
.. "The first member of the horse family to be cloned is a mule named Idaho
Gem, the genetic brother of a champion racer. Researchers say two other
mule clones are expected to be born this summer." ... "The May 4 birth
of Idaho Gem adds mules to the barnyard of cloned animals that already
included sheep, cows, pigs, cats and rodents." ... "Cloning a mule is particularly
unusual because such animals, hybrids from a donkey and a horse, are almost
without exception sterile and unable to produce young." -By
Paul Recer -AP
via -SFGate.com
- ELECTION
2004 - "Democrat
Kucinich endorses medical pot use: He says
he'd issue executive order if elected president." ... "Rep. Dennis Kucinich
of Ohio became the first Democratic presidential candidate to endorse the
legalization of medical marijuana when he told The Chronicle on Wednesday
it should be available "to any patient who needs it to alleviate pain and
suffering," regardless of the current federal drug laws." ... ""Compassion
requires that medical marijuana be available" Kucinich said during a telephone
interview after a campaign stop in Cupertino. "We must have health-care
systems which are compassionate . . . so I support it without reservation.""
-By Carla Marinucci, John Wildermuth -SFGate.com
- 
- "Eastern
Iowa counties had highest ozone levels [in Iowa], [American Lung Association]
study shows." -AP
via -WQAD
-
- STEM
CELL NEWS
- "Debating
stem cell 'safe haven': Mass. lawmakers weigh
the benefits, ethics of endorsing research in state." ... "Supporters of
a bill that would make Massachusetts a ''safe haven'' for embryonic stem
cell research yesterday urged lawmakers to pass the measure quickly. But
at a legislative hearing, a handful of opponents warned against crossing
an ethical boundary." ... "In written testimony, Robert Lanza, vice president
of medical and scientific development at Advanced Cell Technology Inc.
of Worcester, said the company is ''exploring the possibility of relocating
to California,'' which has passed a measure similar to that being considered
in Massachusetts. The company previously threatened to move overseas."
-By Jeffrey Krasner
-Boston/Globe
-
-
- "State
of the Air 2003: Nearly Half the Nation at
Risk from Smog - Overshadows Temporary Improvement. American Lung
Association Forecasts Continued Unhealthful Air from Coast to Coast."
... "New York) Nearly half the American population—more than 137 million
Americans—continues to breathe unhealthy amounts of the toxic air pollutant
ozone (smog), according to the American
Lung Association State of the Air: 2003 report released today."
... "The annual report cites that moderate improvements in smog levels
are due to a break from summer heat, not air pollution cleanup activities,
further illustrating the urgency for Americans to fight for cleaner air
in the face of potentially devastating changes in the nation’s environmental
policies. The Lung Association anticipates increasing numbers in its 2004
report, which will include data from the hot 2002 summer." ... "The report
was released in the shadow of the Administration’s rollback of key Clean
Air Act provisions and additional proposals that would weaken public health
protections of that law, thereby denying tens of millions of Americans
healthy air for the foreseeable future." ... "The AmericanLung
Association urges Americans to contact members of Congress to
oppose any bills that would weaken the Clean Air Act and to contactEPA
by May 3, 2003 to oppose the proposed changes that would
weaken the New Source Review provisions. Americans can log on to www.lungusa.org
to make their voice heard to Congress and EPA on these critical issues."
-American Lung Association
-Action Network
- 
-
- STEM
CELL NEWS
- CLONING
NEWS
- "Stem
cell advance may fuel cloning dispute." ... "Scientists
in the US and France have used stem cells from mice to form eggs capable
of being fertilised, an advance likely to fuel controversy over stem cell
research and cloning." ... "The technique, if successfully applied to humans,
would raise the possibility of using stem cells for fertility treatment.
Eggs produced by stem cells could be fertilised by donated sperm, creating
new life." -By Victoria Griffith
-FT.com
-
- 
- "WHO
lifts warning as Canada halts SARS gains." ... "WHO
Director General Gro Harlem Brundtland, former prime minister of Norway
and a medical doctor, said the magnitude of the SARS outbreak in Toronto
has decreased. Speaking at a press conference in Geneva after meeting with
a delegation of Canadian health officials, Brundtland said: ''It has now
been 20 days since the last cases of community transmission, and there
are no confirmed new export cases out of Toronto or Canada. We will be
lifting the travel advice for Toronto, Canada.''" ... "In Asia, the disease
continued to spread. Hong Kong reported 12 new deaths, China nine, and
Singapore one. The global death toll climbed to at least 355, with more
than 5,300 infections in more than 20 countries, including probable cases
reported for the first time in South Korea, Mongolia, and New Zealand."
