US launches school commute exercise plan
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:54:16 GMTBy DANIEL YEE, Associated Press Writer
DECATUR, Ga. - When Amy Lovell dropped off her son at school, she had to make sure the fifth-grader didn't dash off without his French horn. It was strapped to the back of her bicycle with a pair of bungee cords and rope.
Each morning, Lovell and her 10-year-old son Allen don helmets and ride their bicycles for the 10-minute commute to Glenwood Academy in the Atlanta suburbs, joining dozens of other parents and pupils who wheel into the public elementary school the same way.
On a nearby sidewalk, parents lead a group of children to school on a "walking bus" — a convoy of kids without the bus. It's part of the Safe Routes to School program, a $612 million effort to increase physical activity among students throughout the nation by getting them to bike or walk to school.
The program's first conference will be held in Michigan next month.
"When we started the pilot project two years ago, there were three bikes, now there are 60 to 70" attached to the school's bike rack, said Fred Boykin Jr., a local bicycle shop owner who is the chairman of metro Atlanta's Safe Routes coalition.
Today, only about 15 percent of schoolchildren travel to school under their own power. The program seeks to change that by offering federal Department of Transportation funds to help build sidewalks, post traffic signs and find ways to make it easier for students to bike or walk to school, said Robert Ping, of Portland, Ore., who assists states with the Safe Routes program.
"Safe Routes is potentially the tipping point to increasing opportunities for kids to be physically active," Ping said. "The trip to school is happening anyway."
Planners have to overcome the reasons why many children don't bike or walk to school. It's easier for busy parents to make a quick drive to drop off their kids. Or parents worry about their child's safety because of traffic or strangers. Plus, buses pick up children at street corners and it's common for students to live miles from school.
The program seeks to overcome those obstacles by getting parents involved. Parents go with students on short walks or bike rides to school and work with police departments and city planners to make the commute easier for kids.
Another problem is the program doesn't provide much money to states, especially smaller states.
About 20 states have Safe Routes programs rolling and some of the most successful programs are in largely populated areas such as California and Florida. Advocates say the program may be easier to carry out in urban areas with plenty of sidewalks as opposed to rural locations where children live far from school.
Georgia was given $16 million to spend through 2009 and the state Department of Transportation has been trying to get communities beyond metro Atlanta involved.
"There has been a lot of interest in infrastructure but we are trying to get communities to understand this is not just a free sidewalk program. This is about teaching kids about activity and giving them a safe area where they can walk from home to school," said spokeswoman Carrie Hamblin.
Lovell said riding to school with her son seemed scary the first time because of the traffic on the roads, but her son has learned to love biking to school. She's only had to drive him one day because of the weather.
"It's a way to have him start his day on a positive note," she said.
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On the Net:
Safe Routes to School: http://www.saferoutespartnership.org/
FDA Heart drug may boost risk of death
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:46:23 GMTWASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that accumulating evidence suggests a Bayer AG drug used to prevent excessive bleeding during heart bypass surgery increases the risk of death when compared with other drugs.
The announcement came as a Canadian study comparing the safety and efficacy of the drug, Trasylol, with two others was halted. Preliminary results from that trial also suggested Trasylol increased the risk of death when compared with the other drugs. The trial was to include 3,000 patients.
Trasylol, also known as aprotinin, works by blocking enzymes that dissolve blood clots.
Bayer said it believes Trasylol remains a safe and effective treatment option, but that the company would work with the FDA and regulators in other countries to re-evaluate the drug's risks and benefits and determine where any label changes are needed.
The FDA said such changes, as well as other, unspecified regulatory actions, may result.
The announcement came a month after FDA advisers recommended Trasylol remain on the market despite its links to an increased risk of death and other serious side effects.
The FDA approved it in 1993 to stanch the loss of blood and prevent the need for blood transfusions in surgeries to bypass clogged coronary arteries.
The agency began re-evaluating the drug's safety after the January 2006 publication of two studies that linked the drug's use to serious side effects, including kidney problems, heart attacks and strokes.
