N.Y. Lawsuit Calls 'Ladies' Night' Discriminatory

N.Y. Lawsuit Calls 'Ladies' Night' Discriminatory

By Brittney Pescatore
The National Law Journal
07-12-2007

Clubs and bars have been luring women to their establishments with lower fees and shorter waits for decades, but a recent lawsuit claims that the practice is unconstitutional.

New York attorney Roy Den Hollander, a solo practitioner for more than 15 years who deals primarily with civil litigation and corporate governance, has filed a class action against certain Manhattan nightclubs for "invidious discrimination" against men in their policies for admitting patrons.

Hollander is seeking a declaratory judgment that would clarify whether nightclubs' policies consist of "state action" due to their regulation by the state's Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control, and consequently are subject to liability pursuant to 42 U.S.C. 1983, which allows civil action for deprivation of rights by persons acting under the color of state law. Hollander v. Copacabana Nightclub, 1:2007 CV 5873. A case management and scheduling conference has been set for Oct. 11.

The attorney alleges that the clubs are violating the 14th Amendment's guarantee of equal protection under the law, and in addition to declaratory relief, he is seeking nominal damages and an injunction to halt the nightclubs' practice of admitting women at a lower price than men.

The nightclubs named in the suit include Copacabana Nightclub, China Club, A.E.R. Nightclub and Sol.

Hollander says he attended each of these venues on nights when they held promotions offering women either free or reduced fees, shorter waiting periods, or longer windows for free or reduced admission that were not available to men.

"It's either more money, more time or more burdensome," said Hollander of the difficulties men face in gaining admittance to nightclubs.

He is looking to the case of Seidenberg and DeCrow v. McSorleys' Old Ale House, Inc., 317 F.Supp 593, as precedent for finding the existence of "state action" by bars and nightclubs. The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, where Hollander has filed his complaint, ruled in 1970 that state action existed when McSorleys' Old Ale House refused to serve two women.

Hollander also foresees an "uphill battle" in classifying the action as invidious discrimination, since he is arguing on behalf of men and not women, whom he says the U.S. Supreme Court has given "preferential treatment for past invidious, economic discrimination."

"Whether this case succeeds or fails," says Hollander, "it will result in a much needed victory for men."

Tim Gleason, general manager of the China Club, said that he found Hollander's grievance "ridiculous."

The China Club does offer promotions, sometimes organized by outside vendors, which offer special admission terms for women, Gleason said. Hollander recognized that many events are organized by hired promoters but maintains that they serve as agents of the clubs.

Counsel for the Copacabana, A.E.R. and Sol nightclubs could not be reached for comment.

Hollander is seeking to be named class representative for all men charged more money or burdened by stricter time restraints than women at these clubs over the last three years. He has as evidence e-mail advertisements for promotions held on the nights he attended these clubs and according to Hollander, these e-mails advertise discriminatory admittance policies for men versus women. The case seeks an injunction to end these policies.

"If I win, then all the other nightclubs have to follow," Hollander said.

Similar cases have come before courts across the nation in recent years. In early June of this year, the California Supreme Court ruled against a Los Angeles nightclub that refused to provide four men the "Ladies' Night" discounts available to women. Angelucci v. Century Supper Club, No. S136154.

In 2004, a New Jersey administrative ruling that declared ladies' nights violated state discrimination laws led New Jersey lawmakers to pass legislation legalizing the practice. Gillespie v. Coastline Restaurant, No. CRT 2579-03.

Taking the pain out of injections

Taking the pain out of injections

Intraject: taking the pain out of an injection

By BBC Health Correspondent James Westhead

A revolutionary needle-free injection has been developed which aims to take the fear out of having a jab.

Instead of using a needle the so-called 'Intraject' works by firing a tiny jet of liquid through the skin.

The manufacturers, Weston Medical, claim the device, which is about to begin clinical trials, is more hygienic than a needle and virtually painless. It is also disposable and relatively cheap.

A company spokesman said: "It will make an enormous difference because no longer will they have to draw a drug from a vial and stick a stainless steel needle into themselves. They will be able to use Intraject with ease, comfort and simplicity."

Hypodermic needle: a thing of the past?

Hypodermic syringes have been hugely effective - but 100 years on it's one of the few bits of medical technology that's fundamentally unchanged.

Keen for an alternative

Doctors are keen for an alternative because of the risk of infection and injury.

Administering drugs without a needle should also reduce the risk of introducing harmful bacteria into the circulation.

The Intraject works in a microsecond. High pressure gas forces the liquid into a tiny jet which pierces the skin and deposits the drug with minimal tissue damage.

Similar devices have been developed before, but this is the first time the technology has been compressed into a cheap disposable form.

The Intraject cannot be used on patients until the clinical trials later this year, but those who have tried it claim it is almost painless.

It is hoped the needle-free injection could replace the syringe for a wide range of treatments including routine vaccinations.

Regular users to benefit

Richard English: endured regular needle injections

Patients who need frequent injections could be the first to benefit.

Hepatiitis C sufferer Richard English had to endure painful injections in the thigh every other day.

He said: "I found it frightening to jab this little piece of cold steel into my leg. If that could be removed it would also remove a little bit of the fear."

Fruit flies provide liver hope

Fruit flies provide liver hope

Fruit flies share many of our genes

A study of the humble fruit fly may hold the key to new treatments for human liver diseases and diabetes.

Scientists have discovered the cells responsible for breaking down fat in the Drosophila fly.

The process has striking parallels to that used by humans - raising the prospect that studying it closely could speed up development of new drugs.

The study, by the National Institute for Medical Research, was published in the journal Nature.

We hope that a Drosophila model of fatty liver disease will help to accelerate the rate at which chemical compounds can be tested for use as new drugs for human liver diseases Dr Alex Gould

In humans, dietary fat is stored in fatty tissue but can be retrieved and converted into energy during long periods between meals.

Many of the important steps in metabolising fat molecules and converting them into energy take place within the liver.

