Weather improves at California fires
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 20:25:54 GMT
By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer
LAKE ARROWHEAD, Calif. - Firefighters battled stubborn wildfires across Southern California on Saturday, but cloudy skies scattering occasional raindrops brought a welcome improvement in conditions.
Tropical moisture flowing from the south replaced the hot, dry Santa Ana winds that roared in a week earlier and spread fires over more than a half-million acres, destroying more than 2,300 structures, including 1,700 homes.
The number of deaths directly attributed to the fires officially rose to seven. Officials confirmed that the flames killed four suspected illegal immigrants whose charred bodies were found near the U.S.-Mexico border on Thursday, said Jose Alvarez, a public information officer for San Diego County emergency services. Identification of the victims was continuing.
Although more than a dozen blazes were surrounded, containment of nine other blazes ranged from 97 percent to just 25 percent. More than 21,000 structures were considered threatened, and more than 15,000 firefighters were on the lines, the state Office of Emergency Services said.
"It's very overcast right now, no wind. Low humidity, about 30 percent. They're talking about rain," said Audrey Hagen, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in San Diego.
Active fires burned in the Lake Arrowhead resort region of the towering San Bernardino Mountains 100 miles east of Los Angeles, and in rugged wilderness above isolated canyon communities of Orange County, southeast of Los Angeles. A big blaze 60 miles northeast of San Diego stopped its advance toward the mountain town of Julian.
One home burned Saturday morning in Arrowbear, east of Lake Arrowhead, when a spot fire broke out. The main blaze, the Slide Fire, was about a mile from 10,000 homes in Arrowbear, Green Valley Lake and Running Springs.
"The fire is moving away from the residences, but with the wind anything can happen," said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Lisa Jones.
About 4,400 people remained in 28 shelter sites, but others waited out the fires in makeshift encampments.
In Highland, at the base of the San Bernardino Mountains, about 20 people were in their sixth day of living in a Wal-Mart parking lot, getting daily visits from sheriff's officials who reported their 17 homes were still intact.
"What are the chances of that? The hundreds of people staying at the shelters, I still don't think they have the comfort of knowing that kind of information," said Robert Newbourgh, 44.
For other evacuees there were losses to tally.
In San Diego's Rancho Bernardo community, Bruce Heinemann, 48, spoke with an insurance adjuster as friends sifted through his ruined home, looking for his wife's wedding ring, photos and other mementos.
Meanwhile, his daughter was at a newly rented home making lists of what they lost, and his wife was visiting department stores to get prices for the insurers.
"The kind of mode you're in is, what do you do today? What do you do tomorrow? Just make a list and get it done," he said.
The Heinemanns had about 10 minutes to evacuate Monday morning, just enough time to escape with some clothes and three of their four cars.
Heinemann, a self-employed loan officer, said it makes financial sense to rebuild, but they may never return to live on the street where the fire left hopscotch destruction — some of the Spanish-style, tile-roofed homes left standing, while others were turned to ash, leaving burned-out cars, chimneys and remnants of refrigerators and washing machines.
"It sounds terrible, but I'm glad it's gone. How would you like to sit in your house when one third of your neighbors are gone?" he said.
Elsewhere in the community, mortgage broker Mike Bartholemu, 37, removed rotten food from his refrigerator as he waited for cleaners to vacuum soot from inside his home, which survived the flames.
Bartholemu said returning home stirred memories of the frightening experience as flames advanced toward his home at 4 a.m. Monday. He said he opened his front door to "a bellowing furnace, smoke and embers" as a palm tree across the street burned and neighbors screamed.
Bartholemu said his wife and two children fled in an SUV and he left in another car, but fell unconscious for unknown reasons and crashed into a utility box. He said a police officer rescued him.
"I have never in my life been that scared. I kept repeating to myself, 'Don't panic, don't panic, don't panic.' The fact that no one died in this neighborhood is a miracle," he said.
Bartholemu said it was eerie to be surrounded by ruined homes but he was anxious to come back home as soon as electricity was restored.
