Explanation: People who are depressed eat more chocolate than people who are not, U.S. researchers said on Monday, in a study that puts numbers behind the link between mood and chocolate.

Chocolates are pictured in Broc near Fribourg September 7, 2009. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse They said people who were depressed ate an average of 8.4 servings of chocolate per month, compared with 5.4 servings among those who were not. And people who had major depression based on results of a screening test ate even more — 11.8 servings per month. A serving was considered to be one small bar, or 1 ounce (28 grams), of chocolate. “Depressed mood was significantly related to higher chocolate consumption,” Dr. Natalie Rose of the University of California, Davis, and University of California, San Diego, and colleagues wrote in the Archives of Internal Medicine. Many people consider chocolate a mood-booster but few studies have actually confirmed the connection between the confection and mood. And most studies have looked only at women. Rose and colleagues studied the relationship between chocolate and mood among 931 women and men who were not using antidepressants. People in the study reported how much chocolate they consumed and most also completed a food frequency questionnaire about their overall diet. Their moods were assessed using a commonly used depression scale. What they found was a marked association between chocolate consumption and depression. And unlike other studies that looked only at women, the link was true of both men and women. What the study could not say was why people who are depressed eat more chocolate. It could be that depression stimulates chocolate cravings, and people eat chocolate as a sort of self treatment, confirming some studies on rats that suggest chocolate can improve mood, the authors said. Or, it could be that depression may stimulate chocolate cravings for some other reason without providing any mood benefit. People in the study did not have any such “treatment benefit” from chocolate, the team said. And they said it may be that eating a lot of chocolate actually causes people to feel depressed, another possible explanation for the association they saw in the study. It may be something physiological about chocolate, such as providing additional antioxidants. Or the mood-boosting effect of chocolate could be fleeting, like the temporary euphoria from drinking alcohol, leaving people feeling even lower after the brief euphoria has passed. “Distinguishing among these possibilities will require different study designs,” the team said. They said future studies will be needed to determine whether chocolate is a cause of depression, or a temporary salve.


New drug ‘big deal’ in cystic fibrosis fight

Explanation: More than 20 years after researchers identified the genetic mutation responsible for cystic fibrosis (CF), a treatment aimed at the cause of the disease, rather than its effects, has shown it can improve lung function and some other measures in patients with a rare form of the disease. While this story accurately reports key drug trial results and provides some context, it falls short in important ways by failing to note that there is not yet evidence the drug is safe for life-long use or can extend lives; and that it is unlikely to cure CF by itself. The story doesn’t tell readers that drug is likely to come with an extremely high price tag. It fails to note that the CF Foundation, whose CEO is prominently quoted touting the drug, has funded the drug’s development and may stand to profit from its sales. Cystic fibrosis affects only about 70,000 people worldwide, but it is the most common lethal genetic disease in whites, slowly destroying their lungs and other organs. Since the primary CF mutation was identified in 1989, researchers have sought a treatment that would correct the underlying defect. As the story reports, this trial is an important proof of concept; it is a ‘big deal’ in the decades-long effort to find a treatment for the genetic defect underlying CF. Nevertheless, it is important to highlight the long, hard road traveled to reach this point and the years of work ahead that will be needed to determine if this sort of treatment can lengthen the lives of typical CF patients.

Although the company that wants to sell this drug has yet to announce a price, blogs that follow pharmaceutical companies quote a Wall Street analyst who predicts the drug will cost about $150,000 a year. That massive price tag for a drug that patients likely would have to continue to take for their entire lives is certainly something that readers should be told about. Although this story accurately reports the specific results of this drug trial, including lung function, disease symptoms, weight and sweat chloride (a measure of disease); it misses important aspects of the big picture. As the journal editorial accompanying this research report noted, the trial does not prove that this drug halts the progression of disease or that patients who take the drug will live longer. The story could also have been clearer about the distinction between the small percentage of patients who have the specific gene mutation that is the target of this drug and the 90 percent of cystic fibrosis patients who have a different mutation that may not respond to this treatment. The editorial notes that the complexities of CF “suggest that no single drug will be entirely suitable as a therapeutic agent.” Readers should have been given this important context. When the story reported that patients doubled their ability to walk, it should have noted that this apparent benefit was not something that was measured as part of the formal trial. The story does not make any reference to harms. Although the journal article reporting the trial findings says that the patients receiving the active drug generally had fewer problems than those in the placebo group and that the adverse effects were not serious enough to cause people to stop taking the drug for more than a short period, the editorial points out that this trial does not prove that long term use of this drug is safe. The story should have told readers that patients will probably need to take the drug their entire lives and that further tests are needed before long term safety questions can be answered. The story reports that only 84 patients were randomized to receive the experimental drug. It also reported the length of the trial and the specific endpoints that researchers evaluated. However, there were also speculative comments about which patients the drug could help as well as references to benefits that were not measured as part of this trial. Readers might well be confused about what was actually demonstrated by this trial and what is mere speculation or personal observation. We could have gone either way with this grade, but will give the story the benefit of the doubt. The story reports that this drug works on a gene mutation seen in only 4 percent of patients with cystic fibrosis. This story fails to include an independent source and fails to report financial disclosures. What’s worse is that most readers probably believe there is an independent source quoted. While the average reader is likely to assume that the CEO of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation is speaking independently, the actual fact is that the foundation is a major funder of the drug’s development and may stand to profit from sales of the drug. Readers should have been told of the tight financial relationship between the CF Foundation and Vertex Pharmaceuticals. The story should have also noted that the researcher quoted in the story works as a consultant to Vertex, and that employees of the company were involved in designing and conducting the trial as well as writing the final report. These disclosures were openly declared in the journal article and accompanying documents and should have been included in the story. The story should have noted that advances in managing cystic fibrosis have dramatically increased the life span of people with the disease. Indeed, the editorial accompanying the journal article notes that the health of CF patients declines so gradually now that it will require following many patients for many years to find out if this new drug actually helps them live longer than the treatments already available. Although the story is clear that this drug is not yet available, it includes a claim that it could be on the market next year. The manufacturer recently applied for FDA approval, but the drug has not been reviewed, so any claim about availability is mere speculation. The story does highlight the fact that this is the first treatment for cystic fibrosis that works on a genetic mutation that is the underlying cause of the disease, rather than just managing the effects of the disease. The story does not appear to rely on a news release.


WHO recommends one-hour maximum screen time per day for under-5s.

Explanation: Young children should not spend more than an hour a day watching television and videos or playing computer games and infants less than one year old should not be exposed to electronic screens at all, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday.

The United Nations agency, issuing its first such guidelines, said under-fives should also be physically active and get adequate sleep to help develop good lifelong habits and prevent obesity and other diseases in later life. “What we are cautioning on is over-use of those electronic screen times with young children,” WHO expert Dr. Fiona Bull told a news briefing. In its guidelines to member states, the WHO said children between one and four years old should spend at least three hours in a variety of physical activities spread throughout the day. Infants under one should interact in floor-based play and avoid all screens, it said. Being inactive is fueling a rise in the numbers of obese or overweight people worldwide, the WHO said. Excessive weight can lead to premature death from heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and some forms of cancer. “Preventing these deaths needs to start in very early life,” Bull said. One in three adults today are overweight or obese, and one in four adults does not do enough physical activity, she said. “In this age group of under 5s, it is currently 40 million children around the world (who) are overweight. Of that (figure) 50 percent are in Africa and the southeast Asia region,” Bull said. That translates into 5.9 percent of children globally. Early childhood is a period of rapid physical and cognitive development during which habits are formed and family lifestyle routines are adaptable, said the WHO guidelines, drawn from evidence in hundreds of studies, many from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United States. “Sedentary behaviors, whether riding motorized transport rather than walking or cycling, sitting at a desk in school, watching TV or playing inactive screen-based games are increasingly prevalent and associated with poor health outcomes,” the WHO said. Chronic insufficient sleep in children has been associated with increased excessive fat accumulation as measured by body mass index (BMI), it said. Shorter sleep duration has been associated with more TV viewing and time spent playing computer games, it added.


European politicians, CEOs, lawmakers urge green coronavirus recovery.

Explanation: European politicians, companies, lawmakers and activists called on Tuesday for green investment to restart growth after the coronavirus pandemic, saying fighting climate change and promoting biodiversity would rebuild stronger economies.

The European Union is headed for a steep recession triggered by the outbreak, but divided on how to finance economic recovery, with the ailing south advocating issuing joint debt against the opposition of the fiscally conservative north. With EU leaders due to meet next week to discuss the recovery plan, a group of 180 political decision-makers, business leaders, trade unions, campaign groups and think tanks urged the bloc to adopt green stimulus measures. “After the crisis, the time will come to rebuild,” they said in a letter. “The transition to a climate-neutral economy, the protection of biodiversity and the transformation of agri-food systems have the potential to rapidly deliver jobs, growth ... and to contribute to building more resilient societies.”  Signatories included ministers from 10 countries from Italy to Luxembourg, 79 EU lawmakers, and chief executives from L’Oreal’s (OREP.PA) Jean-Paul Agon to IKEA’s Jesper Brodin and Danone’s (DANO.PA) Emmanuel Faber. Calling fallout from the coronavirus pandemic a shock worse than the 2008 financial crisis, the signatories said rescue measures should advance the EU’s landmark Green Deal policy package, which aims to bring the 27-nation bloc to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. Calls for a green EU recovery have grown louder in recent days, after European finance ministers on Thursday agreed support for their coronavirus-battered economies but left open the question of how to finance the bloc’s recovery. Ten EU countries, joined by Germany, France and Greece over the weekend, have signed a separate open letter urging the EU to ensure its rescue package supports the Green Deal. Poland and Czech Republic are among countries asking the EU to ease climate policies amid the pandemic. Some asset managers are also urging governments to design economic rescue packages to accelerate a low-carbon transition. “Investors are definitely becoming bolder at wanting to now pivot the debate on post-COVID rebuilding towards broader sustainability and resilience,” said Michael Hugman, portfolio manager at asset manager NinetyOne in London. Pascal Canfin, a French liberal EU lawmaker who initiated the Tuesday letter, said: “The Covid-19 crisis did not make the climate crisis disappear ... If we relaunch the economy in the wrong direction, we will hit the climate crisis wall.”