However, when the balance of fat build-up and break-down in the liver goes awry - often as a direct result of obesity - it can lead to conditions such as type 2 diabetes and metabolic syndrome.

Fruit flies share many genes with us and have proved useful for understanding several human diseases.

However, until now the way they metabolise fat has been a mystery.

This has limited their use in studying the mechanisms of human liver disease and obesity related conditions.

The new study shows that the task of breaking down fat falls to specialised cells, called oenocytes.

Striking similarities

Lead researcher Dr Alex Gould said: "These findings reveal that flies have an equivalent to our liver and that they store, process and burn fat in a way that is strikingly similar to us.

"We hope that a Drosophila model of fatty liver disease will help to accelerate the rate at which chemical compounds can be tested for use as new drugs for human liver diseases."

The researchers also discovered that fruit flies share more than 20 'fat burning' genes with humans.

Dr Gould said: "These discoveries may help us understand more about how our own bodies store and burn fat."

Dr Iain Frame, research manager at the charity Diabetes UK, said: "Fruit flies are used in several areas of diabetes research that will enable us improve our understanding of the causes of Type 2 diabetes.

"This research is interesting and may lead to new treatments but it is in its very early stages."

There are more than two million people with diabetes in the UK, and it is estimated that another 750,000 have the condition, but have yet to be diagnosed.

Professor Chris Day, of the University of Newcastle, said fatty liver disease was a growing problem in the UK, affecting up to 30% of the population.

He said a significant proportion of these people would go on to develop cirrhosis, liver failure and liver cancer.

"The pathogenesis of advanced forms of the disease and factors underlying individual susceptibility to advance disease are unclear.

"The publication in Nature therefore provides an excellent new model for dissecting the important mechanisms which will undoubtedly lead to better prevention and therapeutic strategies."

Renda-se aos protagonistas da luta anti-cancro, numa cozinha perto de si.

 

  Um relatório elaborado em conjunto pela World Cancer Research Fund e o

  American Institute for Cancer Research revelou dados, no mínimo,

  revoltantes: trinta a quarenta por cento dos cancros apresenta, como pano

  de fundo, um regime alimentar inadequado. O que é mais surpreendente, no

  mau sentido, é que a ciência tem, cada vez mais, vindo a demonstrar que é

  possível defendermo-nos de vários tipos de cancro através de uma

  alimentação equilibrada, onde se destacam «ingredientes» específicos.

 

  Por que teimamos em ignorar esta «chance» que nos é dada, diariamente,

  cada vez que nos sentamos à mesa? Existem vários estudos que defendem que

  uma dieta rica em espinafres é um factor de protecção contra o cancro do

  pulmão e do estômago. Outros vegetais, como os brócolos, desempenham um

  papel importante na prevenção do cancro da mama, do útero e do cólon, com

  provas dadas cientificamente. O consumo assíduo de massas e cereais está,

  por seu turno, relacionado a uma redução do risco de cancro da mama.

 

  Conheça quais os alimentos que deve privilegiar na prevenção de doenças

  cancerígenas:

 

  Tomate

  Para os apreciadores da cozinha italiana, esta é sempre uma boa notícia.

  Molho de tomate e até ketchup são instrumentos preciosos na prevenção do

  cancro, mais poderosos do que o tomate ingerido cru ou sob a forma de

  sumo. Pois é, este fruto tem, na sua composição, vitaminas A, C, folato e

  potássio, como o espinafre.

  Mas a sua mais-valia é um antioxidante que se chama licopeno (que também

  existe na melancia e no morango). O licopeno pode bloquear o início do

  processo que está na origem de vários tipos de cancro, como o da próstata

  e do estômago. Um estudo realizado em Harvard e que teve a duração de seis

  anos permitiu concluir que os homens que consomem dez ou mais porções de

  tomate (ou entre quatro a sete «doses» de produtos à base de tomate) por

  semana, reduziram o risco de cancro da próstata em cerca de quarenta e

  cinco por cento.

 

  Cenoura

  Um estudo publicado em Fevereiro conseguiu identificar, finalmente, o

  composto da cenoura que é maioritariamente responsável pela sua acção

  «anticancerígena». O nome deste é falcarinol, só existe na cenoura, e

  trata-se de um pesticida natural que protege as cenouras de fungos. Embora

  já se soubesse que a cenoura é composta por beta-caroteno, um precursor da

  vitamina A que desempenha uma função protectora importante, os cientistas

  de NewCastle pensam que a descoberta do falcarinol pode ter sido um passo

  na direcção da criação de uma nova geração de fármacos contra o cancro.

 

 

  Soja

  O segredo da baixa incidência de cancro da próstata, da mama, do cólon e

  da boca parece residir na dieta oriental, em que a soja representa um

  lugar de relevo. As isoflavonas, os fitatos e os fitoesteróis, substâncias

  que existem na soja, justificam que as propriedades desta sejam tão

  aclamadas. E se torce o nariz aos tradicionais «rebentos», nada de «fugir

  com o prato à soja»: esta pode ser consumida sob a forma de sumo, iogurte,

  leite, salsichas, hambúrgueres, bolachas e sobremesas.

 

  Ervilha

  Mesmo com uma «estatura» tão pequena, a ervilha hospeda beta-caroteno e

  luteína, outro antioxidante que exerce um efeito protector sobre as nossas

  células. Muitos estudos demonstraram que quanto maior for o consumo de

  vegetais e frutos com beta-caroteno (cenoura, beterraba, abacate, cereja,

  entre outros) menor será a probabilidade de ter alguns tipos de cancro,

  como o do estômago e do pulmão.

 

  Uva

  Especialistas da universidade de Harvard revelam que a ingestão regular

  deste fruto, assim como da sua versão em sumo, constitui um factor de

  protecção contra vários tipos de cancro. Também o morango, a amora e a

  framboesa fazem parte deste grupo de elite.

 

  Leite

  O leite é uma fonte privilegiada de cálcio. Mas talvez não esteja a par

  deste dado: a prevalência de vítimas de cancro é menor nos consumidores

  inveterados de leite. E sabia que, de acordo com um estudo publicado no

  International Journal of Cancer, as mulheres que bebem leite magro todos

  os dias estão a construir uma barreira contra o cancro da mama?

