Health Archives - Page 66 of 89

Fukushima Nuclear Plant Reports Another Radioactive Water Leak

By MARI YAMAGUCHI

Oct 3, 2013

TOKYO — TOKYO (AP) — Another day, another radioactive-water spill. The operator of the meltdown-plagued Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant says at least 430 liters (110 gallons) spilled when workers overfilled a storage tank that lacked a gauge that could have warned them of the danger.

The amount is tiny compared to the untold thousands of tons of radioactive water that have leaked, much of it into the Pacific Ocean, since a massive earthquake and tsunami wrecked the plant in 2011. But the error is one of many the operator has committed as it struggles to manage a seemingly endless, tainted flow.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday workers detected the water spilling from the top of one large tank when they were patrolling the site the night before. The tank is one of about 1,000 erected on the grounds around the plant to hold water used to cool the melted nuclear fuel in the broken reactors.

TEPCO said the water spilled out of a concrete barrier surrounding the tank and believed that most of it reached the sea via a ditch next to the river.

The new leak is sure to add to public concern and criticism of TEPCO and the government for their handling of the nuclear crisis. In August, the utility reported a 300-ton leak from another storage tank, one of a string of leaks in recent months.

That came after the utility acknowledged that contaminated groundwater was seeping into ocean at a rate of 300 tons a day.

TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Ono told an urgent news conference Thursday that the overflow occurred at a tank without a water gauge and standing on an unlevel ground, slightly tilting toward the sea. The tank was already nearly full, but workers pumped in more contaminated water into it to maximize capacity as the plant was facing storage crunch.

Experts have faulted TEPCO for sloppiness in its handling of the water management, including insufficient tank inspection records, lack of water gauges, as well as connecting hoses lying directly on the grass-covered ground. Until recently, only one worker was assigned to 500 tanks in a two-hour patrol.

In recent meetings, regulators criticized TEPCO for even lacking basic skills to properly measure radioactivity in contaminated areas, and taking too long to find causes in case of problems. They also have criticized the one-foot (30-centimeter) high protective barriers around the tanks as being too low.

The government has said it will spend $470 billion to build an underground “ice wall” around the reactor and turbine buildings to block groundwater inflows and prevent potential leaks from spreading. It is also funding more advanced water treatment equipment to make the contaminated water clean enough to be eventually released into the sea.

Free HIV tests for eligible gay & bisexual men, Oct. 1

Know your status – and learn about pre-exposure medication

National Gay Men’s HIV Awareness Day, Sept. 27

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. – Snohomish County currently ranks third in the state for new HIV cases, following King and Pierce counties. Recent data show that 58 percent of all new HIV cases in Washington State are among men who have sex with other men (MSM).Gay and bisexual men make up less than 10 percent of the population, but account for almost 60 percent of the burden of HIV disease.

In support of National Gay Men’s HIV Awareness Day, the Snohomish Health District will host a free evening of information and testing from 4-7 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 1 in Suite 108 at the Rucker Building, 3020 Rucker Ave., Everett, Wash. The event is directed to gay and bisexual men who are at risk for HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. No appointment needed. The event includes door prizes and light refreshments, and every man screened will receive a financial incentive.

The Health District also will offer free testing to qualified men for Hepatitis C and syphilis, and vaccine for Hepatitis A and B. Both the Hepatitis C and HIV tests are “rapid” antibody tests, requiring only a drop of blood pricked from a finger. Test results will be available within 30 minutes. The tests are anonymous and confidential.

“HIV remains a major health issue for the MSM community,” said David Bayless, Disease Investigation Specialist at Snohomish Health District. “Getting tested to know your status is the first step in managing the disease.”

Information about a new HIV prevention tool will be shared by Michael Louella, outreach coordinator for the AIDS Clinical Trial Unit in Seattle. Pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, is when HIV-negative individuals take a pill to prevent HIV infection. The medicine currently is used to treat HIV, and has now been approved for this treatment by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Food and Drug Administration.Research studies show that PrEP can lower the risk of HIV transmission when used with other prevention measures, such as condoms.