-By Colin Nickerson
-Boston/Globe
- "South
Carolina allowed to catalog data on women seeking abortions."
... "The Supreme Court cleared the way Monday for health authorities in
South Carolina to collect names, addresses and other information from clinics
and doctors about women seeking abortions." ... "South Carolina is the
only state whose law allows regulators to see, copy and store abortion
patients' medical records without stiff requirements that the information
be kept confidential, lawyers said. The court's action, taken without comment,
ends a legal challenge that had kept the 1995 law on hold."
-AP with contributions by Josephine Marcotty
via -StarTribune.com
- Special
Report - GENETICS
- "Double
Helix: 50 Years of DNA." ... ""This structure has
novel features which are of considerable biological interest"" ... "In
April 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick wrote these words as part of
the opening paragraph of a Letter to Nature. As part of the 50th anniversary
celebrations of the publication of the structure of DNA, Nature presents
this web focus, containing a collection of overviews celebrating the historical,
scientific and cultural impacts of the discovery of the double helix. All
content is free, and over 2003 will include news, special features, and
an archive including all the classic papers from 1953."
-Nature.com
- GENETICS
- "Stunning
creativity of DNA pioneers: Professor Adrian
Hayday of King's College London tells the story behind the discovery of
DNA's structure in 1953." ... "A remarkably short scientific paper, known
officially as a letter, was published on 25 April 1953 in Nature, by James
Watson and Francis Crick." ... "It was perhaps the most momentous paper
of the modern era, proposing a structure for the chemical, DNA (Deoxyribose
Nucleic Acid), which composes the hereditary material of all living cellular
organisms." -BBC/News
- 
- "Baghdad
running low on medicine: Aid agencies warned
Tuesday that overwhelmed Baghdad hospitals were running low of life-saving
medicines and that civilian casualties were mounting in Iraq's besieged
capital." ... ""Nobody is checking every single hospital, nobody is adding
up all the numbers ... (but) there clearly is a large volume of civilian
casualties," World Health Organization spokesman Iain Simpson told a United
Nations briefing." --Reuters
via -CNN /World
-
-
- "Positive test
for terror toxins in Iraq: MSNBC.com finds
signs of ricin, botulinum at Islamic militants’ camp." ... "MSNBC.com tests
reveal evidence of the deadly toxins ricin and botulinum at a laboratory
in a remote mountain region of northern Iraq allegedly used as a terrorist
training camp by Islamic militants with ties to the al-Qaida terrorist
network. The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is conducting its own tests
at the same area, but has not yet released the results, according to officials
in northern Iraq." ... "MSNBC.com's tests were conducted over a two-day
period at Sargat, an alleged terrorist training camp a mile from the Iraq-Iran
border. The camp, set back in an isolated valley and surrounded by snowcapped
peaks, was home to the radical Islamic militant group Ansar al-Islam, which
counts among its some 700 followers scores of al-Qaida
fighters." -By Preston Mendenhall
-MSNBC
-
-
- "U.S.
Forces Advance to Within 50 Miles of Baghdad:
U.S. troops entered the "red zone" within 50 miles of Baghdad on Wednesday,
after advancing past the city of Karbala to the southwest of the capital
and capturing an important bridge over the Tigris River to the southeast."
... ""This is so far the biggest fight of the war," said a U.S. spokesman
at Central Command in Qatar. "The battles in Karbala and Kut are the most
significant battles to date." U.S. Brigadier General Vincent Brooks said
the troops approaching Baghdad had crossed a "red line" which he said could
trigger a chemical attack by embattled Iraqi forces. "We have forces that
have already crossed those red lines," Brooks told a news conference at
Central Command headquarters in Qatar on Wednesday."
-PBS (A-Z)
/NewsHour
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
-
- "Myers:
U.S. Controls Terror Camp in Iraq." ... "American
forces are searching a terrorist compound in northeastern Iraq that was
probably the site where militants made a biological toxin, traces of which
were later found by police in London, the Pentagon's top general said Sunday."
