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                        OF NOTE...
                        News to Use

Vol. III, Issue 62                                June 1, 1994
Earl Appleby, Jr., Editor                         CURE, Ltd.

                         Addictions

"Even when I was a smoker, I knew smoking to be a messy and offensive
habit. And expensive--not just the cost of the weed, but also the damage
it causes, from holes in clothing to holes on the ground where houses
once stood. At some point it became clear that it is also a health
hazard, and not just to smokers. It's hard to think of anything that
could bring me riding to the defense of the deadly tobacco industry. I'll
give it to Henry Waxman, Mike Synar, and Ron Wyden though. They keep
trying. These three House Democrats haven't been TRYING to drum up
support for cigarette manufacturers; quite the contrary. They have been
trying to destroy the industry. And even that wouldn't evoke much pro-
industry sympathy from me. What does move me to this faint defense of the
indefensible are the tactics of these congressional crusaders." (Getting
an Unfair Hearing, William Raspberry, op-ed, Washington Post, 4/18/94)

"Marlboro mileage collectors take note: That pack of smokes in your
pocket might have traveled more miles than you could dream of booking in
the company's latest sale promotion. Philip Morris Companies said it had
received customer complaints recently that indicate that cigarettes
intended for export are being offered for sale in the US. The situation
poses two problems: First, the cigarettes might have skirted US tax and
customs laws by slipping back into the country and onto US shelves.
Second, and perhaps most important to consumers, the cigarettes don't
carry the proof-of-purchase seal for the company's Marlboro Country Store
sales promotion." (Philip Morris's Marlboros for Export Spell Trouble as
They Land in US, Maria Mooshil, Wall Street Journal, 5/16/94)

"Smoking, excessive drinking, and illicit drug use will cost Medicare one
trillion dollars for hospital care over the next 20 years, and smoking
will cause most of it, Joseph A. Califano, Jr., head of the Center on
Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, said today. Mr.
Califano issued a report by the center showing that at least $20 billion
out of $87 billion being spent by Medicare for inpatient hospital care
this year is due to such substance abuse, and that about $16 billion of
that goes for conditions attributable to smoking. As medical costs and
the number of people covered by Medicare increase, the annual costs are
expected to soar...Among the elderly and disabled, smoking was dominant.
It accounted for four-fifths of the substance abuse hospitalization under
Medicare. Drug abuse accounted for only 3%, and alcohol abuse for 17%.
The most frequent smoking-related conditions treated were lung cancer,
chronic pulmonary obstruction disease, and coronary artery disease."
(Addiction Center Says Tobacco's Hospital Costs Will Imperil Medicare,
Adam Clymer, New York Times, 5/17/94)

"Smoking, as its adherents like to put it, is a private choice. But it is
also a choice with public consequences. Just how extraordinary these
choices are is evident in a report issued this week by Joseph A.
Califano, Jr...Because women who were heavy smokers--targets of the
'You've come a long way baby' school of smart sell--are just beginning to
enter the covered group of people 65 or older, Mr. Califano figures the
share of Medicare costs attributable to cigarettes can only increase...
Cigarettes are beginning to burn a big hole in the elderly's medical
safety net. To mend it, Americans had better start putting out the fire."
(Medicare's Big Cigarette Burn, editorial, New York Times, 5/18/94)

"Deep in Virginia farm country, where tobacco has reigned supreme for
generations, Charlie O'Dell proselytizes, county to county, farm to farm.
Not a preacher, but a horticulturist, his vision is of the future and it
is leafy green. For the last 12 years, Dr. O'Dell has tried to persuade
tobacco producers to look beyond their golden-hued cash crop to...
broccoli. 'Broccoli is the crown jewel of nutrition,' says the associate
professor from Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg. 'And I have
a burning idea that broccoli in Virginia can succeed.' But turning his
burning idea into the farmers' burning desire is a hard sell. Producers
of a crop that winds up in cigarettes--an embattled but lucrative
business--aren't going to give it up for an ugly green vegetable, anti-
cancer properties or not." (Would Growers Rather Fight Than Switch? Holly
Selby, Baltimore Sun, 5/18/94)

"One argument used by Randall Robinson in calling for a US invasion of
Haiti--an idea popular among some Clintonites--is that Haitian military
officials are involved in drug trafficking. But if the administration
wants to cut down the flow of drugs to this country, it can do better
than invade Haiti. Indeed, Haiti's a virtual non-player in the drug wars.
The real damage is being done elsewhere. It's already well known, that
the administration has slashed the budget of drug czar Lee Brown. The
White House has also acquiesced in cuts in the State Department's bureau
for international narcotics, has made deep personnel reductions in the
Drug Enforcement Administration, and has reduced the Defense Department's
drug budget--all of which casts a measure of doubt on the Clinton team's
commitment to the war on drugs." (The Drug War: Another Retreat, Lally
Weymouth, op-ed, Washington Post, 5/20/94)