 

  Alho

  O seu consumo regular está directamente associado a uma menor incidência

  de cancro, pois pesquisas defendem que a alicina, a substância «aromática»

  que existe no alho, inibe a formação de partículas cancerígenas que se

  formam durante a digestão. Segundo um dos investigadores, comer um dente

  de alho esmagado (cru ou cozinhado) é uma das medidas anticancro mais

  fáceis de pôr em prática. E com a vantagem de, para quem não suporta o

  carimbo do alho, ou seja, o cheiro, existir sob a forma de comprimidos ou

  cápsulas.

 

  Cebola

  Quanto mais «ácidas» melhor, diz quem sabe. Referimo-nos aos

  investigadores da Universidade de Cornell, que verificaram que as cebolas,

  especialmente aquelas cujo sabor é mais pronunciado, são detentoras de uma

  quantidade apreciável de flavonóides, substâncias que inibem o

  desenvolvimento de células cancerígenas.

 

  Laranja

  Para além da abundância de vitamina C que existe na sua composição, à

  semelhança do maracujá e do limão, a laranja é detentora de fitoquímicos,

  substâncias que têm conquistado um lugar de destaque no combate a doenças

  cancerígenas.

 

  Chá

  O seu percurso é milenar e ocupa o segundo lugar no ranking mundial das

  bebidas mais consumidas (a seguir à água). Nos últimos anos, atribuiu-se

  ao Chá o poder de prevenir doenças cardiovasculares, excesso de peso,

  afecções da boca e diversos tipos de cancro. A chave para este sucesso

  reside nos antioxidantes, que protegem o nosso organismo da acção dos

  radicais livres – os vilões que lesam as nossas células, abrindo caminho

  para o desenvolvimento de várias patologias.

 

  Comecemos por um dos heterónimos, o chá verde. É possuidor de mais

  antioxidantes do que o chá preto, pois o seu processo de fermentação é

  muito curto, mantendo intactos estes elementos. Na linha da frente destes

  antioxidantes encontram-se os polifenóis e sabe-se que apenas uma chávena

  de chá verde contém entre cem a duzentos gramas desta substância. Ainda

  dentro do grupo de polifenóis existe a catequina, que tem características

  anti-cancerígenas e anti-inflamatórias. O chá verde foi eleito, de entre

  todos os alimentos, o fornecedor, por excelência, de catequina.

 

  Uma pesquisa realizada pela American Dietetic Association defende que

  beber entre duas a quatro chávenas de chá verde por dia pode reduzir o

  risco de vários tipos de cancro. Também especialistas do The American

  Institute for Cancer Research referem que estudos de longa duração, em

  regiões onde o consumo de chá verde é elevado, revelam a existência de uma

  menor taxa de incidência de cancro do cólon, do pâncreas, do estômago e do

  esófago. Afirmam ainda que a ingestão de chá verde retarda ou previne

  totalmente o desenvolvimento de cancro da mama, do cólon e do fígado,

  oferecendo um efeito protector semelhante em relação ao cancro do pulmão,

  da pele e do aparelho digestivo.

 

  O tradicional chá preto (também denominado chá vermelho na China), embora

  tenha menos antioxidantes do que o seu irmão verde e obrigue a um consumo

  moderado, por ter cafeína, constitui igualmente um importante escudo

  protector contra o cancro. Aliás, várias pesquisas apuraram que o chá

  verde e o chá preto têm dez vezes mais antioxidantes do que os vegetais e

  a fruta.

 

  Raro e só agora mais conhecido entre nós, o chá branco ou White Peony

  promete dar que falar. De acordo com estudos levados a cabo pelo Linus

  Pauling Institute of Oregon State University (das poucas pesquisas que já

  existem sobre esta variedade de chá), julga-se que o chá branco seja o

  mais puro de toda a família, «exibindo» o triplo de substâncias

  antioxidantes do chá verde.

 

  O tradicional chá de limão (com um bocadinho de casca do fruto),

  considerado tradicionalmente como uma boa forma de ajudar a aliviar dores

  de garganta e outras queixas associadas à gripe, tem outros trunfos na

  manga: actua na prevenção do cancro da pele! Uma pesquisa da Universidade

  do Arizona, que envolveu quatrocentas e cinquenta pessoas, apurou que

  aquelas que não tinham cancro da pele eram precisamente as mesmas que

  bebiam regularmente chá de limão e chá preto. Os cientistas afirmaram

  ainda que o efeito preventivo do primeiro rondava os setenta por cento,

  sendo atribuído um valor de quarenta por cento à acção do chá preto.

 

  Um pequeno aparte: não obstante todos os benefícios do chá, deve existir

  moderação na sua ingestão, em especial na gravidez.

 

 

 

 

  --

  Paulo Calado

The downside of China's manufacturing boom: deadly goods wreaking havoc at home and abroad.

Unsafe at Any Speed

The downside of China's manufacturing boom: deadly goods wreaking havoc at home and abroad.

Newsweek International

July 16, 2007 issue - Wang Hai's mobile phone keeps buzzing with calls from clients. He's China's most famous crusader against fraudulent, shoddy and dangerous goods. The business consultant targets counterfeiters, helps duped consumers and protects whistle-blowers, many of whom face harassment or worse. "A good system for guaranteeing quality control simply doesn't exist in China," says Wang, who's been on the consumer-rights warpath for more than a decade. "Even confidential informants who report to authorities about someone selling fraudulent goods can wind up dead, under suspicious circumstances."

All of that ensures Wang is extremely busy these days. Over the past few months, a number of dramatic product-safety scandals have rocked China—and horrified the world. The U.S. media have exposed one badly made Chinese export after another, from poisonous pet food to toxic toothpaste to tires so poorly made they litter American highways with shredded treads. These revelations have raised serious questions about China's rise as factory to the world. It may seem hard to remember now, but just a few years ago, pundits and the global press were marveling at how quickly China had come on as a major manufacturing export power able, or so the thinking went, to build just about anything fast, cheap and well.