... "U.S. and British forces now control the compound, which belongs to
the group Ansar al-Islam, said Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint
Chiefs of Staff, describing it as a site "where Ansar al-Islam and al-Qaida
had been working on poisons."" -By Matt Kelley
-AP via -SeattlePI.NWsource
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
- "U.S.
general says chemical suits reinforces concerns about Iraqi use of chemical
weapons." ... "A U.S. general said Wednesday the
discovery of 3,000 chemical suits in a central Iraqi hospital that had
been used as an Iraqi base raised concern that Saddam Hussein's regime
was prepared to use chemical weapons." ... "In addition to the chemical
suits, the Central Command reported earlier that Marines found and confiscated
gas masks and nerve gas antidote injectors in the hospital near An Nasiriyah."
-By Nicole Winfield -AP
via -PennLive.com
- 
-
- "Troops
uncover chemical weapons factory - report." ... "US
troops have found a suspected chemical factory in Iraq, according to unconfirmed
reports." ... "The plant is near the city of An Najaf, which US troops
reached yesterday on a push to Baghdad. Coalition soldiers are said to
be questioning the general in charge of the facility, about 100 miles south
of Baghdad. Weapons experts are also reported to have arrived at the site."
... "Were the plant to be confirmed as a chemical weapons factory, the
discovery would be a major boost to coalition morale after a series of
military setbacks." ... "However, US Central Command said in a statement
that troops were examining "sites of interest," refusing to confirm or
deny the speculation over the An Najaf site, and describing reports that
the site was a chemical weapons factory as "premature.""
-Guardian.co.uk
Search
Iraq News - Search
Google:
-
-
- 
- "Iraq
Launches Attack Against U.S. Troops." ... "U.S. troops
got their first real scare Thursday when Iraqi missiles streaked across
the border into Kuwait, forcing Americans in the desert to climb into protective
suits and put on gas masks." ... ""The still desert heat raised anxieties,
since gas or vapor from biological and chemical weapons lingers in little
or no wind, causing more damage. In brisk wind, the gas or vapor disperses
quickly." ... "The men were quiet, since shouting to be heard from inside
a gas mask takes extra breath. They also were listening for more incoming
missiles." -AP
via -Guardian.co.uk
-
-
-
- -
"Blix:
Iraq unlikely to use chemical, germ weapons:
But still a lot of questions, the chief inspector says." ... "Iraq is unlikely
to use chemical or biological weapons to defend itself from a U.S.-led
invasion because world opinion would turn against it, chief U.N. weapons
inspector Hans Blix told CNN Wednesday." ... ""If they have any -- and
still, that's a big if -- I would doubt that they would use it because
a lot of countries and people in the world are negative to the idea of
waging war," Blix said." ... ""If the Iraqis were to use any chemical weapons,
then I think the public opinion around the world would immediately turn
against Iraq, and they would say, as well, that the invasion was justified.""
-ABCNEWS.com
-
- Accounting
News - "Audit:
Food Supply Vulnerable to Attack." ... "Congressional
auditors say the country's food supply is vulnerable to terrorist attacks
partly because the government cannot ensure the security of processing
plants." ... "The General Accounting Office issued the report Tuesday as
the Agriculture Department told food companies, retailers and farmers to
increase security because of the heightened security alert." -By
Emily Gersema -AP
via -ChicagoTribune
-
-
- "Saddam
defiant, troops move closer to Iraq border girding for war:
Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein - defiant and dressed for battle." ... "Tuesday
rejected President Bush's demand that he flee into exile. The White House
called it Saddam's "final mistake."" ... "The 48-hour deadline imposed
by the United States arrives at 8 p.m. EST Wednesday. War could explode
at any moment after that - or sooner if Saddam is caught preparing to use
nerve gas or seems ready to destroy dams or oil fields." ... "A U.S.-led
invasion force of 300,000 troops awaits the order to attack." -By
Mark Johnson, Peter Smolowitz and Martin Merzer -Knight
Ridder via -Miami/Herald
-
-
- "U.S.:
Iraq may use chemical warfare: U.S. officials
tell CNN there is "recent" and "fresh" evidence that Iraq is planning to
use chemical weapons, perhaps against U.S. forces or Iraqi citizens." ...
