Bush vetoes stem cell bill
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:49:30 GMTBy DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Pushing back against the Democratic-led Congress, President Bush vetoed a bill Wednesday that would have eased restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research.
"Our innovative spirit is making possible incredible advances in medicine that can save lives and cure diseases," the president told an invited audience in the East Room. "America is also a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred. And our conscience calls us to pursue the possibilities of science in a manner that respects human dignity and upholds our moral values."
Democrats, who had made the stem cell legislation a top priority when they took control of the House and Senate in January, were quick to denounce the president's decision.
"This is just one example of how the president puts ideology before science, politics before the needs of our families, just one more example of how out of touch with reality he and his party have become," Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., a candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, told the Take Back America conference of liberal activists Wednesday.
Sen. Barak Obama, another Democratic presidential hopeful, said Bush was "deferring the hopes of millions of Americans who do not have the time to keep waiting for the cure that may save or extend lives."
To blunt criticism, Bush issued an executive order directing the Health and Human Services Department to promote research into cells that — like human embryonic stem cells — also hold the potential of regenerating into different types of cells that might be used to battle disease.
If the measure Bush vetoed would have become law, the White House said it would have compelled taxpayers for the first time in our history — to support the deliberate destruction of human embryos. Spokesman Tony Snow said Bush's executive order encouraged scientists to work with the government to add research on new stem cell lines — that does not involve the creation, harming or destruction of human embryos — to the list of projects eligible for federal funding.
"The president does not believe it's appropriate to put an end to human life for research purposes," Snow said. "That's a line he will not cross."
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to schedule an override vote, but the date has not been set. Democrats, however, currently do not have enough votes to override Bush's veto.
Scientists were first able to conduct research with embryonic stem cells in 1998, the NIH says. There were no federal funds for the work until Bush announced on Aug. 9, 2001, that his administration would make the funds available for lines of cells that already were in existence.
Currently, states and private organizations are permitted to fund embryonic stem cell research, but federal support is limited to cells that existed as of Aug. 9, 2001. The latest bill was aimed at lifting that restriction.
The science aside, the issue has weighty political and ethical implications.
Public opinion polls show strong support for the research, and it could return as an issue in the 2008 elections.
Opponents of the latest stem cell measure insisted that the use of embryonic stem cells was the wrong approach on moral grounds — and possibly not even the most promising one scientifically. These opponents, who applaud Bush's veto, cite breakthroughs involving medical research conducted with adult stem cells, umbilical cord blood and amniotic fluid, none of which involve the destruction of a human embryo.
This was the third veto of Bush's presidency. His first occurred last year when he rejected legislation to allow funding of additional lines of embryonic stem cells — a measure that passed over the objections of Republicans then in control. The second legislation he vetoed would have set timetables for U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq.
Feds legal threats put snacks on a diet
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 19:11:40 GMTBy VINNEE TONG, AP Business Writer
NEW YORK - America's snack food makers are marketing smaller portion packs, using healthier fats and reducing sugar in some of the nation's favorite potato chips and cookies.
While they're trying to make money off of greater demand for healthier grab-and-go food, they're also hoping the new products will help them avoid increased federal regulation and the threat of lawsuits that allege complicity for the nation's rising rate of obesity.
Kellogg Co., maker of Pop-Tarts and Cheez-It crackers, said last week it will restrict use of licensed characters such as Shrek in its advertising, and either reduce the amount of calories, fat, sugar and sodium in products or stop marketing them to children under age 12 by the end of next year.
Kellogg said the changes were the result of negotiations with two Massachusetts parents, the Boston-based Campaign For A Commercial-Free Childhood and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a food lobby group. Together, they had threatened to sue the company and Nickelodeon, the children's cable network owned by Viacom Inc.
Kellogg's changes build on a move by Walt Disney Co. last fall to limit the use of its characters in marketing junk food to children, and an earlier one by Kraft Foods Inc., which in 2005 stopped advertising products high in fat and sugar to children under 11. Kraft has also expanded its organic and diet lineup.
Nutritionists note many of these products are far from health food, but some of the changes are an improvement. Smaller servings, such as 100-calorie packs of products such as Frito-Lay's Doritos and Kraft's Oreo thin crisps, can help people eat less, said Cornell University nutrition and psychology professor David Levitsky.