Now the true picture is emerging, and it isn't pretty. Far from the disciplined and tightly controlled economy China was thought to have, the ongoing scandals have revealed an often chaotic system with lax standards, where the government's economic authority has been weakened by rapid reforms. This sorry state is not unprecedented—other economies, such as South Korea's and Japan's, experienced similar growing pains decades ago. The difference, and the danger, is one of scale, since Chinese goods now dominate the world in so many sectors. Unless Beijing can improve its image fast and turn "Made in China" into a prestigious—or at least reliable—brand, consumers will remain at risk and the country's export-driven economic miracle could face serious trouble.

China today resembles nothing so much as the United States a century ago, when robber barons, gangsterism and raw capitalism held sway. Now as then, powerful vested interests are profiting from murky regulations, shoddy enforcement, rampant corruption and a lack of consumer awareness. In the United States during the early 20th century, public outrage over bogus drugs and contaminated foodstuffs, fueled by graphic accounts such as Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle," finally prompted passage of the landmark Pure Food and Drug Act. China needs a similar revolution today if it is to protect its competitiveness and its consumers.

The problem is especially pressing at home. Bad as the export scandals have been, conditions are even worse inside China. Factories that produce domestic goods often have far lower standards than those that produce and export clothes, consumer electronics or microchips. Zhou Qing is the author of "What Kind of God," an exposé whose sense of social mission could easily be compared to Sinclair's epic. In it, Zhou spins one hair-raising tale after another. There's seafood laced with additives that lower men's sperm counts, soy sauce bulked up with arsenic-tainted human hair swept up from the barbershop floor and hormone-infused fast food that prompts 6-year-old boys to sprout facial hair and 7-year-old girls to grow breasts.

In writing his book, Zhou had plenty of material to choose from. While the export scandals are new, Chinese consumers have had it so bad for so long that their casualty count is staggering. Bogus antibiotics produced in Anhui were blamed for six deaths and 80 people falling ill in 2006. In 2004, unsafe infant formula killed at least 50 babies and left another 200 severely malnourished, according to media reports. Virtually every product category is affected, from candy that has choked children to killer fireworks to toxic face cream. At least 300 million Chinese citizens—roughly the same number as the entire U.S. population—suffer from food-borne diseases annually, according to a recent report by the Asian Development Bank and World Health Organization.

To be fair, Beijing has made some attempts to limit the damage. Officials implicated in consumer-product scandals are starting to face severe punishment. In May, a court sentenced to death Zheng Xiaoyu, first leader of China's State Food and Drug Administration, for approving fake medicines in exchange for bribes. Officials from the factory that produced the melamine linked to at least 16 U.S. pet deaths have been detained. Last week, as U.S. media reported on pesticide runoff and drugs affecting farm-raised catfish bound for U.S. markets, Chinese authorities released a survey taken earlier this year that showed that less than 1 percent of food sold for export—and 20 percent of the products made for the domestic market—was substandard or tainted.

Yet it's far too soon to conclude that China is starting to clean up its act the way the United States once did. In part that's because politics here remains a different and dangerous game. When "What Kind of God" was released in China at the beginning of this year, its state-owned publisher edited the text heavily and distributed few copies with scant publicity, ensuring that the public reaction would be minor compared with that which greeted Sinclair's book. Although Politburo members initially praised Zhou's work, Zhou contends his status as an '80s dissident led to subsequent efforts to downplay its importance. Zhou spent almost three years in prison following the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests.

Indeed, in China, muckrakers like Zhou must still tread carefully, especially if their work negatively affects the bottom line of provincial czars. That's a lesson Zheng Qi, a whistle-blower in Jiangsu and one of Wang Hai's clients, learned the hard way. Trained as a quality-control technician at a military hospital, he reported to authorities in 2004 that the Peng Yao Pharmaceutical Factory near Wuxi was exporting bogus pills to Africa. (Zheng had once worked at the plant, but was fired after trying to expose a similar case in the '90s; he asked to use a pseudonym because he fears for his safety.) According to Zheng, the factory claimed the pills would fight insect-borne diseases such as malaria. But he says this wasn't true, and that Africans may have died as a result.

No sooner had he made his claim than Zheng began to suffer harassment, and in a recent unsolved accident, he was hit by a car with fake license plates. "I believe I'm followed and monitored everywhere. The traffic accident was done on purpose," he says. Zheng blames factory head Zhang Guoqing for his persecution, alleging Zhang's connections to local party and government officials have shielded his plant, which continues to operate. (Zhang declined to respond to allegations.)

Fortunately, Beijing will find it harder to resist international economic pressure than it has domestic critics. The embarrassment and controversy over shoddy exports—including diethylene glycol added to cough syrup, which has killed at least 93 Panamanians since July 2006—are being used by some Beijing authorities to prod other bureaucrats into action. "Just as the Chinese leadership used WTO entry as leverage to push domestic reform agendas, it will use [this] international pressure to improve public-health and food-safety issues," says Wenran Jiang, a Sinologist at the University of Alberta. Zhou, the author, notes that China's former FDA head Zheng Xiaoyu was sentenced to death in May "because of America's dogs and Panama's cough syrup."

Yet Beijing is finding it harder to wield the kind of power over the provinces that it once did, making the cleanup that much more difficult. "There are clear indications that Beijing cannot effectively control the rest of the country," says Jiang. "The regime is particularly weak at regulating a cutthroat market economy with millions of private enterprises." Three decades ago, all of China's big manufacturers were state-owned enterprises, and the government could guarantee quality control. Now, however, many manufacturing companies, including formerly state-owned enterprises, have slipped into the loosely regulated private sector. These big businesses often get preferential treatment from local officials who are supposed to monitor them. And companies commonly bribe local police forces, even paying cops' individual salaries. Then there's the problem of regulations themselves. Experts say China should adopt an EU-style Basic Food Law and streamline its overlapping rules and jurisdictions. For the time being, different agencies still issue and follow different guidelines.

