Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Mutombo helps Congo take a big step forward with new hospital
- The Golden Tan: An Uncertain Risk to Teens
- TV Relieves Kids’ Pain Better Than Mom’s Reassurance
- Talks in Beirut on expanded UN force
- Teenagers’ diets are low priority for poorer families

Mutombo helps Congo take a big step forward with new hospital
USA Today - Aug 16, 2006
Initially, the emergency room, operating room, intensive care unit, outpatient care and internal medicine department will be open. The infectious disease and pediatrics wards are expected to open within two years. Some beds from internal medicine will go to pediatrics. Louis Kanda, Mutombo’s cousin (and Mimi’s husband) and a heart surgeon in Washington, D. , designed the hospital and was responsible for all medical aspects, including hiring doctors and nurses. All the hospital’s facilities are on one level, making for easier movement of patients… “His enthusiasm and tenacity is contagious. ”
‘A new beginning for Congo’
Thompson, who plans to attend the hospital’s opening, says he never doubted that Mutombo would be able to complete the project. “Dikembe, by nature, is a social animal,” Thompson says. “He’s the kind of person who does not mind continually approaching people and talking about it — which is hard work after a period of time. His personality is suited for that. “Dikembe can go to the president’s inaugural ball, and you’d think it was for him. ”
Thompson, however, was concerned whether Mutombo “realistically knew what he was undertaking,” given the potential for instability in Congo.

The Golden Tan: An Uncertain Risk to Teens
ABC News - Aug 16, 2006
His county, and many other cities and states across the United States, have taken a hard line against tanning salons, a $5 billion industry. Moroney’s powerful statement, however, illustrates the current hot debate about these new laws, which vary widely in their severity. On one hand, there’s growing but still inconclusive evidence linking the use of tanning beds to skin cancer, and the belief that teenagers, who are by nature risk-takers, should be protected from this threat. On the other hand, critics say, even if tanning is dangerous, creating more laws to control teen behavior is unlikely to work, so perhaps the issue is best left a private discussion among parents and their teens. Medical ethicists and women who have used tanning salons seem to agree that while tanning is not the greatest threat posed to teens, it’s also not harmless… They also said that parents and educators should be encouraged to discuss the risks of sun exposure with teens. “I think for many things we need to post a warning and on others allow more freedom,” said Dr. Stephen Lefrak, director of Humanities at the Washington University School of Medicine. “Tanning, while it may increase skin cancer, certainly is not as damaging as tobacco smoke or uncommitted immature sex. The posting of signs — similar to the warning labels on cigarettes — allow for people to make independent but informed decisions, said Rosamond Rhodes, a medical education professor at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

TV Relieves Kids’ Pain Better Than Mom’s Reassurance
ABC News - Aug 16, 2006
Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, a study of nearly170 babies born at 30 weeks or less — rather than at 40 weeks, the length of a normal pregnancy — finds that those with an abnormal finding on an MRI were more likely to have severe cognitive delays, motor delays, cerebral palsy, and hearing and visual problems at age 2. MRSA MENANCE GROWING Results of a study on 11 emergency rooms in the United States show that the antibiotic-resistant bacteria MRSA are now the main cause of skin and tissue infections. MRSA infections used to be rare outside of the hospital, but in recent years, MRSA bacteria have been causing problems in the community at large. The study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, finds that about 75 percent of patients who came into the emergency room with a skin or tissue infection tested positive for MRSA. Often patients thought they had been bitten by a spider… NEW GENE MAY SHOW HOW HUMAN BRAINS EVOLVED An international team of scientists have discovered a gene that has undergone rapid evolution in humans and is active during critical stages of brain development. The gene, called HAR1F, has undergone evolution about 70 times faster than the rest of the human genome. The exact function of the gene is currently unknown, the authors write in the journal Nature, but preliminary research suggests it may have a role in expanding the part of the brain we use for high-level thinking, language and other human attributes. STAT is a brief look at the latest medical research and is compiled by Joanna Schaffhausen, who holds a doctorate in behavioral neuroscience. She works in the ABC News Medical Unit, evaluating medical studies, abstracts and news releases.

Talks in Beirut on expanded UN force
rte.ie - Aug 16, 2006
The UN wants to boost the current 2,000-strong force to 15,000 with the first troops deployed in two weeks. The UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, is to meet the Israeli Foreign Minister, Tzipi Livni, later today. Advertisement
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of refugees are continuing to return home to south Lebanon despite warnings that it is too dangerous. Israel said the area remains unsafe until the Lebanese army and UN forces are deployed there… Israel said the area remains unsafe until the Lebanese army and UN forces are deployed there. The UN has also warned of the danger of unexploded ordnance. International relief organisations are trying to deliver badly needed food and medicine to the area. Simon Schorno of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said security was a concern south of the Litani River, where the Lebanese army is expected to begin its deployment on Thursday. Israel may complete withdrawal in 10 days
Meanwhile, Israel has said its troops could complete a withdrawal from south Lebanon in seven to ten days. In a separate development, the Israeli army said it had killed a senior Hezbollah commander just hours before the ceasefire came into effect on Monday. An army spokesman named the dead man as Sajed Dawayer.

Teenagers’ diets are low priority for poorer families
News-Medical.net - Aug 16, 2006
The paper states: “The majority of parents said they were much more likely to emphasise to their child that weight should not be a worry or a concern for them; that they were fine as they were; that everybody was different and, frequently, to make disparaging references to their teenager’s thinner peers as ’stick insects’ (a much used phrase). ”
The researchers also found that young teenagers were considered by their parents as being capable of making their own decisions about what to eat and, for many of these low income parents, an important consideration was that food available to teenagers within and outside the home was eaten, with less concern about the nature of the foods actually consumed. The article states: “There was, for instance, little talk of insisting that children eat disliked foodstuffs even if, as was particularly the case with vegetables and sometimes fruit, these were also regarded by the majority of our adult sample as being ‘good for them’. ”
Dr Wills commented: “We have presented qualitative data about families living in social disadvantage, but greater understanding is still needed about the everyday experiences of feeding families in other social groupings, to illuminate differences and commonalities in the population as a whole. ”
With this in mind, the researchers are due to embark on a further study next month (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)) which will compare these results with a sample of middle-class families.