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OTHER
2/25/03 <link>
Asthma
in children, mercury in women at high levels
The good news is a significant drop
in level of lead (and second-hand tobacco smoke impact) in children's
blood.
"...The
sharpest drop was in the number of children with elevated levels of lead
in their blood. There were 4.7 million in 1978, and about 300,000 in
2000, the report released Monday says. It attributed most of that
success to the phaseout of lead in gasoline between 1973 and 1995 and
the reduction in the number of homes with lead-based paint from 64
million in 1990 to 38 million in 2000.
The number of children whose blood levels showed effects from second
hand smoke declined by about one-fifth to one-half between 1988 and
2000, depending on their levels of exposure. Those figures are obtained
by tracking the amount of cotinine, a breakdown product of nicotine in
blood..."
The bad news is:
"...But
the report also found that the percentage of children getting asthma has
doubled in two decades, rising from 3.6 percent in 1980 to 8.7 percent,
or 6.3 million children by 2001.
Those rates, it added have a
“disproportionate impact ... on minority and low-income children.”...
About 5 million women - or 8 percent of those at the childbearing ages
of 16 to 49 - had at least 5.8 parts per billion of mercury in their
blood as of 2000, the report says. EPA officials said this is the first
time this kind of data has been measured.
EPA has found that children born to
women with blood concentrations of mercury above 5.8 parts per billion
are at some risk of adverse health effects, including reduced
developmental IQ and problems with motor skills such as eye-hand
coordination..."
2/16/03 <link>
A
survey of President Bush's appointees in the health arena is available
here.
12/23/02 <link>
FDA
chief legal counsel unable to let go of love for former clients (Pfizer
for one)
Another key appointee at the FDA shows who he really works for, as he
essentially fights against his current employer, for his former
employer. Daniel Troy - known for suing the FDA time and again on behalf
of drug and tobacco companies, now works hard to make the lives of his
former clients easy. How refreshing to see our taxpayer money be put to
such creative use!
12/13/02 <link>
Health
and Human Services Inspector General under investigation
It's Janet Rehnquist, the Chief Justice's daughter. Why does this not
surprise us anymore? Is there anyone in this administration who is NOT
under investigation? :-)
12/6/02 <link>
(UPDATED 12/13/02)
Four
cruise ships will mysterious illness outbreaks
Latest liner Oceania joins the fray. (See earlier article on
previous three
cruise ships). However, as this Time
article points out, this is apparently nothing unusual.
12/5/02 <link>
Makings
of a health insurance crisis
Results from latest survey are not promising: "...more
than half of employers plan to raise premiums and increase copayments
for retirees over the next three years, and nearly a quarter say they
are likely to eliminate health coverage for future retirees...A recent
Institute of Medicine report warned that the nation was on the verge of
a crisis as private health insurance costs are increasing at a rate of
more than 12 percent a year. Individuals are paying more of out pocket
and receiving fewer benefits, the report noted. It also pointed out that
already one in seven Americans are without health insurance, with the
number of uninsured rising..."
Of late, there are more and more calls especially from
insurance industry executives for a universal healthcare program. Here's the CEO of Blue Shield promoting
a universal healthcare insurance plan. And here's a New
York Times article on this same topic. One thing is for sure - Al
Gore certainly found the right time to bring up universal healthcare.
12/4/02 <link>
CA
doctors accepting far fewer HMO patients
Only 58% of the state's doctors are accepting HMO patients today. The
number of specialists with no HMO patients rose from 23 percent in 1998
to 37 percent in 2001.About 23% of primary care physicians have no HMO
patients, up slightly from 1998. See the UCSF
website for the full reports.
It is clear that some innovative steps need to be taken by CA to
address the healthcare crisis. As this article points out, CA has long
been one of the states with the highest uninsured.
11/26/02 <link>
Autism - link to Thimerosal in vaccines?
P.L.A. and several other bloggers/writers have been writing on this
topic of late and we will feature P.L.A.'s links here for those who
would like to examine this further. Those links also have links to the
other recent articles and posts on this subject.
P.L.A.
and Reuters:
Bush Administration asking Federal Court for a seal of all vaccine
records.
P.L.A.
- Costs from recently reported autism increase? (Think ~ $0.25 trillion)
P.L.A.
- Is there really a link between Thimerosal and Autism?
P.L.A.
- GOP/White House addition of provision in Homeland Security Act to
ensure liability protection for vaccine makers like Eli Lilly. Also see here.
Bob
Herbert (N. Y. Times) - "...Mitch
Daniels, the White House budget director, is a former Eli Lilly big
shot....last June President Bush appointed Eli Lilly's chairman,
president and C.E.O., Sidney Taurel, to a coveted seat on the
president's Homeland Security Advisory Council...." etc.
11/8/02 <link>
Ill-health
correlates positively to excess computer/monitor usage
Results not surprising although we're surprised it took so long for the
results (from a study on 25000 people) to be revealed considering the
study was done in the period 1995-1997. Various physical (aches, pains,
stiffness), mental and sleep related ills were found as the usage
increased to over 5 hours a day.
11/1/02 <link>
Embryos="human subjects"?
