On the edge of legality
I have never seen anything like this before, an
~~~~ interactive graphic of a dental bill ~~~~
Might it be the very first of its kind?
Just in case you had forgotten… to be worried, that is.
The NTP is conducting studies to help clarify the potential health hazards from exposure to cell phone radiation. The NTP is a federal program whose goal is to safeguard the public by identifying substances in the environment that may affect human health.
What is the NTP?
The NTP is the National Toxicology Program, and islocated at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS), which is part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
Not breaking news
This page was last updated in February 2012. But it was tucked away on one of the many less-trafficked parts of the U.S. government’s digital domain. Findings are preliminary. The NTP hasn’t yet released a comprehensive report on the effect of electromagnetic radiation exposure on human beings.
There are some suggestions, practical ones, given for minimizing exposure to cell phone radiation. Seems sensible to me.
Of course, there are major external influences that no doubt exert pressure on the researchers. One of the most significant will be the general public’s unwillingness to acknowledge any harmful effects, should evidence of such be found.
So inconvenient… a life without cell phones. Less usage and thus radiation exposure is attainable, should it prove necessary.
Vaccination: Truth and consequences
A few days ago, I deposited part of the following wordy tirade in the comment section of the excellent Science-based Medicine blog. I felt motivated after reading a fine post about Vaccine Awareness, publication date November 2010, and still relevant.
Remember Smallpox?
I often wonder what anti-vaccine advocates have to say about smallpox.
Do they condemn small pox innoculation? I don’t think ANYONE could deny the ravages inflicted by smallpox on humanity, over the past 1000 years. Thanks to vaccination, smallpox has (virtually) been eradicated. Do anti-vaccination proponents acknowledge that smallpox vaccination was a GOOD thing?
Public health irony
In the poorer areas of the United States, particularly the southern states and Native American lands, there are higher rates of child vaccination than in the (generally) more wealthy Northeast and West Coast areas. Note that the coastal populations have better access to medical care for many reasons. The primary one is affluence.
Irrationality is the scourge of the wealthy and well-educated
Guess what: Incidence (maybe prevalence) of childhood disease such as measles and even polio is much HIGHER in the MORE economically affluent areas.
In the U.S., vaccination for childhood diseases is free for every child, as it should be. However, it is the parent’s right to refuse vaccination for a child. A higher proportion of well-educated, middle to upper income parents have chosen to do this recently. The consequences are increasingly obvious and dire. Measles had been eradicated in the U.S. over a decade ago. Not anymore. It is back. Herd immunity is suffering.
No, let me be very clear: Children are suffering. Children are suffering, some are dying, due to irrational fears of parents.
Measles is making an alarming comeback via The Mayo Clinic, 30 August 2011
[many cases of] measles have been reported in the United States this year and there have been similar outbreaks in Europe, a sign the disease is making an alarming comeback. The reappearance of the potentially deadly virus is the result of unfounded fears about a link between the measles shot and autism that have turned some parents against childhood vaccination.
A rising portion of the population is deciding not to immunize their children because of this controversy… and these children are now susceptible to the measles.
Suspicions about the vaccine have persisted, gaining steam with the public through celebrity advocates and widespread media coverage.
“The results have been devastating,” Dr. Poland (Mayo Clinic) says. “The campaign against the vaccine has caused great harm to public health across multiple nations, even though it has no scientific basis.”Measles remains the most contagious infectious disease humans can get. Due to the measles vaccine’s effectiveness and successful immunization programs worldwide, indigenous cases of the disease had been eliminated in the U.S., similar to eradication of smallpox.
The new look British Journal of General Practice used big cover-page text last month to announce findings from a recent study.
“ACUPUNCTURE effective in a randomised trial for patients with unexplained symptoms,” it shouted in bright yellow, exciting a febrile press…
Although the article was written by a sensible and competent young woman who is a Family Practice physician in Glasgow, I was struck by the lurid tone of her critique. Or at least the adjectives.
Some were choice!
Like “febrile”, and “shouting in bright yellow”. I’m uncertain whether the title wording was intentional. “Hype” and “acupuncture” conjures up images of syringes, IV injections, and illicit, forbidden acts….
via pubhealth:
In India, poor health risks rise after move to city
(Reuters) A study of Indians who migrated from rural to urban areas finds that the longer they live in a city, the worse they score on measures of heart health and diabetes risk, compared to those who remained in rural areas.
Body fat, blood pressure and fasting insulin levels (a marker of diabetes risk) all increased within a decade of moving to a city, and for decades blood pressure and insulin continued to rise above the levels of their rural counterparts. The findings raise public health concerns as the global population progressively becomes more urban.Free access to full article in American Journal of Epidemiology
The full article is very well-written. You won’t need to wade through lots of technical details, although those are available at a drill-down level with on-line access.
For now, access is unrestricted (early release) so no pay wall needs to be scaled in order to read in HTML or PDF format. The study is statistically robust. I couldn’t find anything to criticize at all!
Rapid urbanization (with associated cardiometabolic risk factor increase) is the primary cause of epidemic levels of non-communicable diseases in Asia and Latin America. The negative impact on health is far greater due to this than from the much more visible effects of emergency relocation.
The American veteran population is rapidly becoming more female. In the United States, women began entering the armed forces in a big way only 40 years ago. Currently about 14% of active duty troops are women (and 18% of the reserves). At the same time, about eight percent of 22 million veterans are women… All this has caused some problems for the VA, which failed to adequately prepare…
Prepare to be shocked and amazed:
The female veterans do not respond to the stresses of military service, or the physical injuries, the same way men do.
More services have to be provided for female veterans, because they are more likely to seek care. It’s one of the reasons women live longer than men. They take better care of themselves, and do not suffer in silence.
Many VA medical personnel have been treating an exclusively male clientele for so long, that they are at a loss when confronted with female patients… This is harder on the female patients than it is on the VA staff.
Politicians have discovered the problem, but all they can do is pass more laws. The real solution will have to come from the VA.
