Office of Public Relations

[newsclippings/dhmh_header.htm]
Visitors to Date
Office of Public Relations
			Friday, June 26, 2009 News Clipping Archives *Maryland / Regional* Maryland Reports First H1N1 Flu-Related Death (Emax Health) Dairy farmer makes up profit after going organic (Baltimore Sun) First case of swine flu hits Frederick County (The Gazette) Officials encourage more to participate in discount prescription program (The Gazette) School-based health center to open in August (The Gazette) Mental health director aims to educate employers (Frederick News-Post) Patient discusses living with HIV (Carroll County Times) *National / International* U.S. swine flu cases may have hit 1 million (Baltimore Sun) CDC declares end to shortage of vaccine that protects kids against serious Infections (Baltimore Sun) 1 million swine flu cases estimated in US, federal health official says; 28,000 cases reported (Baltimore Sun) N.Y. to Pay for Eggs for Stem Cell Research (New York Times) *Opinion* Congress taking steps to protect people from tobacco (Cumberland Times-News Letter to the Editor) *Maryland / Regional* Maryland Reports First H1N1 Flu-Related Death By Ruzik_Tuzik EmaxHealth Thursday, June 25, 2009 An elderly Baltimore metro area resident with serious underlying medical conditions and a novel H1N1 influenza virus infection has died, according to the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (DHMH). Among other complications, H1N1 flu was a contributing factor, making this Maryland’s first death confirmed to be associated with the novel flu strain. Personal details about the case, including specific underlying health conditions, will not be released to protect the privacy of the resident and the resident’s family. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports 87 people nationwide have died after contracting novel H1N1 influenza. In the Mid-Atlantic region, Virginia has reported one H1N1 flu-related death and Pennsylvania has reported three. “It is with great sadness and sympathy for the family and loved ones that we must report the first Maryland death in which the H1N1 flu was a contributing factor,” said John M. Colmers, DHMH Secretary. “While hundreds of Marylanders have recovered from this relatively mild form of novel flu, this death illustrates how serious influenza can be, especially for persons with serious underlying health conditions.” Nationwide, CDC reports more than 21,000 confirmed and probable cases of H1N1 influenza. To date, 370 cases of novel H1N1 have been confirmed in Maryland. That figure is likely a fraction of the total H1N1 flu cases statewide. Many people who become ill with flu-like symptoms are not tested and recover within a week’s time, much like seasonal flu. “As with seasonal flu, deaths related to H1N1 are not unexpected. Unfortunately, we will probably see more deaths in Maryland this year,” said Frances Phillips, DHMH Deputy Secretary for Public Health. “We have novel H1N1 flu throughout Maryland and it is likely in every jurisdiction. Anyone with underlying health conditions which put them at risk for complications of flu should consult with their health care provider if they develop flu symptoms.” Symptoms of influenza include fever, cough, and sore throat. Additional symptoms may include chills, headache, fatigue, vomiting, diarrhea or shortness of breath. Based on CDC figures, it is estimated that 1,000 Marylanders die every year from seasonal flu or its complications. Complications and death are more common among those with serious underlying health conditions. According to the CDC, people at a higher risk of serious health consequences from the H1N1 flu virus are the same as those with seasonal flu * Children less than 5 years old * Persons aged 65 years or older * Pregnant women * Residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities * Adults and children who have chronic pulmonary, cardiovascular, hepatic, hematological, neurologic, neuromuscular, or metabolic disorders * Adults and children who have immunosuppression (including immunosuppression caused by medications or by HIV) * Children and adolescents (less than 18 years) who are receiving long-term aspirin therapy and who might be at risk for experiencing Reye syndrome after influenza virus infection Source: Maryland Department Of Health Copyright 2009 Emax Health. Dairy farmer makes up profit after going organic By Meredith Cohn Baltimore Sun Friday, June 26, 2009 I wrote a story in today's paper about a dairy farmer in Frederick County who switched to an organic operation and has seen his profits go up. He was interested in the welfare of his animals, the environment and his consumers, but a survey by Maryland Extension showed that he was pulling down almost twice as much as the average in the survey. Some of this is because milk prices are low, which benefits farmers whose cows graze (verses conventional "confinement" operations) because they get fewer pounds of milk per cow but bring in much higher prices. So, when prices are high, this farmer, Ron Holter, may not make as much. But, he's keeping pesticides out of the fields, and is managing his manure is a way that's better for the Chesapeake Bay and other waterways. His cows, and therefore his customers, also aren't getting hormones and antibiotics common in traditional dairy farming. Holter sells his milk to Organic Valley, which sells it in local stores. Ag experts at the farm yesterday said that demand for grass-fed and organic milk is booming. So, you got milk? And are you willing to pay more for the grass-fed or organic kind? Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun. First case of swine flu hits Frederick County Officials urge residents to practice flu prevention and protection measures By Sherry Greenfield The Gazette Friday, June 26, 2009 A Frederick County woman has been diagnosed with the county's first known case of the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, health department officials announced Thursday. The woman, who officials did not identify, went to Frederick Memorial Hospital Monday night complaining of flu-like symptoms, said Gail Sonnenberg, the hospital's infection control practitioner. "She came into the emergency room, and doctors immediately took measures to isolate that person," Sonnenberg said at a press conference Thursday at the Frederick County Health Department. Within an hour of her arrival at the hospital, doctors diagnosed her condition. She has remained in isolation at the hospital since Monday and is "resting well," Sonnenberg said. The patient is expected to recover fully and be released in the next few days. "This is not a surprise that we have finally had a confirmed case in Frederick County," said Dr. Barbara A. Brookmyer, the county's health officer. "We suspect there are other cases in the county that have not been tested in a laboratory. We're not alarmed by the information." Brookmyer could not say whether this first case means others will be diagnosed with the virus in the county. She did not know where the woman contracted it. "The fact that we do have a laboratory-confirmed case doesn't mean there have not been other cases out there," she said. "I suspect we have had many cases in Frederick County." She urged residents to continue practicing basic flu protection and prevention measures, including: washing your hands often and use hand-sanitizer gel; covering your cough with your sleeve and not with your hand, or better, a tissue; and stay home when sick. "We know that these things do prevent the spread of the illness," she said. Additional information on the virus is on the health department's Web site at www.co.frederick.md.us/h1n1flu. The department also has a hotline at 301-600-4786. Copyright 2009 The Gazette. Officials encourage more to participate in discount prescription program By Sherry Greenfield The Gazette Friday, June 26, 2009 More Frederick County residents are turning to the county's discount drug program to help with the rising costs of prescription medicines. For the first time since the program started in 2006, county government officials are seeing more residents asking for the discount prescription drug card. "When we started this we had about a 1,000 people using the card a month," Board President Jan H. Gardner (D) said at a meeting June 18. "In 2007, it went down to about 900 to 1,000 a month, but we're up to about 1,150 a month." Gardner took the opportunity during commissioner comments to update the board and residents on the success of the program. Gardner also wanted to let residents who are struggling to pay for prescription medicines know that government help is available. "It provides a benefit for people who either don't have prescription insurance or maybe have an insurance plan that doesn't work, you can actually take your prescription card you might have and the [county] discount card and see which one gives you the better price," she said. "So, this is a benefit to people in our community. Lori Follmer administers the program and says she receives about two calls per week from residents asking for a discount card. "I think it's because of the state of the economy," she said. "People are losing their jobs and their insurance." The program is sponsored by the National Association of Counties – an organization that assists and represents about 2,350 counties on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. Frederick County is a member of the association. It costs the county $3,759 per year to belong to the association. Under the program, the prescription discount drug cards are free to all county residents, regardless of age, income or existing health coverage, Follmer said. There is no enrollment form, no membership fee and no restrictions on the number of times the card can be used. Cardholders and family members can use the card any time prescriptions are not covered by insurance. Free cards are available at the Frederick County Health Department, the Frederick County Department of Social Services, Frederick County Community Action