"I don't know where I would move in San Diego with these dry Santa Ana conditions we get," he said. "I could move to Indiana, but they have tornadoes and floods. Everywhere you go in the country you get something. Here we have earthquakes and fires."
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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat in San Diego, Aaron C. Davis in Orange, Peter Prengaman and Maria Raquel Dillon, and Steve Lawrence in Sacramento contributed to this report.
UK investigating possible brain injuries
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 11:07:27 GMT
By THOMAS WAGNER, Associated Press Writer
LONDON - The British government is conducting a survey of its soldiers to determine if those exposed to powerful explosions in Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered mild traumatic brain injuries, the Ministry of Defense said Saturday.
The ministry said it has begun distributing questionnaires to British troops in both countries as part of a self-assessment program to see if they have symptoms such as memory loss, depression and anxiety.
The Guardian newspaper, which first reported the survey, said it followed concerns within the U.S. Army that up to 20 percent of its returning soldiers and Marines were suffering from these conditions.
The newspaper said Saturday that the condition has been designated by the Pentagon as one of the four "signature injuries" of the Iraq war. Powerful roadside bombs targeting U.S. and British convoys are one of the main risks that soldiers face in Iraq and Afghanistan.
A spokesman for Britain's Ministry of Defense said Saturday that it was working alongside a U.S. investigation of the condition, in part to determine how widespread it may be.
"It is a very, very complex area. We have no way of knowing whether that is accurate because there is a level of dispute as to what constitutes mTBI," or mild traumatic brain injury, the spokesman said, speaking on condition of anonymity in keeping with ministry regulations.
The spokesman said mTBI's symptoms may last for as little as 72 hours, and can disappear entirely within several weeks or months.
The condition, which also is associated with contact sports such as rugby and boxing, can occur when a soldier suffers a blow to the head or is near an explosion.
Product combines workstation treadmill
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 05:25:07 GMT
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. - A number of employers apparently are willing to let their workers walk. Steelcase Inc. says many companies have expressed interest in its newest product, which combines an office workstation with a treadmill so workers can burn calories while earning a paycheck.
The nation's largest office furniture maker will begin taking orders for its Walkstation beginning Nov. 19.
"What we have done is taken science from the lab to a product that could potentially help millions and millions of people," Walkstation developer James Levine told The Grand Rapids Press for a story published Thursday. "I think it's the next iPod. Everybody is going to want one."
Levine, a researcher at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., who has spent the past 15 years studying energy expended during daily activity, collaborated on the Walkstation with Steelcase.
He approached staff members of the Grand Rapids-based company with the idea while they were doing research at the renowned medical facility. Within a month, a prototype was built that combined a height-adjustable workstation produced by Details, a Steelcase subsidiary, with a treadmill from the company's fitness area.
The final product, which will sell for about $4,000 and be the first product of Details' new FitWork line, incorporates a specially designed treadmill by St. Louis-based True Fitness Technology Inc.
The quiet-running treadmill is designed to offer a user a low-impact slow stroll rather than a sweat-inducing run-walk. It operates at a maximum speed of 3.5 mph instead of a more typical 10 mph.
Walking regularly, even at a slow pace, can improve a person's health, said Steve Glass, a fitness expert who is a professor of movement science at Grand Valley State University.
"How hard you work to burn calories isn't as important as burning those calories from the standpoint of long-term health," Glass said.
Levine said his research has shown that a sedentary lifestyle is unnatural. The key to fighting obesity and many other health problems is to keep people from spending their days desk-bound.
"Over the last 150 years, we've become chair-imprisoned. We are behind a screen all day at work. We are in a car or bus getting to and from work. And in the evening, we are in a chair watching television or surfing the Internet," Levine said. "We've gone from being on our legs all day to being on our bottoms all day."