Africa’s booming cities face a severe toilet crisis.

Explanation: The darkening clouds are ominous for many in this urban neighborhood, promising rushing rainwaters stinking of human waste from overflowing septic tanks.

AP Top News, Kampala, International News, General News, Africa, Health, Uganda

As Africa faces a population boom unmatched anywhere in the world, millions of people are moving to fast-growing cities while decades-old public facilities crumble under the pressure. Sewage is a scourge for residents of this community on the outskirts of Uganda’s capital, Kampala. There are no public toilets for some 1,200 people. Mud tinged with feces washes into homes during heavy rains. The sanitation crisis echoes that of cities across the developing world. Some 2.5 billion people, most of them in Africa or Asia, lack access to an adequate toilet, United Nations figures show. Governments are increasingly depending on private businesses and philanthropic groups to help manage human waste in cities that were never planned to handle so many people. One of the fastest-growing cities in the world, Kampala is home to at least 1.5 million people but authorities say over 3 million pass through daily, usually for work. Yet there are fewer than 800 pay toilets and only 14 free ones, many of them dilapidated with walls often smeared with feces. Many people rush to malls to relieve themselves. Even in the buildings of government agencies the toilets are often kept under lock and key, apparently to discourage intruders. Kampala’s urban sewer system covers less than 10 percent of the population, authorities say. When pit latrines and septic tanks are not safely built, they pose a serious health risk. They leak fecal waste that contaminates swamps and Lake Victoria, the city’s main water source, especially during the rainy season. “Less than 50 percent of the fecal sludge generated in Kampala safely reaches a waste treatment plant,” said Angelo Kwitonda, a sewage engineer with the government. “The rest of the volume is kept in our homes.” Outbreaks of cholera and other water-borne diseases are common. Poor sanitation costs Uganda $177 million annually in economic losses linked to disease treatment and lost productivity as people search for places to relieve themselves, according to a World Bank report in 2012. Some 650,000 toilets need to be built to avoid open defecation, it said. It could get worse. Africa’s urban areas contain 472 million people, a number that is expected to double over the next 25 years, according to a 2017 World Bank report . “The problem of sanitation is very big, so we have had to prioritize,” said Najib Bateganya, a Kampala sanitation official who said authorities have been focusing first on improving sanitation in public schools. “The next model is going to focus on entrepreneurship, toilets as business,” he said. Authorities in Kampala have not constructed a single public toilet for years, though a plan exists to set up 200 toilets by 2025 with the support of donors such as the German development agency GIZ. Private companies have been trying out solutions in poor, crowded neighborhoods such as Makindye-Lukuli, where trash piles up around tin-roofed homes. A sanitation program backed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation focuses on emptying septic tanks in households not easily reached by vacuum trucks, which are privately operated. Using a tool resembling a giant syringe, men in safety suits pump fecal waste into drums that are emptied into a movable tank, for a tiny fraction of the roughly $50 that would be paid to a vacuum truck operator. “Whenever it rains always the unclean places suffer from cholera, so we must be vigilant,” said village chairman Stephen Semanda, who encourages residents to report on each other under the new system. Residents receive a meter-long stick that they dip into their toilets. If “it comes out with anything on it, it means the toilet is now harmful to you,” he said. That’s when a so-called “gulper” should be called in to pump. Nearly two dozen groups operating in Kampala now provide the gulping services, said Winnie Kemirembe of the Gulpers Association of Uganda. “It is a good business,” she said after supervising the pumping of raw sewage from one stinking latrine. Similar innovations are being tried out elsewhere in Africa. In the West African nation of Burkina Faso, where open defecation is said to be the norm in many villages, the group WaterAid promotes a fundraising initiative under which prominent residents commit their own money toward building public toilets. In Senegal, whose capital Dakar is vulnerable to flooding, aid groups have helped to construct toilets that break down waste onsite, turning it into compost and a source of renewable energy, said Yacine Djibo of SpeakUpAfrica, a Senegal-based group whose work includes advocacy for improved sanitation across the continent. Other sanitation entrepreneurs in Africa are developing toilet models that might charge as little as 5 cents for an entire day’s use, an improvement on the traditional practice of charging users every time they walk in. Joel Ssimbwa, a Ugandan businessman who operates private toilets in Kampala, said he is working with community leaders in heavily populated areas to launch a franchise that would allow an entire family to “pay once for a day, and for multiple uses.” Yet even that arrangement still may be unaffordable for the city’s poorest residents, said Semanda, the village chief. On a recent afternoon, he pointed to a neighboring hill where he said a cheap public toilet remained too expensive for some who linger outside, hoping for free entry. “The cheaper, the better,” he said. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa


Authorities in Mexico have seized a massive shipment of cocaine headed towards a U.S. government facility.

Explanation: Moreover, the photograph that accompanied the YourNewsWire story was taken from a completely unrelated, ten-year-old news report about Mexican authorities seizing and burning 134 tons of marijuana.

Junk News, yournewswire, yournewswire.com

On 19 November 2017, the YourNewsWire web site published an article positing that authorities in Mexico had seized a massive shipment of cocaine headed towards a U.S. government facility: Authorities in Mexico have seized a massive shipment of cocaine that was headed towards a U.S. government facility in America. Mexican Soldiers have now detained three men who were inside of the vehicle, claiming that they were employees of the Social Security Institute which has yet to be confirmed by the agency. The truck originated in the Tamaulipas state capital of Ciudad Victoria bound for Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas; and it remains unseen if it belongs to a Cartel or how they acquired the vehicle if that were the case. There will be an ongoing investigation involving both United States Federal Agencies and Mexican authorities to determine whether anyone from inside either nation’s disaster programs was involved in the trafficking or even the theft of the vehicle. The reference to a Mexican seizure of “U.S. government cocaine” had no basis in reality, which is not surprising given that YourNewsWire is a fake news site that peddles in clickbait fabrications and has been banned from Google’s AdSense advertising program as a result: [W]hile churning out demonstrably false narratives day in and day out has reportedly cost [YourNewsWire] 60 percent of its revenue after Google AdSense dropped it, the ad network Revcontent still allows YourNewsWire to monetize clicks, giving its publishers financial incentives to continue pushing bullshit to gullible right-wing audiences. This story was produced from a distorted version of a recent Associated Press report about Mexican authorities seizing cocaine that was concealed in a vehicle bearing markings of the Social Security Institute: Mexican authorities have seized more than 800 pounds (371 kilograms) of cocaine being transported toward the U.S. border inside a truck bearing the markings of the country’s Social Security Institute. The institute, which runs hospitals and other social services, denied that any of its employees or vehicles were involved in the incident. A Defense Department statement said soldiers discovered the packets of drugs hidden inside the vehicle’s mobile medical scanner at a highway checkpoint. The white truck had logo that sought to imitate those of one of the social security institute’s anti-poverty programs. The truck had departed the Tamaulipas state capital of Ciudad Victoria bound for Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas. Soldiers detained three people on board who said they were employees of the Social Security Institute. The institute later said in a statement that none of the three were its employees. The Social Security Institute referred to in this report is a Mexican agency that has nothing to do with the U.S. Social Security Administration. The Associated Press report contained no indication that the confiscated cocaine was intended for a U.S. destination (other than that it was being shipped to a Mexican city that was “toward the U.S. border”) or had any connection to any facility or persons involved with the U.S. government.


Dutch doctor dies of lassa fever contracted in Sierra Leone.

Explanation: The Dutch government says that a doctor who contracted lassa fever while working in Sierra Leone has died.

Health, General News, Hemorrhagic fever, Netherlands

Health Minister Bruno Bruins said in a letter to Parliament Sunday that the doctor died Saturday. He was being treated for the hemorrhagic fever in an isolation ward at a university hospital in Leiden. Bruins said a second Dutch doctor who was working in Sierra Leone also has contracted lassa fever and been flown home and taken to a special hospital in the central city of Utrecht. The lassa cases are the first in the Netherlands since 2000. There is no vaccine for the disease, which is transmitted through the bodily fluids of sick people. Humans also can contract the disease by coming into contact with food contaminated by rat excrement.


Overcoming Fear of Back Pain May Spur Recovery

Explanation: This article, based on findings of a small study of people with chronic back pain in Belgium reported in the journal JAMA Neurology, tells readers that if they can only “think differently” and stop “fearing” their pain, such attitude changes combined with “cognition-targeted motor control training” does significantly more than standard physical therapy and back pain “education” to reduce the pain and increase ability to function. The problem is that the story doesn’t really explain the differences between the standard and experimental therapies, the latter of which is composed of a sort of physical “desensitization” to feared physical movements; and fails to offer any details about the base level of the subjects’ pain, how pain was measured, or why the researchers looked for (and didn’t find) brain changes in the study group. We were glad the article included an outside expert, who makes clear that the experimental intervention is time intensive, costly, not covered by insurance and  — although “promising” — still unproven with respect to long-term benefit compared to standard therapies. That provided some much needed information for the reader. (Note: Due to an editing error, this story originally was marked with a 2-star score. It has been updated to reflect the correct rating of 3 stars.) This study focuses on behavioral and educational approaches designed to reframe how patients think about their pain. By emphasizing that “hurt doesn’t mean harm,” the hope is that patients will become more active and that activity may actually reduce pain. This “pain catastrophizing” theory is not really new. As such the description of this study doesn’t make clear what is different from prior studies evaluating this approach. Nonetheless, such efforts are important and need to be replicated in larger studies, so were glad the story ended on that note.