Agency, the Frederick County Department of Aging, Frederick County Public Libraries and Winchester Hall, the seat of county government in downtown Frederick. Cards can also be obtained by calling 301-600-6699. Copyright 2009 The Gazette. School-based health center to open in August Hillcrest facility will provide free medical care to those who need it By Margarita Raycheva The Gazette Friday, June 26, 2009 After an eight-month delay and concerns about potential loss of funding, the Hillcrest Elementary School health center – the first school-based health center in Frederick County – is finally on track to open in August. The center is designed to help nearly 600 uninsured and underinsured Hillcrest Elementary students gain access to free medical care. Originally, the school-based clinic was slated to open in January, but that was delayed because state officials were not able to confirm funding. Now, funding has been secured, staff has been hired, a portable classroom has been renovated and the center is on track to open Aug. 17, said Christa Williams, health specialist at Frederick County Public Schools. "We've already got some appointments scheduled," Williams said. From general checkups to basic lab tests, doctor referrals and immunizations, the school-based health center will provide free basic medical care for uninsured and underinsured Hillcrest Elementary students, as well as those in the school's Head Start, Even Start and Judy Center programs. It would also be an easily accessible option for students with state-subsidized health insurance who typically struggle to find a doctor who accepts that kind of health plan, Williams said. Staff will work with families without health insurance, provide basic physical, dental and mental care for students and educate families in health and hygiene, Williams said. But the main goal for the center will be to serve as a link between uninsured and underinsured families and health providers. "We don't want to take the angle of a primary healthcare provider," Williams said. A joint project between Frederick County Public Schools and the Frederick County Health Department, the center will be one of nearly 60 school-based health centers in Maryland. The health department started plans for the center by conducting a survey of health needs of Hillcrest students. The school has the highest percentage of low-income students in Frederick County. The assessment found that more than one-third of students at the school had no medical insurance, while another 61 percent were underinsured. Most of the Hillcrest families who participated in the assessment said they only visit the doctor in an emergency and about 24 percent listed "emergency room" as a child's physician. Based on these findings, Frederick County qualified for a two-year $500,000 grant from the Maryland Health Resources Commission to start the clinic, hire staff and buy equipment. The school system had to contribute about $30,000 to move a portable from another site and set it up. A family service worker has since October been publicizing the clinic and identifying families who can benefit from its services. So far, 251 families have enrolled. Of these, 60.5 percent are English Language Learners and 39 percent are students who are eligible for free or reduced-price lunches, a measure of poverty. Jacqueline Douge, director for health education at the Frederick County Health Department will also serve as director at the clinic. She said the school system is still looking for parents, professionals and other community members to serve on the advisory board for the school-based clinic. Advisory board members will meet four times a year to plan activities for the center, monitor its progress and ensure that the center is providing services that best fit the needs of students in the Hillcrest Elementary community, Douge said. Douge could not say if there are plans to create other school-based health centers in Frederick County. Copyright 2009 The Gazette. Mental health director aims to educate employers By Karen Gardner Frederick News-Post Friday, June 26, 2009 The new director of Mental Health Services for the Frederick County Health Department wants to provide more ways for people with mental illnesses to get jobs. "My experience is in vocational evidence-based practice," said Andrea Walker. Walker started with Frederick County on June 3. "Work is a stabilizing practice on one's life." Walker replaces Robert Scheer, who recently retired after 33 years with the Health Department, 16 as director. Frederick County has a network of vocational services for the mentally ill, and Walker's goal is to tap into that. She wants to work with the county's employers to help them realize that people with mental illnesses are employable. She also hopes to hire a therapist fluent in Spanish to work with the county's growing Hispanic population. "The more support someone has, the better the outcome," she said. Those who receive services from the agency are called consumers. Everyone has issues that