China also lacks a system for properly recording quality complaints, which makes it easy for authorities to later deny knowledge of a transgression. And according to Zhang Bing of the consulting firm AT Kearney, China has little means for tracking defective goods back to the source after they are distributed.

As a result of such gaps, China's many lapses are undermining the country's reputation as a juggernaut that will soon compete head-to-head with the likes of Germany and Japan in the most sophisticated sectors of industrial manufacturing. China's high-end exports are more comparable with those of South Korea and Taiwan, says Oded Shenkar, a professor at Ohio State University's Fisher College of Business. In other words, they rank somewhere between Mexico's and Japan's. And the Chinese government must figure out how to improve quality if it hopes to keep the economy humming. The recent U.S. recall of defective Chinese-made car tires suggests more such discoveries may be forthcoming, which would further tarnish mainland brands and dent their overseas ambitions. For example, the Chinese manufacturer Chery Automobile, in cooperation with Chrysler, plans to start exporting small and subcompact vehicles to the United States in less than a year. But a scandal there could prove crippling. Other Chinese automakers, such as Geely, have already postponed plans to export to the West because ensuring safety and performance standards has proved so difficult. The Chinese-made Landwind SUV recently received the worst crash rating a German auto club had awarded in two decades.

The real problem may be that some parts of the Chinese bureaucracy have become so used to quality problems at home that they are waking up too slowly to the damage these lapses do to their reputation in Europe, the United States and Japan. The mind-set of the demanding consumer society has not yet taken hold. When U.S. officials tried to raise the product-safety issue during a recent session of the Sino-U.S. strategic dialogue, held in Washington, D.C., in late June, Chinese delegates seemed caught flat-footed and asked to defer discussion until the next round.

Fortunately, history suggests that once Beijing gets serious it will make rapid progress. Many other Asian economies experienced similar teething problems at parallel stages in their development. Tech analyst Dan Heyler of Merrill Lynch in Hong Kong recalls that Taiwan used to have a reputation for slipshod products, before figuring out how to turn things around. "The learning curve begins with reverse engineering to kick-start a lucrative export trade," Heyler explains. The next stage is, "Let's cut corners so we can make more money," he says. "But that doesn't work. China is in the next part of the learning curve, which is [guaranteeing] quality." Like other Asian forerunners, Chinese firms will face a powerful imperative: raise safety and quality standards or get shut out of foreign markets. Still, it may take them longer to adapt than did companies in countries with stronger laws and regulations.

This is worrisome, since China is already so big and globalized. The mainland's mushrooming road system, for example, makes it easier for Chinese eels and wheels to travel from East to West. "All of those farmers at the end of all those brand-new highways are suddenly connected to the rest of China—which is now connected to all of us," says Drew Thompson, China studies director at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. "But getting all those farmers up to international standards is a Herculean task." To accomplish it will require a clear-eyed recognition of the problem, not a stifling of Chinese critics following in the footsteps of Upton Sinclair.

With Jonathan Adams and Jonathan Ansfield in Beijing

© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.

No Brasil, plantamos os combustíveis do futuro

Biocombustíveis dominam encontro empresarial

"No Brasil, plantamos os combustíveis do futuro", afirmou o Presidente Lula da Silva, ontem, na intervenção que fez numa cimeira empresarial que decorreu na FIL, ao lado do Pavilhão Atlântico, um pouco antes de começar o encontro político entre europeus e brasileiros. Numa frase, o presidente do Brasil explicava um dos interesses económicos em jogo: o gigante sul-americano quer tornar-se na Arábia Saudita dos biocombustíveis. Como sublinhou Durão Barroso, o investimento europeu no Brasil é maior do que o somatório do investimento europeu na China, Índia, Rússia e África do Sul. Na plateia estavam os representantes de empresas que representam uma fatia substancial do PIB português e brasileiro. Lula falou da questão do comércio internacional, mas também explicou o que o seu país tinha para oferecer: crescimento rápido, sem inflação; influência no Mercosul (o bloco comercial sul-americano). O presidente brasileiro lamentou as "oportunidades perdidas", numa referência ao "milagre brasileiro", quando a economia do seu país crescia a 14% ao ano. "Mas faltava a liberdade e, no final, os ricos tinham ficado mais ricos e os pobres tinham ficado mais pobres", disse Lula, ao acrescentar que agora seria diferente. O Brasil pode fornecer em larga escala biodiesel e bioetanol. E, para a Europa, estes produtos permitirão reduzir a dependência em relação à energia importada da Rússia e Médio Oriente, além de serem menos poluentes: o dióxido de carbono produzido pela queima é compensado pelas plantas. Os biocombustíveis encarecem os produtos agrícolas, mas serão úteis para cumprir as metas ambientais dos países ricos.| - L. N.

---

Get the free Yahoo! toolbar and rest assured with the added security of spyware protection.

A prototype artificial skin used to heal wounds has been developed by British researchers.

Artificial skin 'cuts scarring'

By Pallab Ghosh BBC News, Science correspondent

Chunks of skin were replaced with the artificial version

A prototype artificial skin used to heal wounds has been developed by British researchers.

Writing in the journal Regenerative Medicine, UK-based company Intercytex said it had produced promising results in early trials.

It said the skin seemed to incorporate itself much better with real tissue than any other skin substitutes tried in the past.

The researchers hope it might provide an alternative to skin grafts.

Currently the best way of treating serious burns and large wounds is to take skin from part of a patient's body and graft it on to the damaged area.

But this is not ideal, and there have been attempts to create a form of artificial skin.

However, some doctors say that the failure of these to fully integrate with the wound have rendered these efforts of limited value.

Intercytex believes its latest version weaves into wounds much better.

ARTIFICIAL SKIN

1. ICX-SKN is produced from fibrin gel, a blood clotting protein and fibroblast cells, found in human skin.

2. The artificial skin can be cut to fit the wound and held in place with steri strips.

3. After four weeks the dressing is removed and the wound appears to have healed with little scarring.

4. A cross-section of the scar under microscope reveals little difference between the old and new skin.

The skin is created from a matrix made up of fibrin, a protein found in healing wounds.