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On the Net:
Steelcase Inc.: http://www.steelcase.com
Mayo Clinic: http://www.mayoclinic.org
True Fitness Technology: http://www.truefitness.com
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Information from: The Grand Rapids Press, http://www.mlive.com/grpress
Dengue fever outbreak hits parts of Asia
Sat, 27 Oct 2007 01:05:27 GMT
By MARGIE MASON, AP Medical Writer
HANOI, Vietnam - The worst outbreak of dengue fever in years has hit Southeast Asia, prompting the World Health Organization to call for better prevention campaigns as experts question whether global warming is partly to blame.
Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand have all experienced large outbreaks. Most of the victims are children who arrive at hospitals burning up with fever and crying from intense joint pain, a common symptom of the so-called "bone-breaker" disease.
There is no vaccine or cure for the four different varieties of the mosquito-borne virus spreading within the region. Even though outbreaks in several countries appear to be waning, many patients are still falling ill.
"We should really be in prevention mode, putting in place sound measures for suppressing the vector population so we can at least dampen down the epidemic," said Michael Nathan, a dengue expert at WHO in Geneva.
Every week for the past two months, some 350 patients have been admitted to hospitals in Vietnam's southern Ho Chi Minh City. That is double the number from the same period last year, said Nguyen Dac Tho, deputy director of the city's preventive medicine department
Nationwide, Vietnam has logged nearly 80,000 cases this year, including 68 deaths. That is a 50 percent increase over the same period in 2006, with the majority reported in the country's southern provinces where the monsoon season runs from June through December.
Nguyen Huy Nga, director of the national Preventive Medicine Department, said the number of cases has dropped down to about 2,000 cases each week since early October, from nearly 3,000 new cases reported weekly in September.
"We are now concentrating our efforts to completely wipe out dengue outbreaks to prevent possible flare ups next year," he said.
Dengue infects up to 50 million people worldwide every year; WHO estimates 19,000 deaths occurred in 2002, according to its most recent data. It causes rashes, blistering headaches, nausea and excruciating joint aches. The most serious form of the disease can cause internal bleeding, liver enlargement and circulatory shut down.
"This is the first time I've ever been this sick. Blood formed under my skin," said Ngo Dinh Khoi, 33, while resting in a bed he was forced to share with another dengue patient. "It was like someone was putting needles into my joints."
Indonesia has also had a bad year with more than 123,500 cases and 1,250 deaths, already surpassing the 114,000 cases for all of 2006. WHO sent regional expert Chusak Prasittisuk to Jakarta this week to assess the situation and help ready hospitals and the public for the rainy months ahead, when most cases are typically reported.
"I've come here to urge them to prepare for the worst scenario," he said.
Cambodia also has been hit hard, logging some 38,500 cases and 389 deaths — more than double the same figures from 2006. The bulk of those sickened were children younger than 15, said Ngan Chantha, head of the national dengue center.
However, he said the situation has improved in recent weeks, following an intense public awareness campaign warning residents to keep water from collecting in containers around their houses where mosquitoes can breed.
Thailand and Malaysia have recorded a combined 80,000 cases, with 67 and 88 deaths, respectively.
"Experts say it's partly due to global warming because it's increased the amount of water, not only sea water, but fresh water where mosquitoes breed," said Dr. Thawat Suntrajarn, director of Thailand's Department of Communicable Diseases. Thailand's rainy season started earlier this usual this year.
Scientists fear rising temperatures and longer rainy seasons, as Thailand experienced this year, will allow more vector-borne diseases such as dengue and malaria to flourish.
Singapore, for instance, saw mean annual temperatures increase 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit between 1978 and 1998, while the number of dengue fever cases jumped tenfold during the same period.
This year, the number of cases has tripled in the city state over last year. About 200 patients are still being admitted weekly, though only a handful have died.
The last major dengue outbreak to hit Southeast Asia was in 1998, when about 350,000 cases and nearly 1,500 deaths were reported. Indonesia and Thailand were not included in that tally.
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Associated Press writers Tran Van Minh in Vietnam; Ker Munthit in Cambodia; Sean Yoong in Malaysia; Mick Elmore in Thailand; Gillian Wong in Singapore and Irwan Firdaus in Indonesia contributed to this report.