The only mention of cost is at the very end. “The program, however, is quite time-intensive and is not covered by insurance,” Patel said. “Although it’s promising, we really have to see the benefit long-term to justify the cost,” she added. This isn’t really enough information for a patient to know if it’s within their reach. The article quotes/attributes a “significant” and “clinically important” reduction of pain, and elsewhere “50 percent less pain,” but offers no baseline of pain against which to compare the outcomes, or what range and level of increased functionality or diminished “fearfulness” was measured. Although physical therapy and a 12-week program of education about the origins of pain designed to reshape people’s understanding of the pain pathway are not likely to cause harm, it would have been useful to know if any experimental treatment subjects dropped out, failed to finish the program, or felt worse than those in the control group. There is also the potential in such studies for “victim blaming,” or imposing the onus of attitude change on pain patients. Some of the comments of the principal investigator in the article (i.e. patients “should learn to put pain into the right perspective and…avoid fear of moving”) may impose additional burdens on some pain patients. There aren’t many details about the people in the study, including the substantial age range (18 to mid-60s); the sources of the back pain; the way the pain was measured before and after the interventions, and so on. The reader also won’t learn about the surveys and tests (including brain MRIs) used to measure primary and secondary outcomes. And most of all, the reader will have a hard time understanding just what the two arms of the study involved and what the differences are, given that both involved forms of education and physical therapy. While the background for the intervention is discussed in detail, the nature of the study is barely mentioned. No mongering here. It is clear that current treatments for chronic low back pain offer patients limited benefits. An outside expert was quoted and we detected no conflicts of interest that should have been disclosed. We’ll give this a just-passing rating. There are several brief statements about alternatives. Relevant statements include, “People with chronic back pain often try painkillers and other treatments without success” and “They assigned another 25 men and 35 women to standard care — exercise, and back and neck education.” The article makes clear that this is an experimental therapy. Even the careful reader may have a hard time figuring out what is novel about the therapy or the study protocol. This is especially the case with respect to the use of MRI to scan the brains of participants for “morphological” changes — a part of the research that was especially meaningful to the investigators because, in their view, the absence of such changes in the experimental group suggests that such changes are not necessarily a good indicator of pain control or pain abatement. The story did not appear to rely on a news release.


Explanation: Diseased lungs, dead bodies, a man on a ventilator and mothers blowing smoke in their children’s faces are among the images U.S. health officials are considering in their effort to revamp tobacco warning labels.

FDA Proposed Graphic Health Warnings for Cigarettes. REUTERS/FDA/Handout The “graphic health warnings,” unveiled on Wednesday, aim to depict the negative effects of smoking, and they will be required on all cigarette packages and advertisements as of October 2012. The FDA will accept comments on its proposed warnings until January 9. In June, the agency will choose nine graphic images from the 36 it has proposed. More prominent warnings on cigarette packages, including larger text labels, were mandated in a June 2009 law putting the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry under the control of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The proposal offers the most significant and important change in public health warnings since the release of the surgeon general’s landmark report on smoking in the 1960s, said Matt Myers, president of Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids. “These warnings are based on the best evidence about how to raise awareness and concern about the health effects of smoking with at-risk youth and smokers thinking about quitting,” Myers said. A 1964 surgeon general’s report concluded that smoking was linked to lung cancer and other diseases, spurring a broad anti-smoking campaign and new health warnings on cigarette packages. The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act called for cigarette packages to include new warning statements in large type covering half of the front and back of each package and graphic images showing adverse health effects from smoking. The warnings will also occupy the top 20 percent of every tobacco advertisement. “For the first time ever, they will say that tobacco products are addictive, and they will say in the bluntest of terms that tobacco can kill,” FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. “We need to make sure that anyone who is considering smoking fully appreciates the consequences of cigarette use.”   But investors are skeptical that the warnings will have much impact on sales of cigarettes. Charles Norton, a portfolio manager with GNI Capital Inc, said similar efforts in other markets around the world have had little effect. “I think it will ultimately have very limited impact on consumption,” Norton said. Altria Group Inc’s Philip Morris unit, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, supported the overall bill, while some smaller rivals, such Reynolds American Inc’s R.J. Reynolds Tobacco unit and Lorillard Inc’s Lorillard Tobacco Co, opposed it. A spokesman for R.J. Reynolds declined to comment before reviewing the 140-page proposal, but noted that the company had challenged the legality of larger and graphic warnings in a pending federal lawsuit in the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals. A Lorillard spokesman declined to comment. The Dow Jones tobacco index, whose components include Altria, Lorillard and Reynolds American, was down 0.8 percent in midday trading.


Explanation: A single, brief study from Norway claims to demonstrate that saturated fats are generally beneficial for most people, in contrast to much research that suggests potential heart risks are associated with higher saturated fat intake. The study of 38 men with abdominal obesity took place over a 12-week period and compared the effects of either a high carbohydrate or a high fat diet. This study, though randomized, only measured markers of risk such as blood pressure and triglycerides (not actual heart disease) for a short period of time. Current recommendations regarding fat intake are based on actual rates of heart disease found in large groups of people followed for years. It’s not unreasonable to raise questions about the role of saturated fat in heart disease. Researchers readily acknowledge that existing studies on the issue have important limitations. However, this release goes too far in describing the significance of this single small study, and gives no acknowledgment to evidence that cuts the other way. The release also lacks information expected of a solid account of a new nutrition study — such as a measurable benefit, harms, and details of the diet’s contents. Substantial claims require substantial evidence. This release claims to present data that upends the conventional wisdom on dietary fat, but it doesn’t acknowledge that the study has important limitations. Nor does it acknowledge the many other studies that have addressed the same questions examined by this research. People are already confused enough about what they should be eating. The last thing they need are sweeping claims, like “Saturated fat could be good for you,” that aren’t backed up by definitive evidence.

The release does not mention costs but we won’t fault it for this. We rate this Not Applicable since it would be very difficult to estimate the cost of shifting eating patterns that incorporate more foods laden with saturated fats. The release did not use many numbers to quantify the benefits of consuming one diet over another. For example, it states: “In the randomized controlled trial, 38 men with abdominal obesity followed a dietary pattern high in either carbohydrates or fat, of which about half was saturated. Fat mass in the abdominal region, liver and heart was measured with accurate analyses, along with a number of key risk factors for cardiovascular disease. “The very high intake of total and saturated fat did not increase the calculated risk of cardiovascular diseases,” says professor and cardiologist Ottar Nygård who contributed to the study.” The italicized words reflect where some quantification would have helped the release. What does “high” refer to? Which measuring tools were used to assess fat mass in the abdomen, liver and heart? The release did not go into any detail on the potential downsides of a very-high-saturated fat diet. For example: Would most people enjoy and be able to adhere to a diet that includes lots of butter, cream, and cold-pressed oils? Some would no doubt savor such a diet, but others might be turned off. This release doesn’t caution that this small study only lasted for 12 weeks and looked only at markers of risk. The results are presented as being much more definitive than they are. The release does not engage in disease mongering. The release does not list funding sources or provide any statement regarding potential conflicts for the principal investigators. The release is about comparing two diets — one high in “lowly” processed fats (butter, cream and cold-pressed oils) and another high in carbohydrates. The release does not give us details of the diets (what to consume and how much) so it’s almost impossible to compare them. Both high-carbohydrate and high-fat foods are widely available. The release does not establish any novelty for this research. There are a number of studies looking at cardiometabolic markers in response to higher fat diets. Unjustifiable language is present in the release, beginning with the headline —  “Saturated fat could be good for you.” This tiny study provides little if any evidence for that claim, and the statement contradicts substantial amounts of conflicting research. Moreover, the release later says that a high saturated fat diet “did not increase the calculated risk of cardiovascular diseases” — it doesn’t say that it “lowered” risk. So it seems that the best one could conclude, even in a generous interpretation, is that “saturated fat might not be bad for you.”


Those who purchase hunting and fishing gear at Cabela’s (and other retailers) now have to pay a medical excise tax established under Obamacare, according to social media posts.

