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2007-8-31 18:36:02 |
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Melamine may be added to wheat gluten intentionally A toxic chemical found in pet food that has killed cats and dogs in the United States may be intentionally added to wheat gluten which is used as a protein source in the affected pet food, industrial and government officials believed. According to one theory, Melamine, a chemical that is normally used in pesticides and resins, is added to wheat protein to increase the total amount of nitrogen in wheat protein so that the standard procedure used to determine the protein level can result in a high estimation of the protein content in wheat protein. Melamine has been detected not only in wheat gluten, but rice protein concentrate and corn gluten in South Africa as well, all imported from China and indicated for use in pet food, media reports cited the Food and Drug Administration as confirming Thursday. On Wednesday, Wilbur-Ellis, based out of San Francisco, recalled all of its rice protein concentrate imported from China after the FDA detected melamine in the product. On Thursday, the Blue Buffalo Co. also recalled some of its Spa Select Kitten dry food because the product contain rice concentrate that was contaminated wit melamine. As many as five pet food makers may have used the tainted rice protein concentrate, according to Wilbur-Ellis. Media reports say that tests have confirmed that melamine was present in some Royal Canin pet food, which uses corn gluten fro china. But it is not clear whether the tainted corn gluten is used by any pet food makers in the U.S. "It adds to the theory when you see other products that are labeled as protein supplements, in this case rice protein, and in South Africa corn gluten and in the previous case wheat gluten," Stephen Sundlof, FDA chief veterinarian was quoted by USA Today as saying. "That melamine was found in all three of those, it would certainly lend credibility to the theory that this was intentional." Melamine is not supposed to be present in pet food ingredients or pet food. ChemNutra, which is the US importer of the tainted wheat gluten that resulted in last month's massive pet food recall fears that its Chinese supplier deliberately spiked the product. The FDA intended to dispatch inspectors to China to determine how melamine gets into wheat gluten and other ingredients. But the Chinese government has not responded to offer any assistance in this regard so far, according to media reports. In the meantime, the FDA said on Thursday it is inspecting all shipments of rice protein concentrate and wheat gluten from China. More health highlights by healthday.com Baby Boomers Say They're Not So Healthy After All Despite more health benefit options available to them than at any time in history, America's Baby Boomers may not be even so healthy as their parents. The Washington Post reports that as the first wave of Baby Boomers -- a generation of Americans born between 1948 and 1964 -- heads toward retirement, surveys indicate they describe their own health as less than ideal. As a matter of fact, the Post reports, a major study indicates that Boomers say they have more problems with cholesterol, diabetes, blood pressure and physical exertion than the previous generation born between 1936 and 1941. "We're seeing some very powerful evidence all pointing to parallel findings," the newspaper quotes Mark Hayward, a sociologist at the University of Texas at Austin, as saying. "The trend seems to be that people are not as healthy as they approach retirement as they were in older generations. It's very disturbing." One of the primary reasons for the decline in good health, researchers speculate, is that previous generations were much more physically active in their daily routines, the Post reports. The number of Baby Boomers who said they were overweight might be a key to the decline in good health, the newspaper said. ----- FDA Reaffirms Aspartame Not A Carcinogen After reviewing findings first presented in 2005 by an Italian-based research group, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has concluded that there isn't enough evidence to conclude that the artificial sweetener aspartame causes cancer. Aspartame, which is used in the sweetener Equal, among others and in a variety of soft drinks and other products, had already been found safe to use after a 2005 U.S. study of half a million participants. But when the laboratory rat study conducted by the European Ramazzini Foundation (ERF) of Bologna, Italy said a few months later that there was evidence of increased tumor activity when aspartame was consumed, the FDA asked that the research be sent to it for review. "... the data that were provided to FDA do not appear to support the aspartame-related findings reported by ERF," the FDA says in a statement on its Web site. "Based on our review, pathological changes were incidental and appeared spontaneously in the study animals, and none of the histopathological changes reported appear to be related to treatment with aspartame." The FDA also said that repeated requests for additional information on the study from the ERF, including pathology slides, was never honored. ----- Surgeons Remove Woman's Gallbladder Vaginally In a procedure that required only minimal external incisions, surgeons used a flexible endoscope to remove a woman's gallbladder through her vagina. This new procedure, which is being used in an ongoing clinical trail, may help reduce pain, visible scarring and recovery time. The NOTES (natural orifice translumenal endoscopic surgery) procedure was performed by doctors at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. They inserted the endoscope through the woman's vaginal wall and into her body cavity. Using the endoscope, along with laparoscopic instruments inserted through the abdomen, the surgeons detached the gallbladder and removed it through the vagina. "Advances in minimally invasive surgical techniques over the last 15 years have dramatically reduced the number of open abdominal surgeries necessary -- eliminating a great deal of the associated discomfort. This latest revolutionary advance -- abdominal surgery through a natural orifice -- represents the culmination of this progression," Dr. Marc Bessler, who led the surgery, said in a prepared statement. "This technique allows us to make smaller and fewer skin incisions. And, in the future, some abdominal surgeries will be possible without any external incisions," said Bessler, director of laparoscopic surgery and director of the Center for Obesity Surgery at New York-Presbyterian/Columbia and assistant professor of surgery at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Bessler is scheduled to make a presentation on the procedure this Sunday at the annual meeting of the Society of American Gastrointestinal Endoscopic Surgeons in Las Vegas. New York Presbyterian/Columbia is also using the NOTES technique for appendectomy, abdominal exploration and biopsy. In the future, NOTES may be performed through the mouth or rectum. ----- Rabies Treatment Failed to Save 3 Children A combination of drugs used to save the life of a teen infected with rabies did not help three other infected youngsters, says an article published Friday in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. In 2004, 15-year-old Jeanna Giese of Wisconsin was infected with rabies after she was bitten by a bat. She had not been vaccinated against the disease. Doctors in Milwaukee used drugs to induce a coma and then treated Giese with antiviral drugs, including ribavirin, ketamine and amantadine, the Associated Press reported. She survived and the successful treatment was published in the New England Journal of Medicine. However, the MMWR article said that the so-called Wisconsin protocol failed to save the lives of three U.S. children infected with rabies last year, the AP reported. Reasons for the failure in those cases could include the strain of rabies virus, the drug dosing, and the time between infection and treatment, said Dr. Charles Rupprecht, co-author of the MMWR report and chief of the CDC's rabies program. |
