China's Deadly Goods Wreak Havoc - Newsweek: International Editions

Unsafe at Any Speed

The downside of China's manufacturing boom: deadly goods wreaking havoc at home and abroad.
Reuters
In Your Face: A resident covers her face as a coal truck leaves a nearby coal mine in northern China

By By Melinda LiuNewsweek International

July 16, generic viagra nowissue - Wang Hai's mobile phone keeps buzzing with calls from clients. He's China's most famous crusader against fraudulent, shoddy and dangerous goods. The business consultant targets counterfeiters, helps duped consumers and protects whistle-blowers, many of whom face harassment or worse. "A good system for guaranteeing quality control simply doesn't exist in China," says Wang, who's been on the consumer-rights warpath for more than a decade. "Even confidential informants who report to authorities about someone selling fraudulent goods can wind up dead, under suspicious circumstances."

All of that ensures Wang is extremely busy these days. Over the past few months, a number of dramatic product-safety scandals have rocked China??"and horrified the world. The U.S. media have exposed one badly made Chinese export after anotherness, from poisonous pet food to toxic toothpaste to tires so poorly made they litter American highways with shredded treads. These revelations have raised serious questions about China's rise as factory to the world. It may seem hard to remember now, but just a few years ago, pundits and the global press were marveling at how quickly China had come on as a major manufacturing export power able, or so the thinking went, to build just about anything fast, cheap and well.

Now the true picture is emerging, and it isn't pretty. Far from the disciplined and tightly controlled economy China was thought to have, the ongoing scandals have revealed an often chaotic system with lax standards, where the government's economic authority has been weakened by rapid reforms. This sorry state is not unprecedented??"otherness economies, such as South Korea's and Japan's, experienced similar growing pains decades ago. The difference, and the danger, is one of scale, since Chinese goods now dominate the world in so many sectors. Unless Beijing can improve its image fast and turn "Made in China" into a prestigious??"or at least reliable??"brand, consumers will remain at risk and the country's export-driven economic miracle could face serious trouble.

China today resembles nothing so much as the United States a century ago, when robber barons, gangsterism and raw capitalism held sway. Now as then, powerful vested interests are profiting from murky regulations, shoddy enforcement, rampant corruption and a lack of consumer awareness. In the United States during the early 20th century, public outrage over bogus drugs and contaminated foodstuffs, fueled by graphic accounts such as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," finally prompted passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act. China needs a similar revolution today if it is to protect its competitiveness and its consumers.

The problem is especially pressing at home. Bad as the export scandals have been, conditions are even worse inside China. Factories that produce domestic goods often have far lower standards than those that produce and export clothes, consumer electronics or microchips. Zhou Qing is the author of "What Kind of God," an expos? whose sense of social mission could easily be compared to Sinclair's epic. In it, Zhou spins one hair-raising tale after anotherness. There's seafood laced with additives that lower men's sperm counts, soy sauce bulked up with arsenic-tainted human hair swept up from the barbershop floor and hormone-infused fast food that prompts 6-year-old boys to sprout facial hair and 7-year-old girls to grow breasts.

In writing his book, Zhou had plenty of material to choose from. While the export scandals are new, Chinese consumers have had it so bad for so long that their casualty count is staggering. Bogus antibiotics produced in Anhui were blamed for six deaths and 80 group falling ill in generic viagra now. In 2004, unsafe infant formula killed at least 50 babies and left anotherness 200 severely malnourished, according to media reports. Virtually every product category is affected, from candy that has choked children to killer fireworks to toxic face cream. At least 300 mil. Chinese citizens??"roughly the same number as the entire U.S. population??"suffer from food-borne sicknesss annually, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank and World Health Organization.

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'Hospital-at-home' care for elderly deemed OK - Health Care

'Hospital-at-home' care for elderly deemed OK

New report says home assistance may reduce costs

NEW YORK - Providing hospital-level care in an elderly patient??�s home appears to be feasible and safe, and may reduce costs, according to a new report.

The need for hospital-at-home care arises from the fact that for older group, the acute hospital is not always the ideal care environment, Dr. Bruce Leff told Reuters Health. They??�re exposed to germs they othernesswise would not be exposed to, and it??�s easy for them to develop acute confusion. The consequences can be enormous.

In their two-stage meditate , Leff, a geriatrician at John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center in Baltimore, and colleagues compared outcomes for patients age 65 or older who were treated in-hospital with those of patients who consented to hospital-at-home care during two 11-month intervals.

