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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 67                                August 15, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                         CURE, Ltd.

                         ADAmantly

"ADD [attention deficit disorder] is not something many Americans are
aware of--yet. But employers in particular should pay attention. They
will hear much more about ADD when those who are diagnosed with it learn
that they probably have some level of protection under the disabilities
act. Until recently people with ADD were viewed as having character or
moral problems; these are the kind of people businesses love to fire.
Those with ADD may have recourse,however, if they can show they have the
condition, let their employers know about it, and were fired instead of
accommodated. Employers could find themselves facing civil suits and
forced to restore the discharged people to their old positions, or even
given them promotions, as well as back pay or reasonable accommodation.
Employers may also be forced to pay the employees' legal fees. What makes
this situation so worrisome is the ambiguity. No one knows how many
adults have the disorder, and no one knows how the disabilities act
requirements will be enforced. Moreover, an employer may suspect that an
employee with behavior problems has ADD, but he can neither ask the
employee about it nor make the employee take a test for it. Thus, unless
the employee is diagnosed with ADD and tells his employer, the company
has no way of knowing whether that person is a goof-off or legitimately
disabled...It may be in the company's best interest to accommodate if ADD
is only suspected." (Attention Deficit Disorder Can't Be Ignored, Gary
Eisler, Wall Street Journal, 6/27/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For the
complete story, see ADD40627.* wherever ABLETEXT files are found. For
further information regarding ADD, see Life in Overdrive under Mental
Health Memo below.

                         Addictions

"The president-elect of the American Bar Association favors legalizing
drugs--from marijuana to crack cocaine--as a step to cutting crime.
George Bushnell, who takes over the nation's largest organization of
lawyers in August, says he has held that view for more than 30 years...'I
personally favor decriminalization of all drugs,' says Bushnell, a trial
lawyer in Detroit...Bushnell, 70, joins a handful of other public figures
such as Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke, former Secretary of State George
Schultz, and New York federal Judge Robert Sweet in advocating drug
decriminalization. 'Many thoughtful people are looking at
decriminalization as a way of dealing with the violence associated with
the prohibition of certain drugs,' says the ABA's Criminal Justice
section chairman Randolph Stone. 'I don't think people will be shocked or
surprised...I think there are many members who hold that view.'" (Next
ABA Boss: Legalize Drugs, Leslie Phillips, USA Today, 6/28/94)

"From New York this week comes some good news. A two-year study of 15,000
New York City grade-school children shows that anti-drug attitudes are on
the rise there among kids. According to the study, which is the largest
ever done on urban youth and drugs in the US, New York youngsters are
more aware than ever of the perils of drugs. Moreover, they are less
likely to see any benefits in using drugs. The reputation of dealers and
their girlfriends is also on the skids; kids realize dealing drugs is,
literally, a short-lived career. While the survey found anti-drug
attitudes across all races and income groups, they were most pronounced
among black children and poor children. This makes sense. These children
live in communities where they encounter the ravages of drugs every day,
and, for them, seeing is believing." (Good News on Drugs, editorial, Wall
Street Journal,  7/18/94)

"The tobacco industry might say that secondhand smoke is not hazardous,
but some of its top scientific advisers don't seem to agree...In January
1993, the Environmental Protection Agency  published a controversial
report designating ETS a carcinogen more dangerous than benzene or radon,
and estimated such 'passive smoking' was responsible for about 3,000 lung
cancer deaths a year. The EPA report has come under heavy fire. Among the
critics were representatives of the Congressional Research Service who on
May 11 said in Senate testimony that 'statistical evidence does not
appear to support a conclusion that there are substantial health effects
from passive smoking.' For its part, the tobacco industry accused the EPA
of playing fast and loose with statistics to justify a political vendetta
against tobacco. The industry has sued the agency to force the report's
withdrawal...Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), who is sponsoring a bill to ban
smoking in most public buildings nationwide, counterattacked last week...
Waxman released a survey of science advisers to the industry-funded
Center for Indoor Air Research...Of the nine members of the CIAR advisory
board, seven responded to Waxman's inquiry...Five agreed with the
statement that ETS is a 'human lung carcinogen' and six agreed with the
statement that ETS presents a 'serious and substantial' health threat to
children." (Public Health: Tobacco's Scientists Disagree, WP, 7/25/94)

                         AIDS Addenda

"Teenagers are not taking seriously the possibility of getting AIDS from
their peers, a Prince George's County [MD] health official said
yesterday. '...We are very concerned with young kids,' Dr. Mark
Martinwassen, the county's chief health officer, said at a news
conference to release recent AIDS statistics. 'There has been an
increasing number [of cases] among kids. We need to be mindful that this
is a disease of behavioral patterns,' he said. Dr. Martinwassen cited an
'AIDS Epidemiology Update' for the county indicating that as of December
31, a total of 1,445 cases and 806 deaths had been recorded in all age
groups. The statewide figure was 7,844 cases and 4,596 deaths.
...Nationwide, 339,250 persons had AIDS at the end of the year; a total
of 230,390 had died of the disease. Health care specialists seemed
particularly concerned teenagers don't seem alarmed by the statistics.
'Their attitude is that, 'Well I don't look like that guy on TV or that
patient lying in the hospital,' so it can't happen to me,' said Jim
Graham, executive director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic." (Teens Dismiss
AIDS Warnings, Tamainia Davis, Washington Times, 6/8/94)

"It is a simple test in which a dollop of blood is drawn from a baby's
tiny heel and taken to the lab for analysis. The result could provide
reassurance--or a death sentence. In most states all newborns are
screened to see if they have antibodies to HIV, the virus that causes
AIDS. In about 7,000 US cases a year, the test is positive, which merely
indicates that antibodies produced in the mother's blood have moved to
the child during pregnancy. But the implications are grim: the mother is
infected with the virus for sure, and there is a 25% chance that the
child picked up not just the antibodies but the virus itself while in the
womb or during delivery...The testing is generally done on a blind basis;
the blood samples are identified by number, and not even the hospital
staff knows which babies tested positive.  Unless the mother requests HIV
screening and signals her consent, she won't be told the results of the
test...The secrecy surrounding HIV screening in newborns grew out of...
the need to protect the privacy of patients...But serious questions are
being raised about HIV testing. Does protecting the privacy of mothers
endanger the rights of babies, who cannot make decisions for themselves?
Should test results be disclosed so that all HIV-infected babies can be
given immediate treatment?" (Moms, Kids, and AIDS, Christine Gorman,
Time, 7/4/94)

"In what appears to be the first case of its kind, a husband and wife who
both carry the AIDS virus have been permitted to adopt a healthy toddler.
Workers at the Florida Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services
(HRS) knew about the couple's viral status when they recommended the
adoption, agency officials say. But the judge who approved the adoption
of the 2-year-old girl in March apparently was not told that the couple
carry the human immunodeficiency virus or HIV...Sylvia Barr, attorney for
the couple, said the paperwork she gave [Pinellas Circuit Judge Horace
Andrews] did not mention the couple's HIV status; it just described them
as 'healthy nonsmokers.' She said she did not say anything about the
virus because she did not see any reason to...Judge Andrews said he would
have taken the parents' health and life expectancy into account because
his role is to decide what is in the child's best interests...Adoption
experts in Florida and across the country say they have never heard of
HIV-positive parents adopting a healthy child. Usually, they say, it's
the reverse: Parents stricken with AIDS give their children up for
adoption. What makes the situation even more unusual is that the child is
a healthy white infant, which is at a premium in the adoption market."
(Florida Couple with HIV Adopts Tot, Carol Gentry, WT, 7/5/94)

