Ancient, but How Safe?

September 17, 2008

LIKE many people these days, Lori Potter, a 50-year-old massage therapist living on Kauai, Hawaii, has explored alternative healing for everything from headaches to skin problems. So when she wanted to boost her immune system and lower her stress levels a few years ago, she made an appointment with a visiting practitioner of ayurveda, a medical system that originated in India thousands of years ago and has gained wide popularity in the United States.

He prescribed herbal supplements, which he tested himself for impurities, to help boost her immunity. Soon, Ms. Potter said, she felt more energetic and her digestion was better. After two years, the practitioner stopped visiting the island, and she has not taken any supplements since, she said, because she has not met any practitioners she trusts.
“You never know what’s really in these supplements,” she said. “This is serious stuff, and you can’t just take them without knowing the source.”

Read Article New York Times

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Officers file gender discrimination suit

Three Austin police supervisors have filed suit against the city claiming that they were discriminated against because they are women and were subjected to a hostile work environment.

Sgts. Linda Ponder and Mary Hesalroad and Lt. Deborah Sawyer filed the lawsuits last week in state District Court. They accuse the city of violating the state’s labor codes and seek unspecified damages.

Ponder declined to comment. Sawyer and Hesalroad did not return phone messages.
The officers are being represented by San Antonio lawyer Mark Anthony Sanchez.

“The Austin Police Department has been systematically Tasering the civil rights of women in the upper echelons of the Police Department,” Sanchez said. “You are talking about three highly experienced, colorfully decorated officers with the Austin Police Department. They have held, and continue to hold, positions of leadership.”

Read Article statesman.com

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Hospitals’ mistakes are going unreported

Two patients at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia required additional surgery last summer after objects were accidentally left inside their bodies, state health investigators found.

Three patients at Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby had to be sent back to the OR last year to stop excessive postoperative bleeding.
At Abington Memorial Hospital, an elderly woman recovering from surgery for a broken hip in 2005 was left on a bedpan for at least 41/2 hours. She developed two open bedsores as a result.

None of the hospitals reported the problems, a violation of state law, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health.
For several years now, hospitals in Pennsylvania and New Jersey have been required to report medical mistakes and serious complications to state agencies charged with reducing medical errors. But some hospitals aren’t fully complying, undermining efforts to improve patient safety, experts say.

Read Article Philadelphia Inquirer

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Soccer goals recalled after child is strangled

The strangulation death of a young child prompted authorities Tuesday to issue a voluntary recall of about 190,000 MacGregor and Mitre folding soccer goals.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said a 20-month-old boy from Texas was strangled when his head and arm became entangled in the net of one of the recalled goals.

The agency received one other report of a child’s head becoming entangled in a net.
The gaps in the recalled nets are about 20 square inches, which is a dangerous size according to the CPSC. The agency says netting should have gaps less than 17 square inches or greater than 28 square inches, to prevent dangerous entrapment and strangulation.

Read Article Chicago Tribune

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Common chemical BPA under scrutiny as study links it to diabetes, cardiovascular disease

Industry representatives and health advocates gave federal officials vastly different assessments Tuesday of the effects of exposure to a chemical so prevalent that it can be found in the system of almost every American.

Bisphenol A, commonly known as BPA, is used extensively in the linings of food and drink containers, plus countless consumer products, including baby bottles and sippy cups. The chemical also has been found in drinking water, dental sealants and even household dust.

Adding to a growing sense of unease about the chemical’s potential effects was a study released before federal hearings Tuesday that linked exposure to bisphenol A with cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and liver-enzyme abnormalities in adults.

Read Article Chicago Tribune

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