"Officials stress they have not yet seen Iraq move any chemical munitions
but say they have "information" that Republican Guard units south of Baghdad
have been issued chemical munitions." -By Barbara
Starr -CNN
- "Pneumonia
'worldwide threat'" ... "The World Health Organi-sation
has described a mysterious form of pneumonia in Asia as "a worldwide health
threat" after a rise in the incidence of the illness across the region
and nine deaths." ... "The WHO said at the weekend it had received reports
from Canada, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand
of the illness, an atypical form of pneumonia called Severe Acute Respiratory
Syndrome [SARS]." -By Rahul Jacob
-FT.com
- "Senate
Votes to Ban Disputed Abortion Procedure." ... "Abortion
opponents won their first victory in the new Republican-controlled Congress
today when senators voted overwhelmingly to outlaw a procedure that has
been at the center of the abortion rights struggle for the last eight years."
... "With significant Democratic backing, the Senate voted 64 to 33 to
approve a Republican-sponsored measure that would prohibit doctors from
performing the procedure that has come to be known as partial-birth abortion.
The measure now goes to the House, where it is expected to pass." (1, 2)
-By Carl Hulse -NYTimes
via -Google-News
-
- 
-
-
- "Blair
spells out demands on Saddam." ... "The prime minister,
Tony Blair, today spelled out Britain's final demands for the Iraqi leader,
Saddam Hussein, to give up his weapons of mass destruction or face military
action." ... "The government has drawn up a list of six "benchmarks" against
which Iraqi compliance with United Nations demands to disarm can be judged."
... "They include a demand for Saddam to make a public declaration on Iraqi
television that he has been hiding banned weapons materials but has now
made a "strategic decision" to give them up." ... "It must be followed
by the destruction "forthwith" of Iraq's remaining stocks of anthrax and
other biological and chemical materials." -By Mark
Oliver -Guardian.co.uk
- "Court
allows asbestos anxiety claims: Railroad workers
fear getting cancer." ... "The Supreme Court, in a 5-to-4 vote, ruled yesterday
that workers who become ill from exposure to toxic substances on the job
may seek damages to pay for ''genuine and serious'' fear that they will
someday develop cancer, even if they never do get the disease." ... "The
court's ruling came in a case involving railroad workers afflicted with
a lung disease called asbestosis and are fearful about developing cancer.
Legal analysts said the ruling could lead other courts to widen the ruling
to cover additional illnesses and other industries, such as shipbuilding,
whose workers have cited the health effects of similar exposure to asbestos."
-By Lyle Denniston
-Boston/Globe
-
-
-
- 
- "'91
Iraq plan to use germs is reported." ... "Saddam
Hussein secretly planned to launch 75 missiles armed with chemical or biological
warheads during the 1991 Persian Gulf War if Baghdad were hit with nuclear
weapons, according to a new report by UN weapons inspectors." ... "Hans
Blix, head of the UN Monitoring, Verification, and Inspection Commission,
delivered the report ["Unresolved Disarmament Issues"] Friday to the UN
Security Council. It has not been released to the public, but the Los Angeles
Times has obtained a copy." -By Bob Drogin-LAtimes
via -Boston/Globe
-
-
- "Adult aggression,
children’s TV tied: Long-term study links violence
and television." ... "Both boys and girls who watch a lot of violence on
television have a heightened risk of aggressive adult behavior including
spouse abuse and criminal offenses, no matter how they act in childhood,
a new study says." ... "The analysis argued against the idea that aggressive
children seek out TV violence, or that the findings were due to the participants’
socioeconomic status or intelligence, or their parents’ childrearing practices."
-AP via -MSNBC
-
-
-
- [PDF]
- "Longitudinal
Relations Between Children's Exposure to TV Violence and Their Aggressive
and Violent Behavior in Young Adulthood: 1977-1992."