Explanation: Cabela's Takes a Stand on Medical Excise Tax on Sporting Goods

Obamacare’s medical excise tax doesn’t apply to sporting goods, and Cabela’s isn’t applying it to transactions there. The rumor started with a social media post that showed a Cabela’s receipt with a $5.82 charge for what’s identified as a “medical excise tax” back in 2013. According to the post, the 2.3% medical excise tax was supposed to be “hidden” from customers, but Cabela’s had taken a stand by including the charge as a separate line item on receipts. But Obamacare’s medical excise tax does not apply to sporting goods. Cabela’s mistakenly included the surcharge on customer receipts for one day — January 1, 2013 — and issued refunds to customers within a week. Joe Arterburn, a Cabela’s spokesperson, said that the 2.3% medical excise tax was applied to customer transactions because of a “glitch in the system.” Aterburn said the mistake came to light when customers notified the company that the medical excise tax surcharge had appeared on their sales receipts. The medical excise tax was established under Obamacare to help supplement the cost of providing insurance to the uninsured. Medical professionals pay the excise tax when they purchase medical devices defined under the Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act (FFDCA): Medical devices range from simple tongue depressors and bedpans to complex programmable pacemakers with micro-chip technology and laser surgical devices. In addition, medical devices include in vitro diagnostic products, such as general purpose lab equipment, reagents, and test kits, which may include monoclonal antibody technology. Certain electronic radiation emitting products with medical application and claims meet the definition of medical device. Examples include diagnostic ultrasound products, x-ray machines and medical lasers. If a product is labeled, promoted or used in a manner that meets the following definition in section 201(h) of the Federal Food Drug & Cosmetic (FD&C) Act it will be regulated by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)as a medical device and is subject to premarketing and postmarketing regulatory controls. So, the medical excise tax does not apply to sporting goods, and consumers do not directly pay it. There are excise taxes on sporting goods, but they aren’t new and they weren’t established under the Affordable Care Act. These pre-existing taxes on manufacturers for things like fishing poles, tackle boxes, outboard motors and bows are defined under IRS Publication 510, which is not the same as the medical excise tax. Comments


A teenaged girl was drugged and nearly abducted in a Dillard's department store by fellow teens working on behalf of sex traffickers.

Explanation: Moreover, the referenced article linked described a police crackdown on a Denton County human trafficking operation that did not involve abductions of victims from department store restrooms, the use of heroin to drug unwitting teen shoppers, the intervention of a potential victim’s mother, the use of fellow teen girls as recruiting agents, or a situation that was halted before anyone was harmed. A separate article about the 2014 operation reported several arrests but made no mention of young girls being employed as operatives of a sex trafficking-related abduction ring.

Crime, denton texas, dillard's, human trafficking

On 20 June 2015, a Facebook user published a screenshot of the text message transcribed below, which described a harrowing near miss abduction effort that supposedly occurred in the bathroom of a Dillard’s department store in Denton, Texas: Example:   [Collected via e-mail, June 2015] So.. A friend of mine knows a mom and a daughter that was shopping at Dillard’s in DENTON… In the mall. The girl is close to my age. She told her mom she had to go to the bathroom so her mom said awesome, you go to the bathroom, I’ll go checkout and then we can meet at the car. So they did.. The mom was waiting in the car for awhile and she thought man, it’s been awhile so she walked back into Dillard’s and crossed paths with 2 girls CARRYING her daughter out of Dillard’s. The mom asked the girls what they were doing and they said “oh.. Haha this is our friend.. She’s drunk, she passed out in the bathroom, we’re just taking her home” … The mom said “THATS MY DAUGHTER! !” .. Come to find out these two girls were hiding in the bathroom, when the daughter walked in, one pinned her down and the the other shot her up with black laced heroine. It basically paralyzed her. Come to find out, these 2 girls worked for sex trafficking that’s going on IN Denton. The post’s claim of kidnappers working on behalf of sex traffickers echoed a rash of similar messages recently spread by social media users: In late May 2015, a Facebook user made a similar claim about a brush with abductors in an Oklahoma Hobby Lobby store; in early June, Twitter was carried away by warnings of human traffickers targeting college kids on summer break through job interviews; and late June saw yet another outbreak of the venerable theme park abduction urban legend. Like the breathless tales of sex trafficking tricks that immediately preceded it, the warning about the incident in a Denton Dillard’s bore elements of a classic urban legend: it happened to a friend of a friend, at an indeterminate time, and included no details tying the claim to verifiable documentation (such as a news article or police report). And as in the Hobby Lobby case, local police were quick to respond and report that social media users might have gotten a little overexcited about the claim: We have recently had many people asking us if a post going around on social media sites about an incident at a store in our local mall is true. Currently we cannot find a report on file to substantiate that claim and therefore we feel that there is no cause for alarm. We will continue to look into this to determine if it is true or just a rumor/hoax. Facebook users commenting upon the 20 June 2015 post by the City of Denton Police Department linked to an article about human trafficking raids in Denton. Police in turn pointed out that that news was nearly a year old: This was from July of 2014.


Preventive care coverage under the Affordable Care Act has already "helped Granite Staters save money and live healthier lives.

New Hampshire, Health Care, New Hampshire Democratic Party,

Federal health care reform won’t start in earnest until this autumn, but on the third anniversary of the law that gave us Obamacare, the New Hampshire Democratic Party wanted to make sure that the public knew about all the benefits the law already has produced. In an interestingly worded press release, NHDP Communications Director Harrell Kirstein tallied the gains since 2010. Kirstein began his release by stating "Health care reform has helped Granite Staters save money and live healthier lives." His list of evidence began with a bullet point declaring the Affordable Care Act "Expanded preventative care coverage with no cost-sharing for 365,000 Granite Staters with private health insurance in 2012, including 253,000 women. While more than 160,000 New Hampshire citizen[s] on traditional Medicare also accessed free preventative care services." The numbers Kirstein cites are based on an administration analysis that takes the national level findings of an independent group, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and applies them to various groups of insured people in New Hampshire. As PolitiFact has noted before, there is a complicated relationship among preventive care, costs and health. The quick assumption that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure can be wrong. When President Obama said "preventive care saves money," PolitiFact ruled that statement False. Obama was speaking about the health care system as a whole, and there’s a lot of evidence that when millions of healthy people use preventive services, their health status remains the same, but all those doctor visits add up to higher costs. A 2008 study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, in some cases, preventive care can save money and improve health. Counseling people to quit smoking, eat a better diet, and giving the most common vaccinations provide a win-win outcome of low cost and avoiding diseases that are expensive to treat. But the authors cautioned "Sweeping statements about the cost-saving potential of prevention, however, are overreaching. Studies have concluded that preventing illness can in some cases save money but in other cases can add to health care costs." "Although some preventive measures do save money, the vast majority reviewed in the health economics literature do not." And whether preventive services lead to better health is also debatable. Preventive services absolutely can make a person healthier when a potential problem is diagnosed early and treated. However, preventive care on a system-wide level leads to batteries of tests and procedures that lead to positive outcomes for a few, but make little difference for many. A study by Danish researchers on the value of annual physicals found that they did little or nothing to reduce the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease. In addition, Ateev Mehrotra at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine estimated the yearly cost of routine physical exams at $8 billion. He said the limited benefits "underline the need to maintain other means of delivering preventive care beyond annual [physicals]." The key finding from all the studies is prevention makes sense when it is targeted. The right strategy picks out the people at risk and offers them the screening or prevention treatment they need. In general, that is the approach in Obamacare. The online journal Health Affairs notes that Section 2713 of the Affordable Care Act is "one of the most straightforward provisions" in the legislation. The law requires services that are backed up by evidence and have been rated by certain bodies, such as the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force. "Items and services are rated by the Preventive Services Task Force only with respect to individuals who fit into certain categories determined by age, gender, or medical conditions or risks," the author writes, "and the rule only requires that services be provided to individuals in those categories." Take something as common as cholesterol levels. Under the Task Force guidelines, not everyone would get tested for free; the federal recommendations specify men 35 and older, and women and men of any age with heart disease or risk factors for heart disease. Even the most targeted regime of preventive services comes with two caveats. By one estimate published in Health Affairs, if 90 percent of Americans took advantage of the most proven services, overall spending would decline by just 0.2 percent. The health benefits would be "huge", but the added doctor visits and tests would cause insurance premiums to rise, by as much at 1.5 percent. At the end of the day, the author writes," increased benefits will be accompanied by increased costs, but neither will be dramatic and an accurate understanding of which will be greater is simply not possible." Our ruling The New Hampshire Democratic Party claimed that health care reform helped people save money and lead healthier lives. Its list began with better access and use of preventive care. The statement brushes over the mixed outcomes of preventive services. They can lead to better health for some, but can also result in batteries of tests that have little health effect for many. Likewise, the Affordable Care Act requires many preventive procedures be offered at no cost to patients, which can save individuals some money, but on a system-wide basis many of those practices are wasteful and they always come at some cost. We rate the statement .


Doctors are now saying menstrual cramps are as painful as heart attacks.

Explanation: Whether any research into analogous pain pertaining to dysmenorrhea has been undertaken is unclear, nor has it been proved that the pain from a heart attack can be measured against period cramps in a rigorous scientific comparison. Although the quote is real, assertions that “doctors are now saying [the claim is true]” (which suggests the existence of substantiated research) is something an exaggeration. The claim is not dissimilar to other long-circulating claims that enduring a blow to the testicles is at least as painful as childbirth.