The challenge for the $10.39 billion-a-year snack foods industry is to balance healthier ingredients and consumer taste. And the numbers show it's struggling. Sales of reduced fat, low fat and fat-free snacks fell 2.6 percent in the past year, according to data from Nielsen LabelTrends. Total snack sales rose 3.4 percent.
"I think the low-calorie ones don't taste good," Lynn Somers-Davis of New York said, while shopping with her 3-year-old daughter. "We eat the full-fat version, just in smaller amounts. It's mainly a taste issue."
At the same time, federal regulators are scrutinizing food marketing more closely.
The Federal Trade Commission has set a public hearing for July 18 to discuss food advertising targeting children, where comments from critics could put pressure on food companies.
The FTC in coming months also is expected to survey 44 food and drink companies about their spending and methods used in advertising to children. The survey could provide more fodder for critics.
"They're trying to take enough steps so Congress won't pass laws and they won't get sued," said Margo Wootan, Nutrition Policy Director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. The Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group that focuses on nutrition and food safety has used the threat of litigation to get some food and drink makers to stop using misleading ads and labels, remove soft drinks from schools and eliminate trans-fats.
PepsiCo has come up with a Smart Spot designation that appears on nearly 300 products that meet certain nutrition standards set by the company. The products can get the label if they have 25 percent less calories, fat, sugar or sodium than the original product or have a "functional benefit," such as hydration. That allows the logo, a white check mark over a green dot, to appear on diet versions of its Pepsi Cola, Mountain Dew and Mug Root Beer, and on baked Cheetos, Doritos and Lay's.
PepsiCo plans to announce new guidelines for marketing to children within the next few weeks, spokeswoman Lynn Markley said Tuesday.
Markley said that while PepsiCo is willing to work with the FTC, the effort to add healthier products to its portfolio is not driven by fear of greater regulation.
"I don't believe that," she said, adding that the healthier products combine business interests with the public interest. "There's a committed effort to provide products that can contribute to healthier lifestyles."
Kraft, maker of Kool-Aid and Velveeta cheese, has started selling a Sensible Solution line of more than 500 products with a green flag to alert shoppers that it has a nutrient such as protein, calcium or fiber, or that it has lower levels of fat, sugar or sodium than the regular versions of the product. Kraft says the standards differ from category to category.
And that's part of the problem, Wootan said, arguing for more uniformity in the industry standards. Self-regulation so far has been inadequate, she added.
"How is a parent supposed to look into and do research on nutrition criteria for each one?" she said.
PepsiCo, Kraft, Kellogg and McDonald's are among 11 companies that have banded together to self-regulate their advertising to children and minimize government interference.
The others are Cadbury Schweppes USA; Campbell Soup Co.; The Coca-Cola Co.; General Mills Inc.; The Hershey Co.; Unilever, maker of SlimFast and Country Crock; and Masterfoods USA, maker of Snickers, M&Ms and Skittles. Announcements from several of those companies on ad policy changes are expected soon, said Linda Bean, a spokeswoman for the group.
"There's a major confrontation that's going to come up between the health industry and the food industry and that's what we're seeing," Cornell's Levitsky said.
Kraft spokeswoman Elisabeth Wenner said it is cooperating with the FTC process but believes that self-regulation is the best approach right now.
Regulators are focused on children, in part because they are particularly susceptible to marketing and are showing a marked rise in obesity, Wootan said.
Among American children between the ages of 6 and 11, 19 percent are overweight, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, and studies show overweight children are more likely to be obese as adults. The center reported that as of 2004, 66.3 percent of adults over the age of 20 in the U.S. were overweight or obese.
A separate report on TV ads released by the FTC June 1 showed that the percentage of ads for junk food, sugary cereals and soft drinks on children's programs is twice what it was 30 years ago, even as the total number of food ads has fallen.
Somers-Davis, the New York shopper, said products that use cartoon characters like Dora the Explorer, Hello Kitty or Shrek have a huge effect on her daughter.
"She's very taken with those," she said. "It's kind of annoying because real food loses its seductiveness."
