Health & Medicine
Health Watch: Clearing Katrina's Waters of Risks
The water that saturated New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina--initially feared to be a toxic soup--was no more dangerous than the city's normal storm runoff, say scientists in the journal Environmental Science and Technology. Environmental engineer John Pardue took water samples in several New Orleans neighborhoods after the storm and found that toxic chemical levels were slightly raised but not hazardous. (Fish in Lake Pontchartrain, however, could still be harmed by water pumped back in.) Pardue says that toxic substances may have been diluted by the huge water volume--equivalent to two years' worth of rains--or not released from chemical plants and other sources because the water came up slowly and without much force. Pardue has one caution: People with open wounds who are near the remaining sludge "have to be obsessive-compulsive about washing their hands and keeping gloves on."
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Health Watch: Double-Testing to Catch Cancers
More than 1 in 10 cancer patients may be initially misdiagnosed because of errors in performing tests and reading the results, reports the journal Cancer. Missing a cancer could delay treatment. Most patients do have other symptoms that prompt doctors to retest them and discover the cancer, notes study author and pathologist Stephen Raab. Better still, patients can be proactive, he says. "They can approach the physician and say, 'I know this may not be caught on the first test. Do you need to test again?'"
Health Watch: Trouble in Bed, Trouble at Heart?
Erectile dysfunction--yes, the same sex problem alluded to in Viagra ads--may be an early warning of atherosclerosis in men who have no other heart symptoms. Researcher Emilio Chiurlia looked at about 140 men who scored very low on standard heart-risk scales. Half of these men had trouble with erections--and were most likely to show calcifications in the coronary arteries and other signs of disease, Chiurlia and coworkers report in the most recent Journal of the American College of Cardiology. In the bodywide vessel disease, tiny arteries in the penis may become blocked first, says cardiac imaging specialist Paul Schoenhagen of the Cleveland Clinic.
Health Watch: A Beat-Allergy Plan Is Worth the Cost
Allergies often spark asthma attacks, so reducing exposure to allergens like dust mites, mold, and cockroaches is a big goal. A customized plan drawn up by an environmental counselor can help. But at $1,469 per household, is the intervention cost effective? Yes, say researchers who followed 937 inner-city children and reported their findings in the October Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. Savings included a 19 percent drop in unscheduled medical visits and fewer missed workdays by parents of sick kids.
This story appears in the October 24, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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