Medical, dysmenorrhea, heart attack, menstrual periods

On 18 December 2016, a page operated by the outlet Mic published a screenshot (with no attendant article or content) bearing text that asserted “doctors are now saying” that menstrual period pain can approach that of a heart attack:  The headline and image closely matched an item published on 18 February 2016 by HelloFlo, which is not the web site of a news organization but rather than of a business selling menstrual care products. That item began: Does that sentence sound dramatic — say, as serious as a heart attack? It should, because that’s exactly what experts are comparing the pain to. According to Quartz, that pain is rightfully described as agony, citing the American Academy of Family Physicians‘ definition of dysmenorrhea. The condition, described as “severe enough to interfere with daily activities in up to 20% of women” is characterized by aches and pressure in the abdomen, hips, thighs, and lower back. According to John Guillebaud, a professor of reproductive health in London, it’s totally possible for the cramping to be as bad as a heart attack. The store’s blog cited not a medical journal, but the new media outlet Quartz. Moreover, a single professor of reproductive health was quoted as saying the claim was “totally possible”; multiple doctors were not quoted as saying it was accurate or common. The quote from a single doctor appeared to originate with the Quartz item, minus the “totally” qualfiier: Dysmenorrhea, the clinical term for painful menstruation, interferes with the daily life of around one in five women, according to the American Academy of Family Physicians. And yet there’s remarkably little research into the condition, say experts, and too many doctors are dismissive when presented with the symptoms. Frank Tu, director of gynecological pain at NorthShore University HealthSystem, tells Quartz some physicians are taught that ibuprofen “should be good enough.” Clearly, this is not an adequate response to such severe pain. How severe? John Guillebaud, professor of reproductive health at University College London, tells Quartz that patients have described the cramping pain as “almost as bad as having a heart attack.” In its original context, Guillebaud’s quote was presented as one derived not from research, but from anecdotes. Articles on the same topic and  the same oft-repeated quote often delved into related (but not topical) information, such as a Telegraph piece that described difficulties associated with obtaining treatment for endometriosis (a separate condition with some comorbidity) and a tragic story about a very young woman who died after her cancer was misdiagnosed. Although both represented serious issues relating to women’s reproductive healthcare, neither supported the claim that agonizing menstrual cramps were analogous on a scale alongside heart attack pain. Another British outlet built upon Guillebaud’s “heart attack” quote and added that “research” substantiated it, but we were unable to locate the purported research and could find no links to similar material. However, if research exists, it has possibly been drowned out by references to one quote from one doctor that sounds like an opinion-based analogy: It was true that Guillebaud told Quartz in February 2016 “that patients have described the cramping pain as ‘almost as bad as having a heart attack. '” However, the reproductive expert relayed anecdotal information from patients presumably enduring significant pain and perhaps not the most objective arbiters of degrees of agony. Such a patient-centric observation would be of limited use if the patients in question had not themselves experienced heart attacks to which they might compare the level of relative pain. The pain associated with dysmenorrhea is known to be severe, but its comparison to heart attack pain by a single doctor (not “doctors”) stems not from research but the anecdotes of patients.


Earlier this year, [John DePetro] was accused of sexually assaulting a female co-worker.

Rhode Island, Legal Issues, Crime, Pundits, Unions, Women, For Our Daughters RI,

WPRO-AM talk-radio host John DePetro has been shown to be factually challenged when he makes statements about others. His record with PolitiFact Rhode Island is two False rulings and two  rulings. So the irony didn't escape us when DePetro wrote to us on Jan. 2 to complain that a group was telling a lie about him. At issue is a petition on Change.org that seeks his removal. It had 6,659 "signatures" as of 2:15 p.m. on Jan. 2. (Supporters are asked to give their names and addresses and click on a "Sign" button, but only the names of commenters are shown on the site.) The petition comes from For Our Daughters RI, a union-backed group created after DePetro, a harsh critic of unions, called union protesters "parasites," "cockroaches," "hags" and "whores." The protesters had been picketing a fundraiser for Rhode Island General Treasurer Gina Raimondo, then an unannounced candidate for governor, accusing her of being a "crook" who "cooked the books" to build support for the overhaul of the state pension system. The petition says DePetro has made other hateful statements against women and "earlier this year, he was accused of sexually assaulting a female co-worker." The petition started circulating in November 2013. DePetro has taken issue with most of the allegations. We were interested in the sexual-assault claim because it was news to us. "I have never been accused of 'sexual assault,' that is a complete lie," he said in his email. "In July of 2012, I was accused of sexual harassment, but that is far different than 'sexual assault.'" A sexual harassment civil suit was indeed filed against him in 2012, not 2013, as the petition says. We read the complaint. It does not mention sexual assault, a criminal charge that can put someone in prison. In the filing, a former coworker accused DePetro of allegedly making sexual advances to her, showing her images of women that he said he was attracted to, and ultimately asking her if she would engage in group sex with him. DePetro has denied the allegations. (WPRO officials were also named in the suit. DePetro's supervisor was accused of not properly acting against the alleged infractions. However, there is no record in Superior Court that, in the 15 months since the suit was filed, any of the defendants have been officially notified that they're being sued.) We called Maureen Martin, chairwoman of For Our Daughters RI, to ask about the sexual-assault allegation. Martin is also political activities director of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, a labor union. Martin confirmed that the allegation in the petition referred to the 2012 sexual harassment suit. She asked to get back to us. By that night, the petition had been altered. The year had been changed to 2012. As of 2 p.m. Friday, the total was 6,671. However, the allegation of sexual assault was not modified. In a statement emailed that evening, Martin said that in the harassment complaint, DePetro's accuser "alleges that Mr. DePetro made multiple 'sexual advances' toward her. These advances were unwelcome and 'inappropriate,' the complaint contends." "The United States Department of Justice Office on Violence Against Women defines sexual assault, in part, as: 'any type of sexual contact or behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient,'" Martin said. "We believe the alleged, unwelcome 'sexual advances' referenced in the aforementioned court filing fall under the classification of 'behavior that occurs without the explicit consent of the recipient.'" We checked the Justice Department's definition. The other half of the definition, which Martin did not quote, says: "Falling under the definition of sexual assault are sexual activities as forced sexual intercourse, forcible sodomy, child molestation, incest, fondling, and attempted rape." Sexual harassment is not mentioned. Our ruling For Our Daughters RI, in its petition calling for the removal of talk-radio host John DePetro, said, "Earlier this year, he was accused of sexually assaulting a female co-worker." DePetro was accused of sexual harassment in a lawsuit filed in 2012, not 2013. The suit, which has laid dormant according to court records, never alleges sexual assault. Both sexual harassment and sexual assault are serious allegations. But the former is a civil matter and the latter can send you to prison, and relegate an ex-convict to a life of a registered sex offender. We would expect a group devoted to protecting women to know the difference. Yet For Our Daughters RI is standing by its allegation, selectively quoting from a federal definition of sexual assault and neglecting the fact that the definition does not include sexual harassment. We rate its statement ! (With research by Providence Journal reporter Katie Mulvaney. If you have a claim you’d like PolitiFact Rhode Island to check, email us at [email protected] And follow us on Twitter: @politifactri.)


Massachusetts retailers can again sell pot vaping products.

Explanation: Massachusetts marijuana retailers can again begin selling vaping products, provided they are newly manufactured and screened for contaminants.

Vaping, Massachusetts, Public health, Marijuana

The Cannabis Control Commission made the announcement Thursday. It’s not immediately clear when the products will be available for purchase. The order allows the sale of vaporizer products that are manufactured starting Thursday and that pass screens for contaminants including vitamin E acetate that are required under the commission’s testing protocols. The commission’s initial quarantine remains in place for all other marijuana vaporizer products manufactured before Dec. 12. The order comes a day after state officials ended an emergency ban on the sale of unflavored vaping products and approved new restrictions on flavored vaping products. The Public Health Council vote rescinded a temporary ban on the sale of all vaping products that was imposed by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker’s administration in September. State officials say they have identified 90 probable and confirmed cases of vaping-related lung illnesses in Massachusetts. Three of those people have died.


WHO hails 'triumph' as Merck's Ebola vaccine gets European green light.

Explanation: The world’s first Ebola vaccine was recommended for approval by European drugs regulators on Friday in a move hailed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a “triumph for public health” that would save many lives.

The vaccine, developed by U.S. drugmaker Merck & Co, is already being used under emergency guidelines to try to protect people against the spread of a deadly Ebola outbreak in Democratic Republic of Congo. It protects against the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus - the one that most commonly causes outbreaks. The shot is also being reviewed under a fast-track system by regulators in the United States, with a decision expected in the first quarter of next year. “This vaccine has already saved many lives in the current Ebola outbreak, and the decision by European regulators will help it to eventually save many more,” the WHO’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. The Congo Ebola outbreak has killed more than 2,100 people since the middle of last year. It is the second-largest Ebola outbreak in history, after a 2013-16 epidemic in West Africa that killed more than 11,300. The Merck vaccine, which the company has now brand-named Ervebo, is likely to get a full marketing license from the European Commission in a few weeks. Roger Perlmutter, president of Merck Research Laboratories, said the company’s priority now was to get regulatory approval of its Ervebo manufacturing site in Germany so that licensed supply of the vaccine “can be used to support global public health preparedness”. Merck’s vaccine is being used in Congo in a so-called “ring vaccination” approach, in which people who may have been in contact with someone newly infected with Ebola are traced and offered the shot to protect them. Charlie Weller, head of vaccines at the Wellcome Trust global heath charity said the Merck shot had already saved “countless lives” in the country. “Having this vaccine available under research conditions has been key in preventing the ongoing outbreak in the DRC spiraling into a repeat of the 2014-16 epidemic, where 11,000 people died,” she told Reuters. Health authorities in Kinshasa said last week they planned to introduce an experimental second Ebola vaccine, developed by  drugmaker Johnson & Johnson, in the country’s eastern provinces in November. The Ebola virus causes hemorrhagic fever and spreads from person to person through direct contact with body fluids. It kills around half of those it infects. There are currently no licensed treatments for the deadly infection, but scientists said in August they were a step closer to being able to cure it after two experimental drugs showed survival rates of as much as 90% in a clinical trial in Congo.