For more information about HIV testing and risk, please call David Bayless, 425.339.5238.

Established in 1959, the Snohomish Health District works for a safer and healthier Snohomish County through disease prevention, health promotion, and protection from environmental threats. Find more information about the Health District at http://www.snohd.org.

If You Love Your Prostate Then Take This Test

Source: Native News Network

WASHINGTON – When dealing with health problems it’s important to know how severe the disease is. Knowing this drives a series of treatment decisions, which may improve the symptoms, and in many cases even cure the disease. When the condition’s level of aggressiveness is unknown, a traditionally beneficial treatment may instead cause harm.

Learn more about prostate cancer to gain accurate information.

The aggressiveness of prostate cancer is hard to determine. Traditionally, physicians have used the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) level, a physical exam, and other methods to estimate the level of prostate cancer to help guide treatment decisions. These are helpful, but they cannot fully determine whether a man has low-risk prostate cancer, which can be managed with active surveillance, or whether he has aggressive prostate cancer, that should be treated immediately.

Active surveillance is a plan that employs careful and consistent monitoring of the cancer in a man’s prostate without removing it. Under active surveillance, patients have regular check-ups and periodic PSA blood tests, clinical exams and potential biopsies to closely monitor for signs of prostate cancer progression. If the cancer starts getting worse, then an appropriate treatment can be decided on.

New diagnostic tests have been emerging, such as the Oncotype DX prostate cancer test, that can help the patient and his physician make a better decision about how to treat the cancer based on its aggressiveness.

More than 240,000 US men are diagnosed with prostate cancer each year. About half of newly-diagnosed patients will be classified as low risk and may not require immediate or aggressive treatment. Yet many of these men will receive immediate aggressive treatment despite the small chance of their cancer becoming deadly.

A new website was launched in September (Prostate Cancer Awareness Month) that helps patients and their families navigate the decision making process, My Prostate Cancer Coach, found at www.MyProstateCancerCoach.org

The site allows anyone interested in learning more about prostate cancer to gain accurate information on the disease and how it can affect men and those in their lives. Tools from the site include Prostate Cancer 101, providing information about treatment options, side effects, understanding the diagnosis and PSA testing, as well as a glossary of terms that can help patients better understand the disease. By answering a few simple questions about your diagnosis, a man receives a personalized guide outlining how aggressive his disease is likely to be and highlighting key questions to help you have a more productive discussion with the healthcare team.

The My Prostate Cancer Coach web site also provides visitors with resources to better understand their risk for getting prostate cancer, questions to ask their doctor, and other resources relating to prostate cancer.

To learn more about other prostate conditions, visit the Prostate Health Guide at www.prostatehealthguide.com

One in six men will be diagnosed with prostate cancer. The chances of surviving prostate cancer increase if you detect the cancer early and make an informed decision about treatment. Don’t be another statistic – be proactive – remember prostate cancer is almost 100 percent treatable if detected early and treated right.

Men’s Health Network is a national nonprofit organization whose mission is to reach men, boys, and their families where they live, work, play, and pray with health prevention messages and tools, screening programs, educational materials, advocacy opportunities, and patient navigation. Learn more about Men’s Health Network at www.menshealthnetwork.org

Tulalip focuses on suicide prevention

By Monica Brown, Tulalip New writer

TULALIP, Wash. – September is national Suicide Prevention month and the Tulalip community has come together to spread awareness about this misfortune. Studies by the National Institute of Mental Health have found that American Indians and Alaskan Natives have the highest rates of suicide with 14.3 per 100,000 compared to Non-Hispanic Whites 13.5, Hispanics 6.0, Non-Hispanic Blacks 5.1 Asian and Pacific Islanders 6.2.