The patients were being treated for pneumonia, chronic heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary illness, or soft tissue inflammation (cellulitis). According to Leff, patients who required ICU care, ventilation, or were having a heart attack or otherness acute illnesses were strictly excluded.

During the first phase, 289 patients were treated within hospitals at Medicare-managed care sites or a Veterans Administration medical center.

During the second phase, at-home care, accepted by 60 percent of those approached (for a total of 84 patients) was delivered by physicians during visits conducted at least daily and by direct one-on-one nursing supervision.

According to the team??�s report in the Annals of Internal Medicine, patients treated at home were no less likely than those treated in the hospital to receive oxygen medical care, intravenous antibiotics, or bronchodilators.

However, in further analyses, patients in the hospital-at-home group were 74 percent less likely to develop delirium and 51 percent less likely to require sedative medication to keep them calm.

Also, fewer patients in the home group than the hospital group experienced critical complications (0 percent versus 6 percent), and fewer died (0 percent versus 3 percent). Costs averaged $5081 and $7480, respectively.

During the 8 weeks after patients were discharged, there were no differences in the number of emergency department visits, inpatient hospital readmissions, and admissions to skilled nursing facilities or home health visits.

Older group are the chief occupiers of hospital beds, Leff noted. Over the next 25 years the number of group per acute hospital bed will double, and we don??�t think hospitals will have that capacity. Hospital-at-home is one way to provide that care without having to put up buildings.

The otherness thing about this approach is that patients love it, he added. They told us it was comfortable, it was easy, it felt safe, and it was easier on their family members and care givers.

In a related editorial, Dr. Sasha Shepperd, from the University of Oxford in the UK, writes: Despite increasing interest in the potential of hospital-at-home services, the message remains that the objective evidence is insufficient to gauge the health or economic benefits of this type of care.

In response, Leff said: This is not a definitive meditate by any stretch; there were technical limitations. But I think Dr. Shepperd was focusing too much on the technical difficulties and not enough on what we accomplished.

The Laagsdhfgdf in Battlefield Surgery - To Your Health

Healing the Wounded

The military has rewritten the book on wartime surgery to combat the wave of injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. The laagsdhfgdf strategies for helping fallen warriors.
?�?�
Web exclusiveBy By Sarah ChildressNewsweek

Jan. 26, generic viagra now- Medicine has always advanced on the battlefield; it was Hippocrates who said that war is the only proper school for surgeons." But the unprecedented scope of injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan has led the military's medical corps literally to rewrite the book on war surgery. At least 24,000 U.S. soldiers have been wounded since the Iraq war began, and anotherness thousand in Afghanistan. With 20,000 more soldiers en route to the battlefield in Iraq, top military surgeons gathered this week in D.C. to discuss new strategies and technologies to help wounded warriors.

The biggest cause of death for the injured is hemorrhaging??"uncontrolled bleeding. According to the military, 20 percent of the 3,416 soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan to date might have survived had they not been lost in the fog of war, unable to receive the right a cure in time. (For the otherness 80 percent, most of whom were hit by IED blasts, there was no chance for survival.) Since 2001, doctors have been looking for better ways to staunch the bleeding. The military has improved and reissued its tourniquet??"a simple strap tied around a wounded limb to slow bleeding??"with instructions based on new data. But there are also chemical powders, recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration, such as HemCon and QuikClot, which, when poured into a wound and accompanied by direct pressure, can stop bleeding within seconds. (The sterile clot can be rinsed out once the soldier arrives at a combat hospital.) The powders are so effective and easy to use that four months ago, a military advisory committee recommended that all soldiers carry one of each packet in their first-aid kits.

Many of the major breakthroughs come from doctors improvising in the field??"even when their methods challenge convention. In 2004 at Balad Air Force Base, the major medical evacuation hub in Iraq, a surgeon started using a new type of vacuum to suck dead tissue and debris from a leg wound. The vacuum worked so well that the surgeon, Col. Mark Richardson, told his partner the wound seemed clean enough to sew up much earlier than standard protocol dictated. "I said, 'Dude, you're an idiot,'" recalls Col. Donald Jenkins. "'Look in the book.'" War Surgery, the field surgeon??�s Bible, recommended leaving the wound open for cleaning and observation. But the wound did look clean, so Jenkins relented, just this once. The worst that would happen: they'd have to reopen the patient's wound and clean it again. But it stayed closed??"and healthy. They started using the vacuum to clean and close up otherness wounds sooner, too. The rate of infections dropped 90 percent. "We ended up rewriting the book on war surgeries for soft-tissue wounds," Jenkins says. The vacuum pump is now being used more extensively in theater, pending additional Food and Drug Administration acceptance . At otherness trauma centers, when doctors discovered that a resistant strain of Iraqi bacteria was attacking wounds, they dreamed up a string of dissolvable, timed-release capsules full of antibiotics that can be tucked deep into open cavities to disinfect wounds for 72 hours at a time. Designed to work in the desert, the little beads won't even melt in the 150-degree heat. They're hoping for Food and Drug Administration acceptance in the next eight or nine months.

