Health

* Study finds long benefit in illegal mushroom drug By David Edwards NEW YORK (AP) — In 2002, at a Johns Hopkins University laboratory, a business consultant named Dede Osborn took a psychedelic drug as part of a research project. She felt like she was taking off. She saw colors. Then it felt like her heart was ripping open. But she called the experience joyful as well as painful, and says that it has helped her to this day. “I feel more centered in who I am and what I’m doing,” said Osborn, now 66, of Providence, R.I. “I don’t seem to have those self-doubts like I used to have.  read more »

The authorities increased security at a tuberculosis hospital near the city of Port Elizabeth where patients with drug-resistant forms of the disease went on a rampage on Wednesday to protest prisonlike conditions. Twenty-two patients were arrested after they pelted the staff members with stones and vandalized equipment. But the local police station and prison refused to admit them, because of fears of the highly infectious disease. Instead, they were returned to the hospital. Patients with drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis are required to live in guarded and isolated quarters that are surrounded by barbed wire.

By WILL WEISSERT, Associated Press June 6, 2008

HAVANA - Cuba has authorized sex-change operations and will offer them free for qualifying citizens, an official said Friday.  read more »

Relief according to the Feds: After you stick em in the trailers,which it turns out handily came equiped with 5x the safe level of formaldahyde fumes, lose track of em, start some useless studies and don't bother coming up with any long term plan to help these kids you've gotten so very, very sick... 12x the cases before the storm of severe asthma in kids after they stay in those FEMA relief trailers.

It will take 10-15 years before the cancers start to develop.

AP story after the jump, via Rawstory.  read more »

ainfos May 21, 2008

"This is going to be a different type of occupation," say the people of Tierra y
Libertad (Land and Freedom), a land occupation on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The name of their group gives an idea of what they intend. The occupation began on March 29th this year when 40 families entered a small parcel of land in La Matanza and began setting up a community. Since then the occupation has grown to over 135 families and has continued to organize and resist eviction in the face of intimidation and violence.  read more »

Film Screening at Media Island March 5 at 7pm

A timely examination of human values and the health issues that affect us all, ¡Salud!looks at the curious case of Cuba, a cash-strapped country with what the BBC calls ‘one of the world’s best health systems.’ From the shores of Africa to the Americas, !Salud!hits the road with some of the 28,000 Cuban health professionals serving in 68 countries, and explores the hearts and minds of international medical students in Cuba -- now numbering 30,000, including nearly 100 from the USA.  read more »

Rome, 14 Feb.(AKI) - Thousands of women were expected to protest to defend abortion rights in nationwide rallies being held in major Italian cities late on Thursday.

The protests followed a raid by police on a hospital in the southern city of Naples earlier this week, on what was thought to be an illegal abortion.

Rallies were being held in Rome, Milan, Bologna and Naples and Italian Health Minister Livia Turco was expected to attend one of them.  read more »

12 Jan 2008 Reuters By Royston Chan

SHANGHAI, Jan 12 (Reuters) - Hundreds of people marched through China's financial hub of Shanghai on Saturday protesting a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation and sicken them.

Police detained dozens of people, bundling them into waiting cars, vans and buses, as protesters thronged a major shopping street shouting "We don't want the maglev" and carrying placards reading: "No to maglev -- bad for health".

"We are afraid how the radiation will affect us. Why does the government not listen to our concerns?" said a protester surnamed Guan, adding the extension would pass within 100 metres (328 ft) of her house.  read more »

Thomas Riggins

There is an interesting article in the 12-21-07 issue of SCIENCE ("The Ethics of International Research with Abandoned Children" by Joseph Millum and Ezekiel J. Emanuel). I'm not going to review the whole article. I'm just going to give a little background to show what is going on and make a few remarks. The article's main thrust is about the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (the effects of moving children to foster care from institutions) but the following experiment with HIV prevention was mentioned. I think it illustrates a real problem with capitalist science.  read more »

The Gleaners Coalition is continuing to organize clean-up crews for farms experiencing extensive flood damage in the Thurston and Lewis County areas. Come help our food bank donors and local growers get back on their feet!

Put on your muck boots and join a work party Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and/or Friday of next week, December 17-22, 2007. We will meet folks daily at 9:30AM at our downtown office (see address below) and at The Evergreen State College in parking lot C. We plan to finish each afternoon around 4:00PM.  read more »