During Tulalip’s community meeting on Friday, September 13^th, the focus was on suicide prevention awareness and motivational speaker Arnold W. Thomas was asked to attend and share his life changing experience in an effort to highlight the warning signs and steps to take when someone may be having suicidal thoughts.

In 1988 Thomas attempted suicide, an event that left him alive yet permanently disabled. Due to the extensive damage from his suicide attempt he was left permanently scared, blind and unable to speak for many years.

“I should have died on that night. I lost a lot of blood, swallowed a lot of blood into my lungs, “said Thomas about the night he tried to take his life. Thomas was 18yrs old in high school, playing basketball and going through many confusing emotions about the suicide of his father two years prior. At a time of deep emotional turmoil, Thomas was using drugs and alcohol and began thinking that no one cared and instead of talking to someone or asking for help he put a gun to his head.

Thomas believes that suicide is not the problem, the real problem is, “Our inability to express our thoughts and our feelings in manner which helps us to feel at peace in our head and our heart.”

“Tell them you love them,” explained Thomas, on how important it is to talk to people close to you about your feelings and show gratitude to your family and friends. “All the bones in my face were shattered and I spent two years not being able to speak. I saw how I hurt my family. I made a commitment to go through any and all surgeries to reconstruct my face and maybe one day I’d be able to talk again.”

Thomas is a Shoshone-Paiute native and has prevailed over his depression and physical disabilities. He has undergone 30 surgeries and completed a rehabilitation program that allows him to live independently. Thomas has earned a degree in psychology, a masters in social work and owns a consulting business called White Buffalo Knife that allows him to travel all over the country to share his story of perseverance.

According to Global Mental Health, mental health disorders have become a global issue that currently affects 450 million people worldwide*. Tulalip Family services is working hard to inform the community about the prevalence of suicide among young people and especially Native people in hopes that it will inspire others to care and help someone that is dealing with depression.

The National Suicide Prevention Line is 1-800-273-8255. For help with depression or help to speak with someone about depression please call Tulalip Family Services at 360-716-4400 or go to save.org. For more information about Arnold Thomas please visit www.whitebuffaloknife.com

Arnold W. Thomas in native dress.Photo from WhiteBuffaloKnife.com — Arnold W. Thomas in native dress.
Photo from WhiteBuffaloKnife.com

Seminole Tribe of Florida Expands Juice Business

Source: Native News Network

WINTER HAVEN, FLORIDA – The Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., through its growing citrus production business, Seminole Pride, has acquired a majority interest in Noble Food Service, the sales and marketing division of Noble Juice of Winter Haven, Florida.

“Our combined entity offers everything from premium orange juice, which is the standard bearer of citrus juices, to a full array of specialty citrus juices, the fastest-growing segment of the business.”

Said Tony Sanchez, president of the Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc, the Tribe’s business development arm.

“By joining forces in a sales and marketing operation, Seminole Pride and Noble Juice will create one of the industry’s most extensive line of citrus juices and expand their distribution to more restaurants, schools, hotels, hospitals and catering operators throughout the United States,”

Sanchez said.

Seminole Pride products will now be sold through a broad national network of juice retailers, while Noble Juice will benefit from the minority supplier status of Seminole Pride. The two entities will share profits from future growth.

Citrus juices sold through Noble Food Service include:

Orange
Red grapefruit
Blood orange
Pummelo Paradise
Tangerine
Tangerine guava mango
Tangerine clementine
Organic orange
Organic orange tangerine
Organic grapefruit
Lemon
Lime

Noble Food Service also markets organic apple juice, lemonade, organic lemonade and bottled spring water.

“The Seminole Tribe of Florida and the Roe family share a strong commitment to the sustainability of Florida’s bounty,”

said Quentin Roe, chief executive officer of the Noble companies, including Noble Food Service.

“In addition to responsible growing practices, we both feature eco-friendly containers, including the juice industry’s only 100 percent plant-based bottle and label.”