Not a surprising argument given this administration's earlier declaration of a
fetus to be synonymous with an "unborn child". We don't like
where this is going, but it would be interesting to see how much farther
this is going to be extended and whether they are willing to overtly
take on the large number of pro-choice voters in the U.S.
10/24/02 <link>
1 in 3 people in U.S. have arthritis-like ailments
Shocking statistic.
10/9/02 <link>
How the pharmaceutical industry raises drug prices, while squelching
innovation
We highly recommend this article in the New Republic for a
sweeping
coverage of what the U.S. Pharmaceutical industry is doing to medicine
and healthcare.
Some highlights:
1. "...the number of drug applications
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) puts on a priority track (because
they appear "to represent an advance over available therapy")
has shrunk dramatically relative to the number put on a standard track
(because they appear "to have therapeutic qualities similar to
those of an already marketed drug")..."
Examples cited by the author include Celebrex vs. Ibuprofen, Nexium
vs. Prilosec, Clarinex vs. Claritin, etc.
2. "...Moreover, drug companies have
learned that when they can't create a new drug to treat an existing
illness, they can create a new illness to treat with existing drugs.
GlaxoSmithKline's multimillion-dollar promotion of anxiety disorder as a
pernicious national problem enabled the company to make billions more
selling Paxil--a drug most experts believe is needed by only a small
fraction of the people who take it. Unimed is busy pushing the idea that
there's a national problem called male menopause..." The
"anxiety disorder" ads for Paxil - which we notice often - are
the ones we have personally found to be most outrageous!
3. "...companies have found they can
significantly extend patents through various legal maneuvers...filing
new patent applications on old drugs about to lose their protection. By
slightly tweaking Prilosec into Nexium, AstraZeneca got several years of
additional protection for a hot-selling prescription drug.
"Companies today have found that the return on investment for legal
tactics is a lot higher than the return on investment for R&D,"
says Sharon Levine..."
4. "...the patent morass may be
blocking new lines of research altogether. Every time a company wants to
pursue research on a certain biological process, or even the individual
genes involved, it has to find out who owns the patents and the price of
a license, if one is even available..."
Where best to stop, but:
5. "...The pharmaceutical industry has
perhaps the most powerful lobby in Washington, employing at least 20
former members of Congress, top staffers from the Clinton
administration, and the wife of the Senate majority leader...."
And
the results? People spend less on prescription drugs, among other
things
Rand Corp. finds people cut spending on prescription drugs by 22% when
faced with a $5 increase in co-pay
10/8/02 <link>
Oregon
planning to put on ballot "Universal Healthcare" law to deal
with health costs surge
Dramatic step to socialize medicine, would be first in the U.S. if it
succeeded. We would certainly vote against it only because they plan to raise
payroll and personal income taxes by huge percentages. There has to be a
more intelligent and less expensive way to do this.
10/6/02 <link>
Health insurance costs practically skyrocketing
It certainly did for us when we looked at how much more we will be
paying next year! This system is clearly broken and needs urgent
fixing.
Michael
Kinsley's response
He asks Mr. Bush to clarify whether embryos are human beings and states
the implications of that belief - "...use of
embryos violates almost any random paragraph in the government’s
human-research guidelines (the stuff about informed consent, for
example, or discrimination against vulnerable groups). In fact if
embryos are people, such research is morally impossible, along with all
in vitro fertilization and many other familiar human activities. If an
embryo is a human being, it is protected not just by the civil rights
laws but by ordinary criminal laws as well. Should married couples be
allowed to engage in a popular practice that routinely leads to the
production and destruction of untold numbers of embryos? Well, there
goes sex...."
10/2/02 <link>
Uncooked
sprouts cause food poisoning - another alert
Cook them well or don't eat them. It's that simple.
9/30/02 <link>
Ranks
of uninsured increase in the U.S.
Report for 2001 show that now ~ 41 million people are uninsured (~ 14.6%
of the population). 2002 can't be better.
9/29/02 <link>
"Fetus
=unborn
child" per Bush administration
Fetuses get medical benefits that their mothers otherwise don't. We know where
this is going, and it is not pleasant.
9/24/02
<link>
Bush
administration would like to cut Medicare payments (what's
new?)
In the meantime, note how
the pharmaceutical industry plays for Republicans with front
organizations like "Citizens for Better Medicare" to
ensure seniors are properly deluded about who is really on their side.
Thanks to Joe Conason (Salon) for the links.
9/18/02 <link>
Dust
useful to ward off asthma, allergy development in children
(yes!)
Well, this is no surprise really, since they are talking about children,
and how some dust early on may help build the immune system.
9/17/02 <link>
Health policies/agencies of this administration
Firing
of scientists/staff not agreeing with administration's view of
"science" must constitute a nadir in recent history. We think there is some degree
of belief interspersed into what is called science, but it is another
thing altogether to make beliefs, science. Why don't we simply convert
the Health Department to the Faith Department?
9/12/02 <link>
U.S.
life expectancy hits record high of ~ 77 years
A lot of additional interesting statistics are available in the full
report (>400 pages!). But see the smaller highlights
document for a nice summary.
9/02/02
<link>
Ode
to Hollywood Stars? Almost!
This is one of those times you actually see something favorable on
Hollywood stars. When they petition Congress for funds to combat
various diseases. Good for them and good for Arthur Caplan for writing
about it!
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