To this is added human fibroblasts - cells used by the body to synthesise new tissue.

In a process that effectively replicates the way the body makes new skin, the cells produce and release another protein, collagen, which makes the matrix more stable.

It is in this form that the "skin" is implanted into a wound.

The researchers say that because the matrix is in a stable form, it is more able to withstand changes that take place during the healing process.

The fact that the collagen is synthesised directly by the cells themselves also more closely mirrors the natural healing process.

Quick healing

In tests researchers cut an oval section of skin from the arms of six healthy volunteers and replaced it with their lab-grown skin.

After 28 days the artificial skin had remained stable and the wounds had healed with relatively little scarring.

Dr Paul Kemp, Intercytex's chief scientist, said: "I was very surprised at how quickly the wounds healed.

Fibroblast cells play a key role

"If this continues in larger trials then it could revolutionise the way in which wounds and burns are treated in the future."

Dr Kemp has been working with Ken Dunn, a consultant surgeon at the burns unit at Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester.

Mr Dunn said: "This particular product behaves like the patients' own skin.

"It seems to excite much less reaction than the other materials we are using at the moment.

"If this is borne out in larger clinical trials then we would be very interested in using it with our patient group."

Others, however, have warned it is easy to heal a small, surgically-created wound in healthy volunteers, and that the true test will come when the technique is tried on real patients with real burns.

Dr Phil Stephens, an expert in cell biology at Cardiff University, said: "Future studies are needed to establish whether this system is substantially better then those already on the market.

"But this skin replacement system has the potential to dramatically reduce scarring and help heal chronic wounds in aged patients to give them a better quality of life."

Nuclear fusion reactor

Q&A: Nuclear fusion reactor

A decision has finally been made to site the 10bn-euro (£6.6bn) Iter nuclear fusion reactor at Cadarache in France. The announcement brings to an end months of argument between the project partners - the EU, the US, Japan, Russia, China and South Korea.

What is Iter (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor)?

Iter is an experimental reactor that will attempt to reproduce on Earth the nuclear reactions that power the Sun and other stars. It will consolidate all that has been learnt over many decades of study. If it works, and the technologies are proven to be practical, the international community will then build a prototype commercial reactor, dubbed Demo. The final step would be to roll out fusion technology across the globe.

What exactly is fusion?

Fusion works on the principle that energy can be released by forcing together atomic nuclei rather than by splitting them, as in the case of the fission reactions that drive existing nuclear power stations.

In the core of the Sun, huge gravitational pressure allows this to happen at temperatures of around 10 million degrees Celsius. At the much lower pressure that is possible on Earth, temperatures to produce fusion need to be much higher - above 100 million degrees Celsius.

No materials on Earth could withstand direct contact with such heat. To achieve fusion, therefore, scientists have devised a solution in which a super-heated gas, or plasma, is held and squeezed inside an intense doughnut-shaped magnetic field.

What are the advantages of fusion?

The best fuel for fusion comprises two types, or isotopes, of hydrogen: deuterium and tritium. The former can be derived from water which is abundant and available everywhere. The latter can be produced from lithium, which is plentiful in the Earth's crust.

Unlike the burning of fossil fuels, fusion reactions produce no carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for warming the planet.

Fusion scientists also say the system would be inherently safe because any malfunction would result in a rapid shutdown.

Will Iter produce radioactive waste?

Yes. The neutrons produced in fusion reactions will "activate" the materials used in the walls of Iter's plasma chamber. But one of the project's tasks will be to find the materials that best withstand this bombardment.

This could result in waste materials that are safe to handle in a relatively modest timescale (50-100 years), compared with the much longer lived radioactive waste (many thousands of years) produced as a direct result of splitting atoms in fission reactions.

It has been calculated that after 100 years of post-operation radioactive decay, Iter will be left with about 6,000 tonnes of waste. When packaged, this would be equivalent to a cube with about 10m edges.

How soon will Iter be built?

The 28 June meeting of the Iter partners agreed to site the reactor at Cadarache in southern France over Rokkasho in northern Japan. Further progress on technical issues is still required but it is hoped an agreement can be reached on these by the end of this year, so that Iter construction can begin by the end of 2005.

How much will Iter cost?

Iter construction costs are estimated at 4.57 billion euros (at 2000 prices), to be spread over about 10 years. Estimated total operating costs over the expected operational lifetime of about 20 years are of a similar order.

How will Iter be financed?

The EU and France will contribute 50% of the construction costs and the other five parties will each contribute 10%. Because Japan agreed to stand aside in favour of Cadarache, the nation gets favourable terms. Japan will get to host a related materials research facility - of which half the construction costs will be shouldered by the EU. Its scientists will get a larger share of Iter's research posts.

The EU will now support a Japanese official to become the director-general of the Iter project; and will also back Japan to host the Demo fusion reactor if, or when, it gets built.

Why is the EU so keen to host the reactor?

Iter will require considerable investment from all six partners, but the potential pay-offs are thought to be well worth it.

Hosting the experimental reactor will put the EU at the front of the queue to take commercial advantage of fusion.

The project is expected to generate more than 10,000 jobs and the expertise developed on Iter will allow Europe to reap the benefits of spin-off technologies.

Why is fusion energy seen to be so desirable?

We cannot rely on fossil fuels indefinitely. Firstly, supplies of oil, coal and gas are finite and will eventually run down. Secondly, the greenhouse gases produced through the burning of fossil fuels are a major driver of climate change, scientists believe.

However, demand for energy is also increasing. In 1990, about 75% of the world's population (those in the developing countries) were responsible for only 33% of the world's energy consumption.

By the year 2020, that 75% is likely to have risen to 85% and the energy consumption to around 55%. Thus, there will be greater competition for the fuel resources available.

Some think fusion will provide a relatively safe, green alternative to fossil fuels; enabling the production of vast amounts of energy from abundant sources.

