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Studies Examine Cigarette Smuggling In Poor Countries, Deaths Due To Alcohol Abuse In Russia
A new report finds that "a growing global trade in black market cigarettes is killing tens of thousands of people a year, causing massive health problems and costing governments billions of pounds," the Guardian reports.

Blogs Comment On Ryan-DeLauro Bill, Sex Education Funding, State Reproductive Health Legislation
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "A Taxing Problem," Jessica Arons, Huffington Post blogs: The five Democrats who last week sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) "suggesting a "common ground" solution to the abortion "roadblock" in health care reform" should be "applauded" for keeping the debate"s focus on covering the uninsured and "for being unwilling to sacrifice health care reform on the altar of abortion politics," writes Jessica Arons, director of the Women"s Health & Rights Program at the Center for American Progress. Arons adds that while the proposal, led by antiabortion-rights Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), "is in welcome contrast to the stonewalling and ultimatums coming from Rep. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and his allies," it is "based on a misguided and attenuated definition of government spending, and it conflicts with what Americans want and expect from health care reform." She continues that the "suggestion that a health plan might offer abortion coverage, and it might be used by someone, who might have paid a lower premium than someone else, because the government might have helped pay their premium is a horrible reason for Congress to carve out an explicit exception to a bill that is otherwise entirely silent on coverage options." Taxpayers "do not have the right to specify how their tax money should be spent," she writes, adding, "I understand why people would want to withhold their taxes from purposes they oppose, but our system does not -- nor should it -- work that way" (Arons, Huffington Post blogs, 7/30).~ "The Breakup of the Pro-Life Movement," Cristina Page, Birth Control Watch: Rep. Ryan is "in many ways a typical pro-life American" who opposes abortion rights and, "like most pro-life Americans, ... supports every effort to prevent the need for it," including contraception, Page writes. However, because of his support for contraception and sponsorship of the "Preventing Unintended Pregnancies, Reducing the Need for Abortion and Supporting Parents Act," Ryan was "banished" from the board of Democrats for Life of America, Page writes, adding that antiabortion-rights publications have "taken to qualifying his pro-life status as "allegedly" pro-life or referring to him as someone "who claims to be" pro-life." The bill, also known as the Ryan-DeLauro bill, would increase funding for contraception, and support comprehensive sex education and services for women who choose to carry unintended pregnancies to term, Page writes. She notes that the bill is supported by "many prominent pro-life individuals" and groups that support abortion rights, though "[n]ot one leading pro-life group signed onto the bill." Page writes, "Pro-life Americans favor expanding access to contraception because of the undeniable pro-life results," adding, "Unintended pregnancy is the root cause of abortion. We know when used properly, contraception works." It is "time for the disagreement over contraception to be addressed by the pro-life community at large," she writes, adding, "We will have no chance of making a real impact on unintended pregnancy and abortion rates without dramatic, informed strategies on prevention" (Page, Birth Control Watch, 7/28).~ "Senate Subcommittee: Ab-Only Out, Syringe Ban Still In; Advocates Hope for Further Changes in Conference Committee," Jodi Jacobson, RH Reality Check: The spending bill approved yesterday by the Senate Appropriations Committee "zeroes out funding" for the Community-Based Abstinence Education program, which has "for years [been] the main of support for now-discredited abstinence-only programs," Jacobson writes. The "elimination of these funds parallels similar action in the House, ... so unless amendments are proposed, accepted and passed during either the full committee vote or on the Senate floor, this bill spells "the end of abstinence-only programs as we know them," said one advocate, "at least for this year,"" Jacobson writes. The Senate version of the bill allocate
News of the day
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Signs Budget That Cuts $52M From HIV/AIDS Programs
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday signed a state budget in which he made $489 million in line-item veto cuts that "will affect child welfare and children"s health care, the elderly, state parks and AIDS treatment and prevention, going beyond the dramatic cuts that were part of the deal Schwarzenegger negotiated with legislative leaders," the Los Angeles Times reports (Rothfeld/Goldmacher, 7/28). "Services for people with AIDS, which had previously been spared by the Legislature, were reduced by $52 million by Schwarzenegger on Tuesday. That cut will mean no state spending on HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, education or housing services for people with the disease. The state will continue paying for AIDS medications and for tracking the epidemic," the San Francisco Chronicle reports (Buchanan, 7/29). Schwarzenegger said, "The legislators have given me a budget with a $156 million negative reserve, so now I had to go in over this weekend and work with my team and make additional cuts." He added, "That"s ugly, when already we have cut so much, and then we had to make additional cuts" (Steinhauer, New York Times, 7/28). Mark Cloutier, executive director of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, said of the cuts to HIV/AIDS programs, "This means there are going to be more people who are HIV-positive who are unwittingly infecting others" (Buchanan, 7/29).
Cardiovascular

