health

Deborah’s body charts battle against breast cancer

Julien — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 13:54:38 +0100

When Deborah Lattimore found out she had breast cancer in September last year, she decided to document her struggle with the illness and post the photos online. A stark but important message: having a mammogram can save your life.

The most common form of cancer among the female population, breast cancer affects one in eight women. In the US, mortalities from breast cancer have been decreasing since 1990 – largely as a result of treatment advances, earlier detection through screening, and increased awareness.

Raising awareness of breast cancer is precisely the aim of Deborah Lattimore. She says she owes her life to regular screening, and urges other women to do likewise.

Our thanks to our Observer Alberto Celani for directing us towards Deborah’s website.

France faces up to campaigns that disgust smokers

Sophie Team Observers — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 15:24:04 +0100

Smoking turns your teeth into stumps and makes you impotent: that's the message increasing numbers of smokers are facing when they reach for a fag, and the illustrations are getting increasingly gruesome. Last week, it was the French government's turn to adopt the measure of printing graphic images on cigarette packets. Not something that Parisian tobacconists quite understand...

WARNING, THE IMAGES BELOW MIGHT BE FOUND DISTURBING.

Canada was the first to produce this kind of campaign in 2001. One year later, a study showed that the measure paid off - 44% of smokers said that the new ads encouraged them to give up. Brazil, Singapore, Australia and more recently Belgium and the UK have since followed suit. And last week, French health minister Roselyne Bachelot put forward a plan to decorate French cigarette packets with "entirely explicit, not to say very hard hitting" images. A Parisian tobacconist explains why, according to him, the new measure "takes smokers for imbeciles", and won't work anyway.

Why are people dying needlessly in French hospitals?

Sophie Team Observers — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 14:11:40 +0100

Thought of as one of the best in the world, the French healthcare system is under fire after two fatal incidents within a week. Former nurse and blogger William Rejault condemns the system's insufficiencies and calls on health minister Roselyne Bachelot to take the problem of staff shortages seriously.

On 24 December, a three-year-old child died in a Parisian hospital after a nurse administered an injection of magnesium chloride instead of glucose, supposed to rehydrate the toddler. Five days later, a 53-year-old patient died after ambulance services were unable to get find him a hospital place. By the time he reached suitable care, he had suffered four heart attacks. The French accident and emergency workers union blamed the deaths on staff and funding shortages. The Socialist Party has used the incidents to renew their call on the government to pump money into public hospitals. A spokesperson for Sarkozy's UMP party responded by saying that "our country has the highest per capita health spending in the world" (AFP).

Mayotte detention centre: "this infringement of regular French law is a disgrace to the Republic"

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 17:22:40 +0100

The online newspaper Liberation.fr has published footage of the inside of a detention centre on the French island of Mayotte. Detainees sleep on the floor. Hygiene conditions are unspeakable. While Mayotte is an "overseas collective" of France, asylum rights don't apply to this territory. Read more and see the video...

According to the site the footage was filmed in Pamandzi immigration detention centre in October this year. "Each year, 16,000 people are expelled from Mayotte. At Pamandzi detention centre, there are only 60 places. Today, 202 people are packed into the building." The images show men crammed behind bars, barely enough space to lie down for women and children, and the kitchen full of rubbish and rotting food.

But the situation is nothing new. A report by French NGO Cimade, which is authorised to inspect detention centres, gave this critique after a visit in November 2007: "No kind of bedding or products for washing are handed out to detainees. There's no area for families or children (no baby changing facilities, no cots, no games). (...) For eating, there are no plates or cutlery; they eat with their hands, gathered around five iron trays."

The document also reports that mass arrests of undocumented people started in October 2005, when Nicolas Sarkozy was interior minister. Over 16,000 people were sent back over the border in 2007. The island's population totals 186,000.

Published on Libération.fr.

A million dollars for a stale bread roll

Sophie Team Observers — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 16:24:45 +0100

Prices double from one hour to the next in Zimbabwe. One of our Observers told us that if you haven't paid cash in hand within half an hour of negotiating a price for something, then you better forget about buying it.

According to the blog Zimbabwe Absurdity, "The picture below has been doing the rounds of the email. The toilet photo was apparently taken in the South African customs at Beit Bridge".

Spaniards split over "abortion boat"

Ségolène Team Observers — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 16:54:19 +0200

By docking their boat at harbours around the world, Dutch NGO Women on Waves allows women to skirt abortion laws by operating in international waters. On Friday the group arrived in Spain, to a particularly cold reception.

At about half past five on Friday afternoon, "Aurora" sailed into the port of Valencia. The Dutch NGO, which has been offering abortions to women on its "floating clinic" for several years, was met by about a hundred pro-life activists shouted "fascists!" and "murderers!", while a small motor boat tried to stop the vessel from mooring. Also on the quay: pro-abortion activists, and between them, a police barrier, and a group of surging journalists.

While the turbulent arrival took over the country's weekend headlines, women were welcomed aboard the controversial vessel, where Dutch laws reign. Abortion was legalised in 1985 in Spain, but only in the case of rape, malformation of foetus, or a threat to the physical or mental health of the woman. "Aurora" was planning to set sail yesterday. But to where? Rebecca Gomperts, the founder of the NGO, is yet to decide. Women on Waves has already graced the shores of Ireland, Poland, Portugal and Ecuador.

The boat arriving in the port of Valencia:

Posted on YouTube on october 18, by feraleyes13.

Sanlu milk: "You’ll find treasure in your kidneys!"

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 14:59:29 +0200

Web users are not letting Sanlu off lightly. They continue to chide the leading Chinese dairy producer at the heart of the powdered-milk scandal, and this time with humour.

Sanlu has been accused of marketing powdered babies' milk cut with melamine to boost the product's protein levels. The state-run company has been forced to recall 10,000 tonnes of products, but its milk, along with that of around 20 other Chinese manufacturers, has already killed four babies and poisoned 53,000 others.

Fronterra, a New Zealand company that partly owns Sanlu, placed the blame directly on the company's management. They say that Sanlu was first told about the problem in December 2007, which tests confirmed in June 2008. Yet the company didn't manage to notify the Chinese authorities, or their Kiwi partners, until August 2.

It may offer little consolation to the public, but to bring down the company further, Web users are taking great care in parodying the brand's ad.

Translated from Chinese by our Observer Lily Eclimont.

Cannabis: the best cure for a headache?

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 12:57:34 +0200

Posted on Flickr by "Marylanders 4 Safe Access", an association that defends therapeutic cannabis use in Maryland.

Cannabis is already used as a pain-reliever in several countries, but only for people undergoing treatment for serious illnesses. Now, a British researcher has proved that the drug is also an efficient solution for chronic pain like arthritis. The news has reignited the debate over whether to legalise cannabis for therapeutic means.

Cannabis as a curative solution is tolerated in various American states, in Canada and in Australia. In 2003 Holland was the first country to authorise marijuana-based medicines. This "medical cannabis", sold on prescription, alleviates the side effects of chemotherapy - for example, it creates an appetite. But for the first time, it's been proved in a study published in the Pain review that cannabis can also be used to ease chronic pain, or long-term pain which doesn't react to usual treatment.

Tainted milk scandal – web users investigate

Sophie Team Observers — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:51:12 +0200

The Chinese blogosphere is panicking over the tainted milk scandal that has already killed three babies and hospitalised more than 6,000 others. Web users are sceptical about the official government line - that it's the fault of the milk farmers, and not the manufacturing companies.

According to an investigation launched by the authorities last week, 22 companies were marketing milk powder that was contaminated with a toxic chemical called melamine, which had been added to make the products seem richer in protein.

The Zonaeuropa blog reports that police from the Hebei region, where the scandal was exposed, arrested two farmers suspected of providing contaminated milk to dairy companies.

The farmers arrested by the police. Photo posted on China.com.

One of the suspected farms. Photo posted on China.com.

The netizens then found a message from a paediatrician specialised in urinary conditions on the country's official quality control site. The doctor had made a link between babies' milk and a kidney disease that one of his patients died from. The response to his message was simply "contact the health department".

The warning message posted on 31 July by the urologist, on this blog.

The web users went on to question why the authorities were so slow to recall the dangerous products - the decision wasn't made until 12 September. Some Kiwi officials (one of the Chinese companies in trouble is partly owned by a New Zealand firm) even said that the authorities knew for weeks but didn't do anything about it until the New Zealanders intervened.

Another blogger, quoted by Global Voices, talks of a censor that he claims to have been victim to. William Long says that he himself was asked to delete evidence about the subject, that in particular put Sanlu - the first company affected by the scandal - to blame.

There's also talk of internet censorship on the China Smack blog. They published a letter, allegedly sent by Teller, the company that manages Sanlu's press relations. The letter advises the milk company to pay China's best search engine, Baidu, to delete web pages that make any reference to the scandal. Teller says that the document is false, and Baidu says there was no agreement of this kind made with Sanlu. But the denials don't stop the rumours from spreading on the web.

"Fight Club" for kids

Sophie Team Observers — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 11:19:48 +0200

With moves like "ground-and-pound" and "lay-and-pray", Mixed Martial Arts is considered the most brutal form of contact sport after street fighting. So why are children as young as six getting involved?

MMA is a refined version of "ultimate fighting", the short-lived full-contact sport that emerged in the early nineties and was once labelled "human cock fighting" by John McCain. Too violent for the public, ultimate fighting was reworked with a few strict rules and re-entered the sporting arena as "Mixed Martial Arts". Since it began, three people have died from MMA related injuries, and organised competitions are illegal in 49 states. However, the sport's popularity continues to grow, and it's now on a par with wrestling and boxing in terms of TV viewing numbers.

In the past few years increasing numbers of classes for children have sprung up around the US. In states where it's legal, such as Missouri, competitions are staged - like the one in this video.

Posted by "pankrasekid" 18 November 2007.