The Old Eighteen

Report: disease outbreak near proposed San Antonio lab could cost US billions of dollars

This doesn't sound good:

The government acknowledged that an outbreak of one of the most contagious animal diseases from any of five locations being considered for a new high-security laboratory – an event it considered highly unlikely – would be more devastating to the U.S. economy than an outbreak from the isolated island lab where such research is now conducted.

The 1,005-page Homeland Security Department study, released Friday, calculated that economic losses in an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease could surpass $4 billion if the lab were built near livestock herds in Kansas or Texas, two options the Bush administration is considering. That would be roughly $1 billion higher than the government's estimate of losses blamed on a hypothetical outbreak from its existing laboratory on Plum Island, N.Y.

The administration is studying the safest place to move its research on such dangerous pathogens from Plum Island to the U.S. mainland near herds of livestock, raising concerns about a catastrophic outbreak. A final choice is expected by late fall. The foot-and-mouth virus does not infect humans but could devastate herds of cattle, swine, lambs and sheep.

[...] The new National Bio-and Agro-Defense Facility would replace the existing 24-acre research complex on Plum Island, which is about 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound. Besides foot-and-mouth disease, researchers also would study African swine fever, Japanese encephalitis, Rift Valley fever and the Hendra and Nipah viruses. Construction would begin in 2010 and take four years.

Call me crazy, but if you're looking for a place to build a facility where you're going to be studying highly contagious animal diseases, it seems to me that you wouldn't want to build it in close proximity to a bunch of livestock.  The risk level of an actual outbreak is said to be low, but if an outbreak did occur, the consequences could be devastating.  And we live in an age where terrorist attack is always a possibility, so why take such a chance if it's not necessary?  Here's an example of the kind of disaster that the Bush administration is flirting with:

A simulated outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease – part of an earlier U.S. government exercise called "Crimson Sky" – ended with fictional riots in the streets after the simulation's National Guardsmen were ordered to kill tens of millions of farm animals, so many that troops ran out of bullets. In the exercise, the government said it would have been forced to dig a ditch in Kansas 25 miles long to bury carcasses.

Economic concerns appear to be the driving factor behind the push to relocate this facility.  I'm all for the government saving a little money, but is whatever savings we get by moving this facilty really worth assuming the risk involved?

Texas Republicans' shameful legacy of failing Texas children continues

A new report released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation shows that Rick Perry and the Republicans are dropping the ball when it comes to the health and welfare of children in the Lone Star state.  Despite receiving over $17 million in federal funding for abstinence-only programs, twice as much as any other state, Texas is still tied for the highest teen birthrate in the country according to the Kids Count report, which is an annual report tracking indicators of social well-being for children.  The teen birthrate did decline in Texas by 10 percent from 2000-2005, but that lags far behind the rest of the nation, which saw an overall decline in the teen birthrate of 17 percent.

Texas also showed poorly in other areas of the report: the percentages of children living in poverty, low-birthweight babies and the infant mortality rate have all gotten worse in Texas since 2000.  The state ranked 21st in infant mortality, 27th in the percentage of low-birthweight babies, 27th in the percentage of teens who are high-school dropouts, 36th in the percentage of teenagers who are neither attending school nor working, and a dismal 44th in the percentage of children living in poverty.  Overall, the state ranked 37th in the report, coming in no higher than 21st in any category.

The blame for Texas' poor showing in measurements of child well-being should be laid at the feet of Texas Republicans, who have held control of both houses of the Texas Legislature and the Governor's office since 2003, but have since been too busy doing the work of big business to be bothered with the interests of children.  It's time for a change, beginning this fall in the Texas Legislature and continuing in 2010 with the governor's office.

Aggie researchers find healthy fatty acid in brisket

Brisket as health food?  If this pans out, I'm taking back everything bad I've ever said about the Aggies.  Well, okay, not everything, but you get my point:

Aggie graduate student Stacey Turk's master's thesis shows that fat from brisket contains significant amounts of oleic acid, a monounsaturated fatty acid that can promote good cholesterol in people.

The study was publicized by A&M officials in late April. Stephen Smith, the professor who supervised Turk's study, says it shows that oleic acid in brisket "is like olive oil, and, as far as I know, has no downside to it."

Smith, whose doctorate is in biomedical research, said the acid's "effects are either neutral or positive (in a diet). And other studies confirm that good cholesterol goes up in men who consume fat high in oleic acid."

"We did not know we could get that kind of fat from brisket," Smith said.

[...] Smith, who has been at A&M for 25 years, said the cut's fatty ridge generally is trimmed off by butchers and tossed aside. But he thinks that meat processors should save the beneficial fat and use it when they produce ground meat.

"It could make for a healthier hamburger," Smith said.

Now, if we could just get a study extolling the health benefits of chicken-fried steak...

I hope this pans out

This could be the best news I've heard in a long, long time:

What if we told you that a guy with no background in science or medicine-not even a college degree-has come up with what may be one of the most promising breakthroughs in cancer research in years?

Well it's true, and if you think it sounds improbable, consider this: he did it with his wife's pie pans and hot dogs.

His name is John Kanzius, and he's a former businessman and radio technician who built a radio wave machine that has cancer researchers so enthusiastic about its potential they're pouring money and effort into testing it out.

Here's the important part: if clinical trials pan out-and there's still a long way to go-the Kanzius machine will zap cancer cells all through your body without the need for drugs or surgery and without side effects. None at all. At least that's the idea.

The way it works, if I've read and understood the article correctly, is that metallic nanoparticles are attached to antibodies that target cancer cells, and high-powered radio waves are are used to heat the nanoparticles so they destroy cancer cells without doing any damage to the surrounding tissue.  Unlike radiation, radio waves are not harmful to people so they don't do any collateral damage when passing through a person's body.  So if everything works like it's supposed to, a person can have all of the cancer inside of their body wiped out, without drugs and without side effects.  And the treatment can be used for any type of cancer.

This treatment is still up to 4 years away from human testing, although it has been tested successfully on animals.  (Note to PETA: get over it.)  I'm hesitant to get my hopes up too much for this, but maybe when the testing is done we'll finally have a way to wipe out this horrible disease forever.  I lost my mom to cancer seven years ago, and watching her suffer was worse than any torture I can think of.  What made it worse was knowing that much of her suffering was being caused by the treatments that were being used to prolong her life, not by the cancer itself.  It's great to think that we might finally have a way to treat people like my mom without putting them through the suffering involved with chemotherapy and radiation, and better yet to fully cure them.

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(via Daily Kos)