Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- The acupuncture traditions
- Fairness in the air: California’s air pollution hearing boards.
- Nature’s gifts.(Medicines and drugs in the Amazon)(Essay)
- The Hippocratic Oath, V2.0: using focus groups in health care…
- High Court Dismisses Patent Ruling Case

The acupuncture traditions
St. Louis Chinese American News - Jun 22, 2006
The insertion of the needle at these acupoints causes the release of internal energy that helps restore the body to its natural state. Acupuncture has been utilized for thousands of year in China and continue to be a part of modern medicine. One of the major principles of traditional Chinese medicine is that disease is due to an internal imbalance. For example, if one organ of the body is malfunctioning this will be felt as a group of symptoms, often involving other organs as well. Therefore, restoration of the function of the single organ will affect each of the others, thereby returning the body to a state of health; the symptoms will then disappear. Western medicine tends to approach disease by assuming that it is caused by an insult, such as a virus or bacteria, or a slow degeneration of body functions. In contrast, traditional Chinese medicine works under the holistic assumption that the body is one unit, and each part of it is intimately connected… In Chinese medicine, the healthy body is a delicate balance of Yin and Yang. Yin and Yang are essentially polar opposites, such as hot and cold, and because of this one must be present to allow the other to exist The state of the body is determined by the internal balance of Yin and Yang. Each of the organs of the body has an element of Yin and Yang, although one organ may be more Yang in its nature, while the other is more Yin. Amined as a complete functioning system, the Yin and Yang properties within it are in balance. The balance of Yin and Yang is not always exact, but if the balance is unequal, for instance if Yin consistently outweighs Yang, then the body is unhealthy and disease results. The perspective from which an acupuncturist views health and sickness hinges on concepts of “vital energy” “energetic balance” and “energetic imbalance”. While the Western medical practitioner monitors blood flow and the activity of the nervous system, the acupuncturist assesses the flow and localization of this “vital energy” within its pathways, known as “meridians and channels”.

Fairness in the air: California’s air pollution hearing boards.
Free with registration - UCLA Journal of Environmental Law &… - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jun 22, 2006
This article examines California’s air pollution hearing boards, an important regulatory forum with direct bearing on this question. These boards are unique in many respects, for they are not quite the same as anything else in California environmental and land use regulation. One of their most striking characteristics is that the hearing boards are predominantly composed of individuals who are not air pollution experts, even though the decisions they make usually involve technical questions, often of an extraordinarily sophisticated nature. Most significantly, the hearing boards are a key feature–indeed the key feature–of California’s attempt to ensure that fairness is a consistent component of government efforts to clean and protect the air. Regulation of air pollution from stationary sources in California is primarily the responsibility of local and regional air pollution control districts (APCDs). (2) In contrast, state government, principally through the California Air Resources Board (ARB), regulates air pollution from most types of motor vehicles. (3) The ARB also plays an important oversight role in stationary source control, but major responsibility there still rests with the APCDs… ” The other two members are simply designated as “public members. ” (13) The medical member usually is a doctor, although the statutory language does not limit this category to that segment of the medical profession. The statute does require the medical member to have some “specialized skills, training, or interests” pertinent to the types of health issues often arising in air pollution disputes. No such specific skills are required of the lawyer and engineer members, nor of the public members.

Nature’s gifts.(Medicines and drugs in the Amazon)(Essay)
Free with registration - Earth Focus One Planet-One Community - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jun 22, 2006
(Medicines and drugs in the Amazon)(Essay) –> COPYRIGHT 2006 Old City Publishing, Inc. Many of the plants in the Amazon rainforest are used for curing diseases. he indigenous peoples are able to survive because their food and medicine grow in the rainforest. Countries like Brazil export a lot of medicine and medicinal products throughout the world. However, not everything that grows in the forest is used for curing diseases; it also grows stimulating herbs like marijuana, which can be used to give energy. Most medicines come from trees that range from two to fifteen metres high! Guacatonga, Guarana, Graviola, Tayuya are the main medicines bought because they are very effective and can cure common diseases.

The Hippocratic Oath, V2.0: using focus groups in health care…
Free with registration - American Journal of Health Studies - AccessMyLibrary.com - Jun 22, 2006
0: using focus groups in health care policy. (Survey) –> COPYRIGHT 2006 American Journal of Health Studies Abstract: Objective: Re-examination of traditional concepts in medicine would help to allow meaningful health care reform. Methods: We studied 6 different pre-defined 10-person focus groups of healthcare workers and patients. The two-hour focus groups were taped and summarized using a perceptual map. Results: We found a pervasive atmosphere of fear and anxiety regarding three realms: 1) insurance coverage, 2) information technology, and 3) health justice. Respondents desired a realistic, actionable document to guide policymaking, which we discuss in the accompanying commentary.

High Court Dismisses Patent Ruling Case
San Francisco Chronicle - Jun 22, 2006
In a dissent, Justices Stephen Breyer, John Paul Stevens and David H. Souter said their colleagues were dodging an important case. “Those who engage in medical research, who practice medicine, and who as patients depend upon proper health care, might well benefit from this court’s authoritative answer,” Breyer wrote. Chief Justice John Roberts recused himself, apparently because his old law firm represented Laboratory Corp. of America, a medical testing company that brought the appeal to the Supreme Court. The company had been ordered to pay about $5 million to patent holders Metabolite Laboratories Inc. and Competitive Technologies Inc… Lemley said that people holding patents for medical processes, DNA and business methods should be concerned. Under federal law, patents cover broad subject areas but can’t be used for abstract ideas or laws of nature, such as Albert Einstein’s theory on mass and energy or Sir Isaac Newton’s law of gravity. But applying such a law of nature through a test or process can be subject to a patent. Breyer said that there are “special public interest considerations” in limiting patent coverage, including controlling health care costs. The case is Laboratory Corporation of America Holdings v. Metabolite Laboratories Inc.