More recent studies have suggested the drug also raises the risk of death. One of those studies previously was withheld by Bayer from the FDA due to what a company investigation later characterized as a "regrettable human error."
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On the Net:
FDA information on Trasylol: http://tinyurl.com/2c43mu
Army medics train at Miami trauma center
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 20:49:34 GMTBy JENNIFER KAY, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI - The trauma center's radio crackles an alert: A 34-year-old woman injured in an auto wreck is being brought in by helicopter. Parts of her scalp have been torn back, exposing her skull. Broken bones may be sticking out through the skin of her left leg. Her injuries may help save the lives of U.S. soldiers in Iraq.
For two weeks, 28 Army medics, nurses, doctors and nurse anesthetists have been learning trauma medicine and teamwork under pressure at the Ryder Trauma Center at downtown Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital, a place that sees such carnage it often resembles a war zone.
Ryder is one of the busiest trauma centers in the nation, seeing an average of 11 trauma patients a day — about as many as the biggest military hospital in Iraq.
Jackson Memorial serves some of the city's most crime-ridden sections, and patients arriving at the trauma center have been stabbed, injured in grisly auto accidents, wounded in shootouts with high-powered assault weapons, or hurt in falls and fights.
The Army sends 10 forward surgical teams a year through Ryder, which was selected six years ago because of the volume of bloodshed. It is the Army's only trauma training center. The Air Force has similar programs in Baltimore, St. Louis and Cincinnati; the Navy's trauma program is in Los Angeles.
This time, the professionals being trained are Ohio reservists with the Army's 848th Forward Surgical Team. In their civilian lives, some of them raise families, tend bar, go to college or work for the post office. The team leader is Col. Michael Oddi, a 59-year-old thoracic surgeon in Akron, Ohio.
"My practice consists of a lot of surgery, but we don't do a lot of trauma surgery. So a program like this, to prepare us for acute, multiple casualties, really helped us on our last deployment, and it will help us again," Oddi said. "It is extremely busy here."
On this particular day, Oddi and two medics, a nurse and a nurse anesthetist from his team slip into green, long-sleeved aprons and blue gloves, then make their way to the roof with other Ryder staff members to meet the helicopter.
The chopper blades slice through the air as the reservists ease the woman's stretcher onto a gurney, their green aprons whipping around their legs in the wind. Her head and neck are immobilized in a brace. Her left arm is heavily bandaged, but both legs appear OK — the radio alert about a broken leg was inaccurate.
She is wheeled into an elevator, then into a trauma room. The reservists are identified by their color-coded caps: beige for the medics; maroon for the nurse; dark blue for the nurse anesthetist; and green for Oddi.
The reservists have been taught an Army teamwork system for treating multiple injuries simultaneously.
They take up positions around the woman's body. The medics stand near her feet, remove her sneakers, help keep her motionless and check her IV lines. The nurse anesthetist at her head monitors her breathing, checks her eyes and ears and asks for her date of birth. Oddi hovers by her side, examining the wounds and assessing whether she has suffered any brain injuries through a series of questions and her responses to pain. Also at her side is the nurse, Capt. Brent Tuma, checking her vital signs, medications and lab results.
Tuma, in civilian life, is a trauma nurse in Cleveland. In the emergency room where he works, "usually when you get a trauma or a code scenario, you have 10 to 15 people in the room. People are screaming. It's controlled chaos," he said after returning to Ohio.
Under the Army's system, however, there are only a few people around the patient and there is no need to scream out for something to be done. Each team member has a list of tasks and does them.
"You trust your buddies. You know what's got to be done on the opposite side is going to be done, it's going to be done proficiently and it's going to be done swiftly," Tuma said.
About an hour after she arrives, the patient is wheeled away for more scans and observation. Spent gloves and aprons, plastic packaging and gauze are dropped on the floor in a smear of blood. The back of Sgt. Robert Bartl's green scrubs is dark with sweat.