Snack and fast food makers are now trying to seduce parents with promises that they're doing better. A McDonald's ad now shows a Happy Meal of chicken McNuggets, sliced apples and lowfat milk, instead of the usual french fries and soda.
Soft drink makers also have been adding lower-calorie offerings, as sales of carbonated soft drinks decline and sales of bottled water and teas rise. PepsiCo recently bought Izze and Naked Juice and entered a partnership with Ocean Spray while Coca-Cola bought Glaceau, maker of Vitaminwater, and announced a partnership with Campbell, which makes V8.
One of PepsiCo's biggest investors said the health initiatives are good for future profitability.
"It's a smart business strategy," said Walter McCormick, manager of the fundamental large-cap fund at Evergreen Investments in Boston. "Clearly the trend is to healthier foods."
Still, traditional snacks and cola are the more reliable source of revenue, as consumers gravitate to what they know.
"You certainly don't want to abandon your old-line customers," McCormick said. "Every now and then, even if you feel like fish and poultry, you do want to have a steak."
CDC Antiques can pose mercury hazard
Tue, 19 Jun 2007 23:44:28 GMTBy MICHAEL HILL, Associated Press Writer
ALBANY, N.Y. - Careful with that antique clock. It could pose a mercury hazard. The silvery, skittering, and toxic liquid can be found in some antiques. Mirrors can be backed with mercury and tin; Clock pendulums might be weighted with embedded vials of mercury; and barometers, thermometers and lamps may have mercury in their bases for ballast.
The problem is that mercury in old items can leak, particularly as seals age or when the items are moved, according to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Ask Ann Smith, whose heirloom clock's pendulum leaked mercury onto the carpet of her gift store in rural Delhi, N.Y., as a cleaner moved it.
An attempt to vacuum the tiny silver balls off the carpet only made things worse, requiring a hazardous materials team to be dispatched to Parker House Gifts and Accessories last summer.
"I didn't really think it was the hazard that it became," Smith said. "I grew up in the days when you played with the mercury that spilled out of a thermometer and nobody knew it was a problem."
Exposure to high levels of mercury can cause damage to the brain, heart, kidneys, lungs and immune system. Even the few ounces found in some antiques can be dangerous. Aptly nicknamed quicksilver, it's hard to clean up, and can become an inhalation hazard if it vaporizes.
Dr. Wanda Lizak Wells of the New York state Department of Health, co-author of the study, suggests getting professional help if even a few ounces spill from an old barometer.
And never use a vacuum.
"That is one of the worst things that people can do," she said. The mercury can be heated up by the vacuum motor and vaporize. That was the mistake Smith's clock cleaner made at her shop near the Catskill Mountains. The vacuum was discarded as hazardous waste.
The amount of mercury in a fever thermometer, however, can be safely cleaned without expert assistance as long as proper steps are taken, like wearing old clothes and rubber gloves, according to Wells.
The study highlighted five other cases from 2000 through 2006 in New York state, which collects hazardous response data in a way that allowed researchers to identify cases involving antiques.
Among other examples in the report: A house in Long Island was cleared after two cups of mercury spilled onto a carpet from an antique clock that tipped over. Four workers at a New York City antique store were sent to the hospital for evaluation when mercury spilled from an antique clock column. A hazardous materials team was called to clean up more than an ounce of mercury from a Syracuse road after a spill involving an antique lamp.
Researchers said none of the incidents caused acute health problems.
The http://www.cdc.gov
Mercury information: http://www.epa.gov/mercury/about.htm
Ugly fish is seen as aphrodisiac
Wed, 20 Jun 2007 20:17:57 GMTBy NOAKI SCHWARTZ, Associated Press Writer
LOS ANGELES - The hagfish is a bottom feeder so repulsive it had a cameo on TV's "Fear Factor." It slimes its enemies, has rows of teeth on its tongue, and feeds on the innards of rotting fish by penetrating any orifice. But cooked and served on a plate, it is considered an aphrodisiac in South Korea.
And the overseas appetite for the hagfish — also known as the slime eel — is creating a business opportunity for struggling West Coast fishermen confronted with tough restrictions on the catching of salmon and other fish.
California's annual catch jumped from practically nothing to 150,000 pounds over the past four years. Oregon and Washington state last year reported around 1 million pounds of hagfish caught.