The Dioxin Poisoning Of Victor Yushchenko: Need For Methods In Routine Analysis Of Metabolites Of The Poison TCDD

An article published Online First exposes the facts of the poisoning of Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko in 2004. It is the work of Professor Jean Saurat, from the Swiss Centre for Human Applied Toxicology, and the University Hospital, in Geneva, Switzerland, and his collaborators. It establishes that there is a need for routine analytical techniques to test for metabolites of TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin) which is a type of dioxin and the poison that was used. This will help to provide proper treatment. Victor Yushchenko was poisoned with TCDD in late December of 2004. There was a high concentration of it in his blood which was more than 50,000 times that of the general population. The medical team identified TCDD and its metabolites. For three years they monitored levels using different chemical techniques. They analyzed samples of blood, fatty tissue, feces, skin, urine, and sweat. They found that during the three years, 60 percent of the TCDD that was eliminated was in its original form and had not been metabolized. Two metabolites of TCDD were identified in the feces, blood, and urine. The feces contained the highest concentration of TCDD metabolites. They appeared as the main route of elimination. Overall, the various routes of elimination of TCDD and its metabolites accounted for 98 percent of the loss of the toxin from the body. In Mr Yushchenko"s case, the time taken for the amount of TCDD in the body to halve or half-life, was 15 months. The study shows seventeen different types of dioxin were analyzed in Mr Yushchenko. Only TCDD levels were higher than those in the general population. This indicates a severe intoxication of pure TCDD. The authors say: "The highest levels of metabolites were detected in faeces, whereas only traces were found in the blood serum. The metabolite to TCDD ratio was 50-fold lower in the blood serum than in faeces. These findings indicate that these metabolites were unlikely to have been ingested with TCDD, and that TCDD is slowly metabolised, probably by the liver and skin." They remark that high concentrations of TCDD might be needed to activate enzymes in the skin responsible for its metabolism. This might explain why the half-life of TCDD varies with level of exposure. The authors write in conclusion: "Although not done previously, levels of TCDD and its metabolites in tissue, faeces, and body fluids should be monitored in a patient with severe dioxin poisoning because they are indicators of what the follow-up period and treatment strategy should be. The poisoning of Victor Yushchenko with TCDD has changed from a story reported in the news to a medical model. This model of TCDD poisoning indicates that methods need to be designed for the routine analysis of TCDD metabolites in human beings, and the main aims of research into TCDD poisoning in the metabolomic era should be the analysis of factors that are involved in the metabolism of this toxin." Professor Saurat comments: "This is the first medical report in a peer-reviewed journal on the extraordinary case of Victor Yushchenko. The team was confronted in late December 2004 with a patient severely affected with what was likely to be dioxin poisoning. To cope with such a severe and painful disease, with no established specific treatment, we designed a strategy based on an aggressive monitoring of the poison, nature, distribution, and elimination - the subject of this report. We also designed a search for molecular medicine-based solutions to treat the various organs involved - likely to be the subject of future reports." In an associated note, Professor Martin McKee, from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, remarks: "So who poisoned Victor Yushchenko? The obvious suspects are those members of the security service present at the dinner just before he fell ill, yet during the protests in December they and their colleagues gave covert support to Yushchenko, pre-empting a planned crack-down by Interior Ministry troops. Unfortunately for those seeking an answer, there were many people, within Ukraine and outside it, who had a motive. We might never know and, as Sorg and colleagues note, had Yushchenko died at the time, as he might easily have done, we would probably never even have known that he had been poisoned." "2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin (TCDD) poisoning in Victor Yushchenko: identification and measurement of TCDD metabolites" O Sorg, M Zennegg, P Schmid, R Fedosyuk, R Valikhnovskyi, O Gaide, V Kniazevych, J-H Saurat DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(09)60912-0 The Lancet Written by Stephanie Brunner (B.A.) Copyright: Medical News Today Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today


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