Bartl, Oddi and about half the current team passed through Ryder for training before being sent to Iraq in 2004. It is not clear whether they will sent back for another tour of duty.
Team members said their training in Miami primed them well to care for wounded soldiers and Iraqi civilians. In Miami, they saw similar injuries — head trauma, multiple gunshot wounds — and worked at a frenzied pace sometimes hindered by a language barrier.
"Coming down here before we got deployed and getting hands-on with real patients, doing IVs again with actual people instead of rubber plastic arms, it did wonders for my confidence," said Bartl, a 27-year-old bartender and waiter.
At Ryder, the forward surgical teams spend most of the two weeks' training in lectures and a lab with a fleshy, plastic "patient simulator." On the last day, the teams are given command of the trauma center for a 24-hour shift.
This team's live-action day turned out to be relatively quiet, with just a trickle of stabbing, motorcycle crash and car accident victims arriving. Just a week earlier, four police officers shot with high-powered assault weapons had been rushed to Ryder.
One died and two suffered easily treatable wounds, but one had her knee blown apart and required extensive treatment by Ryder's nonmilitary staff.
"That one cop, she was shot by an AK-47," said Spc. Joshua McCann, a 22-year-old medic and Kent State nursing student. "That's exactly what we're going to see over there."
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Associated Press photographer Wilfredo Lee contributed to this report.
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On the Net:
Army Trauma Training Center: http://www.traumateams.org
Ryder Trauma Center: http://surgery.med.miami.edu/trauma
Dems press White House on CDC testimony
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 21:18:05 GMTBy H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Several Democrats on Thursday challenged White House officials' claim that they removed large parts of proposed congressional testimony on global warming because the material conflicted with findings from a U.N. scientific panel.
Sen. Barbara Boxer released a paragraph-by-paragraph comparison of the phrases that the White House removed and the U.N. panel's report this year on how climate change affected public health.
The comparisons showed striking similarities.
Both raised virtually identical concerns: heat stress on vulnerable populations; the likelihood of respiratory illnesses from increased air pollution; the spread of waterborne infectious diseases; and more injuries from severe weather events such as wildfires.
At issue is testimony Tuesday by Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which Boxer heads.
"This administration wants to downplay the threat global warming poses to the American people," said Boxer, D-Calif. Joining her at a news conference were Democratic Sens. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
Citing the California wildfires, Klobuchar said it was troubling that one of the deleted paragraphs said with global warming "forest fires are expected to increase in frequency, severity, distribution and duration."
She said the U.N report also cited the increased likelihood of wildfires as a result of climate change.
"Time and time again this administration has changed scientific reports that do not align with their position," said Boxer, D-Calif. Her committee is developing legislation that would limit the release of "greenhouse" gases linked to global warming.
The Bush administration opposes mandatory caps on carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases.
The Associated Press reported that Gerberding's draft testimony was edited heavily during a White House review. The White House on Wednesday acknowledged that significant sections were deleted. Six of the deleted pages detailed how global warming might affect Americans and they included a section with the title, "Climate Change is a Public Concern."
White House press secretary Dana Perino said the deletions were made because John Marburger, who heads the White House Office of Science and Technology, and his staff raised concerns that the sections were not in line with the findings of the U.N. panel.
The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has led worldwide research on global warming.
"The draft information did not comport with ... the science that was in the IPPC report," Perino said.
That brought a sharp rebuke Thursday from Boxer, D-Calif., and the other two senators. Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon of Tennessee, chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, also has strongly criticized the White House explanation.
Boxer said she had been provided a copy of the original draft testimony from the CDC, the government's premier public health and disease monitoring and response agency.
In a letter to Marburger, Gordon disputed suggestions that the U.N. report and the original CDC draft testimony were in conflict.
"We are particularly interested in your reliance on the work of the IPCC, which you have questioned on a number of occasions. However, it appears that the IPCC did support CDC's conclusions," Gordon wrote in the letter late Wednesday.