"Kristine M. Gebbie doesn't remind anyone--not her critics, her allies,
surely not herself--of a czar. Whatever her 13-month tenor as the Clinton
administration's chief AIDS policy officer was, it was not czarlike,
which the dictionary defines as wielding 'great or unlimited power over
others.' Gebbie, who became a lightening rod for frustration on the part
of AIDS groups across the country, resigned 'by mutual agreement' this
month...While Gebbie's title was national AIDS policy coordinator, she
was dubbed the administration's AIDS czar. 'It was a complete misnomer
from the beginning,' said Daniel T. Bross, executive director of the
Washington-based AIDS Action Council...The Office of National AIDS
Policy, created to fulfill a campaign pledge by Bill Clinton,...has
little direct authority, and its exact policy role was never made clear,
both Gebbie and her critics agree...'I'm disappointed,' said David E.
Rogers, a professor of medicine at Cornell Medical College who served as
vice chairman of the National Commission on AIDS,. 'AIDS has sort of
fallen off the radar screen at a time when the epidemic continues to
march relentlessly along.'" (The Woman Who Would Not Be 'Czar,' Don
Colburn, Washington Post Health, 7/26/94)

A study by the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine warns
it may be years before scientists develop an effective vaccine against
the virus that causes AIDS and urges greater concentration on changing
behavior, such as sexual practices and illegal drug use, that spread the
AIDS virus. The study notes that social science research was the most
underfunded of all AIDS research efforts. It calls for a national survey
of sexual behavior and ending the ban on federal funding of needle
exchange programs. (Social Science and AIDS, Washington Post, 7/28/94)

                         Alternative Medicine

"'And the word was made flesh,' concludes the serene Deepak Chopra,
leader of a revolution that seeks nothing less than 'the overthrow of the
superstition of materialism.' He's a physician who views aging as 'a
premature cognitive commitment'--we grow old because we think we're
supposed to. He says its silly for students to learn to heal by studying
corpses and diseases. 'How can you get rich by studying the mechanics of
poverty?' asks Dr. Chopra. who finds conventional medicine limited in its
vision of life. A biologist's answer to 'What is life?' he jokes is:
'It's a sexually transmitted incurable disease.' 'We are on the threshold
of a new era of health care,' Dr. Chopra said when he joined San Diego's
mainstream medical provider, Sharp Health Care, operator of six
hospitals. Sharp is aware that Americans spent $10.3 billion out of
pocket on alternative health techniques in 1990....Nine years ago he met
the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the transcendental meditation guru, who
persuaded him to study a 6,000-year-old health system known as ayurveda--
Sanskrit for 'knowledge of life.'...Now Dr. Chopra directs the Sharp
Institute for Human Potential and Mind-Body Medicine, which got $30,000
from the National Institutes of Health to study the effectiveness of
ayurvedic and Western medicine. Oh, but he's still a friend to George
Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor, Michael Jackson, and Marianne Williamson."
(Healing Body With the Mind: A Medical Mix, Robert Devaney, Washington
Times, 6/27/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: And Shirley McLaine, no doubt.
For the rest of the story, see ALT40627.* wherever ABLETEXT files are
found.

                         Blood Money

"A banner stretched across [Cincinnati's] Over-the-Rhine storefront's
facade advertises a special: $17 per donation. The donations sought are
blood plasma--the fastest growing segment of the blood products industry.
The storefront operation and countless like it in low-income
neighborhoods across the country compete for walk-in traffic willing to
sell plasma for $15 to $20 a pop. They form the supply side of a $2
billion global market, with the largest players being drug companies in
France, the United States, Germany, and Japan. The plasma centers supply
major drug companies like Abbott Laboratories and Miles Inc., which
separate it into clotting agents for hemophiliacs, into albumin to keep
blood vessels from collapsing in burn patients, and into immune globulins
to strengthen the immune system. Plasma centers in low-income areas
compete for donors who see the storefront operations as a way to make
money...A liter of plasma can be sold for about $65 or slightly more,
said Victor Torbeck, owner of Worldwide Biologicals Inc...'Paid donors
have a prevalence of almost everything you hunt for in blood,' said Dr.
Thomas Zuck, director of a nonprofit blood center. There is suspicion in
the industry about plasma from paid donors, Dr. Zuck said, so much so
that the federal government requires plasma from paid donors to be
clearly labeled as such...Abbott Laboratories and the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention are two customers of Worldwide
Biologicals." (Cash-for-Plasma Industry Growing, David Holthaus,
Washington Times, 6/28/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: When my sister,
brother, and I all sought unsuccessfully to donate blood to my father
shortly before his death, the local blood bank--operated by the Red Cross
put all sorts of roadblocks in our path.

                         Body Politic

"Bill Clinton is plunging headlong into 'Credibility Gap.' In 1992,
Clinton promised that 'everyone' who wants a college loan would be able
to get one and repay it with one or two years of 'national service.' It
was one of his biggest crowd-pleasers. A few days ago, the White House
unveiled details of Clinton's national service program. It will provide
only 20,000 jobs in September--or one for every 750 of the 15 million
students who will enroll in college this fall. In 1992, Clinton promised
to 'end welfare as we know it.' This month he revealed details of his
reform plan. It would impose new roles on only half of the welfare
population by 2000 and would remove only 331,000 adults from the dole by
then. In 1992, Clinton promised to 'clean up Washington" with strong
legislation to reform the way political campaigns are financed. A few
days ago Clinton headlined a $1,500-a-plate fundraiser for the Democratic
Party, which has collected $40.5 million in big contributions since
nominating Clinton two years ago--double the Republican Party's
collections...A CBS News survey this spring...found that only 33% of the
public thinks Clinton says what he believes, while 57% believes he says
only what he thinks people want to hear." (Clinton Falls a Little Short
on Promises, Robert Rankin, Morning Herald, 6/25/94)  ABLEnews Editor's
Note: For the latest example of the Clinton Credibility Gap, watch his
"universal coverage" two-step choreographed below.

                         Cancer Chronicles

"The New York Times last week reported on a potential breakthough study
in the prestigious journal Nature. 'New research shows that cancer is not
primarily caused, as many Americans think, by the poisons spewed into the
air, water, and land by uncaring industrialists,' the article said.
'Rather, each person is born with various genetic susceptibilities,
especially weak spots in their genetic makeup, that play a leading role
in the cellular mayhem called cancer.'It turns out some people have
something in their genetic makeup that allows them to fend off cancer
agents. This conclusion is bolstered by growing evidence that heredity is
a significant risk factor for some forms of cancer. Given the rapid
advances made in genetics, someday not to far off it is conceivable that
most cancer could be controlled by using some of the same technology that
allows the 'genetic engineering' of tomatoes." (Cancer Researchers Making
Remarkable Progress, editorial, Martinsburg Journal, 6/1/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: Given the glacial progress made in TAB attitudes towards
persons with disabilities and diseases, it is conceivable that before
that day arrives genetic labeling could be used to discriminate--even
fatally in the womb--against persons marked as future cancer victims.