Abstract: "Although the relation between TV-violence viewing and aggression
in childhood has been clearly demonstrated, only a few studies have examined
this relation from childhood to adulthood, and these studies of children
growing up in the 1960s reported significant relations only for boys. The
current study examines the longitudinal relations between TV-violence viewing
at ages 6 to 10 and adult aggressive behavior about 15 years later for
a sample growing up in the 1970s and 1980s. Follow-up archival data (N
450) and interview data (N 329) reveal that childhood exposure
to media violence predicts young adult aggressive behavior for both males
and females. Identification with aggressive TV characters and perceived
realism of TV violence also predict later aggression. These relations persist
even when the effects of socioeconomic status, intellectual ability, and
a variety of parenting factors are controlled." -By
L. Rowell Huesmann, Jessica Moise-Titus, Cheryl-Lynn Podolski, and Leonard
D. Eron -Developmental
Psychology via -APA.org /Journals
- STEM
CELL NEWS
- "Self-Mended
Heart: Boy’s Own Blood Used for First-of-Its-Kind
Stem Cell Transplant." ... "In the first operation of its kind [20030217],
doctors used stem cells from a 16-year-old Almont, Mich., boy's own blood
to repair his heart after he was accidentally shot in the heart with a
nail gun and subsequently suffered a heart attack." ... "It is hoped that
the stem cells will repair and regenerate Dimitri Bonnville's damaged heart
and its blood vessels. When the teen was first brought to the hospital
after the Feb. 1 construction accident, surgeons immediately removed the
three-inch-long nail and repaired the hole in his heart."
-ABCNEWS.com
-
-
-
- "Grim
Future for World's Water." ... "World water reserves
are drying up fast and booming populations, pollution and global warming
will combine to cut the average person's water supply by a third in the
next 20 years, the United Nations said on Wednesday." ... "A report published
by the U.N. on Wednesday ahead of the Third World Water Forum in Kyoto,
Japan, criticized political leaders for failing to take action and, in
some cases, disputing the very existence of a water crisis."
-Wired
- "Abortion
protesters grab a victory in court: The Supreme
Court says a racketeering law can't be used to punish protesters. It may
spur more rallies." ... "In an 8-to-1 ruling announced Wednesday, the US
Supreme Court overturned a civil jury's verdict that anti-abortion leader
Joseph Scheidler and the Pro-Life Action Network had violated the civil
racketeering law (RICO) through their aggressive protests and other tactics
employed outside abortion clinics in the 1980s and '90s." ... "The ruling
also lifted a nationwide injunction that had barred the group from engaging
in similar tactics elsewhere." -By Warren Richey and
Linda Feldmann -CSMonitor
-
- "UN
begins vaccination push." ... "The United Nations
Children's Fund launched a measles and polio vaccination campaign for 4
million Iraqi children yesterday and said that malnutrition levels showed
that Iraq was experiencing a humanitarian crisis even before a possible
US-led war." -By Samia Nakhoul -Reuters
via -Boston/Globe
-
- 
- "Newspaper:
Texas Tech professor carried plague on airlines."
... "The Texas Tech University researcher accused of lying to the FBI about
missing vials of plague bacteria repeatedly carried live samples of the
germ aboard commercial airliners, a newspaper reported." ... "Butler is
charged with falsely reporting as missing 30 vials of the potentially lethal
plague bacteria that he actually had destroyed. News of the supposedly
missing vials last month triggered a terrorism alert."-AP
via -CNN
-
- Space
Shuttle Columbia Disaster
- "Shuttle
debris hits Texas and Louisiana: Debris rained down
Saturday over hundreds of square miles of Texas and Louisiana, smashing
a rooftop, splashing into a reservoir and sending emergency crews on a
far-flung hunt for bits of what was once space shuttle Columbia." ... "Authorities
urged the public to report any debris but not touch it for fear of contamination
from toxic substances. The Army sent in helicopters and soldiers to locate
and guard bits of wreckage, which could be pivotal in determining the cause
of the disaster." ... "Debris has been tracked in a 500-square-mile area
but could be spread over a region three times that, said James Kroll, director
of the Emergency Geospacial Mapping Center at Stephen F. Austin State University
in Nacogdoches." -AP
via -CNN
- "Quiet Cheney
accrues power and influence: 'Adviser and counselor'
to president is focused on economy and security." ... "At the start of
the third year of the Bush administration, White House officials and outside
advisers say Cheney is ever more powerful. In the last three months, he
has immersed himself in three critical areas: national security, the economy
and domestic defense." ... "Cheney was a driving force behind the administration's
Project Bioshield, a plan to protect the nation against biological attack
that Bush announced in his State of the Union address. He was central to
the creation of the president's $674 billion economic package. He is wired
into the White House plans for a postwar Iraq." -By
Elisabeth Bumiller and Eric Schmitt -NYTimes
via -IHT.com
- "Soldiers
Leaving Something Behind." ... "Some military men
deploying for a possible war with Iraq are putting something aside – just
in case." ... "They've been having samples of their sperm frozen in sperm
banks." ... "Some say it's out of fear they might be exposed to chemical
warfare or other dangers that could make them infertile. Others are worried
they could die in combat. Many say they simply want their wives to continue
infertility treatments they've already started."
-CBSNews
-
-
-
- "Unlikely
Allies Influenced Bush To Shift Course On AIDS Relief."
... "An unlikely coalition of Christian evangelicals and liberal activists
joined forces to help persuade President Bush to announce a remarkable
turnabout this week in his administration's approach to the international
AIDS crisis -- a tripling of U.S. spending on AIDS relief." ... "Bush surprised
even many Republicans when he used his State of the Union address on Tuesday
to call on Congress to spend $15 billion over the next five years to help
countries in Africa and the Caribbean fight the pandemic." -By
Mike Allen and Paul Blustein-WashingtonPost
SMALLPOX
- "Hospitals
balk at smallpox vaccine." ... "More than 80 hospitals
in 22 states have decided to forgo the Bush administration's voluntary
smallpox plan. Many have said they will begin vaccinating immediately if
a single smallpox case appears or the government warns that the threat
of a bioterrorism attack using the smallpox virus is imminent." ... "The
dissenters are a tiny fraction of the 3,000 hospitals recruited by state
health officials to vaccinate doctors, nurses and other hospital staff
members who are most likely to care for smallpox patients." ... "But their
numbers are growing as doctors and administrators at hospitals around the
USA are concluding that the known health risks from the vaccine, which
can cause illness and even death, outweigh the unquantifiable risks of
smallpox being used as a terrorist weapon." -By Laura
Parker -USATODAY
CLONING
NEWS
- "Abducting
The Cloning Debate: The scientists' nightmare:
How do you conduct a reasoned debate about complex moral issues when the
news is coming from outer space?" ... "Chemist Brigitte Boisselier, president
of the biotech company Clonaid, is a member of the Order of Angels of the
Raelian religious cult, whose prophet Rael says 4-ft.-tall green space
aliens visited him 30 years ago in a French volcano and revealed that all
of us are descended from the clones they planted here 25,000 years ago.
With her announcement of a miracle baby named Eve and the group's subsequent
claim of a second cloned birth, the most important debate in morals and
medicine is delivered into such hands to mangle." ... "The damage is done
whether Clonaid's claims are a hoax or not. The Raelians can be assured
that all the free advertising has worked, and inquiries from prospective
parents will rise with each new headline." -By Nancy
Gibbs 2003010513
Ed. -TIME.com
-
- "Foes
of Abortion Push for Major Bills in Congress." ...
"Galvanized by the Republican takeover of the Senate, opponents of abortion
are preparing a major push for new abortion restrictions in the next Congress,
beginning with a ban on the type of medical procedure they call partial
birth abortion." ... "They say they will also push for some other measures
already passed by the Republican-controlled House, including a bill making
it a crime to evade parental notification laws by taking a minor across
state lines for an abortion and legislation making it a separate crime
to harm a fetus during an attack on a pregnant woman." ... "The latest
stage of the abortion struggle begins at an emotional time for both sides:
Jan. 22 is the 30th anniversary of Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision
that recognized a constitutional right to abortion." (1, 2)
-By Robin Toner -NYTimes
via -AltaVista-News
CLONING
NEWS
- "[Florida]
Lawyer sues to force state to take custody of baby `Eve'."
... "Coral Gables [Florida] attorney Bernard Siegel on Tuesday filed a
court petition accusing the Clonaid company that claims to have cloned
the baby of abusing her like a ``guinea pig.''" ... "Siegel said he believes
the Broward juvenile court can take jurisdiction of the case because Clonaid,
originally registered in the Bahamas, conducts business over the Internet
in Florida and elsewhere, seeking to charge potential customers $200,000
for each clone." ... "But child-welfare legal experts said the case's viability
will pivot on whether baby ''Eve'' or her 31-year-old American mother have
connections to Florida." -By Jay Weaver and Noah Bierman-Miami/Herald
| www.HavenWorks.com/health/archive/2003 |
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