September 7, 2006, 5:19 AM CT

Nurses Are Abused at high rate

These figures are horrifying. Almost a third of the nurses who took part in a large-scale study reported that they had been subjected to both physical and verbal abuse in the last 4 working weeks and a quarter had considered resigning as a result, as per research in the latest issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.

Two-thirds of the 2,407 nurses who took part in the survey, led by the University of Tasmania and supported by the Australian Nursing Federation, reported some form of abuse during the period covered.

This ranged from being sworn at, slapped and spat upon to being bitten, choked and stabbed. The abused nurses, who all worked in Tasmania, reported an average of four verbal incidents and between two to three physical incidents.

Sixty-nine percent of nurses who had been physically abused had been struck with a hand, fist or elbow and 34 percent had been bitten.

A further 49 percent said they had been pushed or shoved, 48 percent had been scratched and 38 percent said that someone had spat at them.

"We also discovered that that six percent had been choked and just under one percent had been stabbed" adds lead author Professor Gerald A Farrell, now based at La Trobe University School of Nursing and Midwifery in Victoria, Australia.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 6, 2006, 9:50 PM CT

How safe is drinking water?

Are disinfection by-products (DBPs) in drinking water harmful to an unborn fetus? According to a study in the recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology (available online September 5), a team of researchers at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health headed by David A. Savitz, Ph.D., Director of the Center of Excellence in Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Disease Prevention at MSSM, and formerly Chair of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have determined that drinking water DBPs -- in the range commonly encountered in the US -- do not affect fetal survival. This finding is particularly important because previous research has suggested that exposure to elevated levels of drinking water DBPs might cause pregnancy loss.

The interaction of chlorine with organic material in raw water supplies produces chemical DBPs of health concern, including trihalomethanes (THMs) and haloacetic acids (HAAs). Several epidemiological studies have addressed potential reproductive toxicity of DBPs. The strongest support in ealier studies was noted for pregnancy loss, including stillbirth.

Researchers looked at three locations with varying DBP levels and evaluated 2,409 women in early pregnancy to assess tap water DBP concentrations, water use, other risk factors and pregnancy outcome. Tap water concentrations were measured in the distribution system on a weekly or biweekly basis. DBP concentration and ingested amount, bathing/showering and integrated exposure that included ingestion and bathing/showering were considered. Based on 258 pregnancy losses, the finding did not show an increased risk of pregnancy loss in relation to ingested amounts of DBPs.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 6, 2006, 8:06 PM CT

Welcome to My Knockout

Welcome to My Knockout! We offer unique gifts to encourage those "fighting" a daily battle whether physical or emotional. Cancer, AIDS, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, depression, alcoholism, heart disease, or even weight loss are just a few examples of people that need encouragement.

Give them a daily reminder to "keep fighting" and "never give up". Flowers are beautiful but wilt after a few days. Cards are wonderful but get misplaced. My Knockout gloves will last forever and be a daily reminder to your champion!.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 6, 2006, 5:05 AM CT

Tiny Shock Absorbers Help Bacteria

Bacteria have hair-like protrusions with a sticky protein on the tip that lets them cling to surfaces. The coiled, bungee cord-like structure of the protrusions helps the bacteria hang on tightly, even under rough fluid flow inside the body, scientists report in the journal PLoS Biology.

A group of scientists at the University of Washington in Seattle and ETH Zurich in Switzerland have been studying how the bacterium E. coli attaches to mucous membranes in the body. In their prior research, they explained how the protrusions, known as fimbriae, have an adhesive protein called FimH at their tip that binds in an unusual way to a sugar molecule on a surface.

The FimH-sugar combination makes a "catch bond" that acts like a finger trap, and actually gets stronger as drag force is exerted on a bacterium. Rather than being swept away by fluids moving through the human body, the bacterium grips even more tightly, helping it stick around and form an infection, like those seen in the urinary tract, for instance. The catch bonds release their grip when there is little or no force on the bacteria.

In new research, the researchers have learned that the mechanical properties of the bungee-like fimbriae also play a key role in the tenacity of E. coli clinging to mucousal surfaces. The tiny fiber-like protrusions are made up of interlocking protein segments in a tightly coiled helix shape, like a seven-nanometer-wide Slinky toy. The scientists observed that under force, the fimbriae stretch to a number of times their original length as the protein segments uncoil one by one. If the force on them drops, the fimbriae coils are compressed, keeping tension on the bond between the bacterium and the mucous membrane.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 5, 2006, 4:58 AM CT

Exposure Of Youth To Images Of Tobacco Use

Despite a ban on tobacco advertising on television, nearly all U.S. children age 12 to 17 years may have been exposed to tobacco use through movie advertisements televised in 2001 to 2002, as per an article in the recent issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Tobacco advertising was banned from television in 1971, but tobacco use is still portrayed in a variety of forms on television, including movie advertisements or trailers. "Trailers pair tobacco use with popular movie stars and edgy action shots," the authors write. "These images translate into positive images of tobacco that are conveyed to a broad audience, including a large population younger than 18 years." Studies have shown that most movies released in the United States contain images of smoking, including about half of those with PG or G ratings, as per background information in the article. Surveys of children and adolescents indicate that they are more likely to smoke if their favorite movie stars do, and that watching movies in which characters smoke can have an immediate effect on their attitudes toward smoking.