FDA Clears P-Cure Upright Imaging Solution  for Proton Therapy Enhancement

Explanation: P-Cure Ltd. device We’re fully prepared to believe that there are ways to more accurately administer proton beam therapy with fewer side effects and lower costs. This release makes just those claims and yet provides nothing to back the claims up. There is no quantification of benefits. No true exploration of risks. No explanation of the quality of the evidence. And no true comparison of alternatives. The release muddies the water on what kind of nod it got from the US’s regulatory agency. The company received FDA “clearance” to market the device but not an “approval.” (See the discussion under the Quality of Evidence criteria.) Proton beam therapy represents an alternative form of radiotherapy compared to conventional x-rays. Interest in this form of therapy has grown based upon its ability to deliver higher doses of radiation to a smaller field. This may improve the benefit and reduce the harm for patients with cancer who need radiotherapy. Although not a focus in this release, the proven outcomes of proton vs. conventional radiotherapy in terms of benefits (increased survival) and harms (less damage to surrounding normal tissue) are less clear than the proponents of proton therapy would like to admit. For many cancers, conventional therapy may be adequate. Here the question is whether the delivery of proton beam therapy to patients who are getting it can be enhanced by delivering the treatment to the patient in a seated compared to a flat position. One can imagine for some patients that may lead to a more comfortable treatment, but it isn’t clear how many would derive a measurable benefit. The release focuses on decreases in the discomfort of treatment and implies that some who may not otherwise tolerate this therapy could now have it. All interesting, but no information is provided to support the release’s claims. Finally, the release focuses on the potential benefits to the proton beam center in terms of its costs — but patients will have other questions about cost such as whether the device is more expensive than what the center is currently using. If so, those costs may be passed on to insurers and thus patients based upon the specifics of their policy. As such, it isn’t clear whether the “clinical breakthrough” or “paradigm shift” will be apparent to the average patient undergoing this form of cancer treatment.

We were pleased to see the potential economic impacts of this therapy raised in the release. The release says, “In addition to the clinical benefits of P-Cure’s solution, there are also significant economic advantages to treating patients in a seated position.” However, the cost savings refer to the reduced capital investment for the proton beam center, not the cost for patients. The release is basically arguing that the device will decrease the cost for the center per patient treated, and will accomplish this by making it easier to get treatment done and make it more accessible, affording extra time to bring in more patients. This is not exactly the cost that the patient is thinking about. We give the release credit for raising the financial issue but at least one cost-related number is needed here. There are many claims of benefits in this release, none of them quantified: For the patient, the real question is whether this device makes the treatment any better. If not, then does it make it any easier, more comfortable or shorter? There is no data provided. The release makes no mention of any harms associated with this therapy. As noted above, it makes passing and not numerically defined, reference to the potential harms of standard proton therapy, meaning radiation hitting parts of the body that don’t need radiation treatment. The release states indirectly who this wouldn’t work for by giving the cancers that may be treated. The question of harm/benefit also depends on what the goal of the device. Is it to help patients already selected for proton beam therapy or to bring in patients who otherwise would be treated using conventional radiotherapy? Consideration of benefits and harms would differ, but neither is addressed. The release is less precise than it should be when using the term “approval” when it says the company “has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its patented upright imaging solution.” The company received “clearance” to market the device but not an “approval.” The implication of a premarket “approval” is that the company had to provide proof of safety and effectiveness, whereas a “clearance” such as we have here indicates only that the devices was deemed similar to other approved devices. See the FDA’s discussion on “What does it mean when FDA “clears” or “approves” a medical device?” According to an August 8, 2016 letter to P-Cure granting marketing approval, the FDA wrote that the agency has “determined the device is substantially equivalent (for the indications for use stated in the enclosure) to legally marketed predicate devices…that do not require approval of a premarket approval application (PMA). You may, therefore, market the device, subject to the general controls provisions of the Act.” This is an extremely low bar. The clearance doesn’t require any proof that it benefits patients or doesn’t harm them. The device was deemed substantially similar to existing devices that are already FDA approved. The FDA market clearance letter further stated the device’s “Indications for Use:” “The P-ARTIS CT scanner is a Computed Tomography X-Ray System intended to produce images of the body by computer reconstruction of X-ray transmission data taken at different angles and planes. The system may include signal analysis and display equipment, patient and equipment supports, components and accessories. The system is intended for scanning patients while seated.” There is no disease mongering in the release. It just plainly states that “Adult and pediatric patients who will initially benefit from this clinical breakthrough will be those treated for cancers of the lung, breast, chest, the head and neck, and lower torso.” We’d like to point out, though, that the release implies that there is an abundance of demand for this type of therapy (whether evidence-based or not) and the only limit is the supply. It is clear that the release comes from P-Cure, the company that is producing the proton therapy being touted in the release. The device is being compared to existing devices used to deliver proton beam therapy. As such, there is a comparison. although it’s a bit opaque. It points out that standard proton therapy may radiate healthy body parts inadvertently. It causes more discomfort. It costs too much. These statements could have been elucidated, preferably through quantification, to create a meaningful comparison for reporters and patients. The release makes it clear that this therapy has just been cleared and that proton therapy is currently not widely available. The release refers to this as a “clinical breakthrough.” While that may be a heavy-handed statement, the device is a modification of prone delivery of proton therapy and is clearly a device that is not currently in wide use. The release uses the terms “clinical breakthrough” and “paradigm shifting”  to describe the device but without the evidence (as noted above), this falls short. It’s unclear that the benefits will be apparent to the average patient undergoing this form of cancer treatment. It could be that the statement that the device is a “paradigm shifting change from the current method of treatment with the patient in the horizontal position” is justifiable — if a bit too ebullient — since the paradigm for proton therapy now has people lying down. If this treatment is successful it will have more people sitting up. We would prefer, though, that if a release is going to make as many claims as this one does that it provide some evidence.


After Fukushima, mother fights to get her life back.

Explanation: Even before the March 11 earthquake and tsunami struck knocking out the Fukushima nuclear plant, Aya’s life was a struggle.

She had divorced her abusive husband and was left on her own to care and provide for her two daughters. Now, six months after she fled her home just 9 km (6 miles) away from the radiation-spewing plant, the 26-year old single mother is barely surviving. She has no job, languishes in hiding from her violent ex-husband in temporary housing and will probably never see her home again. “It feels like a hole has opened inside me. My home was so important to me and I felt safe there,” said Aya who would not give her family name or disclose her exact location out of fear her ex-husband could find her. “It’s like time has just stopped. Ever since March 11, the time has stopped for me.”   The tsunami left 20,000 dead or missing, set off the world’s worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl a quarter of a century ago and forced 80,000 to evacuate. It hit particularly hard those who were already down on their luck. There were reports of lone deaths in temporary housing and suicide rates jumped in the quake-battered regions. After the disaster Aya was evacuated to a nearby gymnasium, but could not stay there as Noa - her younger four-year-old daughter - cannot walk because of a split spine and needs special care. The older, six-year-old Kurea has no disabilities and goes to school. “Noa’s father then called and we went to Saitama (north of Tokyo). He said the hospitals were up and running there, so I decided to do it for Noa’s sake,” says Aya as she puts braces around her younger daughter’s legs as they prepare for a trip to the kindergarten. “He soon started beating us up. It was so insane, I just had to flee again. Ignoring the risk of radiation I came back up to Fukushima prefecture,” says Aya, zipping her daughter’s backpack. She now lives in a modest apartment in one of the prefecture’s bigger cities sharing the fate of the tens of thousands that six months after the disaster still do not have a permanent home. About 10,000 still live in evacuation shelters, 34,000 stay in hotels or with relatives or friends and 40,000 live in temporary housing. “I also lost my job as an insurance agent as my company moved to a different town,” says Aya. With her daughter in kindergarten, she goes job hunting and says any job that would let her check on Noa from time to time will do. Landing a job is tough, though, as the influx of evacuees from the tsunami-hit areas doubled the number of job-seekers in the Fukushima prefecture. Like other evacuees, she blames the government for dragging its feet on mapping out the area’s future. Only last week, Tokyo said it would aim to halve radiation over two years in places contaminated by the nuclear disaster, removing soil, plants and trees in an area spanning thousands of square km. But it is not clear when, if ever, the evacuees will be able to return home. “I want them to come out into the open and to say it clearly: you will or will not be able to go back to your place. If not, I want them to tell me what am I, and thousands of other people, supposed to do,” says Aya in a trembling voice. “I have to wonder if I’ll be able to build my life here. I just can’t even begin to think about what to do in the future.”


Congo Ebola survivor passes college exam taken in isolation.

Explanation: The young Ebola patient who took his college entrance exam while being treated in isolation has passed the demanding test, to the joy of many in Congo where his story is now well-known.

AP Top News, Health, Ebola virus, Africa, International News, Education, General News

Claude Mabowa is among the nearly 3,000 people who have been confirmed to have Ebola in what has become the second-deadliest outbreak of the virus in history. Now the celebrated Ebola survivor looks forward to realizing his dreams and showing other Ebola patients there is hope. “I was very happy and joyful when I saw the Ministry of Education text message on my phone reassuring me that I have just passed ... despite the precarious conditions,” he told The Associated Press. “Being sick in an Ebola center, most people do not come back but also many people lose hope of living.” Mabowa’s mother had died of Ebola, and he told the AP in July that her greatest hope was that he would attend college. That requires passing the secondary school baccalaureate, or “bac.” “I was afraid that I was sick and that I was going to miss the exams, but fortunately the Ebola treatment center officials had appealed for me to take the exams,” he said. “I had already lost six members of our family, including my mother, who asked me to continue with studies because that is the key to life.” The 21-year-old was able to take the exam after staffers at the treatment center run by the Alliance for International Medical Action, or ALIMA, in the eastern city of Beni came up with a solution. They found a school official willing to proctor the exam as Mabowa took it safely behind a window. The papers were passed to him without touching him. After finishing, he held the pages up one by one to the window so they could be photographed with a smartphone and then emailed to officials for scoring. Then his work and his pencil were incinerated. This week Mabowa, who was released from the center in July, celebrated with friends by throwing powder on each other’s heads, a local tradition when passing the exam. His Latin teacher, Muhindo Bukangali Loboto, said he prayed for him every day. “Claude was among the best-educated who loved his studies and he has shown us what he is capable of,” he said. With nearly 2,000 confirmed deaths in eastern Congo, the Ebola outbreak is far from over. Health workers have been challenged by community mistrust and insecurity caused by years of rebel attacks. Mabowa is a glimmer of hope. He says now that he has survived Ebola and passed his exam, the next hurtle is going to a university. He said he hopes to study political science at the University of Kisangani, and he appealed for support. “After Ebola there is life,” he said. ___ Follow Africa news at https://twitter.com/AP_Africa


Static electricity is the cause of an increase in gas station refueling fires.