The 14- to 18-inch hagfish looks like an eel. In fact, there is debate over whether it is really a fish. The 300 million-year-old creature has no jaws and one nostril. Essentially blind, it dwells in the dark more than 1,000 feet down.
"The average person would be disgusted just by looking at them," said Mark Crossland, a state Fish and Game warden. "The product is difficult to deal with and handle — it's a little eel that once it gets stressed it excretes this slime."
On NBC's "Fear Factor," two contestants sat in a vat of the creatures and had to push handfuls of them through holes. They described the experience as sticky, stinky and disgusting.
Hagfish has a modest following among older Korean men who savor it as an appetizer broiled in sesame oil, sprinkled with salt and accompanied by a shot of liquor.
Peter Chu, a seafood exporter in Eureka, Calif., said the fish sells for as much as $20 a pound in South Korea, which he estimates consumes 9 million pounds a year.
"There's a myth there that it's an aphrodisiac. It gives you energy like Viagra," Chu said. "It's like oysters here."
Fisherman Mark Tognazzini, who used to catch hagfish in the early 1990s, said it is relatively inexpensive to get into hagfishing. They are caught in five-gallon barrels fitted with trap doors and baited with rotting fish.
In April, California officials encountered a fishing boat near Morro Bay carrying more than 15,000 pounds — approximately 45,000 writhing hagfish — that were to be loaded on jumbo jets live and flown to South Korea. The Washington-based crew was cited for violations that included fishing without permits and having oversized traps as big as wine barrels.
The hagfish's predators include whales, seabirds and seals. There are no catch limits for hagfish, and the species is in no immediate danger. But some experts worry it could be threatened if the boom continues, because hagfish do not reproduce quickly.
Tognazzini said they are an important part of the marine ecosystem whose job is to clean up the ocean floor. "The thing is, they're not cute — they don't hit people's hearts," he said.
As if its looks weren't enough of a turnoff, hagfish, when agitated, vomit and secrete a protein that reacts with seawater to create a thick mucus.
A single animal can turn a five-gallon bucket of seawater into a pool of goo in a matter of moments, said Eddie Kisfaludy of the Scripps Institute of Oceanography. While the slime distracts predators, it also occasionally suffocates the hagfish.
"They're definitely more interesting than maggots, but then all these researchers who work on fruit flies will probably argue with me," Kisfaludy said.
Elderly may benefit from balance training
Tue, 19 Jun 2007 19:36:40 GMTBy Will Boggs, MD
NEW YORK - With a special training program, elderly people can learn better balance control, which may lessen their risk of falling, according to a new report.
Doctors might be hesitant to recommend balance-training exercises &;that can be very challenging for their older clients,&; Dr. Brian E. Maki told Reuters Health. However, &;provided proper safety measures are taken (such as wearing a safety harness), older adults are often willing and able to complete exercises that challenge their balance, such as the perturbation-based program described in our paper.&;
The perturbation-based balance training program developed by Maki at the University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada and colleagues helps the elderly learn how to restore balance or respond by grasping a support when their center of gravity or their stance is displaced.
The perturbations used in the training program are unpredictable and challenge balance control in multiple directions, the researchers explain in their report in BMC Geriatrics.
Maki said it's important to understand that &;simple exercise prescriptions may have many health benefits, but will not necessarily improve critical aspects of balance control.&;
The investigators tested their approach in a pilot study that included eight older adults who were referred to a clinical falls-prevention program, due to problems with instability, falling and/or fear of falling. The participants were assigned to a perturbation-based balance program or a simpler training protocol.
&;We found that our pilot subjects were equally willing to tolerate the perturbation training and, in fact, were more likely to feel that the perturbation training was beneficial, compared to the less challenging training,&; Maki said.
As well as preventing falls, Maki said, balance training should improve the confidence of elderly patients &;and they will be more likely to maintain healthy levels of physical activity, which in turn will help to enhance their balance control.&;
While the strategy looks promising, it remains to be shown seen &;whether the improvements in balance-recovery reactions that result from the training actually do lead to reduced risk of falling,&; Maki concluded.
SOURCE: BMC Geriatrics, online May 31, 2007.