Cheryl G. Healton, Dr.P.H., American Legacy Foundation, Washington, D.C., and his colleagues studied all 216 movie trailers that aired in the United States from August 2001 through July 2002. They first analyzed the full-length versions of all the trailers to determine whether they included images of tobacco use. They then obtained viewer information from Nielson Media Research, the primary source of U.S. television ratings, to determine the population exposed to each trailer.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 4, 2006, 10:04 PM CT

Otters And Lead Pollution

What has otters to do with lead pollution?

Valuable evidence about the success of the lead petrol ban has been gathered from otters by a scientist at Cardiff University.

As well as providing important new information about the secretive otter species, post-mortems on otters killed by cars since 1992 gave an insight into the levels of lead pollution in the environment. The results have important implications for human health as lead can damage the central nervous system including the brain, as well as affecting the kidney and reducing growth, especially in children.

Researcher Dr Liz Chadwick in the School of Biosciences at the University said:

"We measured the level of lead in rib-bones taken from over 300 otters found dead in south-west England between 1992 and 2004 and collected by wildlife veterinary pathologist Vic Simpson.

"We compared this with levels of lead found in stream sediment by the British Geological Society and airborne emissions recorded by the National Atmospheric Emissions Inventory. While some variation correlation to geology, we found an extremely strong decline over time, reflecting declining emissions from car fuel: otter bone lead levels in 2004 were less than a quarter of those in 1992".

Dr Chadwick stresses that the research highlights the importance of long-term monitoring and archiving of samples and shows that with help from the public, valuable use can be made of undesirable events such as wildlife road traffic accidents.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 4, 2006, 9:53 PM CT

Your Intuition Comes First

Risk and uncertainty are part of modern life, but why does the possibility of terrorist bombs on aeroplanes, a new generation of nuclear power stations and a flu pandemic trigger public distrust in the powers-that-be? What can the government do to re-build trust in politicians and scientists?

Risk scientists say the answer lies in emotions, not reason, particularly when the perceived risk is correlation to health, the environment, new technologies and energy. "There is a lot of evidence that concern about risk is directly correlation to lack of knowledge and the extent to which the event is dreaded," says Professor Peter Taylor-Gooby, Director of the Economic and Social Research Council Social Context and Responses to Risk Network (SCARR) at the University of Kent. "And trust always involves emotion as well as reason".

"The way that information about a particular risk is transmitted and interpreted by various audiences is also important in determining how people respond," Peter Taylor-Gooby explains. "Government should be certainly thinking about building trust, but it is very difficult to do. People need to feel they are being taken seriously and it would help if there was more reporting back after public consultations. Transparency is the key, especially when mistakes have been made".........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 4, 2006, 8:32 PM CT

Hygiene Fears In Food Industry

A major outbreak of E.coli 0157 poisoning in which 500 people were affected and 20 people died, seems to have led to improvements in the management of food risks in the retail and catering industries in Scotland, as per ESRC funded research at the London School of Economics.

A report from the Centre for Analysis of Risk and Regulation (CARR) says that an education campaign following the 1996 outbreak raised the profile of food safety and hygiene and brought home the importance of environmental health officers (EHOs) and the human costs of poor practices. Survey data also suggests that the Food Standards Agency (FSA) in Scotland is generally perceived to have better relations with the local food community than their counterparts in London.

The CARR study, which has been reported in Environmental Health Scotland, says that a number of managers in hotels, restaurants and food shops in the UK pay just as much attention to consumer fears and opinions as they do to rules and regulations, when it comes to evaluating food hygiene and safety risks.

'Most managers in the sample sense a general public awareness of food safety and food hygiene risks,' says CARR co-researcher, Clive Jones. 'They said safety concerns were more important to the consumer than value for money, labelling and other considerations such as GM or additive content, even though actual risks might not be very high.'.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

September 4, 2006, 8:27 PM CT

Chimpanzees Can Transmit Culture

Transferring knowledge through a chain of generations is a behavior not exclusive to humans, as per new findings by scientists at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University and the University of St. Andrews, Scotland. For the first time, scientists have shown chimpanzees exhibit generational learning behavior similar to that in humans. Unlike prior findings that indicated chimpanzees simply conform to the social norms of the group, this study shows behavior and traditions can be passed along a chain of individual chimpanzees. These findings, based upon behavioral data gathered at the Yerkes Field Station in Lawrenceville, Ga., will publish online in the August 28 early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Using a research design that simulated transmission over multiple generations, scientists Victoria Horner, PhD, of the University of St. Andrews and the Yerkes Research Center, along with Yerkes researcher Frans B.M. de Waal, PhD, and St. Andrews researcher Andrew Whiten, PhD, were able to more closely examine how chimpanzees learn from each other and the potential longevity of their culture. In doing so, they confirmed that a particular behavior can be transmitted accurately along a chain of up to six chimpanzees, representing six simulated generations equaling approximately 90 years of culture in the wild. A comparative benchmark study with three-year-old human children, conducted by St. Andrews researcher Emma Flynn, PhD, revealed similar results, providing further evidence chimpanzees, like humans, are creatures of culture.........

Posted by: Wilma      Permalink         Source

Older Blog Entries  

---