"Two recent scientific studies published in Sweden have established the
long suspected correlation between low electromagnetic fields and cancer.
The National Board for Industrial and Technological Development, in
Stockholm, is studying a wide range of options to protect people exposed
to the impact of weak electromagnetic radiation generated by overhead
power lines. The board is particularly worried about the incidence of
childhood leukemias. Measures under consideration include a ban on new
housing development in affected areas...The first study--by Maria
Feychting and Anders Ahlbom, of the Karolinska Institute, in Stockholm--
analyzes census records related to the corridors beneath the national
network of high-power electrical transmission lines and identifies a
dramatically higher incidence of cancer in these areas. The study
provides evidence, including a clear dose-response correlation, linking
childhood leukemias with electromagnetic radiation. The second study--
conducted by Brigitta Floderus, of the division of neuromedicine at
Sweden's National Institute of Occupational Health, in Solna--concludes
that people exposed to electromagnetic fields at work are more likely
than others to develop cancer. The study says the connection is most
obvious for chronic lymphatic leukemia--with the risk trebled for a group
exposed to fields stronger than 3 microtesla." (EM Field Cancer Link,
Spotlight, 6/13/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: This article initially
appeared in Petroleum Economist, published in London.

A study in the latest issue of the medical journal Lancet reports that
young breast cancer patients seem more apt to die when their cancer is
diagnosed soon after pregnancy. While prior studies suggested a poor
prognosis for pregnancies diagnosed during pregnancy, the new study found
women who were pregnant during the four years before diagnose fare worse.
Women who were pregnant at the time of diagnosis were nearly three times
more likely to die than women who had never been pregnant. Death rates
decreased 15% for every year since a pregnancy, with no effect after four
years. About 2% of all breast cancers are diagnosed before age 30.
(Breast Cancer Risk, Kim Painter, USA Today, 6/27/94)

Researchers at John Hopkins University's School of Medicine have created
a test that examines tumor cells and determines whether a section of the
gene (18q) remains intact. The test is designed to predict whether a
Stage II colon or rectal cancer patient can undergo chemotherapy safely
after the removal of any tumors. The study, published in the July 28 New
England Journal of Medicine, cites a 93% five-year survival rate for
patients in whom the portion of 18q was undisturbed. (Predicting Need for
Chemotherapy, Washington Post, 7/28/94)

                         Courting Disaster


"US Surgical CEO Leon Hirsch 'terrorized' his Hungarian-born housekeeper
into performing 'sex on demand' for four years, according to a lawsuit
served Thursday against Hirsch, his wife, and the Fortune 500 company.
Hirsch and the company deny all allegations. 'We do not believe in
letting greedy blackmailers prey upon the rich,' says Hirsch, 66, in a
written statement. 'We will expose this sham attempt for what it is.'
Last Friday, Hirsch announced he would be sued because he refused to pay
$21 million to keep the story from reaching the public. The lawsuit says
40-year-old Gizella Biro was never a willing participant, and when she
periodically tried to refuse, Hirsch threatened to fire her...Hirsch's
wife Turi Josefsen, an executive vice president of US Surgical, is also
being  sued for making sexual advances toward Biro...Biro helped her
friend Eva Kale get a housekeeping job in the Hirsch home in 1993. If
Biro's story were true, Hirsch says, why did she invite a friend into
such an environment...Kale is expected to file her own lawsuit for sexual
assault." (Surgical CEO Sued, USA Today, 6/17/94)

                         Dateline World

"When the 50-year-old former social worker from the Dutch town of Ruinen
{Hilly Bosscher] went to see psychiatrist Boudejwin Chabot, she had but
one desire: she wanted to die--and she wanted the doctor to help her.
Over the next four months, Chabot tried to ease Bosscher's depression and
change her mind about suicide, but she did not respond to counseling and
refused medication...Finally, Chabot agreed to help her. On September 8,
1991, he handed Bosscher 20 sleeping pills and a toxic liquid mixture.
...The Netherlands boasts one of the world's most liberal policies on
[euthanasia], but the Bosscher case caused a sensation. Never before had
a physician reported helping a depressed but otherwise healthy patient
commit suicide...Last week, in a landmark decision, the country's highest
court ruled that although Chabot neglected to have another physician
personally examine Bosscher, the psychiatrist would not be punished.
Contends Chabot: 'Intolerable psychological suffering is no different
from intolerable physical suffering.'" (Killing the Psychic Pain,
Anastasia Toufexis, Time, 7/4/94) CURE Comment: And both should solicit
caring, compassion, and treatment, not killing, indifference, and
abandonment. Kill the pain, not the patient.

According to the first large-scale study to review heart attack rates
globally, the United States has one of the highest heart attack rates in
the world. Monitoring of Trends and Determinants in Cardiovascular
Disease was conducted by the World Health Organization. It ranked the US
in the top third. Countries with higher rates of heart attacks for men
than the United States include: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark,
Finland, Iceland, Northern Ireland, Poland, Scotland, and Sweden. Women
in Australia, Denmark Finland, Northern Ireland, Poland, and Scotland had
higher heart attack rates than their American counterparts. (Rate of
Heart Attacks Remains High in US, Sally Squires, WPH, 7/26/94)

"Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Company yesterday began sending
millions of doses of its popular antibiotic, Ceclor, overseas for the
Rwanda relief effort. Getting what could be the biggest drug donation
ever into the planes required the speedy cooperation of industry,
volunteer groups, and federal regulators...Ceclor, the world's best-
selling oral antibiotic, is familiar to Americans as one of the pink
drugs given to children for ear infections...For Rwanda's thousands of
refugees living in disease-infested squalor, a broad-spectrum antibiotic
like Ceclor could be effective in fighting ailments including skin
infections, soft tissue infections, dysentery, meningitis, measles, and
pneumonia...Lilly had enough of the drug on hand to provide a full course
of treatment for nearly 1.3 million people--a cache worth $60 million
retail...Lilly will be able to claim a tax deduction for the donation. It
would have been able to claim a smaller deduction if the warehoused
antibiotic had passed its expiration date. But tax considerations were
'not a part of the decision-making process.' said Lilly spokesman Edward
A. West." (Cooperative Effort Speeds Shipment of Antibiotic to Refugees,
Joan Schwartz and Malcolm Gladwell, Washington Post, 7/27/94)

                         Family Affair

Dr. Duane Alexander, director of the National Institute of Child Health
and Human Development, believes the lives of at least 2,000 babies could
be saved each year if they were put to sleep on their backs or sides and
not their stomachs. "Traditionally, American parents have placed their
babies on their stomachs to sleep," Dr. Alexander said. "It is a goal of
this campaign to reverse this practice and to have nearly all babies
sleeping on their back and side." Research in the United States and
several other countries reveals that as many as half the fatalities from
sudden infant death syndrome may be related to how a baby is put to bed.
(Government Wants Babies to Sleep on Back or Side, MH, 6/27/94)

"Rush Limbaugh could never condemn anti-abortion conservative Rep. Jon
Kyl (R-AZ) as a 'femiNazi,' but when it comes to changing sexual assault
and domestic violence laws, Kyl leaves Democrats in the dust. Kyl has
long advocated the death penalty in cases of murder committed by sexual
offenders and would require mandatory HIV testing of anyone accused of a
sexual crime. Although Democrats claim to champion women's interests more
than conservatives, Kyl's strict proposals have put Democrats on the
defensive. Democrats deride Kyl's legislation as too 'controversial.'
Even Kyl's more 'moderate' proposals stiffening penalties and broadening
victim's rights have been largely ignored...Kyl told us, 'It distresses
me that some liberals are not willing to have an open mind about ideas
that come from more conservative parts of our society--in particular
members of Congress.'...As the founding director of the Crime Victims
Foundation...Kyl also recites the numbers: Every 15 seconds a woman is
battered. In 1991, 28% of all female homicide victims were slain by
husbands or boyfriends." (A Lonely Crusade on Domestic Violence, Jack
Anderson and Michael Binstein, op-ed, Washington Post, 6/30/94)

"Attorneys for the adoptive parents of a 3 1-2-year-old boy will be able
to cite a new law when they ask the Illinois Supreme Court to reconsider
its decision to return the child to its biological father. Gov. Jim Edgar
has signed the 'Baby Richard' law that would require a court hearing in
cases where biological parents seek to have an adoption nullified. The
hearing would determine what's in the best interests of the child--not
the adults...Baby Richard, whose name is being withheld, was put up for
adoption by his mother. She initially told the father, Otakar Kirchner,
that the baby died at birth. When Mr. Kirchner learned the truth 57 days
later, he immediately took legal action to gain custody. Courts initially
ruled he had forfeited his custody rights by noting showing interest in
the boy within 30 days of birth. The high court disagreed and ordered the
boy returned to Mr. Kirchner." (Adoption-Rights Bill Is Law in Illinois,
Washington Times, 7/5/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: More than three years
later? It appears the real criminals in this case may be the courts, in
particular, the miscarriage of justice when a father's rights were
terminated because he failed to show interest in a single month in a son
he was told by the mother was dead.