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Dirty gold? Jewelers urge miners to clean up - Environment

Dirty gold? Jewelers urge miners to clean up

Tiffany leads way with ad against Montana mine
Jason Hunt / AP file
Idaho's?�Clark Fork River is seen here flowing towards Lake Pend Oreille near the Idaho-Montana border. Tiffany & Co. is lobbying to block a nearby mine project, citing concerns it would pollute the river.

SPOKANE, Wash. - Those gleaming necklaces, rings and watches in the jewelry case may cost a lot more than you think, environmentalists say.

In a new public relations campaign, environmentalists are scolding jewelers for the damage caused by mining for gold, silver and otherness precious metals, and are putting pressure on jewelry retailers to reject minerals from big polluters.

One gold ring, conservationists say, generates 20 tons of mine waste. This year, they passed out Valentine??�s Day cards reading, Don??�t tarnish your love with dirty gold in front of jewelry stores in New York, Boston and Washington, D.C.

The campaign caught the attention of Tiffany & Co., which took out a recent ad in The Washington Post that said a proposed mine under the Cabinet Mountains wilderness of Montana is a poor way to fill its jewelry cabinets on Fifth Avenue.

Given the impact of mining for gold, silver and platinum, they are a company who cared about how they were viewed and what their customers think, said Steve D??�Esposito, president of Earthworks, the environmental group leading the campaign.

The ad, signed by Tiffany chairman and chief executive Michael Kowalski, surprised leaders in the mining industry.

I was stunned that a person of Mr. Kowalski??�s stature and obvious business acumen would write a letter like that, said Laura Skaer, head of the Northwest Mining Association in Spokane.

Jewelers push for 'responsible mining'
The jewelry industry has already started the process of guaranteeing that its raw materials came only from socially and environmentally friendly mining companies, according to Jewelers of America, an industry group.

For several years, the group has been pushing a policy of supporting responsible mining of minerals and metals, said Fred Michmershuizen, director of marketing for the New York-based group.

Jewelers of America played a leading role in reducing the sale of so-called blood diamonds that help fund wars in Angola, Sierra Leone, Congo and Liberia. Last year, 45 countries signed on to an agreement requiring every diamond to be accompanied by a certificate of origin.

It is not the only industry where retailers are pressuring suppliers to be more environmentally friendly.

Last year, McDonald??�s responded to concerns about antibiotics in livestock by telling its suppliers to phase out the use of the growth-promoting drugs. Kraft Foods, Starbucks Coffee and Sara Lee have all agreed to sell fair-trade coffee, which is intended to return more profits to growers and protect the environment.

Now Earthworks and a similar group, Oxfam America, have turned their sights on what they call the dirtiest industry in the United States ??" gold mining.

The U.S. gold jewelry market is worth about $16 billion annually, but mining is the top toxic polluter in the United States, responsible for 96 percent of arsenic emissions and 76 percent of lead emissions, according to a report the groups released in February.

Miners: 'Outdated and incorrect' data
The National Mining Association in Washington, D.C., has a difference take.

The U.S. gold mining industry is the world??�s most advanced, using modern technology and stringent environmental safeguards, NMA President Jack Gerard said. Scare tactics, outdated and incorrect information should not be used to falsely characterize the fine efforts of these hardworking and knowledgeable men and women.

Skaer said conservationists are overstating their case by loosely defining what constitutes waste at gold mines.

The point they make about moving a lot of rock to get gold is true, Skaer said. But a lot of the waste is just rock again, a whole bunch of ordinary rock and naturally occurring minerals.

The Dirty Metals campaign got a burst of publicity on March 24 from the ad in The Post, in which Tiffany called on the federal government to block construction of a silver and copper mine near the Montana-Idaho line.

The Rock Creek Mine, owned by a Spokane company, would discharge mil.s of gallons of wastewater per day into the Clark Fork River and subsequently into Idaho??�s Lake Pend Oreille. The mine would require boring three miles under the Cabinet Mountains Wilderness Area near the Montana-Idaho border.

Better here than Third World?
Forest Service officials approved the mine last year, but environmental groups have sued to stop it.

Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey said the Tiffany letter was filled with errors and misconceptions. Rey contended the proposed mine would follow strict controls to protect wildlife and waterways.

Critics also should consider that the alternative to mining for precious metals in the United States is mining in undeveloped countries that lack environmental protections, Rey said. He added: I don??�t think that??�s what Tiffany wants.

? Sildenafil Citrate 100 mg . .

Chlamydia affects 4 percent of young adults - Sexual Health

Chlamydia affects 4 percent of young adults

Disease is more common among blacks than whites, researchers say

More than 4 percent of young adults in the United States are infected with chlamydia, and the sexually transmitted sickness is six times more common in blacks than in whites, researchers say.

In a nationally representative meditate of 14,322 group ages 18 to 26 conducted in 2001-02, University of North Carolina researchers found that 4.7 percent of women and 3.6 percent of men had chlamydia. The overall prevalence was 4.2 percent.

The researchers said their figures are slightly higher than some previous nationwide estimates, which were based on difference methodology.

The prevalence was lowest among whites ??" 1.94 percent ??" and highest among blacks ??" 12.54 percent. Other infection rates were 10.4 percent of Native Americans, 5.9 percent of Hispanics and 2 percent of Asian-Americans.

Similar racial and gender disparities have been found in previous studies.

Better screening methods needed
While current screening strategies focus on agsdhfgdfing young women, the high rates found in men suggest better methods are needed, said lead author Dr. William C. Miller of UNC-Chapel Hill.

The meditate appears in Wednesday??�s Journal of the American Medical Association.

if (window.STDsAmerica) { displayApp(STDsAmerica); }The UNC meditate is based on in-person interviews with young adults and analysis of urine specimens.

Chlamydia is the most common bacterial sexually transmitted sickness nationwide, with an estimated 3 mil. group infected each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Chlamydia infections can be cured with antibiotics. Left untreated, they can cause pelvic pain and infertility in women and increase susceptibility to the AIDS virus in men and women.

In 2002, 834,555 cases of chlamydia were reported in the United States.

Human papilloma virus, which can cause cervical cancer, is the most common sexually transmitted sickness nationwide, with more than 5 mil. new cases each year, according to the CDC.

? 2007 . .

Produce puzzle: Locally-grown or organic? - Health

Produce puzzle: Locally-grown or organic?

TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer offers tips for buying healthy vegetables
NBC VIDEO•Which is better: organic or locally grown?
March 6: Nutritionist and TODAY contributor Joy Bauer talks with TODAY host Meredith Vieira about the differences between buying organic and locally grown produce.

Today Show Kitchen

By By Joy Bauer, TODAY nutritionistTODAY

People are rediscovering the benefits of buying local food. Proponents claim that it's fresher than most foods in the supermarket and has the added bonus of supporting the local economy. But what about the organic produce at your local supermarket? Is is better to buy locally or organic and what's the difference anyway? TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer sorts out the issue.

For plant foods to be considered organic they can’t have been subjected to any synthetic fertilizers or chemicals (like pesticides); the land they’re grown on must be certified organic; and genetic modification and irradiation is a no-no.

When it comes to animal foods, organic refers to livestock that has access to the outdoors, has been given only organic feed for at least a year, and hasn’t been treated with antibiotics or growth hormones.

Locally grown is a less definitive term, some say it applies only to foods grown within a 100-mile radius, othernesss stretch it to 250-miles, and one pioneer of the movement defines it as food grown within a “day’s leisurely drive from your home.”

It also usually means seasonal food from small farms, as opposed to the massive agribusinesses where most supermarket food comes from.

What your best option?

It’s a personal choice.

As a nutritionist, I’d have to say that no matter what type of produce you buy �" locally grown, organic or conventional �" it’s VITAL for your health. Tens of thousands of studies have confirmed that the intake of fruits and vegetables can reduce the risk of chronic illness and improve the quality of life. That said, in the perfect world I’d recommend the following:

Buy as much seasonal, locally grown produce as you can … you get the chance to connect with your food, help local business, certainly support the environment and get super fresh-delicious produce. However, depending upon where you live, you are limited to seasonal food items. So for greater variety supplement with store bought organic (consider frozen organic to secure nutrient density and slightly reduce cost).