The Seminole Tribe of Florida, Inc., the business development arm of the Seminole Tribe, is working to diversify its product offerings under the Seminole Pride brand, which currently supplies spring water and beef, in addition to juice. Seminole Pride uses only those oranges that are picked at the peak of maturity to ensure a sweet and delicious juice.

Fruit for Seminole Pride is grown on the Brighton Seminole Reservation and at approved groves throughout Florida. The Seminole Pride business is one example of the Seminole Tribe’s mission to better the lives and livelihoods of all the American Indian peoples.

Book: Bone Medicine: A Native American Shaman’s Guide to Physical Wholeness

Source: Amazon

A Native American Shaman’s Guide to Physical Wholeness

Author: Wolf Moondance

Illustrator: Jim Sharpe

Book Description:
Through a combination of traditional healing rituals and cutting-edge psychology, Native American shaman Wolf Moondance reveals the secrets of uniting the physical and spiritual selves–and changing your life. “The author is very adept at melding sound psychological techniques with ancient wisdom, thus providing unique insights in a readable form. A truly different way of examining consciousness and spirit–providing an impetus to change.”–Fate.

Wasted food is a huge climate problem

By John Upton, Grist

If wasted food became its own pungent country, it would be the world’s third biggest contributor to climate change.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization had previously determined that roughly one-third of food is wasted around the world. Now it has used those figures to calculate the environmental impacts of farming food that is never eaten, along with the climate-changing effects of the methane that escapes from food as it rots.

The results, published in a new report [PDF], were as nauseating as a grub-infested apple:

Without accounting for [greenhouse gas] emissions from land use change, the carbon footprint of food produced and not eaten is estimated to 3.3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent: as such, food wastage ranks as the third top emitter after USA and China. Globally, the blue water footprint (i.e. the consumption of surface and groundwater resources) of food wastage is about 250 km³, which is equivalent to the annual water discharge of the Volga River, or three times the volume of Lake Geneva. Finally, produced but uneaten food vainly occupies almost 1.4 billion hectares of land; this represents close to 30 percent of the world’s agricultural land area.

In the West, most of our food waste occurs because we toss out leftovers and unused ingredients — and because stores won’t sell ugly produce. The FAO found that some farmers dump 20 to 40 percent of their harvest because it “doesn’t meet retailer’s cosmetic specifications.” In developing countries, by contrast, most of the wasted food rots somewhere between the field and the market because of insufficient refrigeration and inefficient supply chains.

The FAO estimates that when we throw away more than 1 gigaton of food every year, we are throwing away $750 billion with it — an estimate that doesn’t include wasted seafood and bycatch.

“All of us — farmers and fishers; food processors and supermarkets; local and national governments; individual consumers — must make changes at every link of the human food chain to prevent food wastage from happening in the first place, and re-use or recycle it when we can’t,” FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva said in a statement. “We simply cannot allow one-third of all the food we produce to go to waste or be lost because of inappropriate practices, when 870 million people go hungry every day.”

John Upton is a science fan and green news boffin who tweets, posts articles to Facebook, and blogs about ecology. He welcomes reader questions, tips, and incoherent rants: johnupton@gmail.com.

America’s kids eating healthier, getting fitter

By John Upton, Grist

Here’s news as sweet as a fistful of blueberries: American kids aged 11 to 16 were eating more fruit and vegetables in 2009 than those who came before them just eight years earlier, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Kids are also cutting back on sweets and sugary drinks, eating breakfast more regularly, spending more time exercising, and spending less time in front of the television, the study found:

The following graph shows the modest rise in the number of days per week that American kids engaged in physical activity (PA) and the decline in the hours per day that they sat in front of the television:

These healthier habits have begun making a difference.

The average body mass index of thousands of kids studied increased between 2001 and 2005, then started falling between 2005 and 2009. That’s in line with the results of other studies, which have shown a plateau in childhood obesity rates. (Though as we told you last week, America’s most obese kids, primarily children of poor black and Hispanic parents, continue to get fatter.)