"To no one's surprise, (no one on this page, any way) it turns out that
Bill Clinton's campaign promise to 'end welfare as we know it' didn't
mean quite what it seemed to. Voters had, perhaps, thought that Mr.
Clinton had in mind to end the vicious spiral of dependency and
demoralization that our welfare system has become. They had, perhaps,
thought his reform would force people off the welfare rolls and into the
workforce and place strict limits on the number of years a recipient
could stay on the dole. They might even have thought it would remove the
current incentives to young unmarried women (and their partners) to have
children without benefit of a marriage license. Perhaps they actually
hoped it might cost less than the present system and ease the taxpayers'
burden a bit. No such luck. When Mr. Clinton's bill finally made it to
the Hill, it, of course, contained none of the above. It would require
work from only about 6% of the total Aid to Families with Dependant
Children caseload by 1999." (This Is Welfare Reform? ed, WT, 7/5/94)

"For two generations, Republicans have fought big government the way a
starved wolf hunts a herd of deer, hanging back out of harm's way and
waiting for an old buck to stumble. Seldom have they troubled to think
through a coherent answer to the central problem of welfare-state
politics: Which social welfare programs should the state support, and
which should it not? The now-stalled 'A to Z' debate might have forced
Republicans to figure out the answer; then again, it might merely have
tempted them to avoid the problem completely, merely voting 'nay' on
frivolous extras like kumquat research, while voting 'aye' on such
enormous but well-entrenched programs as Social Security and Medicare.
...As George Bernard Shaw once said, 'democracy is the theory that the
voters know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard.'" (You're
on Your Own, David Frum, op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 7/18/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: Mr. Frum is the author of Dead Right, recently published
by New Republic/Basic Books.

"The number of twins and triplets born in the United States is increasing
at a much higher rate than the number of single births, according to  a
Rush Medical College study. From 1973 to 1990, twin births rose 65%, more
than twice as much as single births during that same period...Triplet
births increased 221%--seven times higher than the number of single
births, according to the study published in the July issue of Obstetrics
and Gynecology. Twins accounted for one in every 43 births in 1990, and
triplets represented one in every 1,341 births...The shift to a higher
percentage of twin and triplet births is due in part to a societal trend
toward delaying childbearing. Older women are more likely to release
multiple eggs during ovulation, raising the likelihood of multiple
births. In others who delay childbirth until after 30 years of age, there
is an increased risk of infertility and a greater use of fertility drugs,
which also increases the chances of a multiple birth." (Twins, Triplets
in US Gaining on Single Births, Sally Squires, WPH, 7/26/94)

"Test-tube babies cost the nation's health care system an average of
$60,000 to $110,000 for each successful pregnancy, a study has found.
Typically a single attempt at in vitro fertilization (IVF) costs $8,00.
But most attempts do not produce children. So researchers set out to find
the average cost to society when the occasional success are balanced
against the many failures. Peter J. Neumann of Project Hope in Bethesda
(MD)...said insurance companies might use the data to decide how many
attempts to pay for...The first time around there is a 12% chance of
success. With each successive try the overall odds that the couples will
achieve a pregnancy grow worse...Success rates fall and average costs
climb when mothers are older or fathers have low sperm counts. For
instance, the average cost of successful pregnancy after the first
attempt was $160,000 in couples in which the mother was over 40 and the
father had fertility problems. By the sixth attempt for such a couple,
the cost had risen to $800,000." (Test-Tube Babies Cost $60,000 to
$110,000 Each, Washington Post, 7/28/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Note the
Aesopian language. Neumann speaks of the odds of the couple "achiev(ing)
a pregnancy," but as a child or children conceived in the Petri dish are
implanted in the mother, pregnancy has already been achieved and the
question is the survival of the offspring through birth. The claim that
"most attempts do not produce children" can only be made by utilitarians
who deny the humanity of the lives they create--and often deliberately
destroy--in their laboratories. The ethical questions confronting IVF
aside, Neumann's research is typical of the science-in-service-of-the-
State (or in this case, the insurance companies) that is used to
rationalize checkbook euthanasia. To dub his enterprise "Project Hope" is
a mockery worthy of Orwell.

                         Food for Thought

"Today, when one goes out to eat, one usually visits a restaurant. And
although commercial establishments serving food have been known for
centuries, the word 'restaurant' did not appear until 300 years ago in
Paris. It designated an eating place offering its patrons strong
vegetable broths and also vegetable soups and stews. The fare helped
customers shed extra pounds and restore a more youthful appearance. It
was huge success--so much so that the word 'restaurant' was eventually
adopted by all other commercial eating places. Fortunately some of the
original recipes from those early restaurants survive and appear in Andre
Simon's Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy, first published in the
1930s...Modern nutrition and health studies confirm the therapeutic fame
of those dishes and they are worth trying by people seeking to improve
their health by a better dietary regime. One of the recipes in question
is for watercress soup (Potage Sante)." (Healthy Foods Easily Accessible,
Alex de Montmorency, Spotlight, 6/13/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note:
Watercress, which grows naturally in West Virginia streams, is a favorite
of our family. I'd be pleased to send the reader a copy of the recipe for
Potage Sante on request.

                         Forget the Vet?

"Col. Herbert Smith can measure his long slide into disability with great
precision. Today, he can tear open one packet of sugar. 'A couple of
weeks ago, I could tear two packs.' He says this sitting in his home in
Ijamsville, in Frederick County (VA). Next to him is his campaign hat, in
desert camouflage and fronted with the winged insignia of his rank. A
cane leans against the table. 'I can't open a soft drink can. I can't
open a twist-cap bottle,' he adds. He also cannot work, cannot drive,
cannot keep his balance reliably, and cannot stay awake long enough to
read a book. Worst of all, he cannot say what has happened to make him
this way. In the baffling spectrum of physical complaints that go under
the name 'Gulf War syndrome,' Herbert Smith inhabits the far end where no
one doubts something very abnormal is going on. He has been in the Army
Reserve for 30 years, with five tours of active duty, one lasting four
years...Smith says he is proud to be a military man and, he feels
necessary to add, has never been a complainer." (Colonel Loses Ground to
a Faceless Enemy, David Brown, Washington Post, 7/26/94)

"(There) are those who support...proper treatment for our veterans, but
who accuse the Veterans Administration of standing on ceremony by asking
Congress to adjust the law. To them I can only say--as a person who has
spent his life as a veterans' advocate--if an administrative pathway had
been open to me, I would have taken it. Let's quickly change the law so
we can do the right thing and do it without recriminations that impede
our providing assistance that's been earned and is assuredly deserved."
--Jesse Brown, Secretary, Veteran Affairs, Washington, DC. (Obligations
to Gulf War Veterans, Brown, letter-editor, Washington Post, 7/26/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: Translation: Shut up and take whatever we decide
to give you.

