A Long Sojourn

I returned from my wonderful trip to Sweden and Denmark two weeks ago. Once I have my photos ready and edited, I will upload them on flickr. The most interesting part of my trip was visiting Free Town Christiania, the self-governing "nation-state", in the heart of Copenhagen. Christiania's mission statement is:

"The objective of Christiania is to create a self-governing society whereby each
and every individual holds themselves responsible over the well being of the
entire community. Our society is to be economically self-sustaining and, as
such, our aspiration is to be steadfast in our conviction that psychological and
physical destitution can be averted."

Unfortunately one is not allowed to take photos while in Christiania. The feeling in Christiania is very post-apocalyptic with incredible graffiti and the obvious consequences due to years of heavy drug abuse. I was hoping to encounter a spiritually rich and meditative quality combined with a progressive activist spirit, but alas I found myself saddened by the lost potential.

On a brighter note, tomorrow I will begin teaching my course Information Research in Public Health ! I have been very busy preparing all the finishing touches on the outline and syllabus which is the reasons I have been neglecting my new blog. I hope to be more active and return to my public health postings within the week!

Moomin Land

I've been extremely busy preparing for my course that I'll be teaching this summer. It's a graduate course on Information Research in Public Health. I've also been extremely busy trying to plan and prepare my trip to Sweden and Denmark. I'll also be staying at Hotel Royal and Hotel Elite. Very swanky, indeed. Not surprising, I haven't had proper time to post on my blog (which I think only 1.5 persons read). Nevertheless, this is not without thinking about public health and traveling! This article sums up nicely the types of things that I've been questioning before my big trip to Scandinavia. According the WHO report, the US is 37th out of 190 industrialized countries whereas Sweden is 23rd and Denmark is 34th. But some experts disagree and criticize the model for using inconsistent measurements. For example, the OEC's report, which is more rigorous and uses controlled measures, found the US at the bottom of 6 industrialized countries. The OEC also reports that the US spends more on healthcare than any other country (a very well known fact), but that citizens receive far less than other countries (again, another well known fact in health policy). Presumably, much of this will be discussed in Sicko which opens in the US on June 29th. If I weren't going to be in Scandinavia, guess where I'd be on the 29th?

The Sugar Cereal Policy Change

While eating my COOP purchased delicious organic granola, raspberries, and soy milk for breakfast I read an interesting article in the NYTs about The Kellogg's Company and their advertisements targeting children. Actually, the Times printed the same exact article twice, but one was printed in the Business section and the other was in the Media and Advertisement section. The brief summation of their new policy is this:

The Kellogg Company announced today that it will phase out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium.

Kellogg also announced that it would stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the nutrition guidelines.

It should be noted that these are voluntary changes. Well, voluntary after being threatened by a couple of angry parents, the Center for Science in the Public Interest, and the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. I'm certainly not against these policy changes, but digging a little further into the guidelines I found myself taking issue with some of the details.

The guidelines state:

Foods advertised on media—including TV, radio, print, and third-party websites—that have an audience of 50 percent or more children under age 12 will have to meet Kellogg’s new nutrition standards, which require that one serving of the food has:

• No more than 200 calories;

• No trans fat and no more than 2 grams of saturated fat;

• No more than 230 milligrams of sodium (except for Eggo frozen waffles);

• No more than 12 grams of sugar (excluding sugar from fruit, dairy, and vegetables).

In addition, Kellogg will not:

• Advertise to children under 12 in schools and preschools.

• Sponsor product placements for any products in any medium primarily directed at kids

under 12;

• Use licensed characters on mass-media advertising directed primarily to kids under 12, as a basis for a food form, or on the front labels of food packages unless those foods meet the nutrition standards;

• Use branded toys in connection with foods that do not meet the nutrition standards.

But when reading the NYTs article, I learned the following:

1. Eggo frozen waffles are exempt from the Sodium regulation

2. Kellogg could still advertise Frosted Flakes to children because it has 11 grams of sugar

3. Kellogg said it would introduce Nutrition at a Glance labels on the top right corner of cereal boxes this year.

My response:

1. Why are eggo waffels exempt? Which other items are exempt?

2. Frosted Flakes has *only* 11 grams of sugar per serving? That's shocking. Will they reformulate their products so that they all fall under the 12 gram of sugar per serving since children are their most reliable market (i.e. Cococrispies has 14 grams of sugar. I'm sure it's not that difficult to change the amt. of sugar to be slightly less than it already is)? And besides, 11 grams of sugar is still ridiculously high. Plus, nobody ever eats the suggested serving size.

3. Most people don't know how to read the nutritional facts even if in a pretty snapshot on the top right corner of a product. I'm sure that there are plenty of research based articles measuring the general population's ability to read nutritional information federally mandated to be listed on all food items. I'm sure I can find one before the day is over. :-)

Bees and Honey are Good for You!

I have just read two very interesting articles in The Economist about bees and honey. Both articles were published in the Science and Technology section, but the wit of the editors seemed to have gone down the toilette as they did not see the more interesting article that should have emerged by blending the two articles. Unfortunately, you need to have a subscription to The Economist to read their articles online, but I'll summarize.

