Home > News

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

GIs Back from Iraq Tested for Uranium Exposure

The U.S. Army has begun testing members of the New York National Guard returning from Iraq for possible depleted uranium contamination. The move comes after four Guard members showed signs of exposure to the radioactive material, the New York Daily News reported.

Nine men formerly stationed in the Iraqi town of Samawah contacted the newspaper after their return from the Persian Gulf late last year, alleging that the Army was ignoring their pleas to be evaluated for unexplained illnesses. Symptoms included insomnia, headaches, shortness of breath, fatigue, and frequent urination.

A nuclear medicine expert hired by the newspaper concluded that four of the men "almost certainly" inhaled radioactive dust from exploded depleted uranium (DU) shells fired by U.S. troops, the News reported.

Once the Army learned of the newspaper's findings, it reversed course and agreed to test more than a dozen members of the 442nd Military Police Company who had come back from the Gulf, the News said. The rest of the company, comprised largely of New York City police, firefighters, and correction officers, is due to return from Iraq later this month.

Medical experts critical of DU weapons have said exposure may cause kidney damage, cancer, and chromosome damage. The Army has said it has no evidence of long-term health problems relating to DU exposure among GIs returning from Iraq, the newspaper reported.

-----

TV Carts Recalled After Infant's Death

Ohio-based Sauder Woodworking Co. is recalling 592,000 TV/VCR carts that can tip over, posing the risk of serious injury to consumers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said. The company has received 13 reports of the carts tipping over, including the death of a 19-month-old Pennsylvania girl whose skull was fractured when a television set fell on her. Four additional reports of injury involved a skull fracture, and various bumps and bruises. The carts, available in light-oak and dark-cherry finishes, had a top shelf to support a 27-inch TV, a middle shelf to support a VCR, and a lower storage area.

The products were sold in a kit, to be assembled by consumers. They were available at department, discount, and home electronics stores from January 1993 through December 1999 for about $100.

Consumers are urged to remove the television and all contents from the cart and to contact Sauder to order a free repair kit at 1-888-800-4590.

-----

New Jersey Senators Seek Mad Cow Probe

New Jersey's two U.S. senators are urging the federal government to investigate whether a cluster of deaths among former employees and patrons of a defunct racetrack were linked to eating meat tainted with mad cow disease, the Associated Press reported.

The nearly 20 people involved either worked at or frequented the Garden State Racetrack in Cherry Hill between 1988 and 1992. All later died of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), a human form of mad cow, the AP said. Democratic Sens. Frank Lautenberg and Jon Corzine want the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to investigate the deaths.

The cause of 85 percent of cases of CJD -- a brain-wasting disease -- is unknown. Some experts think it may be an inherited genetic mutation. When a cause is established, it's often use of contaminated instruments or tissue during surgery, the AP said.

Another variant of the disease can be contracted from eating tainted beef, although such cases are considered rare.

CJD accounts for about 300 deaths a year in the United States, according to government estimates cited by the AP.

-----

CPR Can be Too Much of a Good Thing

Some emergency health-care workers may be too aggressive when they administer CPR. The result: People who suffer cardiac arrest may be dying because EMTs are trying too hard to get the blood flowing again, a study suggests.

Dr. Tom P. Aufderheide and his colleagues at the Medical College of Wisconsin looked at how seven cardiac arrest patients were given CPR. They found the ambulance crews were creating a ventilation rate of 37 breaths a minute, far above the 12-to-15-breath-a-minute pace recommended by the American Heart Association. A report on the study appears in the April 6 issue of Circulation.

That excessive rate might be one reason survival rates for cardiac arrest patients remain "dismal," with only one of every 20 surviving, Aufderheide, a professor of emergency medicine, told HealthDay.

Although it was a small study, the researchers said it's possible the same thing could be occurring across the United States. Aufderheide suggested that emergency personnel get special training to keep their compression rate within the recommended level.

-----

'Teletubbies' to Lead Tubby Tots Campaign

Responding to growing worries about childhood obesity, the BBC said Monday that it will no longer grant licenses for the use of the Teletubbies and other TV characters on certain children's foods.

Out are "everyday" cakes, chocolate and candy. In their place, the British public broadcaster will license a new range of nutritious foods, including fruit, vegetables, bread, cereals, meat, fish, milk and dairy products, according to Bloomberg.com.

BBC Worldwide wants to make the "parent's choice of nutritious foods for their children both fun and easy," Chief Executive Rupert Gavin said in a statement.

Like the United States, Britain is struggling with an epidemic of overweight children. Obesity among kids there has doubled in 10 years to almost 17 percent, said the news service, quoting statistics from the Medical Research Council.

Copyright © 2004 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.