                         AIDS Addenda

"This is the first direct evidence that we have a human virus causing
cancer through some mechanism--not just indirectly by immunosuppression."
--Michael McGrath, MD, University of California at San Francisco. The
discovery that the AIDS virus directly causes cancer provides hope for
better treatment of both diseases, while raising doubt about the safety
of gene therapies. The study will be published in the April 15 issue of
Cancer Research, the journal of the American Association for Cancer
Research. (Scientists Report First Proof That AIDS Causes Cancer,
Martinsburg Journal, 4/8/94)

"Good fortune befell Michael Summers in a letter bearing the imprint of
Howard Hughes. Now Dr. Summers, an unassuming associate professor of
biochemistry, is greeted on campus by shouts of 'Hey, superstar.' An
intense interest in the role of metals in proteins lead the University of
Maryland Baltimore County scientist to be the first to describe a key
component of the virus that causes AIDS. That discovery, in turn, helped
him win a position as an investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical
Institute, the largest philanthropic foundation in the country. Beginning
next month, HHMI will underwrite his work, create a laboratory for him at
UMBC, and provide funding of as much as $800,000 a year...Dr. Summers was
among 44 biomedical investigators chosen this year by HHMI, the nation's
wealthiest philanthropy, to join a team of 225 scientists that includes 5
Nobel laureates and 41 members of the National Academy of Sciences...
Unlike other foundations, HHMI doesn't fund specific projects. 'We select
the people we consider outstanding, then we support the careers of those
people,' [Dr. Purnell W. Chopin, foundation president] says." (Professor
Honored for AIDS Research, Holly Selby, Baltimore Sun, 5/16/94)

                         Alternative Medicine

"Glenwood, WV--Catfish Gray's days are filled with shaving slippery elm
roots, mixing sassafras and ginseng, tucking in his hernias, and meeting
people from miles around who ask him about herbs [in] his one-room
cabin...high above the Ohio River....Clarence 'Catfish' Gray, 76, is a
purveyor of folkloric medicine passed down orally from generation to
generation. Gray's cabin, rawboned frame, nasal country accent
reminiscent of Walter Brennan, and a belief in tradition dating back to
the Cherokees, makes him a throwback to a time when pioneers settled the
Appalachian Mountains. Until well into the 20th century, herbal medicine
was preferred by millions of rural people who had no doctor or remained
suspicious of doctors because of their cupping bleeding past, according
to Appalachian folklorist Barbara Duncan of Franklin, NC. 'It's a way of
living closer to nature that appeals to many people. It's part of
traditional cultural values. People use it as an alternative to Western
scientific medicine,' she said." (Herbalist Offers Taste of Appalachian
Tradition, Martinsburg Journal, 5/2/94) CURE Comment: As an Appalachian--
folk NOT folklorist--who appreciates the benefits of herbal remedies,
practiced by my uncle in his native Luxembourg, I think it is somewhat
disingenuous to ignore the fact that doctors are still largely
unavailable to many parts of West Virginia and other poor and remote
rural communities and hamlets--and the choice that was made was not made
by country folk. For the rest of Catfish's tale, see ALTM405.* wherever
ABLETEXT files are found.

                         Blood Brothers

"Like the scores who will file through this blood drive today, I am
leaking into the bag as a good deed, a way of helping others. The needle
may sting, but my reward is a larger pleasure at being virtuous. The Red
Cross takes my gift and extends it, infusing local hospitals with a pint
of A Positive. I receive in exchange the certificate that I am good. To
me, and my fellow donors, charity is what our half-hour on the couch
means. But that's not what it means to the Red Cross. For them the blood
business is exactly that: a business. The Red Cross depends on the
idealism of others, but it turns that gift into something other than a
gift...They convert the generosity of the American people into a $600-
million-a-year enterprise, a revenue stream of blood that sustains both
the lives of patients and the prosperity of bureaucrats, that fills the
need of hospitals while filling the coffers of the country's largest
blood banker. Blood, in other words, is money. It is blood that puts the
red in the cross, and the rosy glow of revenue in the organization's
cheeks is a direct result of the gift bestowed by donors around the
country, who lie back selflessly, unaware their impulse to decency is
worth more than $100 a pint." (Blood Banking, Patrick Symmes, Washington
City Paper, 4/15/94)

                         Cancer Chronicles

"Scientists who got permission to study the cancer that killed Hubert H.
Humphrey used tissue samples taken two years before the disease was
clearly diagnosed to pinpoint the precise genetic mistake that caused it.
If the information had been available then, they report in today's New
England Journal of Medicine, it might have dissuaded Humphrey from
running against Richard M. Nixon for president...One of the most common
genetic defects that contribute to cancer is mutation of a gene called
p53. Ordinarily, this gene stops cells from dividing when other genes go
awry. When the p53 gene itself is broken, cells lose their internal
control over growth, and cancer can develop...Scientists used a technique
called polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, to analyze the genes in bladder
cells saved from a urine sample Humphrey gave in 1967. They found that 9%
of the cells carried a defective form of p53. 'It showed definitively
that we can pick up cancer years before the tumor is found by normal
clinical methods,' said David Sidransky of John Hopkins University, who
wrote the report with his colleagues...The researchers also suggested
that doctors might have opted to remove Humphrey's bladder years earlier,
and perhaps saved his life, had they known about the bad gene."
(Humphrey's Diagnosis Revisited, Washington Post, 5/5/94)

A study in today's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine warns
that doctors who cut back on chemotherapy for breast cancer patients may
increase the odds their tumors will prove fatal.The experiment which
involved 26 cancer treatment centers across the nation found that all
women--regardless of whether or not they had experienced menopause--
"benefited from the more intensive therapy," according to Daniel Budman,
of North Shore University Hospital, in Manhasset, NY, a study author.
(Less Chemotherapy Found to Raise Breast Cancer Risk, WP, 5/5/94)

According to a study reported in the Archives of Surgery, the age of
breast cancer patients is not a determining factor in survival rates
since younger victims often have more aggressive, far-reaching cancers.
"Among the youngest age group, more patients were found to have node
involvement, to have estrogen receptor-negative tumors, and to be black,
all of which are adverse prognosis factors," wrote Joseph Crowe, of Case
Western Reserve University in Cleveland. "These results indicate that
breast cancer treatment should be based on an approach that combines
cancer stage, other prognostic indicators, and the physiologic--not
chronologic--age of the patient," Crowe concluded. (Youth Is No
Advantage, Washington Post, 5/11/94)

"For years, many cancer experts have strongly felt that the more
chemotherapy they can give a patient, the better will be the chances for
controlling the cancer. And many have acted on that hunch, ratcheting up
chemotherapy doses to the most a patient can tolerate. Although the side
effects are greater with higher doses, these patients and doctors have
felt that the nausea and the risks of infection are worthwhile in
combating the cancer. But now, in a clinical trial that was the first
true test of this hypothesis, researchers found that in women with breast
cancer a double dose of chemotherapy was no more effective than a single
dose. The study, reported yesterday at a meeting of the American Society
of Clinical Oncologists, involved 2,300 women with advanced breast cancer
who were randomly assigned to one of three chemotherapy regimens. The
three treatments gave standard, higher, and double doses of
cyclophosphamide, combined in each case with the standard dose of
adriamycin. High doses of adriamycin are dangerous because they can
damage the heart. Dr. Lawrence Wickerham, a breast cancer specialist at
the University of Pittsburgh who directed the national study, reported
that survival was the same in all three groups." (Boosting Chemotherapy
May Prove Ineffective, Gina Kolata, New York Times, 5/17/94)

"Synchronizing cancer treatments with the body's own internal rhythms
appears to give ordinary chemotherapy drugs a much stronger punch,
perhaps even doubling their power to fight tumors, a new study shows.
Typically, cancer medicines are given in single injections or in steady
infusions that remain constant day and night. The new approach varies the
way these drugs are released, depending on the body's natural circadian
cycles through a 24-hour day. Some drugs, it seems, work best when given
at gradually peaking and ebbing doses during the night, while others seem
more potent when taken during the day. The strategy, called
chronotherapy, has been discussed for at least 20 years. Until recently,
however, no practical way existed to test it in significant numbers of
patients. The development of programmable infusion pumps, devices roughly
the size of hardcover books that hang from shoulder straps and can be
worn at home, enabled a European team to try the idea for the first
time...Dr. Francis Levi of Paul Brousse Hospital in Villejuif, France,
presented the results today at the annual meeting of the American Society
of Clinical Oncology. The study was conducted in France, