Have you ever wondered just how much help wearing a medical mask is? It doesn’t seem like it would be a whole lot, considering how thin they are, but a new study has shown that they provide greater help than was previously thought.
Crosstex International, a subsidiary of Cantel Medical Corp., announced today the publication of sponsored research that suggests a far greater infection prevention value of medical face masks, commonly referred to as surgical masks, than previously understood. The key outcome challenges conventional wisdom that a medical mask or respirator is most effective when worn by a person attempting to protect oneself from exposure to infectious matter. Instead, if FDA-cleared medical face masks are worn at the potential source of the infection, the level of overall protection is magnified up to 300-fold. Published in the September issue of the American Journal of Infection Control, the research study, entitled “Quantifying Exposure Risk and Mask Protection”, was conducted by Keith Diaz, MD, and Gerald Smaldone, MD, PhD, at Stony Brook University Medical Center in Stony Brook, NY.
Opening windows in your home to enjoy the warmer temperatures may seem harmless, but windows have proven to be sources of injury and death for young children. In recent weeks, several children have fallen from windows and U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) data indicates that on average, about eight deaths occur yearly to children five years or younger while an estimated 3,300 children five and younger are treated each year in U.S. hospital emergency departments. Hospitalization was required for about 34 percent of these children after falling from a window.
These deaths and injuries frequently occur when kids push themselves against window screens or climb onto furniture located next to an open window.
Before families head to the beach or pool this Memorial Day, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has updated guidance on water safety and drowning prevention. In its updated policy, the AAP has revised its guidance on swimming lessons and highlights new drowning risks – including large, inexpensive, portable and inflatable pools – that have emerged in the past few years.
Fortunately, drowning rates have fallen steadily from 2.68 per 100,000 in 1985 to 1.32 per 100,000 in 2006. But drowning continues to be the second leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 19, claiming the lives of roughly 1,100 children in 2006. Toddlers and teenaged boys are at greatest risk.
“To protect their children, parents need to think about layers of protection,” said Jeffrey Weiss, MD, FAAP, lead author of the policy statement and technical report, which will be published in the July print issue of Pediatrics and released early online May 24.
The Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Network (FAAN) encourages widespread participation of Food Allergy Awareness Week to enhance the knowledge and understanding of this potentially fatal medical condition nationwide.
The theme for the 13th Annual Food Allergy Awareness Week (FAAW), May 9-15, is “Respect Every Bite.” For individuals with food allergies, just one bite of a food that contains their allergen can lead to anaphylaxis, a serious allergic reaction that is rapid in onset and may cause death. Twelve million Americans have food allergies, including one in every 17 children under the age of 3.
A woman was attacked with a knife, and a man came to her aid. He was stabbed, himself, and lay dying on a sidewalk as many people walked by. Some checked on the guy, but just moved him back and moved on. One even took a picture with his cell phone. Fire fighters were eventually called, and arrived at the scene an hour and a half after the stabbing had taken place.
The man died there, having given his life to attempt to save another. And the worst part is that nobody saw fit to help the man in any way.
Lightning strikes are a dangerous thing, and in the United States there are about 100 deaths per year. That doesn’t seem like a lot, but every life is precious. Anything that we can do to help save a life that might otherwise be lost is a good thing.
The first piece of lightning safety has to do with making sure you’re in a safe location when a storm comes in. If you’re at an outdoor event, someone will likely have a safety plan, but you can also plan ahead by locating the nearest safe structures or locations. Buildings that are normally occupied by or frequently used by people, that have plumbing and wiring to act as a ground. You can also seek shelter in a car with a hard metal top and the windows all rolled up. Not convertibles or golf carts. And remember: do not touch the sides of the vehicle.
A new study has just been released, claiming to be on the conservative side, that roughly 48,000 deaths are due to infections caught while in the hospital. These are mostly preventable infections, that wouldn’t have been caught by the infected outside of the hospital environment.
They are mistakes that cost lives, says study researcher Ramanan Laxminarayan, PhD, MPH, a senior fellow at the Washington, D.C. think tank Resources for the Future.
National Heart Failure Awareness Week is set for February 14-20. This is a time for physicians and other health providers to remind patients with heart failure, those at risk and family members of patients how to best manage this syndrome, what heart failure means, to re-evaluate life style and consider changes to improve quality of life. Visit www.abouthf.org to learn more about following a low sodium diet, exercise do’s and don’ts, managing medications, heart rhythm problems, and other factors commonly associated with heart failure. These modules are written in easy to read and understand language and can be downloaded free of charge.
A collection of sport and baby bottles potentially containing the compound bisphenol A, or BPA. The compound, commonly used in polycarbonate plastic bottles (to make them unbreakable), is also found in the linings of food cans. (Jonathan Hayward, Canadian Press)
After months of information being available on the subject of Bisphenol A, the FDA has begun to study the toxicity with novel approaches to test the subtle effects. Thus bringing BPA back into the mind’s eye, as many may have begun to forget the impact that it could have on folks around the world.
Bisphenol A (BPA) is an industrial chemical that has been present in many hard plastic bottles and metal-based food and beverage cans since the 1960s.
Studies employing standardized toxicity tests have thus far supported the safety of current low levels of human exposure to BPA However, on the basis of results from recent studies using novel approaches to test for subtle effects, both the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health and FDA have some concern about the potential effects of BPA on the brain, behavior, and prostate gland in fetuses, infants, and young children. In cooperation with the National Toxicology Program, FDA’s National Center for Toxicological Research is carrying out in-depth studies to answer key questions and clarify uncertainties about the risks of BPA.
Being out in the field, paramedics will tell you that most car accidents could have been avoided. In fact, currently there are many laws being discussed regarding the banning of cellphone use while driving. Many people are texting and driving, and it has caused death. Isn’t a life worth more than 160 characters (the total length that a text message can be)?
There are car companies that are working on making advances in technology that can drastically decrease the number of accidents each year. The fact that we’re not all jumping on this advancement seems pretty foolish to me. “Car Crash Stats: There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes is more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States — one death every 13 minutes.”
Have you ever wondered just how much help wearing a medical mask is? It doesn’t seem like it would be a whole lot, considering how thin they are, but a new study has shown that they provide greater help than was previously thought.
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