Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- Orexin-blocking pill speeds sleep onset.(ACT-078573)(Brief article)
- Isotope science to have wide-ranging impact, NSCL researcher says
- Disaster preparedness is a lot more than safe refuge
- Column - William “Rusty” Robinson: HPV vaccine is a…
- The clearest voice of the 20th century
- Genetic Test for Type II Diabetes Moves Closer

Orexin-blocking pill speeds sleep onset.(ACT-078573)(Brief article)
Free with registration - Science News - AccessMyLibrary.com - Feb 17, 2007
(ACT-078573)(Brief article) –> COPYRIGHT 2007 Science Service, Inc. A new compound that inhibits the activity of alertness-promoting brain peptides called orexins shows promise as a sleeping pill, according to tests in people and animals. Men who took the drug fell asleep more quickly than did men who took a placebo, neurobiologist Francois Jenck of Actelion Pharmaceuticals in.

Isotope science to have wide-ranging impact, NSCL researcher says
Nanotechwire.com - Feb 17, 2007
Isotope science to have wide-ranging impact, NSCL researcher says, Research, Michigan State University - NanoTechWire. com - The online resource for Nano Technology And Research. Ernest Rutherford discovered the nuclear nature of matter in the early 1900s. For most of history that followed, scientists curious about the dense knots of protons and neutrons that comprise atomic nuclei have for the most part been limited to studying the roughly 300 stable isotopes that exist in nature. That’s not the case anymore. Thanks to existing and planned accelerator technology in physics laboratories around the world, scientists may soon have several thousand isotopes at their disposal.

Disaster preparedness is a lot more than safe refuge
Fiji Times - Feb 17, 2007
Much of the prevention and regulatory powers, even environmental education lies in the hands of the state which is beyond the control of ordinary people. In the meantime, let’s blame the people once more for failing to take adequate precautions. People are unable to understand the complex nature of disasters. Many people in Fiji do not understand wind speeds, location of tropical cyclones and the use of coordinates to forecast the path as reported during special weather bulletins. Many have no idea about the condition that persists in the eye of the cyclone and in coastal areas, which can potentially be affected by the approaching storm surge. Many people have no idea about the categories of tropical cyclones, their differences and effects. I am pretty sure that in the event of a tsunami in Fiji, when any of the coast does become void of sea water temporarily (which is a clear sign that a tsunami is evidently unavoidable), most people will roam the beach and collect shells, crab, fish etc… The weather office always provides valuable information that people must seriously consider. Everyone must be prepared for the worst as we are once again passing through the cyclone season. What does your safety and emergency kit contain? Do you have one? The check list below might be of help: Battery-operated radio, torch, lighter, candles, lamp, knife, rope, inflatable raft, medicine and bandages, personal documents and valuables, clean water stored in tanks, large containers or bottles, tinned food and basic food items stored safely, safe shoes within reach, basic clothes packed in bags that can be easily carried if the situation warrants, short term vegetable seeds, etc. These are some of the things that can make up an emergency kit. In any case, it must be remembered that lives are far more important than property and possessions. During the recent flood in Labasa, I called the two radio stations and warned the people living in Labasa Town that with the level of flood in the Korotari River, Labasa Town could expect flooding within two to three hours. Unfortunately, there was a power failure in Labasa at that time and understandably, many people were unable to listen to the warning.