                         Front Lines

'I arrived at Newton D. Baker General Hospital early in May 1944, fresh
out of basic training at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis,  and
about eight weeks out of my home town, Cincinnati. When I saw my transfer
papers I had to ask where Martinsburg was. West Virginia mostly meant
mountains with coal mines. However, I quickly learned about the charms of
the Eastern Panhandle and the beautiful Shenandoah Valley...I found my
new post to be a military medical facility as up-to-date as any in the
country at that time. It became a caring way-station to home for I don't
know how many thousands of wounded GIs in its relatively short existence
as a military hospital...I was intimately part of it for two years, first
as a medical technician and later as an entertainment specialist...Over
the years, I have wondered if many of the people of Martinsburg at that
time knew how precisely close Newton D. Baker Hospital brought them to
the actual 'fronts' where battles were being waged...I can recall seeing
raw mud, from European battlefields, still on the boots of patients who
arrived by trains, at the end of their trip from some airport on the East
Coast. There was more than one eerie experience for me, waiting quietly
on the platform in the middle of the night for the train to arrive, then
shuttling litters off and into ambulances for transfer to the hospital.
...It is, of course, the annual remembrance of D-Day that prompts me to
recall Newton D. Baker. I had many friends among the patients. For many,
their time that I had at NDBGH...left me with only good memories." --
Richard Neu, Cincinnati, OH. (Hospital Worker Recalls War Years at
Hospital, Neu, letter-editor, Martinsburg Journal, 6/1/94)

                    Health Care Plans and Pans

"Opening the door to a possible compromise on health care legislation,
senior White House officials said yesterday that President Clinton would
not insist on having health insurance coverage for every American
immediately if Congress agreed to phase it in over the next several
years. The statements by White House counselor David R. Gergen and Harold
Ickes, the deputy chief of staff, seemed designed to break a logjam in
Congress, which is running weeks behind schedule in crafting health care
reform. Their remarks also came a day after Senate Minority Leader Robert
J. Dole (R-KS) threatened to block any universal coverage plan that
required businesses to bear the cost." (White House Softens on Health
Mandate, Washington Post, 6/13/94)

"We were pleased to see your excellent article, May 29, 'Catholics
agonizing over health plan, which mentions Cardinal John O'Connor's essay
on President Clinton's health plan, However, your article did not mention
the source of the essay. Cardinal O'Connors' article, 'Say it ain't so,
Mr. President,' appeared in the Spring issue of the quarterly Human Life
Review. For a complementary copy, please write to: the Human Life Review,
150 E. 35th Street, Room 840, New York, NY 10016." --Maria McFadden,
Managing Editor, the Human Life Review, New York. (In its Entirety,
McFadden, letter-editor, Washington Times, 6/22/94)

"Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan's health plan, to be presented to the
Finance Committee today, will be a merger of his ideas and a proposal by
a bipartisan group of moderates...Mr. Moynihan said he had not decided
whether mandates on employers or individuals would be in the package. The
moderates' plan called for no mandate...'The proposal that the moderates
have put together will be merged with the chairman's bill. We don't know
what it will actually entail--if it has mandates--until we see it
tomorrow,' Sen. Tom Dachsle, South Dakota Democrat, said yesterday. Mr.
Dachsle is part of the minority on the committee--those who back
President Clinton's proposal to require businesses to pay 80% of the cost
of their workers' health insurance...'I'm skeptical that [universal
coverage] can be obtained if this is all we do,' Mr. Dachsle said of the
idea of eliminating mandates." (Moynihan Health Plan Melds with
Moderates, J. Jennings Moss, Washington Times, 6/28/94)

"How could 'every American' not be defined as 100% of all Americans? If
the Clinton White House knows, it's not telling, but the administration
has begun making such a distinction on 'universal' health care coverage.
From President Clinton to Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers, the rhetoric[s
logic sounds like reservations--a mental asterisk to the president's
read-my-lips promise of private insurance for every American. If that's
the intent, it could allow Mr. Clinton to back away from his promise to
veto any health bill providing less-than-universal coverage in the
foreseeable future. 'You all define that however you want,' Miss Myers
said yesterday. The quest for a definition permeated her press briefing,
and she was told that the words seemed simple enough and should mean the
same thing to the public, the president, and the media. Throughout the
briefing, Miss Myers eluded every request that she define universal or at
least agree that 'every American' means 100%. Among the definitions
Webster's New World Dictionary lists for 'universal' as an adjective, the
most relevant seem to be 'present or occurring everywhere or in all
things...used, intended to be used, or understood by all.'" (To Clinton,
'Every' Need Not Mean 'All,' Frank Murray, Washington Times, 6/28/94)

"The state of Maryland hopes to cut health care costs by more than $100
million over the next five years by focusing more attention on the 10% of
patients who consume 70% of its...Medicaid budget...Using, a managed care
approach, already utilized by much of private industry, the state will
try to shift patient from high-cost hospital treatment to less expensive
care that will allow them to remain at home. The state plans to set up
groups of doctors who will provide total care for patients. The groups
will operate much in the same way as health maintenance organizations.
'Health care is a right...But that right is going to be exercised in a
responsible way,' [state health secretary] Mr. [Nelson] Sabini said."
(State Asks to Revamp Medicaid, Frederick Post, 7/8/94) CURE Comment:
Translation: It's irresponsible for "the sickest Medicare patients [who]
'typically have multiple problems that a primary care physician cannot
handle'" to cost the state so much money. Or as Michael Collins, of the
University of Maryland's Center for Health Program Development, which
will develop the budget-rate less-care system, states the indictment:
"Many of those with serious and costly health problems rely too much on
hospitals to treat their illnesses." With the checkbook euthanasia cabal
running the show, not for long, we fear.

"Just a few years ago doctors...fought managed care mainly by ignoring
its steady advance across the country. But now that 7 out of 10 insured
patients are enrolled in managed care plans, these independent
practitioners have pulled a classic if-you-can't-fight-them-join-them
maneuver--only this one is turning fierce. Faced with the prospect of
being put out of business, old-fashioned fee-for-service doctors have
mounted a campaign to secure their way into managed care and gain some
control over it. In Texas, with support from the Texas Medical
Association, doctors who were let into Aetna and Prudential managed care
networks and then dropped are suing them, arguing that they are being
denied the 'right' to serve their patients. In Virginia, doctors are
suing a plan that fired them, citing an 11-year-old law called 'any
willing provider' that guarantees them the opportunity to continue
serving their patients even after these patients join managed care
plans." (Who Owns the Patient Anyway? Janice Castro, Time, 7/18/94) CURE
Comment: We support doctors who fight to treat their patients like those
in Massachusetts "who have been accepted into a Blue Cross HMO [and] are
chafing under its riles: they are suing the Cambridge-headquartered
network for cutting corners on care and endangering patients." If any of
our ABLEnewsers have articles on this case, we'd greatly appreciate your
mailing them to CURE at the address below. Thanks for your consideration.

