Category: This Mortal Coil

Only if I get superpowers

Next month I will be boarding a flight at Dulles International Airport. The last flight I took was also out of Dulles and I became familiar with their security screening; almost every security line passes through one of the backscatter x-ray scanning machines. Normally, I’m pretty cavalier about most things but when agreeing to undergo a whole body x-ray, outside a hospital, I’d like to know the risks. In 2010, a group of scientists at UCSF, including a biophysicist and an oncologist, wrote a letter to the Assistant of Science and Technology reporting directly to the president, voicing their serious concerns about the safety of these devices. They felt that the data presented by the manufacturer was misleading and did not appropriately address whether this high dose of x-rays into the skin was truly safe. Fellow blogger Mike addressed this issue back in 2010. Since the time of the letter, there has been little research done on actual scanners because “security concerns” prevent the TSA from allowing scanners into public hands.

Several radiologists have stated that these scanners are probably not harmful to those who travel just a few times per  year. It is possible that older people, children and pregnant women are at a greater risk of DNA damage from ionizing radiation. It is also a public health concern when a large population of Americans who travel frequently or work in airports, are screened very often.  A recent scientific study shows evidence that these x-rays delivered at the specification of the scanning machine, can deliver radiation to internal organs.  These specifications also assume that the scanning machine is operating properly. Between May 2010 and May 2011 there were 3,778 service calls made about mechanical issues with back-scatter machines.

But why expose people to x-rays at all? Fellow blogger Josh has written about the cost benefit ratio involved in deciding whether risk of x-ray exposure is worth the potential to stop a terrorist. If there is a technology which can also detect non-metallic objects without delivering ionizing radiation, then its use should be promoted. An alternative to the backscatter x-ray is the millimeter wave scanning technology, which many airports already use. This method eliminates the worry that there may be potential side effects of screening all passengers and screening some passengers a great number of times.

For now, my choice is x-ray induced superpowers or a TSA pat-down. I’ve always wanted a superpower.

Beginning of the end of AIDS

This is amazing, given that it has been only 30 years since AIDS first started to have global repercussions, and given how very little we knew about viruses in the early 80’s:

Diane Havlir, M.D., and Chris Beyrer, M.D., M.P.H, The New England Journal of Medicine:

We are at a moment of extraordinary optimism in the response to the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). A series of scientific breakthroughs, including several trials showing the partial efficacy of oral and topical chemoprophylaxis1,2 and the first evidence of efficacy for an HIV vaccine candidate,3 have the potential to markedly expand the available preventive tools. There is evidence of the first cure of an HIV-infected person. And most important, the finding that early initiation of antiretroviral therapy can both improve individual patient outcomes and reduce the risk of HIV transmission to sexual partners by 96%4 has led many to assert what had so long seemed impossible: that control of the HIV pandemic may be achievable.

Please don’t put industrial strength bleach in the butts of autistic kids

Sadly, we live in a society where we need to tell people not to do this. The industrial strength bleach (sodium dichlorite solution) called Miracle Mineral Solution or MMS previously came to our attention as a “treatment” for Crohn’s disease, as well as everything else from HIV to colds. Now it is being marketed as a “treatment” for autism via oral administration, baths, and enemas.

MMS treatments cause side effects like discomfort, fever, diarrhea, and vomiting (these are the one’s its proponents advertise) with no evidence that it is an effective treatment for anything other than being comfortable and not having diarrhea. Fortunately, there is something you can do to help. Emily Willingham has started a petition to ban the sale and use of MMS as a treatment for autism (read the whole petition below).

The claims made by MMS are duping concerned parents into torturing their children, who are not in a position to understand why mommy and daddy are hurting them. Continue reading “Please don’t put industrial strength bleach in the butts of autistic kids”

Cancer quote of the day

or maybe of the year:

More than half of the cancer occurring today is preventable by applying knowledge that we already have. Tobacco, obesity, and physical inactivity are the modifiable causes of cancer that generate the most disease. Cancer burden can be reduced by alterations in individual and population behaviors and by public health efforts as long as these changes are driven by sound scientific knowledge and social commitment to change. The obstacles to these efforts are societal and arise from the organization of institutions, including academia, and in the habits of daily life.

Applying What We Know to Accelerate Cancer Prevention
Graham A. Colditz, Kathleen Y. Wolin and Sarah Gehlert
Sci Transl Med 28 March 2012

The Walking Dead’s Bloody Mess

There are spoilers below. You’ve been warned. If you are even further behind watching The Walking Dead – Season 2 than me and can’t bear the thought of being spared the waste of those hours of your life, this is not for you.

I have recently started catching up on The Walking Dead – Season 2. At the end of Episode 1, Carl Grimes, son of our hero, Rick Grimes, is wounded in a hunting accident. Episode 2 is then devoted to keeping Carl from bleeding out. This means surgery and blood transfusions. Unfortunately, you can’t just stick blood from one person into someone else1. The immune system will attack a blood transfusion as a foreign invader if the donated blood is not compatible with the recipient. These reactions can be fatal. Keeping blood banks stocked is difficult in our modern world. Trying to find appropriate blood donors for a kid with internal bleeding in a zombie-filled, post-apocalyptic wasteland poses a particular challenge. Continue reading “The Walking Dead’s Bloody Mess”