affect their work lives, whether it's children, aging parents, divorce or other personal issues, and employers must accommodate those. For those with mental illnesses, employers can often accommodate their needs. "If the job gets done, this is what people should be judged on," she said. In the past, mental health professionals often emphasized stabilizing people with mental illnesses before suggesting they get jobs. But a job gives people a reason to get up in the morning, and the job can be the stabilizing factor some people need. Getting that job often takes cooperation between a person's therapist, psychiatrist and family members, but the decision to go to work must be made by the person being served. Society benefits when people are stable and working, Walker said. "A lot of work has to be done to educate employers," Walker said. "We still run into the idea that schizophrenia is multiple personality disorder." She has her two-minute "elevator speech" at the ready to turn those misconceptions on their head. Walker, 36, moved to Urbana five years ago with her husband, Chris, an art director for an advertising agency. They are the parents of 3-year-old twin boys. She has a master's degree in professional counseling. Another program the county office is focusing on is Adult Evaluation and Review Services, working with mostly older adults to determine if they need nursing home care, or if they can receive in-home services to prevent them from going to a nursing home. The county office served 7,468 adults and 3,223 children in 2007. Walker was most recently program manager for Family Services Agency in Gaithersburg, focusing on outreach and vocational programs. One difficulty many Frederick County residents face is lack of public transportation, which was not as much of a problem in Gaithersburg. Family Services Agency is a sister program of Way Station in Frederick. Both are part of the Sheppard Pratt Health System of Towson. Walker's goal soon after getting into the mental health field was to get into administration. "In order for people to get the services needed, there needed to be a strong leader," she said. Please send comments to webmaster or contact us at 301-662-1177. Copyright 1997-09 Randall Family, LLC. All rights reserved. Patient discusses living with HIV By Erica Kritt Carroll County Times Friday, June 26, 2009 DEER PARK — Jesse McKnight walked into the dining hall at Deer Park United Methodist Church surrounded by a handful of nurses. McKnight was there to speak to the Deer Park Lions Club about his life and his struggles with HIV. “Being HIV-positive, one in my position should be angry. But I’m not, because [of] people like this who care,” he said. The idea for McKnight’s appearance came from Lynn Sussman-Orenstein, a nurse at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, and daughter of Marvin Sussman, a past president of the club. Sussman-Orenstein, of Hampstead, said she saw McKnight, who is an inpatient at Johns Hopkins Hospital, speak to another patient and was intrigued. “He was so articulate and elegant. It clicked that we should use this gift he has,” she said. According to Deer Park Lions Club’s president, Jim Kave, the organization has been supporting the Johns Hopkins Polk Unit for years and this gives them an opportunity to hear a patient’s perspective. “We think it’s important that they know who they are contributing to,” said Sondra Garlic, a nurse manager at the Johns Hopkins Polk Unit. The Polk Unit specializes in continuity of care for HIV patients and reaching out into their communities. Sussman-Orenstein said having McKnight speak about his life is therapeutic for him, but also good for the community to be educated about HIV. She noted that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that people ages 13 to 64 should be tested for HIV as part of their routine medical care. The CDC also recommends that people get tested annually if they participate in risky behavior like injecting drugs or having sex with multiple partners. Saturday marks National HIV Testing Day. Gov. Martin O’Malley released a statement encouraging Marylanders to get tested, citing that there are 6,000 to 9,000 Marylanders who have the virus but don’t know it. The latest statistics from the Maryland AIDS Administration show that in 2006 there were 32,811 people in the state living with HIV/AIDS. McKnight said that since his diagnosis with HIV in 1995, he has seen the good and bad sides of humanity and chooses to stay on the positive side. “It’s easier for me to share what I go through than to growl at you,” he said. He said there are people who don’t accept him and see him as a person who can’t contribute to society, but then there are people, like those in the Lions Club, who make sure that he has a clean toothbrush and something to eat. “It’s been a battle. People don’t take to you when you say you have HIV,” he said. Copyright 2009 Carroll County Times. *National / International* U.S. swine flu cases may have hit 1 million Associated Press By Mike Stobbe Baltimore Sun Friday, June 26, 2009 ATLANTA - Health officials estimate that as many as 1 million Americans now have the new swine flu. Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, voiced the estimate at a vaccine advisory meeting Thursday in Atlanta. The estimate is based on mathematical modeling. Nearly 28,000 U.S. cases have been reported to the CDC, accounting for roughly half the world's cases. The U.S. count includes 3,065 hospitalizations and 127 deaths. An estimated 15 million to 60 million Americans catch seasonal flu each year. The percentage of cases hospitalized has been growing, but that may be due to closer scrutiny of very sick patients. It takes about three days from the onset of symptoms to hospitalization, Finelli said, and the average hospital stay has been three days. Other health problems have been a factor in most cases: About one in three of the hospitalized cases had asthma, 16 percent diabetes, 12 percent have immune system problems and 11 percent chronic heart disease. The numbers again highlight how the young seem to be particularly at risk of catching the new virus. But data also show that the flu has been more dangerous to adults who catch it. The average age of swine flu patients is 12, the average age for hospitalized patients is 20, and for people who died, it was 37. Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. CDC declares end to shortage of vaccine that protects kids against serious infections By Mike Stobbe Baltimore Sun Friday, June 26, 2009 ATLANTA (AP) — The government declared an end to a shortage of a childhood vaccine that protects against bacterial meningitis, pneumonia and other serious infections. The shortage began in late 2007, when vaccine maker Merck & Co. announced a recall of the vaccine after identifying a sterility problem. The vaccine protects against Haemophilus (hehm-ahf-ihl-us) influenza type B, which can cause pneumonia and other infections. The Centers for Disease Control had told doctors to keep giving babies the vaccinations at two months, four months and six months. However, officials had recommended deferring a later booster dose until supplies improved. On Thursday, CDC officials said doctors can again give that booster dose, and begin to give "catch-up" doses to kids who missed it. Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. 1 million swine flu cases estimated in US, federal health official says; 28,000 cases reported By Mike Stobbe Baltimore Sun Friday, June 26, 2009 ATLANTA (AP) — Swine flu has infected as many as 1 million Americans, U.S. health officials said Thursday, adding that 6 percent or more of some urban populations are infected. The estimate voiced by a government flu scientist Thursday was no surprise to the experts who have been closely watching the virus. "We knew diagnosed cases were just the tip of the iceberg," said Dr. William Schaffner, a Vanderbilt University infectious diseases expert who was in Atlanta for the meeting of a vaccine advisory panel. Lyn Finelli, a flu surveillance official with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made the 1 million estimate in a presentation to the vaccine panel. The number is from mathematical modeling, based on surveys by health officials. Regular seasonal flu sickens anywhere from 15 million to 60 million Americans each year. The United States has roughly half the world's swine flu cases, with nearly 28,000 reported to the CDC so far. The U.S. count includes 3,065 hospitalizations and 127 deaths. The percentage of cases hospitalized has been growing, but that may be due to closer scrutiny of very sick patients. It takes about three days from the time symptoms appear to hospitalization, Finelli said, and the average hospital stay has been three days. Other health problems have been a factor in most cases: About one in three of the hospitalized cases had asthma, 16 percent diabetes, 12 percent have immune system problems and 11 percent chronic heart disease. The numbers again highlight how the young seem to be particularly at risk of catching the new virus. But data also show that the flu has been more dangerous to adults who catch it. The average age of swine flu patients is 12, the average age for hospitalized patients is 20, and for people who died, it was 37. It seems to be deadliest to people 65 and older, with deaths in more than 2 percent of elderly people infected, Finelli said. Also at the meeting, CDC officials made projections about flu vaccines expected to be available to protect against both seasonal and swine flu this fall. More than 25 million doses of seasonal flu vaccine should be available by early September, CDC officials and vaccine manufacturers said. The same five manufacturers that make the seasonal vaccine are producing swine flu vaccine as well. As many as 60 million doses of vaccine to protect against the new virus could be ready by September, said Robin Robinson, an official with the federal agency that oversees vaccine manufacture and distribution. That prediction seemed a bit