Gordon said the U.N. panel said that a 1 degree Celsius increase in global temperature, there will be an "increasing burden from malnutrition, diarrhoeal, cardio-respiratory, and infectious diseases, increased morbidity and mortality from heat waves, floods, and droughts and changed distribution of some disease vectors."
"This appears to support the deleted sections of Dr. Gerberding's testimony," Gordon said.
Sex talks to raise miner productivity
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 13:30:55 GMTBy Michael Perry
SYDNEY - Australian coal miners are being taught to explore their wives and understand menopause in order to have a healthy sex life, which in turn will make them happy, productive workers.
The &;Toolbox Talks&; at the Bulga coal mine in the Hunter Valley, north of Sydney, have been such a success that the Xstrata mining company is considering running them at other mines.
&;The Toolbox Talks are a series of health briefings ... addressing issues such as fatigue, prostate cancer, nutrition, heart disease and this month we are addressing the issue of menopause,&; said Xstrata spokesman James Rickards.
&;Even though it is a predominately male working environment we have to look at the lifestyles of our employees, making sure they are fit and healthy at work, but also fit, healthy and happy at home,&; Rickards told Reuters on Thursday.
Bulga's miners are aged mainly from late 40s to 50s and menopause may be affecting their wives, sisters and friends, said Rickards.
&;The health briefings provide them with information on how to help and assist their loved ones who may be going through this or approaching this period of their life,&; he said.
Mine management believe a miner with a good relationship and healthy sex life will be more productive at the coal face.
&;If you have a healthy home life you will have a happy work life and sex is an important part of any relationship, and its important to address sex for an individual that is going through menopause,&; said Rickards.
U.S. recalls more Chinamade products for lead in paint
Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:45:45 GMTNEW YORK - A slew of products made in China ranging from children's jewelry to cake decorations were recalled on Thursday because they contain excessive amounts of lead.
The recall of roughly 665,000 items announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission includes about 38,000 Go Diego Go Animal Rescue Boats from Mattel Inc's Fisher-Price division.
The boats were sold at retail stores nationwide from June through October, and the CPSC said surface paint contains excessive levels of lead.
Also recalled were about 142,000 Halloween pails sold at Family Dollar Stores Inc from August through October. The CPSC said green paint on the pails contains amounts of lead that violate U.S. standards for lead paint.
More than 20 million toys made in China were recalled worldwide over the past four months due to potentially dangerous levels of lead and hazards posed by small magnets that can be swallowed.
Retailers and manufactures have stepped up product testing, which some companies have said should result in more recalls as they try to clear problematic items off shelves and out of warehouses.
Dollar Tree Stores Inc is recalling about 198,000 units of Beary Cute, Expressions, and Sassy & Chic children's jewelry with item numbers 855589, 873091, 873097, and 903950.
The jewelry, which the CPSC said contains high levels of lead, was sold at Dollar Tree, Dollar Bill$, Dollar Express, Greenbacks and Only $1 stores from December 2005 through July.
High levels of lead have been linked to brain damage in children and other health problems.
Here is a list of other product recalls announced on Thursday by the CPSC:
-- DecoPac Inc is recalling about 80,000 plastic miniature football bobble heads with green bases that were sold to be placed on cakes because of too much lead in paint on the decoration. The items were sold at bakeries and ice cream stores from January 2006 through October.
-- Jo-Ann Stores Inc is expanding the recall of children's toy garden tools because of excessive lead in surface paint. The products were sold at Jo-Ann Fabric and Craft Stores from January through September.
-- WeGlow International is recalling about 110,000 children's flashing rings sold in Shrek the Third and Spider-Man 3 designs. The rings have item number 920422 printed on back of the packaging and were sold at Dollar Tree, Dollar Bill$, Dollar Express, Greenbacks and Only $1 stores nationwide from December 2005 through August.
(Reporting by Nicole Maestri, editing by Gerald E. McCormick and Toni Reinhold)
