Cancer risks: war is unhealthy, US finds
Article Abstract:
A long-term study, originally intended to examine the health effects of Agent Orange, the defoliant used in Vietnam, has come up with surprising results. The report of the study's results, released by the Centers for Disease Control, indicates that there is no evidence linking exposure to Agent Orange with the development of cancer. However, the study found that men who served in Vietnam had a 50 percent higher risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma than other men in their age group. The cause for the increased risk has not been determined, and, ironically, it seems to be highest among soldiers and sailors with the least exposure to Agent Orange. The original purpose of the study, to identify health risks associated with Agent Orange, was hindered by the inability to find an objective criterion of Agent Orange exposure. When residual Agent Orange was measured in the veterans' body fat, the observed levels did not correlate with the exposure indicated on service records. The study then simply tabulated increased health risks associated with Vietnam duty, regardless of Agent Orange exposure. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1990
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Setting the memory norm
Article Abstract:
A great deal of the difficulty in diagnosing dementia, cognitive deficits, and memory impairment is that very little is known about what 'normal' is. The Italian pharmaceutical company Fidia has sponsored a project to evaluate a large number of Italian citizens. About 1,600 people are expected to have been tested by the end of the year. Italy is an advantageous location for such a study. Researchers are visiting many villages, and only about 15 percent of the selected population are refusing to participate; this will avoid much of the selection bias which prevades research in the US, where only nursing home patients and college sophomores are psychologically tested. Futhermore, the Italian population is not as mobile as the US population, assuring the researchers that they are getting a truly representative sample. The population of some Italian towns changes as little as a few tenths of a percent per year. Statistically, this should provide reseachers with normative values for memory function, which aid research in dementing illnesses such as Alzheimer's disease. (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1990
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AIDS discovery: agreement questioned
Article Abstract:
John Crewdson, a reporter with the Chicago Tribune who wrote an article in November 1989 alleging improprieties on the part of Robert Gallo, has now accused the United States government of participating in a cover-up. Gallo, a prominent AIDS researcher, is alleged to have obtained the AIDS virus from the French researcher Luc Montagnier by "accident or a theft" rather than through his own research. The allegations have led some to demand a renegotiation of the 1987 agreement on sharing the discovery between the two nations. Others, including some who negotiated the 1987 treaty, say that the treaty already acknowledges that the screening tests were developed using virus obtained from Montagnier, so there is no reason to consider renegotiation. An inquiry by the National Institutes for Health (NIH) is currently in progress. The entire matter has been of very little concern to the American press, but in France, the matter is a major scandal and, in the words of one observer, "in Paris, they're rioting in the streets." (Consumer Summary produced by Reliance Medical Information, Inc.)
Publication Name: Nature
Subject: Zoology and wildlife conservation
ISSN: 0028-0836
Year: 1990
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