optimistic, others at the meeting said. The vaccinations might be given as two shots, spaced 21 days apart. But the vaccine has to be tested before it's made available to the public. Copyright 2009 Associated Press. All rights reserved. N.Y. to Pay for Eggs for Stem Cell Research Policy Is a First Among States; Critics Fear That Women Will Be Exploited By Rob Stein New York Times Friday, June 26, 2009 New York has become the first state to allow taxpayer-funded researchers to pay women for giving their eggs for embryonic stem cell research, a move welcomed by many scientists but condemned by critics who fear it will lead to the exploitation of vulnerable women. The Empire State Stem Cell Board, which decides how to spend $600 million in state funding for stem cell studies, will allow researchers to compensate women up to $10,000 for the time, discomfort and expenses associated with donating eggs for experiments. "We want to enhance the potential of stem cell research. If we are going to encourage stem cell research as a solution for a variety of diseases, we should remove barriers to the greatest extent possible," said David Hohn, vice chairman of the board's two committees that endorsed the move. "We decided to break some new territory." The little-noted decision two weeks ago puts New York at odds with policies in every other state that provides funding for human embryonic stem cell research and with prevailing guidelines from scientific organizations, including the National Academy of Sciences. The move was welcomed, however, by proponents of stem cell research, stem cell scientists and some bioethicists, who said it would remove a major obstacle to pursuing some of the most exciting goals of the research -- including producing replacement tissues tailored to individual patients. "This is a really great, appropriate policy," said Susan Solomon, co-founder of the New York Stem Cell Foundation, a private, nonprofit research organization. "This could help us to pursue some critical experiments that we hope will lead to treatments for devastating diseases." But the decision was questioned by others, including opponents and some proponents of stem cell research. "In a field that's already the object of a great deal of controversy, the question is, are we at the point where we really need to go that route in order to do the science?" said Jonathan D. Moreno, a professor of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania. "I'm not convinced." A Controversial Field Supporters consider human embryonic stem cell research one of most promising fields in biomedical science. Because the cells are believed capable of becoming virtually any tissue in the body, researchers hope they will lead to cures for a host of major afflictions, including diabetes, Parkinson's disease and paralysis. But the field is highly controversial, largely because the cells are derived by destroying days-old embryos, a process some consider the equivalent of killing a person. One of the goals of the research is to produce cells tailored to individual patients through a process known as somatic cell nuclear transfer. Also called therapeutic cloning, the procedure involves replacing the genetic material in a human egg with genes from the nucleus of a patient's cell, and stimulating the egg to develop into an early embryo. That could, theoretically, produce stem cells that would not be rejected by the recipient's immune system. Although no one has succeeded in producing human stem cells that way, researchers are trying and have been frustrated by the difficulty of obtaining eggs. Attempts to solicit women to donate eggs for such research have largely failed. "The lack of compensation has meant it's been nearly impossible to get enough eggs," said Douglas A. Melton, co-director of the Harvard Stem Cell Institute in Boston. Donors must undergo weeks of hormone injections to stimulate their ovaries to produce eggs and then a painful procedure to extract the eggs. The procedure can in rare cases cause a dangerous overstimulation of the ovaries, and there are concerns about the possible long-term risks of hormonal stimulation. But proponents of reimbursing women have argued that fertility clinics routinely pay women thousands of dollars to donate eggs to help infertile women have children. In making its decision on June 11, the New York board argued that there was no reason that stem cell researchers should be precluded from offering women equivalent sums, although they stressed that researchers should follow the same guidelines as fertility clinics: Anything over $5,000 must be justified, and anything over $10,000 would be excessive. "We could not distinguish ethically between the payment for in vitro fertilization, which is very well precedented, and the compensation for donation for research," Hohn said. Ronald M. Green, a Dartmouth College bioethicist, agreed. "It is discriminatory against women to ban them from receiving payment," he said. "We pay for participation in research that has risks associated