Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- How Does the Human Body Cope with Heat?
- Cadaver Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow
- Berkeley This Week
- Chemical compounds most likely to be chosen by would-be bombers
- Doctors Say Remote Videos Could Speed Care for Crash Victims

How Does the Human Body Cope with Heat?
NPR - Aug 11, 2006
How does heat affect the human body? And what can scientists discover about extreme heat by studying soldiers?Guests:Michael Sawka, chief, Thermal and Mountain Medicine Division; U. Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine Larry Sonna, assistant professor, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, University of Maryland Larry Kalkstein, senior research fellow; Center for Climatic Research, University of Delaware Related NPR StoriesAug.

Cadaver Exhibits Are Part Science, Part Sideshow
NPR - Aug 11, 2006
It is part science and part showmanship: The bodies can be posed running, leaping and opening their torsos to display their viscera and, in one case, a fetus. Although this may not seem like a fun family activity, the exhibits have been wildly successful — and profitable — for the science museums and other venues that have hosted them. Body Worlds, recently at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, received one-half million visitors since it opened in March. The California Science Center was the first to exhibit cadavers in the United States and was followed by major museums in Chicago, Philadelphia and Cleveland. They had to stay open around the clock to accommodate massive crowds during the exhibitions’ final days. Jeff Rudolph, the California Science Center’s CEO, says the popularity comes from the wonders of plastination. The process can preserve tiny capillaries, like embroidery threads bundled in each hand, and remove everything else.

Berkeley This Week
Berkeley Daily Planet - Aug 11, 2006
Cost is $15 sliding scale, no one turned away. Toddler Nature Walk for 2 to 3 year olds to look for reptiles at 10:30 p. at Tilden Nature Area. Summer Pond Plunge Search for nymphs and naiads, salmander larvae and sideswimmers, for ages 4 and up at 2 p… Help support the more than 40 blood drives held each month all over the East Bay. For more information call 594-5165. Discussion Salon on Parmaceutical and Alternative Medicine at 7 p. at 1414 Walnut by Rose. Tuesday Tilden Walkers Join a few slowpoke seniors at 9:30 a.

Chemical compounds most likely to be chosen by would-be bombers
Guardian Unlimited - Aug 11, 2006
There was concern that asking passengers to taste liquids such as baby milk before allowing it on to the plane would not work as a deterrent. Explosives experts pointed out that many dangerous compounds, though unpleasant to drink, are essentially harmless. For example nitroglycerin, one of the candidate liquid compounds, is used as a medicine to treat angina. Copycat plotThe genesis of plans to detonate bombs simultaneously on a number of civilian airliners goes back to the so-called Bojinka plot by Islamist fundamentalists in the mid-1990s. The foiled operation has similarities to attacks planned in the Philippines and organised by two prominent jihadi figures: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed and Ramzi Yousef. KSM, as he is known in US intelligence circles, was the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington. Yousef was the alleged organiser of the underground bombing of New York’s World Trade Centre in 1993.

Doctors Say Remote Videos Could Speed Care for Crash Victims
Insurance Journal - Aug 11, 2006
The cameras will provide emergency room doctors at Upstate Hospital with real-time views of crash scenes and firsthand information they hope will help them treat accident victims better and more quickly, said Dr. John McCabe, a professor and chairman of the hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine. A long-term study of the cameras’ use is being funded by noted economist Alfred Kahn, who survived a car crash in 2003 and spent weeks recovering from his injuries at Upstate, which is part of the State University of New York’s Upstate Medical University. “We have a theoretic idea that seems to make good sense on face value. We need to see if it can work in a real emergency room,” McCabe said. The road surveillance will be provided by more than two dozen closed-circuit video cameras installed by the state Department of Transportation covering 32 miles of Interstates 81 and 690, the main traffic corridors through Syracuse… While the resolution doesn’t allow viewers to read a license plate, it can show whether a person has been thrown from a vehicle or is trapped, he said. An antenna brings the real-time images into a workstation near the emergency room where doctors can view a crash scene and rescue efforts on a computer monitor. By viewing a scene, doctors can get a better idea of the nature and severity of injuries, giving them a head start to gather the necessary specialists, equipment and medicines to treat the victims, McCabe said. First responders typically communicate with doctors using radios and cell phones, offering their observations about the extent of injuries and details about the accident scene. But that information is often ambiguous and, occasionally, even wrong, McCabe said. Previous studies have shown that viewing photographic documentation of crash scenes, including vehicle damage, has benefited physicians. Studies at East Carolina University and Albany Medical Center have shown that emergency room physicians treat crash victims more aggressively when provided photos of crash scenes.