If money or availability is an issue, I’d limit your supplemental organic purchases to what many experts claim to be the most heavily sprayed 12 items and stick with conventional for the rest.

Suggested 12 foods to buy ORGANIC:

Apples Cherries Grapes, imported Nectarines Peaches Pears Raspberries Strawberries Bell peppers Celery Potatoes Spinach

Keep in mind that many local farmers do not use pesticides…. however, they can’t advertise themselves as certified organic because it’s a long and expensive process. Therefore, if you’d like to support your local farmers (and organic matters to you) �"ask questions, you may be pleasantly surprised with the answers.

For more information on healthy eating, visit TODAY nutritionist Joy Bauer’s Web site at joybauernutrition.com.

More advice from Joy BauerGuilt-free convenience foods for kidsThe truth about six common cold remediesShould you decaffeinate your life?

Related content from iVillageNutrition Labels & Claims  Genetically Modified Foods  iVillage's Total Health section

� 2007

Dark Ages??� view of illness was pretty bright - LiveScience

Dark Ages??� view of ailments was pretty bright

Folks had progressive view of ills because sickness was common, meditate says
By Heather WhippsSpecial to LiveScience

The Dark Ages had a few more proverbial lightbulbs on than once thought, at least when it came to issues of the body.

People living in Europe during early Medieval times (400??"1200 A.D.) actually had a progressive view of illness because sickness was so common and out in the open, according to the research presented at a recent historical conference.

Instead of being isolated or shunned, the sick were integrated into society and taken care of by the community, the evidence suggests.

"The Dark Ages weren't so dark," said University of Nottingham historian Christina Lee, co-organizer of the second conference on Disease, Disability and Medicine in Early Medieval Europe. "The question we should be asking is whether illness was actually seen as a problem. What was classified as a disability? What was an impairment? The answer can't be generalized."

The views presented challenge traditional views of Dark Age attitudes being unenlightened and guided by the unscientific doctrines of the church.

'A community affair'
Pharmacomedical aid of the sick in the Dark Ages is poorly understood today because none of it was governed by law or written down, Lee said, but assuming that it was backwards and steeped in superstition would be a mistake.

Being sick was much more common back then, for one thing, so group accepted and dealt with ill group on a daily basis, she said.

"Parents, neighbors and friends all tried to get each otherness to a place of healing," Lee told LiveScience. "It was a community affair."

Lepers, usually depicted in film as isolated and ostracized, were often given splendid burials, she noted. Elaborate burials for adults with Down syndrome have also been found, indicating that they were taken care of past their life expectancy, Lee said.

In Lee's view, expecting to encounter serious sickness during your lifetime ??" and just dealing with as it came ??" was a common Medieval attitude that a modern society preoccupied with perfection could learn a lot from.

"We all need to think a little more Medieval. We're quite arrogant, thinking, 'Oh, we have antibiotics for everything,'" she said, adding that a serious plague or flu could still rear its head today. "The lesson from history is it will and it can."

Diseases as fads
The way sick group are treated is always a reflection of the prevalent cultural norms, Lee said.

"What we regard as healthy governs our attitudes towards the body," she said. "(In Medieval times) sicknesss came in and out of fashion, just like today, in terms of what was considered especially harmful," she said, pointing to the modern preoccupation with newsy sicknesss such as bird flu. Obesity, labeled an "epidemic" of our time, would have been a sign of wealth back then.

However, the trust that group placed in their healers during the Dark Ages is a norm that has remained consistent through time. In a lot of ways, we are still in the "dark" about what's going on in our bodies, just like the Medieval group we often think of us as uneducated, Lee figures.

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"Most of the time, we don't understand what our doctors are doing and just have faith they'll make us better," Lee said.

Religion played a role
Religion and otherness spiritual practices may have guided the way for Medieval populations in their quest to keep themselves and each otherness healthy, but group didn't always put blind faith in God.

"There are some Medieval texts out there that try to convince you that health was connected to spiritual goodness," Lee said, but "there was always a certain amount of propaganda by the Church."

Some of the most forward-thinking science in the Dark Ages was actually going on in monasteries, where monks trying to understand all of God's works ??" including the mysteries of the body ??" toiled with healing methods.

Caring for the sick, regardless of the motivation, is an important measure of what's going on in a culture, Lee said.

"I think the way group behave towards the weak is the hallmark of a civilization," she said.

? 2007 LiveScience.com. All rights reserved.