with it for other procedures. So why not this? The idea that women cannot make that decision on their own strikes me as sexist." Ethical Concerns But Moreno, at the University of Pennsylvania, questioned whether enough effort had been made to persuade women to donate eggs without compensation. "I wonder if all the expertise that could be brought to be bear on this problem of getting unreimbursed donation have been explored," he said. Moreno and others also questioned equating egg donation for research with donation to help infertile women. "People recognize that eggs can make a baby. That's a very concrete good for society. But you can't be sure any biological material you collect for research will be part of a medical breakthrough. That's the goal, but you can't be sure," Moreno said. Moreover, critics worry that the move could lead to the exploitation of women, especially poor women, who tend not to be in demand for infertility donation. "With the economy the way it is, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to know that when a woman is looking at receiving up to $10,000 to sign up for research project, that's an undue inducement," said Thomas Berg, a Catholic priest who directs the Westchester Institute for Ethics & the Human Person and serves on the Empire State Stem Cell Board's ethics committee. He opposed the decision. "I think it manipulates women. I think it creates a trafficking in human body parts." Others agreed, calling it an unnerving precedent. "Whenever society starts to pay for relationships that are traditionally done with altruism and generosity within families, it raises the issue of whether there is anything that is not for sale," said Laurie Zoloth, a Northwestern University bioethicist. But supporters disputed such arguments. "Women are perfectly capable in our society in deciding to get plastic surgery, Botox, donate a kidney. I find it patronizing beyond belief. We compensate people in clinical trails for time and burden all the time," Solomon said. Although some argued that therapeutic cloning is no longer necessary because of the development of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPS) -- adult cells converted into the equivalent of embryonic ones -- others said that remains far from clear. "IPS technology still to date has not produced cells that have all the properties of embryonic stem cells," said Melton at Harvard. "I believe those cells will be as good as embryonic stem cells, but we're not there yet." Copyright 2009New York Times. *Opinion* Congress taking steps to protect people from tobacco Cumberland Times-News Letter to the Editor Friday, June 26, 2009 After more than a decade, Congress has taken the important step of empowering the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate tobacco products, including the power to remove harmful ingredients from tobacco products and to stop false claims made by the tobacco industry regarding the addictive nature of nicotine. As a co-sponsor of the Family, Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, H.R. 1256, I believe that this is one of the most important public health steps we can take to improve the health of Americans and to try and prevent a new generation of nicotine addicts. Today, more than 400,000 Americans and 6,800 Marylanders die each year from tobacco use. For every Marylander who dies from smoking, approximately 20 more suffer serious tobacco-caused health problems. Contrary to some mischaracterizations about the bill, this legislation does not outlaw tobacco, but it gives the FDA the power to help addicted smokers overcome their addiction and to make the product less toxic for smokers who are unable or unwilling to stop. This bill is long overdue and represents a responsible approach to dealing with the smoking addiction in this country. It is estimated that more than 40 million Americans are currently addicted to tobacco. The tobacco industry spends more than $13 billion a year to promote its products. Much of that money is spent in ways designed to tempt children to start smoking, before they are mature enough to appreciate the enormity of the health risk. At a recent press conference on the bill, I was shocked at the number of tobacco products targeted to young smokers. I saw dissolvable tobacco that looked like candy and packs of cigarettes with bright colors that were meant to attract young girls. In Maryland, more than one in seven high school students smoke cigarettes, and each year, 22,000 Maryland children try cigarettes for the first time. Of these, 6,600 become addicted to cigarettes each year. Too many Americans have suffered the consequences of their addition to tobacco. Too many families have watched as relatives have died from lung cancer or other diseases associated with tobacco. It’s time to stop the marketing of tobacco that is intended to create a new generation of smokers. U.S. Sen. Benjamin L. Cardin (D-Md.) Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc. BACK TO TOP


[newsclippings/dhmh_footer.htm]