“Over the previous decades, the pattern had been that kids were getting less physical activity, and it’s been very hard to increase their fruit and vegetable consumption,” Ronald Iannotti, coauthor of the study and chairman of the department of exercise and health sciences at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, told USA Today. “We’ve got a long way to go, but the good news is that those are increasing.”

Cancer’s Link to the Unhealthy Mouth

Jessica Rickert DDS,, Native News Network

WASHINGTON – The human mouth is home to millions of micro-organisms. These are not a problem in a healthy mouth, but where there is dental disease, these oral pathogens are extremely harmful.

Jessica Rickert DDS, health editor — Jessica Rickert DDS, Health Editor – Praire Band Potawatomi

A common malady is periodontal disease, where the gums deteriorate. The bad bacteria present in active gum disease can include FUSOBACTERIUM NUCEATUM (Fn). There may be millions of these harmful germs. As they are swallowed, they can settle in the digestive tract. Yiping Han PhD, at Case Western Reserve University, discovered recently that Fn can attach and invade human colorectal cells. The molecules then turn on cancer growth genes and stimulate inflammatory responses in these cells and promote tumor growth. But, whether this FadA adhesion is an indirect or causal link remains unclear.

The Human papillomavirus is present in many patients’ mouths. When the HPV is present, it can cause an increase in oropharyngeal cancers.

Both cancers, and all cancers, are increased when the patients smokes tobacco and/or uses alcohol. Both cancers’ incidence and aggressiveness will be worsened by tobacco and alcohol usage.

A dentist is trained to look for oropharyngeal cancers at every dental checkup. But, if a sore which will not heal in 10 – 14 days is noticed, immediately see your dentist. Often, these cancers of the mouth are completely without symptoms.

Sound advice is to keep your mouth as healthy as possible by:

excellent oral hygiene;
a diet without white sugar and low in carbohydrates;
dental cleanings and checkups every 6 months.
It is time to quit using these poisons: tobacco and alcohol.

Sequestration Strains Mental Health Services to Natives

Source: Indian Country Today Media Network

Mental health services for Native Americans took a 5 percent cut due to federal sequestration, and the reduction has cost tribes essential staff and programs, reports NPR.

Native teens and 20-somethings are killing themselves at an alarming pace. For those 15 to 24, the rate is 3.5 times that of other Americans and rising, according to the Indian Health Service (IHS). Tribes have declared states of emergency and set up crisis-intervention teams.

“People are overwhelmed. Sometimes they’ll say, I just can’t go to another funeral,” says Diane Garreau, a child-welfare official on the Cheyenne River Sioux Reservation, in South Dakota.

But many of these mental health and suicide prevention programs are either being forced to scale back due to a lack of funding, or stunted and unable to expand to meet their community’s needs.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe in Pine Ridge, South Dakota, for one, is now unable to hire two additional mental health service providers, Cathy Abramson, chairwoman of the National Indian Health Board, told NPR.

“Since the beginning of the year, there have been 100 suicide attempts in 110 days on Pine Ridge,” Abramson said at a Senate committee hearing in Washington last spring. “We can’t take any more cuts. We just can’t.”

FINDING HELP
• 1-800-273-TALK is a free, confidential 24/7 hot line for anyone who is in crisis about any issue and wants to talk to a trained counselor. You can also call if you know someone in crisis and want advice about what to do.
• The U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) administers youth-suicide prevention funds provided by the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, named for a senator’s son who killed himself in 2003. The agency hopes that going forward more tribes will apply for them, says Richard McKeon, chief of SAMHSA’s suicide-prevention branch.
• SAMHSA offers technical assistance, on grant-writing and more, through its Native Aspirations program (NativeAspirations.org) and publishes a prevention guide, To Live to See the Great Day That Dawns, available online. The agency also maintains a registry of evidence-based (scientifically tested) suicide-prevention practices.
• For Indian Health Service resources, check the agency’s website.
• Two nonprofits, the One Sky Center and the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board, offer much helpful information.