Column - William “Rusty” Robinson: HPV vaccine is a…
Amarillo.com - Amarillo.com (subscription) - Feb 17, 2007
Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and the Society for Adolescent Medicine are just some of the organizations that have endorsed the use of Gardasil. Some have questioned the mandatory nature of the vaccine program, saying it should be parents’ right to decide whether their child should receive it. However, we have decided previously as a society that certain vaccinations are appropriate to be given on a population-wide basis, giving parents the option to refuse under specific circumstances. Specifically, when the potential public health benefit of a vaccine is high, and the risks to the individual of vaccination are minimal, we have mandated its use. A recent example is the hepatitis vaccine, which, incidentally, has a risk of side effects that appears to be higher than the risk associated with the HPV vaccine… Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the Society of Gynecologic Oncologists and the Society for Adolescent Medicine are just some of the organizations that have endorsed the use of Gardasil. Some have questioned the mandatory nature of the vaccine program, saying it should be parents’ right to decide whether their child should receive it. However, we have decided previously as a society that certain vaccinations are appropriate to be given on a population-wide basis, giving parents the option to refuse under specific circumstances. Specifically, when the potential public health benefit of a vaccine is high, and the risks to the individual of vaccination are minimal, we have mandated its use. A recent example is the hepatitis vaccine, which, incidentally, has a risk of side effects that appears to be higher than the risk associated with the HPV vaccine. Another argument recently voiced against the vaccine is that it will somehow promote sexual activity among those vaccinated.

The clearest voice of the 20th century
Telegraph.co.uk - Feb 17, 2007
It is best to forget the grumpy man who returned to his old college, Christ Church, and, in his cups, which was most of the time, bored everybody with his table talk, and remember instead the brilliant youth in his Oxonian prime. Has any poet written so many arresting, and endlessly quotable, opening lines? Look, stranger, on this island now; A shilling life will give you all the facts; O what is that sound which so thrills the ear; Our hunting fathers told the story; What siren zooming is sounding our coming; O, who can ever gaze his fill; Out on the lawn I lie in bed; About suffering they were never wrong, the Old Masters; Lay your sleeping head, my love; and, of course, I sit in one of the dives on Fifty-Second Street. The title of that poem, September 1, 1939, has always given ammunition to those, from Evelyn Waugh down, who felt (and continue to feel) that Auden should not have been writing about the nature of evil from an apartment in mid-town Manhattan; he should have been confronting it in Europe, in khaki togs. Yet Alan Bennett was on to something when he said that Auden, having fallen in love with a precocious Jewish teenager, Chester Kallman, and decided to stay in New York, was simply “an early GI bride”. Bullying, hectoring, given to fads about medicine and psychology, and guilty about his “queerness” (he was robbed by a rent boy during those sour final days at Oxford), Auden was not always an attractive personality. Benjamin Britten, who had attended the same school, Gresham’s, Holt, collaborated with the older man during his own American period, and later declined to have anything to do with him, fearing intellectual entrapment. But whoever said great artists have to be admirable human beings? They take what they need for their work, and that work is its own testimonial… The title of that poem, September 1, 1939, has always given ammunition to those, from Evelyn Waugh down, who felt (and continue to feel) that Auden should not have been writing about the nature of evil from an apartment in mid-town Manhattan; he should have been confronting it in Europe, in khaki togs. Yet Alan Bennett was on to something when he said that Auden, having fallen in love with a precocious Jewish teenager, Chester Kallman, and decided to stay in New York, was simply “an early GI bride”. Bullying, hectoring, given to fads about medicine and psychology, and guilty about his “queerness” (he was robbed by a rent boy during those sour final days at Oxford), Auden was not always an attractive personality. Benjamin Britten, who had attended the same school, Gresham’s, Holt, collaborated with the older man during his own American period, and later declined to have anything to do with him, fearing intellectual entrapment. But whoever said great artists have to be admirable human beings? They take what they need for their work, and that work is its own testimonial. Biographers may furnish us with details of their lives, and those details might help us to understand the work better, but, ultimately, the work has a life of its own. In the 34 years since his death in Vienna, there have been several biographies and memoirs of the “I knew Wystan” variety.

Genetic Test for Type II Diabetes Moves Closer
MedIndia - Feb 17, 2007
9m people in the UK and is characterised by either low levels of, or an inadequate response to insulin - a hormone secreted by the pancreas to release energy from the breakdown of carbohydrates. The disease is frequently passed from generation to generation, and its rapidly increasing prevalence is thought to be due to environmental factors, such as increased availability of food and decreased necessity for exercise, acting on genetically susceptible individuals. Professor Philippe Froguel, one of the authors of the article published in Nature from the Division of Medicine at Imperial College London, said: