Environmental Medicine News

The News Review:

- More From the Science & Medicine Desk
- Critical lessons for the taking
- A life of faith informed by death
- A Trap for Fools; Cowboy Philosophy in the Middle East
- Interview with Richard Somerville
- Heeding the call

More From the Science & Medicine Desk
Washington Post - Jul 22, 2007
"This is a remarkable success story — a species on the brink of extinction is now rebounding because its nesting grounds were protected," said Michael J. Parr of the American Bird Conservancy. The rebound was aided by the acquisition of land to expand the preserve where the birds live to a 3,600-acre nature reserve — a tenfold increase from its original size. "The protection of such a vital site for the Lear’s Macaw, through the expansion of the Canudos Biological Station, is a huge step towards the preservation of the species," said Eduardo Figueiredo, who coordinates the Lear’s Macaw conservation program. "The growing population confirms how essential it is to protect an endangered species’ habitat.

Critical lessons for the taking
Jerusalem Post - Jul 22, 2007
The result is a hodge-podge of plans that vary widely from one community to another. Despite the greater size of the US, federally mandated standards are key to uniform quality, even while management of limited events would remain with local and regional authorities. One such mandate, again following Israeli practice, should specify the number and nature of terror and disaster drills that police, firefighters, and emergency responders must undertake annually. Further, assessments of drills should not be in the hands of the agencies performing the drills, as is now the case in the US. In Israel, assessments are always made by outside observers to avoid conflict of interest. Among the most significant of Israeli innovations has been the recent emergence of “terror medicine” as a distinctive discipline. A suicide bombing can cause a combination of injuries not otherwise seen in one patient - burn, blast, crush and numerous penetrations from nails and bolts… Further, assessments of drills should not be in the hands of the agencies performing the drills, as is now the case in the US. In Israel, assessments are always made by outside observers to avoid conflict of interest. Among the most significant of Israeli innovations has been the recent emergence of “terror medicine” as a distinctive discipline. A suicide bombing can cause a combination of injuries not otherwise seen in one patient - burn, blast, crush and numerous penetrations from nails and bolts. Treating such victims by the hundreds, both physically and emotionally, requires new approaches. Yet few civilian responders outside Israel are familiar with these and other aspects of terror medicine. As with other hands-on measures, Americans could gain much from instruction based on Israeli models.

A life of faith informed by death
Charleston Post Courier - Charleston Post Courier (subscription) - Jul 22, 2007
Science and spirit. The natural and supernatural. The essence of body, the essence of soul. Kirtley Yearwood, it’s the duality of experience that makes life so interesting and meaningful. As an Episcopal priest, Yearwood has laid his hands on his brothers and sisters in Christ, nurtured their spirits and inspired them to seek the truth… The 45-year-old priest, always on the go, always with something to do, said he wants to seek nourishment from Grace and its members, to slow down for a while, to be still. In his life, he has done everything fast. He married quickly (too quickly, then divorced, he said), earned several degrees from various schools, traveled, preached, worshipped and practiced medicine, often simultaneously. Yearwood says his work as a doctor and as a man of God is part of a single purpose: to minister to others. He is one of more than 100 medical doctor-priests in the Episcopal Church. Born in Barbados in 1961, Yearwood attended the all-girls Queens College school just when it was going coed. ‘Somebody had to be the guinea pig.

A Trap for Fools; Cowboy Philosophy in the Middle East
OpEdNews - Jul 22, 2007
They are killers because they are killers. It's in their nature. They were just born that way. The moderates are moderates because they are moderates. Some people are just born good. So the whole problem is a Palestinian problem… The Israeli government knows that Bush is only paying lip service, and does not take him seriously. IN MANY classical westerns there appears a crook selling a patent medicine to heal all ills: headaches and hemorrhoids, tuberculosis and syphilis. George Bush has his own patent medicine, which appears in the speech again and again. It will heal all diseases and ensure the final victory of the Sons of Light over the Sons of Darkness. The label on the bottle says "Building Palestinian Institutions". How come we didn't think of this until now? Why did we go chasing off after all kinds of solutions, and did not find this one, so simple, lying in front of us for all to see?It is an egg of Columbus, with a whiff of Alexander the Great's sword cutting the Gordian knot. The Palestinians have no institutions.

Interview with Richard Somerville
San Diego Union Tribune - Jul 22, 2007
So, my science writer friend says we should use terms like “vicious circle” to emphasize that this is a way of making an unnatural warming even stronger. There’s a whole line of that kind of evidence, of that kind of manner of speaking that one should be sensitive to. I’ve begun to talk about climate change in terms of analogies with medicine, that we are planetary physicians. So that, for example, much of the world is consumed right now with what can be done about global warming. People, after a while, don’t want to hear gloom and doom stories. They want to know what’s practical and what should we do, meaning individually or as a society, as a state, as the nation. There are a lot of things that can be done… France is 80 percent electric nuclear. But, should one put energy into renewable resources, wind, solar, geothermal, hydropower? Should we have a tax on fossil fuels? I don’t know whether it should be at the wellhead or the gas pump. In order to discourage profligate use of coal and oil and natural gas, you could tax it. Those are tough issues, and people debate them. It’s often a case of paying early and the benefits will come later. But I think people are used to that in a medical context: Your doctor says you need a bypass operation. Well, that involves costs and risks, but you decide to go for it because you know that if you waited until you have a massive heart attack, that’s more cost and more risk.

Heeding the call
The Age - Jul 22, 2007
"Djakic describes the Government’s response as "bold and dramatic" and says he doesn’t have any ethical problems with it. "I think we made a difference to lots of kids’ lives," he says. WHAT many doctors did originally have a problem with was the "compulsory" nature of the health checks. Some were so uncomfortable with the idea that they vowed not do be part of it if it remained mandatory. NSW GP Dr Tony Hobbs, who has spent the past week in Imanpa, about 250 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, is one of them. "If these had been compulsory forensic medical examinations of children, I wouldn’t have been part of that," he says. Hobbs also has not encountered much resistance from the community, and has screened most of the children there