"When President Clinton seemed to back away from demanding universal
health coverage last week, it was a false dawn for beleaguered moderate
Clintonites inside and outside the administration. Their joy was quickly
extinguished. One such moderate official was informed by the White House
about what happened within hours. 'It was a mistake,' he told me. 'Not an
error in judgment, just a mistake.' Answering questions at the National
Governors Conference in Boston, the president misspoke about his top
priority. Subsequent claims by presidential spinners that the news media
had misinterpreted him were damage control. This peculiar incident
suggests that Clinton is as liable to stumble when speaking
extemporaneously on health care (which he understands) as on
international currency problems (which he does not). But the most
important message sent is a continued intention to govern from the left."
(Governing From the Left, Robert Novak, op-ed, Washington Post, 7/25/94)

"As the House and Senate move closer to voting on health care
legislation, one of the unresolved issues is what limits, if any, should
eb placed on coverage for mental health and substance abuse. The subject
is fraught with social and medical conundrums, but as with many issues in
health care, the debate seems to center on costs. And the potential costs
seem harder to gauge in these areas than in many others. Some analysts
and policy makers predict that costs could get out of hand if patients
linger indefinitely in psychiatric or substance abuse treatment. Others
say that mental illness and substance abuse problems have been
stigmatized falsely and should be afforded the same open-ended coverage
as most physical ailments...In 1992, a fifth of Americans with
conventional private insurance had no lifetime limits on general medical
coverage, and two-thirds had limits of $1 million or more. Much lower
lifetime limits are common for mental health care. While every American
has a financial stake the way Congress addresses mental health and
substance abuse benefits, tens of millions have much more riding on the
outcome. According to one study cited by the Department of Health and
Human Services, each year 22% of adults suffer from a mental disorder,
7.4% experience an alcohol problem, and 3.1% have a drug problem...
Without rigid controls, ballooning demand for mental health care could
lead to increased spending. But within a system of capped health care
spending, it could create a different problem, potentially taking money
from other types of care. 'If managed care does not fulfill the promise
of cost containment and cost control, one would have to look at the
entire benefit package...and figure out how you can trim,' Tipper Gore
said." (The Quandary Over Mental Health Care Costs, David Hilzenrath,
Washington Post, 7/25/94) CURE Comment: Or WHO you can trim.

"A good health care reform bill can still be salvaged out of this
Congress. It won't solve all the nation's health care problems, and, yes,
it will miss some opportunities and leave some people out--but many fewer
than are left out now. There's time, and there may be the votes as well
to write a bill that would represent a major advance of which the
president and the Congress--both parties--could be proud. The elements
would include insurance market reform, which is the catch phrase for what
would amount to a federal regulatory take over of the insurance
market.The goal would be, if not quite to eliminate, then to limit the
use of various practices whereby the industry currently tries to avoid
insuring the very people who need insurance the most--the sick...A
workable plan would also require subsidies. No matter how well risk is
spread, a lot of people now uninsured won't be able to afford the
premiums. The subsidies need to be generous enough to matter, and solidly
financed lest they drive up the deficit...More than 35 million Americans
now lack health insurance...A 'moderate' bill of the sort described here
could easily reduce that number by 15 million to 20 million and reduce
the rate of health care cost increase as well." (A Good Health Care Bill,
editorial, Washington Post, 7/26/94)

The American Medical Association has angered Republican leaders for
"caving in to the back-room Washington power structure" pushing broad-
scale health care reform. Nor is the GOP alone. In joining liberal allies
like the AFL-CIO and the American Association of Retired Persons, in
demanding universal coverage and government-imposed cost-control
measures, the AMA drew fire from its state affiliates in Florida,
Georgia, and Texas. "We're not happy." acknowledged Paul Shannor,
executive director of the Medical Association of Georgia. "This is one of
the stranger things we have seen the AMA do."  Speaking on the House
floor, fellow Georgian, Minority Leader, Newt Gingrich, reported, "Every
doctor I have talked to in my district is angry at the [AMA] because its
Washington lobbyists are selling out the doctors on behalf of some kind
of Washington deal cut in a back room." (Decision by AMA Riles GOP
Leaders, Affiliates, Dana Priest and Helen Dewar, WP, 7/26/94)

Declaring that holding a trial with witnesses under oath is the sole way
he can discover the truth about the membership and structure of the
working group and subcomittees that did the leg work for the
administration's now-disbanded secret Health Care Task Force, US District
Judge Royce Lamberth has ordered White House adviser Ira Magaziner and
other administration officials to stand trial in a lawsuit filed by the
Association of American Physicians and Surgeons, the American Council for
Health Care Reform, and the National Legal and Policy Center. "I cannot
determine at this stage of the proceedings who can be believed," the
judge said, in ordering the trial. While the Federal Administrative
Procedures Act allows only "groups comprised wholly of full-time federal
officers or employees of the federal government' to meet in secret,
lawyer Kent Masterson Brown says his investigation revealed at least 357
people who worked on the groups were not on the government payroll. The
most prominent, Task Force Chair, Hillary Rodham Clinton is a likely
witness at the trial. (Health Advisers Ordered to Stand Trial, Toni Locy,
Washington Post, 7/26/94)

"There's a Chinese proverb that 'drawing near the enemy, the tigers in
our hearts become lambs.' That's what happened when the bus caravan of
about 100 'reform riders' pulled into Boise, ID. The goal of the cross-
country bus is to mount public pressure on Congress to pass a national
health plan...But on day three of the tour, the advance team noticed a
group of protestors with placards stating their opposition to abortion
and passage of a national health plan standing in front of the state
capitol in Boise, where an afternoon rally was scheduled to greet the
riders. So the decision was made by some of the tour leaders to reroute
the caravan away from the capitol, rather than confront a hostile crowd.
In one stroke, they turned the Health Security Express into the No Show
Express.(The Health Security Express, Facing the Opposition, Abigail
Trafford, op-ed, Washington Post Health, 7/26/94)

Congressional staffers have completed a detailed outline of a health care
reform bill that Democratic Party leaders hope to introduce if they can
muster sufficient support from House Members by week's end. The "summary
of agreement" embraces the employer mandate favored by President Clinton.
Speaking for House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt (D-MO), Laura Nichols
described the July 25 agreement as a staff working paper for the use of
leadership in meeting with members" and acknowledged it may undergo
further changes. (Detailed Reform Outline Ready, Dana Priest and David
Broder, Washington Post, 7/27/94)

According to congressional aides, the interests of federal employees
would be protected during the transition to a national health care system
under a proposal drafted by Rep. William Clay (D-MO), chairman of the
House Post Office and Civil Service Committee. Under Clay's proposal, the
Federal Employee Health Benefits Program--redubbed the Universal FEHBP--
would be open to employees of companies with fewer than 100 workers, the
self-employed, and the unemployed, but initially federal employees would
stay in their own insurance pools. But after eight years , they would be
folded into local insurance markets marking the demise of the FEHBP.
(House Proposal Would Open Federal Health Plan to All, Stephen Barr,
Washington Post, 7/27/94) CURE Comment: The present FEHBP offers a choice
of more than 300 insurance plans and is touted for its success in keeping
rate increases modest. Why should 9 million civil servants, retirees, and
their dependents be sacrificed to the unproven Rube Goldberg concoctions
of politicos and social engineers?

"Millions of dollars will be spent in the next two weeks to persuade you
to help sway maybe 90 votes in Congress on health care issues. As the
targets of this advertising assault, you would do well to remember the
high stakes and hidden motives of the people who are trying to recruit
you to their side in this fight. The fate of health care legislation lies
largely in the hands of about 60 undecided members of the House of
Representatives and perhaps half that many senators. They are mainly in
the center of the political spectrum--moderate and conservative
Democrats, concentrated in the South and the border states, along with a
smaller number of moderate to liberal Republicans, especially in the
Senate. They are tugged in different directions by ties of party,
constituency, philosophy, and financial support. They will largely
determine whether there are broad, systematic changes in the financing
and delivery of health care services of the scale President Clinton is
seeking, or narrower, incremental changes--or nothing. Any of these
outcomes is possible, which is one reason why the lobbying and
advertising are so intense." (Siege of the Health Care Lobbyists, David
Broder, op-ed, Washington Post, 7/27/94)

                         HOSPITALity

According to a guide derived from data from the Health Care Finance
Administration , a New Jersey hospital has the lowest death rate among
acute care hospitals, while a Puerto Rican hospital has the highest. The
Consumers Guide to Hospitals analyzes 18 million Medicare cases at some
5,500 acute care facilities. Separate death rates are listed for specific
procedures. (NJ Hospital Has Lowest Death Rate, Says Guide, Morning
Herald, 6/21/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For a listing of the top and
bottom ten as rated by HCFA, see Hospital Death Data in the August
ABLEnews Review.

"Sibley Memorial Hospital, responding to the demand for less-expensive
forms of patient care, has converted a dormant wing into a miniature
nursing home...Sibley's action illustrates the growing pressures on
hospitals--and the kind of growth opportunities that the pressure to cut
medical costs has spawned in the health care business. Two forces have
combined to shorten the hospital stays and undercut hospitals' business:
pressure from health insurers to discharge patients sooner, and medical
advances...Although Sibley,...in the northwestern corner of the city, is
licensed to operate 362 acute care hospital beds, the number in actual
use has declined to 289 since 1989...The hospital's staff has also been
shrinking." (Sibley Converts Wing to Small Nursing Home, David
Hilzenrath, Washington Post, 7/13/94)

                         Mal-Practice

"A page from an old government report indicates that dozens of US
hospitals used whole-body radiation while conducting research. Radiation
sleuths probing Cold War-era experiments, said Monday they found a list
of 45 hospitals that exposed human test subjects to head-to-toe
radiation. They are trying to determine whether the research was done for
medical science, the government, or both. But there were few details
available about the experiments, according to the federal Advisory
Committee on Human Radiation Experiments...The committee verified
government-sponsored research at: University of California Hospital, San
Francisco, 1942-46; Memorial Hospital, New York, 1942-44; Chicago Tumor
Institute, 1943-44; MD Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute, Texas,
1951-56; Baylor University College of Medicine and the Texas Medical
Center, 1953-64; Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, 1954-61;
University of Cincinnati Hospital, 1960-71; Oak Ridge Associated
Universities Medical Division, 1957-74." (Full-Body Radiation Was US-
Sponsored, Martinsburg Journal, 7/27/94)

                         Medicine Chest

"The public should be aware that many insurance companies are contacting
pharmaceutical manufacturers to obtain rebates for using one product over
another. Then they try to enlist pharmacists to call physicians and have
their patients switched from one product to another...Most pharmacists
will resist these efforts and preserve the integrity of the prescriber's
choice. As consumers of health insurance, each of us should be concerned
about this trend in health reform. We must be vocal about companies
establishing formularies and policies that restrict choices. Health care
reform is becoming concerned with bottom-line, short-term costs with
little thought for long-term outcomes and consequences." --L.D. Bowers,
Charles Town, WV. (Make Opinions Known on Health Care Issues, Bowers,
letter-editor, Martinsburg Journal, 6/23/94) CURE Comment: Please re-read
the last sentence quoted above. CURE concurs with this cogent commentary
and its author's counsel to: "Get involved with the quality of your care.
Let your employer or health care insurance provider know of your
concerns. Ask your pharmacist or physician about important trends in
health care. Make informed, educated opinions and let them be known."

According to a study reported in the July 27 Journal of the American
Medical Association, one in four elderly Americans may be taking
inappropriate--even dangerous--drugs. "Prescription medicines were used
by 81.9% of all older persons. Almost one-quarter (23.5%) of all elderly
people 65 or older, or 6.64 million people, received at least one
potentially inappropriate drug," researchers from the Cambridge (MA)
Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and the Victorian Health Department in
Melbourne, Australia concluded. (Study: Elderly May Be Getting
Inappropriate Prescriptions, Washington Post, 7/27/94)

While officials from SmithKline Beecham presented Food and Drug
Administration panelists two studies indicating Tagamet was effective in
treating adults for heartburn and proposed a warning label citing risks
when Tagamet is taken with theophylline, warfarin, and pheytoin, FDA
scientist Kathy Robie-Suh protested, "The benefits...do not outweigh the
risk." The advisory committee adjourned without making a recommendation
on a proposal to allow Tagamet to be sold over the counter. (No
Recommendation on Tagamet, Washington Post, 7/28/94)

                         Mental Health Memo

"Do crowded conditions increase the likelihood of aggressive behavior?...
The presumption that people living in chronically crowded conditions are
more likely to lash out comes largely from studies with rats in the
1960s...Now a large study in monkeys suggests that primates--the
biological group that includes monkeys and people--are not as prone to
crowd-induced violence as rats. The work by Peter Judge and F.B.M. de
Waal at Emory University's Yerkes Regional Primate Research Center in
Atlanta [GA]...logged more than 4,000 observations of monkey interaction.
Aggression was not significantly more prevalent in high-density
environments, but something else was: coping behavior, such as mutual
grooming, rapid reconciliation after fights, and the use of specific
facial expressions that indicate a desire to avoid trouble...So perhaps
life in the madding crowd simply brings out the best in human's ability
to get along." (Does Crowding Cause Aggression, Rick Weiss, Washington
Post Health, 7/12/94)

"Fifteen years ago, no one had heard of attention deficit hyperactivity
disorder. Today it is the most common behavioral disorder in American
children, the subject of thousands of studies and symposiums and no small
degree of controversy. Experts on ADHD say it afflicts as many as 3 1/2
million American youngsters, or up to 5% of those under 18. It is two to
three times as likely to be diagnosed in boys as in girls. The disorder
has replaced what used to be popularly called 'hyperactivity,' and it
includes a broader collection of symptoms. ADHD has three main hallmarks:
extreme distractibility, an almost reckless impulsiveness, and, in some
but not all cases, a knee-jiggling, toe-tapping hyperactivity that makes
sitting all but impossible. (Without hyperactivity, the disorder is
called attention deficit disorder, or ADD.)...Ten years ago, doctors
believed that the symptoms of ADHD faded with maturity. Now it is one of
the fastest growing diagnostic categories for adults. One-third to two-
thirds of ADHD kids continue to have symptoms as adults, says
psychiatrist Paul Wender, director of the adult ADHD clinic at the
University of Utah School of Medicine...As more people are diagnosed the
use of Ritalin (or its generic equivalent methylphenidate), the drug of
choice for ADHD has surged; prescriptions are up more than 390% in just
four years. As the numbers have grown, ADHD awareness has become an
industry, a passion, an almost messianic movement. An advocacy and
support group called CHADD (Children and Adults with Attention Deficit
Disorders) has exploded from its founding in 1987 to 28,000 members in 48
states. Information bulletin boards and support groups...have sprung up
on CompuServe, Prodigy, and American Online." (Life in Overdrive, Claudia
Wallis, Time, 7/18/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: ABLEnews will do its best
to cover developments on the ADHD/ADD front. We welcome your
contributions to our community forum. For a symptom-derived quiz, see
Adding Up to ADD? in the August ABLEnews Review.)