When will the first commercial fusion reactor be built?

Not for a long time. Experimental fusion reactors like the Joint European Torus (Jet) at Culham in the UK currently use more energy than they release.

There are therefore many major scientific and engineering hurdles to overcome before the technology becomes commercially viable. A commercial reactor is not expected before 2045 or 2050 - if at all. Indeed, there is no guarantee that Iter will succeed.

The running joke is that fusion has been "just decades away" for several decades.

And many commentators, particularly those greens who have fought long campaigns against nuclear fission, are deeply suspicious of fusion.

They doubt Iter will deliver and believe the money earmarked for the project would be better spent on renewables, such as wind, wave and solar, for which technical solutions already exist.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4627237.stm

Published: 2005/06/28 12:48:25 GMT

© BBC MMV

Mice put in 'suspended animation'

Mice put in 'suspended animation'

By Paul Rincon BBC News science reporter

Mice have been placed in a state of near suspended animation, raising the possibility that hibernation could one day be induced in humans.

If so, it might be possible to put astronauts into hibernation-like states for long-haul space flights - as often depicted in science fiction films.

A US team from Seattle reports its findings in Science magazine.

In this case, suspended animation means the reversible cessation of all visible life processes in an organism.

The researchers from the University of Washington and the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle put the mice in a chamber filled with air laced with 80 parts per million (ppm) of hydrogen sulphide (H2S) - the malodorous gas that give rotten eggs their stink.

Hydrogen sulphide can be deadly in high concentrations. But it is also produced normally in humans and animals, and is believed to help regulate body temperature and metabolic activity.

'Widespread uses'

In addition to its possible use in space travel, the ability to induce a hibernation-like state could have widespread uses in medicine.

Lead investigator Dr Mark Roth said this might ultimately lead to new ways of treating cancer, and preventing injury and death from insufficient blood supply to organs and tissues.

During hibernation, activity in the body's cells slows to a near standstill, dramatically cutting the animal's need for oxygen.

If humans could be freed from their dependence on oxygen, it could buy time for critically ill patients on organ-transplant lists and in operating rooms, said Dr Roth.

"Manipulating this molecular mechanism for clinical benefit potentially could revolutionise treatment for a host of human ills related to ischaemia [deficiency of the blood supply], or damage to living tissue from lack of oxygen," he explained.

But he added that any procedure in a clinical setting would likely be administered via injection rather than by getting patients to inhale a gas.

Astonishing drop

In the latest study, Dr Roth and his colleagues found that the mice stopped moving and appeared to lose consciousness within minutes of breathing the air and H2S mixture.

The animals' breathing rates dropped from the normal 120 breaths per minute to less than 10 breaths per minute.

During exposure their metabolic rates dropped by an astonishing 90%, and their core body temperatures fell from 37C to as low as 11C.

After six hours' exposure to the mixture, the mice were given fresh air. Their metabolic rate and core body temperature returned to normal, and tests showed they had suffered no ill effects.

Co-author Eric Blackstone said the next step would be to carry out studies in larger animals.

Mice do not normally hibernate, but they can reach a similar state called clinical torpor in conditions of food deprivation.

"If you can manipulate the metabolism of animals in this way with implications for humans then I could see very widespread applications," commented John Speakman, professor of zoology at the University of Aberdeen.

"There is military interest in short-duration hibernation for battlefield stabilisation of troops. If you have a soldier who is shot down, you want to be able to hibernate them on site until you can get a team in to rescue them."

Space travel

Scientists at the European Space Agency (Esa) are investigating the possibility of inducing hibernation-like states in astronauts sent on long trips to the outer planets such as Jupiter and Saturn. However, like other applications, this one may be some way off.

"The atmospheric approach to inducing torpor is a nice one because it would diffuse very quickly in the body and saves you having to administer something internally," explained Mark Ayre, of Esa's Advanced Concepts Team at Nordwijk in the Netherlands.

"We have been looking at suspended animation to cut consumables - food and water - on a journey that could take five years or longer. That is important because missions are driven by the mass of the spacecraft.

"The other thing is trying to avoid psychological problems. You can have people awake, in which case you need to keep them entertained. That means more volume and potentially a very large mass.

"Or you avoid all that by putting them to sleep."

Inducing hibernation-like states could also have potential in cancer research by allowing patients to tolerate higher radiation doses without damaging healthy tissue.

Cancer cells are not dependent on oxygen to grow, says Dr Roth, so they are more resistant to radiotherapy.

"Right now in most forms of cancer treatment we're killing off the normal cells long before we're killing off the tumour cells. By inducing metabolic hibernation in healthy tissue, we'd at least level the playing field," he explained.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/science/nature/4469793.stm

Published: 2005/04/21 21:06:12 GMT

© BBC MMV
 

Alzheimer's gene therapy hailed

 

Alzheimer's gene therapy hailed

The first Alzheimer's patients to test pioneering gene therapy are proof of the treatment's promise, say doctors.

Between 2001 and 2002, surgeons at San Diego's University of California placed genetically modified tissue into the brains of eight Alzheimer's patients.

It is designed to boost a naturally occurring protein that stops cell death and stimulates cell function.

Now six patients are showing signs that the implants have successfully slowed their disease, Nature Medicine reports.

If validated, this would represent a substantially more effective therapy than current treatments for Alzheimer's disease Lead researcher Professor Mark Tuszynski

The surgeons decided they were ready to begin trials in humans after getting promising results in primates.

In the animals, the therapy restored old, shrinking brain cells back to near-normal size and quantity, as well as connections essential for communication between the cells.

Initially, the surgeons carried out the operation while the patients were awake but lightly sedated.

However, two of the patients moved as the therapy, grown from skin cells taken from the same patients, was being injected into the brain, which caused bleeding.

One of these patients died five weeks later. As a result of the bleeds, the surgeons changed the way they carried out the operation and all of the subsequent surgeries were performed under general anaesthesia without any complications.

Promising signs

Professor Mark Tuszynski, the neurologist who led the research, said their latest follow up of these six patients suggested the treatment was working.

Memory tests suggest the gene therapy has slowed cognitive decline by as much as 50%.

The findings offer an extremely exciting possibility of a novel therapy Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society

Brain scans also show that the patients' brains are more active than before.

When they carried out a post-mortem on the patient who died, they found some of the brain tissue that had been dying off through Alzheimer's had started to rejuvenate.

These areas were around the sites where the injections had been given.

Professor Tuszynski said that although it was still relatively early days, if the findings were confirmed it would be the first treatment that doctors had to actually prevent cell death in people with neurological diseases.

"If validated in further clinical trials, this would represent a substantially more effective therapy than current treatments for Alzheimer's disease," he said.

Their studies so far have been to check that the technique is safe.

Now that has been shown, further studies can be done to determine how effective the treatment is.

Harriet Millward, deputy chief executive of the Alzheimer's Research Trust, said the research was very exciting, but cautioned that it would not be a complete cure for Alzheimer's.

She said they were currently funding research into drugs that mimic the action of nerve growth factor (NGF), the name given to the gene therapy involving stimulating cell function.

"In principle, if you can get the NGF into the brain successfully, this could offer a way of slowing down the decline of mental abilities in patients with Alzheimer's disease," she said.

Professor Clive Ballard, director of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said: "Although very preliminary, the findings are consistent with previous studies in animals, and offer an extremely exciting possibility of a novel therapy.

"We very much look forward to further studies."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4473641.stm

Published: 2005/04/25 00:01:37 GMT

© BBC MMV
 

Antioxidants a key to 'long life'

 

Antioxidants a key to 'long life'

Boosting the body's levels of natural antioxidants could be the key to a long life, according to US scientists.

Mice engineered to produce high levels of an antioxidant enzyme lived 20% longer and had less heart and other age-related diseases, they found.

If the same is true in humans, people could live beyond 100 years.

The University of Washington work in Science Express backs the idea that high reactive oxygen molecules, called free-radicals, cause ageing.

Long life

Free-radicals have been linked with heart disease, cancer and other age-related diseases.

Dr Peter Rabinovitch and colleagues bred mice that over-expressed the enzyme catalase.

By intervening in the underlying ageing process, we may be able to produce very significant increases in healthy lifespan Researcher Dr Peter Rabinovitch

Catalase acts as an antioxidant by removing damaging hydrogen peroxide, which is a waste product of metabolism and is a source of free-radicals.

Free radical damage can lead to more flaws in the cell's chemical processes and more free radicals, making a vicious cycle.

Dr Rabinovitch said: "This study is very supportive of the free-radical theory of ageing.

Free radicals

"It shows the significance of free radicals, and of reactive oxygen species in particular, in the ageing process."

Dr Rabinovitch said the discovery could help could pave the way for future development of drugs or other treatments that protected the body from free radicals, and possibly some age-related conditions.

We are obviously a long way from downing catalase to gain eternal youth Professor Pat Monaghan from the University of Glasgow

"People used to only focus on specific age-related diseases, because it was believed that the ageing process itself could not be affected.

"What we're realising now is that by intervening in the underlying ageing process, we may be able to produce very significant increases in health span, or healthy lifespan," he said.

Professor Pat Monaghan from the University of Glasgow, UK, said: "This is certainly a very interesting study.

"Making the leap from what is going on in the cell to what happens to the animal is difficult and often controversial since there are so many intervening steps.

"However, this study does seem to point to a direct link between mopping up free radicals at the cellular sites where they are generated and consequences for the lifespan of the whole animal.

But she added: "We are obviously a long way from downing catalase to gain eternal youth, and we need to know much more about what the consequences of high catalase levels would be for other aspects of the animal's life history.

"You rarely get something for nothing."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4520727.stm

Published: 2005/05/06 13:46:24 GMT

© BBC MMV
 

Exercise 'slows prostate cancer'

 

Exercise 'slows prostate cancer'

Regular vigorous physical activity could slow the progression of prostate cancer in older men, a study has found.

The findings suggest working up a real sweat may help prevent men over 65 dying from the disease.

But the team from Harvard School of Public Health found men had to work out vigorously for at least three hours a week for it to have a positive effect.

The 14-year study, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine, focused on data on 47,620 men in the US.

Regular exercise throughout life has benefits and this could be yet an example where steady and prolonged application is 'money in the bank' later in life Chris Hiley

Previous research has suggested more physically active men may be at lower risk of prostate cancer.

However, the link has never been shown to be particularly strong.

The 47,620 men involved in the latest study were followed from 1986 to 2000.

Each was asked to provide information about how much exercise - such as hiking, jogging, cycling, swimming and racket sports - they took.

During 14 years of the study, 2,892 new cases of prostate cancer were diagnosed, including 482 advanced cases.

Advanced cases

The researchers found that older men - aged 65 and over - who did regular, vigorous exercise were at a lower risk - almost 70% - of advanced and fatal cases of the disease.

However, no such association was found in younger men.

The researchers say that more work is needed to determine just how vigorous exercise may benefit prostate cancer patients.

Henry Scowcroft, of the charity Cancer Research UK, said it was not clear whether the study had shown a "cause and effect", or whether men who took more exercise were simply more health conscious.

He said: "This group might be more inclined to report symptoms to their doctor earlier and thus have their disease diagnosed before it becomes advanced.

"Given the well-documented benefits of a healthy lifestyle, we recommend that you take at least 30 minutes of moderate exercise five times a week.

"Having said that, older men should consult with their GP before embarking on any particularly vigorous exercise regime."

Chris Hiley, of the Prostate Cancer Charity, agreed.

She said: "We would caution that men with prostate cancer, many of whom might have other health problems associated with getting older, should seek advice from their GP before suddenly making such a change.

"What is clear is that regular exercise throughout life has benefits and this could be yet another example where steady and prolonged application is 'money in the bank' later in life."

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/health/4527379.stm

Published: 2005/05/09 23:07:53 GMT

© BBC MMV