The first article, Dying Bees, discusses the Colony Collapse Disorder , when the inhabitants of bee hives suddenly disappear, that is taking place in North America, Greece, Italy, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Scientists have cast doubt that cell phones are causing the bee colonies to die. They suggest that statistically insignificant data surrounding a study looking at electromagnetic radiation was misinterpreted. Back to the drawing board. Now scientists are looking at the practice of beekeepers such as the constant upheaval and movement around the country in seek of the best rate for *their* pollination services which is causing stress on the hives. Scientists are also research the bee genome along with the overall social networking of bees. The search continues...

The second article, The Medicinal Use of Honey, discusses the benefits of honey in combating superinfections, drug resistant trains of pathogens. Apparently honey was commonly used as medicine long before the discovery of antibiotics and is still used in Australia and New Zealand. Presently there is a massive study at Bonn University Children's Clinic in Germany comparing the effectiveness of a honey based treatment, such as those created by Medihoney, with antibiotics when treating wounds. The preliminary research all points in the direction of honey being a strong contender to antibiotics.

Now back to the editors at The Economist: an opportunity was clearly missed. The level of economic analysis could have been much richer. Perhaps they'll tidy up their reporting on bees and take note of Einstein's alleged insight into bees:

"if the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals, no more man."

p.s. As I was writing this post in the hot and sunny confines of my apartment a bee found it's way through the security gates on my window. For the first time in my life, I was thrilled to see a bee!

Mini Sojourn

Last week I was working at the library and found little energy at the end of the day to post. I'm working from home for the next few weeks and hope to find a healthy rhythm for regular blogging.

I just read an interesting article in the NYTs that discusses memory and recall, something I struggle with constantly. The article, Decreased Demands on Cognitive Control Reveal the Neural Processing Benefits of Forgetting, describes a study that was published in Nature Neuroscience. In sum, the researchers show by mapping the neural networks of the brain that forgetfulness is an adaptive neural response. If you're interested in reading the full-text of the article, I would suggest submitting an Interlibrary Loan at your public, university, or work library. My library's electronic subscription has a 1-year embargo which means that this current issues is not available. If you're interested in reading more about the cost-benefit-analysis of print versus electronic journal subscriptions, I highly recommend reading this article published in D-Lib Magazine.

XDR-TB

Knowing that there are only a few border crossings from Montreal to NYC, I have been wondering if Andrew Speaker, the man with the virulent strain of XDR-TB, crossed at the Champlain Border. In an interesting article in the NYT, it was verified that the patient crossed at Champlain border near Plattsburgh. I have also been wondering how he was allowed to cross into the county if his passport had been flagged.

Along the border crossing at Champlain, N.Y., an inspector ran Speaker's passport through a computer, and a warning - including instructions to hold the traveler, wear a protective mask in dealing with him and call health authorities - popped up,officials said.

Apparently, US Customs and Border Patrol waived him through the border in less than two minutes

Customs and Border Protection officer swiped Speaker's passport through an electronic reader and an alert displayed on the officer's computer screen. But Speaker wasn't stopped. In less than two minutes he was waved across the border.

The border patrol agent apparently let him through the border because he didn't look very sick.

Congressional investigators, who will be holding hearings on the way the case of the man, Andrew Speaker, has been handled, say that the border agent at the Plattsburgh, N.Y., border crossing with Canada decided that Mr. Speaker did not look sick and so let him go.

Oh, Plattsburgh...

XDR-TB

I've been following the story about the XDR-TB patient in forced isolation. I have been wondering where he went after being in Montreal.

The male passenger flew to Paris from his home in Atlanta on May 12 on Air France 385 and arrived in Paris on May 13. He returned to the United States on May 24 after taking Czech Air 104 to Montreal from Prague. The man drove into the United States that day and entered a hospital in New York City on May 25.

I've been wondering about the likelihood of contracting an illness such as this virulent strain of XDR-TB while being on an airplane. I will be traveling to Iceland, Sweden, and Denmark in a few weeks and would like to know if there is a particularly healthy area of an airplane. I have discovered that TB has been contracted on ships with circulating air, but that was over several days and not hours. I have also discovered that sitting in the middle row and in the middle of the airplane is the healthiest part of the plane.

It turns out that while an airplane provides the smallest volume of air per person of any public space, the movement of air is transverse, i.e., from side to side, not along the length of the airplane. The air descends from the top of the cabin to the middle, sweeping in two circles on either side. Thus the people in the middle section of a wide body jet get the freshest air, with passengers seated to either side getting the air sweeping past the more medial seat mates. The poor soul on the window gets the air from everyone else in the row on their side of the plane (see figure 1 in Mangili and Gendreau). So the seat of the index case is probably critical, although this pattern is "on average." There is enough turbulence in cabin air to allow currents to go several rows front and aft. While it is true about 50% of the cabin air is recirculated, in all but the smallest regional jets it is passed through HEPA filters first. This was certainly true for the transatlantic planes in the current case.

I guess I'll stick to my preference for the aisle seat. :-)

Research Leave

I have nearly completed the first half of my research leave for the academic year 2006/07. I have been quite productive: submitted and received acceptance of a research paper; relearned Nvivo and reanalyzed my data which I hope to present at either MLA, APHA, or ACRL next year; and have started working on my Information in Public Health course that I'll teach during the second summer session. Phew! I'm exhausted just writing about my research leave.