                         Old Story

"More than 6.6 million elderly Americans not in nursing homes are
prescribed a dangerous or inappropriate medication every year,
researchers say. Use of such medications can cause people to lose their
balance or faint, resulting in serious injury and death. It can also rob
them of their ability to think clearly and remember causing them to wind
up in a nursing home. In a few instances, such medications can also have
toxic side effects, such as shutting down the production of blood cells
in the bone marrow. People receiving such drugs are 'often placed at risk
for loss of their memory, loss of their balance, and mental slowing,' the
study's co-author, Dr. Steffie Woolhandler, said...The study was
published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical
Association...People in the study were considered to be using
inappropriate drugs if they were taking any of 20 medications that a
panel of independent experts said in 1991 should always be avoided by the
elderly...The most common drugs used were the anticoagulant dipyridamole,
better known as Persantine; the pain reliever propoxyphene, better known
as Darvon Compound,; and the antidepressant amitriptyline, better known
as Elavil. High use rates were also found for the diabetes drug
chloropropamide, or Diabinese; the tranquilizer diazepam, or Valium; the
arthritis drug indomethacin, or Indocin; and the tranquilizer
chlordiazepoxide, or Librium." (Study: Many American Elderly Get
Inappropriate Prescription Drugs, Martinsburg Journal, 7/27/94)

                         Public Health

"Tick season--spring through early fall--is in full swing across America
and in many foreign countries. Being bitten by an infected tick can
result in debilitating, sometimes deadly, Lyme disease, military and
civilian experts warn. Left untreated, Lyme disease can advance from
early flu-like symptoms to painful and permanent damage to the joints,
according to the National Centers for Disease Control. The disease can
also affect the nervous system, causing numbness, pain, stiff neck, and
severe headache or muscle weakness in the face or limbs. Occasionally,
heart irregularities occur." (Avoiding Lyme Disease Can Be 'Ticky'
Situation, Rudi Williams, Pentagram, 7/22/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For
further information about Lyme disease, see Lynn Oliver's detailed posts
on ABLEnews.

                         School Daze

"For Kenny Vixama's first-grade teacher, an alarm went off when she
noticed that the six-year-old often invented his own text for the simple
storybooks his class was reading. Though a bright child, as he read his
eyes did not follow the left-to-right pattern of a successful reader. He
had trouble identifying specific words when asked to find them. And he
showed confusion with certain patterns of letters--a basic stumbling
block in learning to read. Kenny's difficulties had landed him the bottom
20% in reading achievement among the first-grade students at Public
School 41 in Greenwich Village {NY]. If Kenny's problems went
uncorrected, he seemed headed down a path of reading failure, that has
become increasingly hard to address for teachers across the country. That
is when reading specialist Barbara Mandel intervened. Mandel is a soldier
in a quiet revolution that is transforming the way some elementary
schools deal with slow readers. The program she teaches is known as
Reading Recovery, and since 1983, when it was introduced in this country
at Ohio State University, it has spread to 48 states and brought
thousands of first-graders up to average or above reading levels.
Developed in the 1970s by New Zealand educator and psychologist Marie
Clay and use extensively in that country, the program's premise is that
the best way to avoid reading failure is to prevent it in the first
place." (Small Victories for Slow Readers, Marilyn Thompson, WP, 6/1/94)

                         TB or Not To Be

"A tuberculosis outbreak that swept La Quinta High School [in
Westminster, CA] has spread more than just serious illness. It has made
students fearful of being ostracized and wary of who's sitting next to
them at lunch. One misdiagnosed case led to hundreds of the school's
1,350 students being exposed to the disease in the past three years.
'They're scared if they have TB, we won't talk to them or have lunch
together,' said 15-year-old incoming La Quinta sophomore Ngoc Pham...Of
1,263 students and recent graduates given skin tests in September 1993,
292 developed redness and swelling indicating exposure to TB. An
additional 87 students and staff tested positive last month. Seventeen
people have been diagnosed with active tuberculosis, including 14 who had
cases resistant to several antibiotics...During last year's basketball
championships, Steven Lund recalled how another team 'wanted to protest
about having the game at our field.' 'One of the moms had a surgical mask
on her face,' said Lund, who tested positive for TB exposure...Officials
said the outbreak began three years ago when a 16-year-old student [a
Vietnamese immigrant] 's private doctors misdiagnosed her persistent
cough as bronchitis." (TB Outbreak Spreads Fear at Southern California
School, Martinsburg Journal, 7/27/94)

                         The Whole Tooth

"A robbery suspect made a rope with dental floss and scaled an 18-foot
wall to freedom Wednesday, a [Charleston, WV] jail official said. Robert
Shepard, 34, of Parkersburg escaped the jail's outdoor recreation yard
about 1:25 AM, administrator Larry Parsons said. Dental floss is sold at
the jail store, Parsons said. The floss used to scale the wall was
braided to the thickness of a telephone cord. 'Dental floss has been
taken off the shelves,' Parsons said." (Robbery Suspect Uses Dental Floss
in Jail Escape, Martinsburg Journal, 6/30/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: See
also, Dental Floss Typical Example of Fugitive's Resourcefulness,
Martinsburg Journal, 7/1/94.

                         Telling Headlines

AIDS Counseling Bill Dies in New York, Washington Times, 7/5
Anti-Smoking Lobby Says Tobacco Ads Deceptive, Martinsburg Journal, 7/27
Bacteria Victim Dies of Pneumonia, Washington Times, 7/5
Clinton Falls a Little Short on Promises, Morning Herald, 6/25
Cows Fed Used Restaurant Grease, Morning Herald, 6/22
Cruising the Information Superhighway, Wall Street Journal, 7/18
Democrats Hope Attack on 'Radical Right' Gets Leftists to Polls MJ, 6/27
FDA Urged to Nix Over-the-Counter Sales of Rogaine, WT, 7/27
Key House Panel Clears Health Plan, Martinsburg Journal, 7/1
Libraries: On-Ramp to the Info Highway, Washington Post, 7/27
Maryland to Get New Insurance, Morning Herald, 6/25
Neo-Nazis Rampage at Concentration Camp, Martinsburg Journal, 7/25
On to the Internet and Into the E-Mailstrom--Painlessly, WPB, 7/18
Patients Often Sue Over Miscommunication, Washington Post Health, 7/12
Punting on Welfare, editorial, Wall Street Journal, 7/18
Religion Issue Is Old as the Republic, Washington Times, 7/5
Some Democrats Defend Religious Right, Washington Times, 7/5
US Getting Lead Out of Population, Washington Post, 7/27

                    Wish We'd Said That...

     The president who said he would fight to change the system not
     only hasn't done it, but now he's the leading practitioner of
     the abuses of the system. (Fred Wertheimer, president, Common
     Cause)

                    ...Glad We Didn't

     This is not a program that is going to cause rationing or
     denial of health care. (Nelson Sabatini, Maryland health
     secretary)

                         We Did Say It...

     Just because you are playing with the lives of the poor,
     Secretary Sabatini, doesn't make you, God, nor is the medical
     care you are cutting loaves and fishes to be multiplied. (Earl
     Appleby, CURE director)

  Of Note is published biweekly by ABLEnews, a Fidonet-backbone echo
  featuring disability/medical news and information. ABLEnews is
  carried by more than 340 BBSs in the US, Canada, Australia, Great
  Britain, Greece, New  Zealand, and Sweden. The echo, available from
  Fidonet and Planet Connect, and gated to the ADANet, FamilyNet, and
  World Message Exchange networks, is a public service of CURE.

  ABLEnews text files--including our digests: Of Note and Mednotes
  (suitable for bulletin and file use) are disseminated via the
  ABLEfile Distribution Network, which is available from the filebone
  and Planet Connect.

...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
Springs, West Virginia 254511 (304-258-LIFE/5433).