Explanation: What's true: Static electricity can touch off refueling fires at gas stations. What's false: Static electricity has not definitively been identified as the cause of a number of gas station refueling fires.

[Collected on the Internet, 2002] Bob Renkes of Petroleum Equipment Institute is working on a campaign to try and make people aware of fires as a result of “static” at gas pumps. His company has researched 150 cases of these fires. His results were very surprising: 1) Out of 150 cases, almost all of them were women. 2) Almost all cases involved the person getting back in their vehicle while the nozzle was still pumping gas, when finished and they went back to pull the nozzle out the fire started, as a result of static. 3) Most had on rubber-soled shoes. 4) Most men never get back in their vehicle until completely finished. This is why they are seldom involved in these types of fires. 5) Don’t ever use cell phones when pumping gas 6) It is the vapors that come out of the gas that cause the fire, when connected with static charges. 7) There were 29 fires where the vehicle was reentered and the nozzle was touched during refueling from a variety of makes and models. Some resulting in extensive damage to the vehicle, to the station, and to the customer. 8) Seventeen fires that occurred before, during or immediately after the gas cap was removed and before fueling began. Mr. Renkes stresses to NEVER get back into your vehicle while filling it with gas. If you absolutely HAVE to get in your vehicle while the gas is pumping, make sure you get out, close the door TOUCHING THE METAL, before you ever pull the nozzle out. This way the static from your body will be discharged before you ever remove the nozzle. As I mentioned earlier, The Petroleum Equipment Institute, along with several other companies now, are really trying to make the public aware of this danger. You can find out more information by going to http://www.pei.org . Once here, click in the center of the screen where it says “Stop Static”. I ask you to please send this information to ALL your family and friends, especially those who have kids in the car with them while pumping gas. If this were to happen to them, they may not be able to get the children out in time. Unlike many Internet-circulated warnings, this one had a fair bit of substance to it: fires at gas pumps were on the rise, and static electricity was considered one of the likely culprits in that increase. However, there’s a great deal wrong with the summary quoted in the example above, a situation that illustrates the danger of accepting as gospel whatever turns up in your inbox. We’ll take you through it, sorting information from misinformation. For starters, although Robert N. Renkes, Executive Vice President & General Counsel of the Petroleum Equipment Institute, did prepare a summary of refueling fires which appears on the PEI web site, most of the statements in the text of the circulating message quoted above grossly misrepresent that summary:  The summary appearing on the PEI site states that “To date over 150 refueling fires have been documented that appear to be caused by a discharge of static electricity”; it does not say data from those 150 fires were used in preparing the summary (and it includes information about only 81 gas station fire incident reports). More specifically, neither the summary nor any of the incident reports makes any statement about or identifies the gender of persons involved in gas station fires. The PEI summary states:  Twenty (20) reports described fires before the refueling process began, when the fueler touched the gas cap or the area close to it after leaving the vehicle. Twenty-nine (29) fires occurred when the fueler returned to the vehicle during the refueling process and then touched the nozzle after leaving the vehicle. Fifteen (15) fires do not involve either of these two fact situations. We received insufficient information on seventeen (17) fires reported by NHTSA to confidently categorize them. In other words, 29 out of 81 cited cases of gas station fires involved fires reported to have occurred when drivers returned to their cars during the refueling process. A 36% figure is rarely equated with the term “almost all.”  The summary states that “Rubber-soled shoes were worn by the refuelers in 94% of the accidents where footwear was identified (emphasis ours). Whether this figure is representative of all persons involved in gas station fires and whether footwear is a contributory factor to gas station fires is not stated. As noted above, neither the PEI summary nor the cited incident reports makes any statement about or identifies the gender of persons involved in gas station fires. At this point we have to wonder whether the author of this piece was reading the same summary we are. The PEI’s summary states quite plainly that No cell phones were involved in any reports of gas station fires. Mr. Renkes states in his summary that “In many of the reports we received, the refueler became charged prior to or during the refueling process through friction between clothing and the car seat to such an extent that electrostatic discharges to the vehicle body, fuel cap or dispensing nozzle occurred,”  but he makes no statement about whether or not drivers should return to their vehicles during the refueling process. (“Never re-enter your vehicle” is one of the “Three Rules for Safe Refueling” listed on the PEI’s Stop Static page; it is not a part of Mr. Renkes’ summary.) Are gas station fires caused by static discharge a real danger to motorists? As the PEI notes, “the dispensing of gasoline into the fuel tank of a motor vehicle is a safe operation,” and  “Americans pump gasoline into their cars between 16 and 18 billion times a year generally without incident,” but fires related to refueling at gas stations seem to be on the rise, and many of these fires are apparently not the result of the usual causes: open flames (mostly from cigarette smokers), sparks from the engine compartments of automobiles (primarily from drivers refueling cars with their motors running), or a lack of electrical continuity between nozzles and grounded dispensers. The PEI states that they “don’t have any definitive answers” about the reasons for this increase, but they’re trying “to collect information on similar incidents so the industry can get a better handle on the cause(s) of the problem.” Since virtually all the reported fires not attributable to the usual causes cited above have occurred during exceptionally dry weather, the working theory is that static electricity was the source of ignition. Why fires touched off by static electricity may have increased significantly of late remains undetermined, however, and groups such as the PEI are investigating several possible explanations:        News reports of gas station fires caused by static electricity are a mixed bag of claims, warnings, and skepticism. In 2001, for example, automaker BMW announced a recall to refit cars they said had been responsible for two static-related fires:  BMW AG said it is recalling all of its new Mini cars sold in Britain to fix a design fault that already has caused two fires — days before the relaunched classic car goes on sale across Europe. The improved grounding is to prevent static electricity from producing a spark when the fuel nozzle is inserted into the gas tank, BMW spokesman Rudolf Probst said. The company blamed static electricity for igniting fuel vapor and causing two small fires, one in a car at a dealership and the other during testing.1  Two gas station fires in Missouri that same year were attributed to static as well, prompting a warning from the officials at the state’s agriculture department:  In Macon, about 60 miles north of Columbia, a minivan burned up at a Casey’s Store on Nov. 17. Five children inside the van escaped safely. The Macon Fire Department said the fire probably began when the motorist touched the nozzle at the end of fueling, making a static spark that ignited fumes. She was wearing a wool sweater and told firefighters she had been bothered by static all day. In Hannibal, 100 miles north of St. Louis, a pickup was damaged Dec. 26 in a similar fire. The motorist dropped the flaming nozzle onto the ground, spreading the flames. “The guy went to grab the nozzle, and the next thing he knew there was fire everywhere,” said Hannibal Assistant Fire Chief David Hymers. “He had been sitting in his truck because of the cold. The spark could have come from him sliding across his seat.”2   Cold, dry air causes more static electricity, and gasoline vapors naturally are released during fueling, said Ron Hooker, administrator of the [state agriculture] department’s fuel program. “Combine that with the fabric friction caused by people getting in and out of their cars when filling their tanks, and you have the potential for static sparks,” Hooker said. Last year, state inspectors investigated 14 gas station fires. In each case, customers got out from their vehicles, placed gasoline nozzles in the fuel tanks, began fueling and then got back into their vehicles. When the pumps shut off, the customers got out of their vehicles and reached for the gas nozzles, causing a spark that ignited the vapors, Hooker said. To reduce the risk of static electricity fires, Hooker said motorists should touch the metal part of their vehicle doors while getting out to put gas in their vehicles. That should discharge any built-up static electricity before the fueling begins, he said. After fueling, motorists should again touch their vehicles far away from the gas nozzles before returning the nozzles to the pumps, Hooker said. 3  Portable fuel containers have also been claimed as one of the leading causes of static-caused fires:  Do you know how to use a portable fuel container safely? It’s a task that must always be done with safety in mind, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the American Petroleum Institute and other safety and fuel experts. “Gasoline fumes are volatile. Static electricity can create a spark that could cause a fire if it’s near gasoline fumes,” said Commissioner Harold Hairston of the Philadelphia Fire Department. He is a past chairman of the Metropolitan Fire Chiefs Association. “Even many safety conscious people may not be aware of the proper way to fill a portable fuel container,” Hairston said. “Grounding is essential to avoid any build-up of static electricity that could pose a risk,” Hairston said. Grounding, simply put, provides a path for an electric current to discharge safely — the electricity is dissipated in the ground, when a portable fuel container is grounded. “Every time you pump gasoline, a charge of electricity builds up on gasoline as it flows through a pipe or hose and this charge takes several seconds to several minutes to dissipate after the gasoline has reached the tank or container,” explains Bob Renkes, executive director of the Petroleum Equipment Institute. “That risk is avoided when you pump gasoline into your car, because both the gasoline dispenser and the vehicle are grounded. “But a portable fuel container may not be grounded. For safety, you need to place the container on the ground and fill it on the ground,” he said. “Placing the container on the ground makes it easier for the electrical charge to escape.”  “To help avoid risks, follow safety procedures every time you use a portable fuel container. Don’t take any chances,” Hairston said.4  Some claims of static-triggered fires have been disputed by investigating officials:  A man filling his motor home with gasoline narrowly escaped serious injury yesterday after an explosion in the gas tank set his vehicle on fire, sent nearby pumps up in flames and charred the exterior of the gas station. [Manor Township Fire Chief Dan Dunmire] said static electricity on the car might have sparked in the gas tank and caused it to catch on fire. He admitted his explanation might cause concern to people who pump gas. “It could happen at any gas pump, at any time,” he said, “to cars, pick-up trucks, anything.”  But Randy Brozenick, director of Armstrong County’s Emergency Management Agency, called the static electricity explanation “speculation.”  “This one’s got me baffled,” said Brozenick, who has investigated explosions at gas stations before. “There really wasn’t anything near that gas tank.”  Damages to the gas station, which is owned and operated by Lockard Co. of Indiana, Pa., could reach the “six figures,” said Ron McLean, retail sales manager of Lockard. Like Brozenick, McLean said he was also unconvinced by the static electricity argument. He said heating units inside the motor home might have contributed to the fire.5  Even reports that maintain that “static-induced fires are well documented” point out that no case of a fire triggered by a cell phone — a commonly-cited cause of gas station fires — has ever been confirmed:  During recent months, reports of flash fires during refueling have increased so much that industry executives and engineers find it necessary to alert the public. BP Amoco has posted an advisory on its Web site, and other gasoline retailers are considering pump-side warnings similar to QT’s. The incidents most often involve flames shooting from a vehicle’s gas tank opening. The primary culprit appears to be static electricity. In many cases, the victims got in and out of their vehicles during fueling. Rubbing against fabric creates an electric charge just like the one that causes a shock when you touch something metal after shuffling across carpet. Injuries have included burns and singed hair. At least one woman was killed when she removed a flaming nozzle from a gas tank and accidentally doused herself with gasoline, according to Bob Renkes, executive vice president of the Petroleum Equipment Institute. Considering that Americans pump gasoline into their cars more than 16 billion times per year, flash fires at the tank are rare. Metro Atlantans have even less to worry about. Since the region doesn’t meet federal air quality standards, gas pumps here are required to have vapor recovery systems that suck the gasoline fumes back into the nozzle. Travel season is near, however, so Atlantans should still beware. Unlike recent warnings about cell phones igniting fires at gas pumps — a case of which has never been confirmed — the static-induced fires are well documented.6  For those who feel the possibility of static-caused fires warrants caution at the gas pumps, the Oklahoma Corporation Commission offers the following tips:  Tips for safe refueling:  Avoid spills:


Britain unveils ban on e-cigarettes for under-18s.

Explanation: Britain said on Sunday it would ban the sale of electronic cigarettes to children aged under 18, citing possible adverse health effects and outlining a need for further medical research.

E-cigarettes, which are puffed like a regular cigarette but deliver nicotine by vaporizing liquid rather than burning tobacco, have grown in popularity and some analysts predict the market could outpace conventional cigarettes within a decade. “We do not yet know the harm that e-cigarettes can cause to adults let alone to children, but we do know they are not risk- free,” England’s Chief Medical Officer Sally Davies said in a statement. She added that e-cigarettes can produce toxic chemicals and that variations in the strength of the nicotine solutions between different products meant they could end up being “extremely damaging” to young people’s health. The global market for e-cigarettes was estimated at more than $2 billion last year by market consultant Euromonitor. Under-18s are already banned from buying conventional cigarettes in Britain. Sunday’s announcement included plans to make it illegal for adults to buy regular cigarettes for consumption by under 18s. The changes will be written into a bill already on its way through parliament and are expected to have cross-party support, although the opposition Labour party criticized the government for not acting more quickly. The battery-powered metal tubes of e-cigarettes are seen as less harmful than regular cigarettes and a useful way to wean smokers off their habits. Critics, however say they can act as a gateway to nicotine addiction and that more research is needed on the health implications. Regulators in Europe and the United States have been debating policy towards the industry. The European Union reached an agreement in December to allow e-cigarettes to be sold as consumer products rather than more tightly regulated medical devices.


Beta-Propiolactone is in vaccines and is known to cause cancer, suspected gastrointestinal, liver, nerve and respiratory, skin and sense organ poison. It may be present in trace amounts of some vaccines. It is potentially carcinogenic, but only in much larger amounts than would be in a vaccine. The antibiotics gentamicin sulfate and polymyxin b are in vaccines and can cause allergic reactions ranging from mild to life-threatening. Traces of these antibiotics can end up in certain vaccines, but would only cause a reaction in someone severely allergic. Genetically modified yeast, animal, bacterial and viral DNA in vaccines can be incorporated into the recipient’s DNA causing unknown genetic mutations. Modified DNA can be used in the production of some vaccines, but is very unlikely to end up in the final product. Even if it did, there’s no evidence it can cause mutations. Glutaraldehyde is in vaccines and is poisonous if ingested and causes birth defects in animals. There are trace amounts in some vaccines from manufacturing, and not enough to cause harm. Formaldehyde is in vaccines and causes cancer in humans among other issues and is banned from vaccines in most European countries. It’s not banned in Europe. There are only trace amounts in certain vaccines and not enough to be carcinogenic. Latex rubber is in vaccines and causes life-threatening allergic reactions. Latex is used in the packaging of some vaccines, which could potentially cause harm if someone’s strongly allergic to it. Human and animal cells from sources like aborted foetuses are in vaccines and are linked to childhood leukaemia and diabetes. They may be used in certain vaccines’ production, but are unlikely to make it to the final product. Mercury (aka thimerosal or thiomersal) is in vaccines and can damage brain, gut, liver, bone marrow, nervous system and kidneys, is linked to autoimmune disorder, autism. Thiomersal isn’t in any UK vaccines any more. This is down to concern around a slightly different mercury-based chemical. MSG is in vaccines and is linked to birth defects, developmental delays, infertility and is banned in Europe. It’s not banned in Europe. It’s used in some vaccines to stabilise them. There’s no strong evidence it causes these problems in humans. Neomycin sulphate, an antibiotic, is in vaccines and can lead to epilepsy, brain damage and allergic reactions. Trace amounts of this antibiotic may end up in certain vaccines. If you are allergic to it could cause an allergic reaction. Phenol / phenoxyethanol is in vaccines and is used as antifreeze. It is toxic to all cells and can destroy the immune system. These chemicals have been used in vaccines as preservatives. They are not in antifreeze. Polysorbate 80 and 20 are in vaccines and cause cancer in animals and are linked to autoimmune issues and infertility. Tiny amounts of Polysorbate 80 is in a type of flu vaccine. There isn’t evidence ingesting it is linked to these issues in humans. Tri(n) butylphosphate is in vaccines and is potentially damaging to the kidneys and the nervous system. We can find no evidence of this being used in vaccines in the UK. Claim 1 of 14


Hepatitis A on rise in Colorado with nearly 300 known cases.

Explanation: Almost 300 people have contracted hepatitis A in Colorado since an increase in the contagious liver disease began in 2018.

Colorado, Health, General News, Denver, Hepatitis, Liver disease

At least two of those people have died, according to the state health department. The rise in hepatitis A is part of a nationwide increase that has sickened at least 28,600 people and killed over 280, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. One Colorado death was in Denver and the other in nearby Arapahoe County. Health officials in Denver are working to curb the disease through a vaccination campaign. Over 18,200 people in Colorado have received hepatitis A vaccinations since October 2018, according to state health officials. Contaminated food, beverages and objects spread the virus, the Denver Post reports. Homeless people, people with substance abuse problems and people who are incarcerated are at higher risk by having poor nutrition, living in crowded conditions or lacking preventive health care.


State officials warn of algae bloom along Boston river.

Explanation: Massachusetts officials are advising people not to wade into parts of the Charles River because of a dangerous algae bloom.

Water quality, Boston, General News, Environment, Science, Algae, Massachusetts

The state Department of Conservation and Recreation said Thursday a cyanobacteria bloom has been detected in the river. It’s advising people and pets to avoid all contact with the water from the Boston University bridge to the Museum of Science until further notice. Officials will retest the river until cyanobacteria levels return to acceptable limits. The 80-mile (129-kilometer) river scored a “B″ grade for water quality from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last month. The once-industrial river earned an “A-minus” last year. An “A″ grade means the river almost always met standards for boating and swimming. A “B″ means it met standards for almost all boating and some swimming.


Australian animal health firm apparently leaves Lawrence.

Explanation: An Australian animal health company that received incentives from the city of Lawrence and Douglas County apparently has closed its Lawrence headquarters.

In 2015, Integrated Animal Health moved its global headquarters to Lawrence, prompting the city and county to approve incentives such as subsidized rent and a $100,000 forgivable loan, subject to a three-year performance agreement. Assistant City Manager Diane Stoddard says the city hasn’t received formal word from the company but officials believe Integrated Animal Health is no longer operating. A former company CEO, Blake Hawley, told the Lawrence Journal-World that he and members of the company’s local board resigned last year amid financial questions concerning the company’s founder. The company had promised to eventually expand to 50 employees and a $4 million annual payroll in Lawrence. ___ Information from: Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World, http://www.ljworld.com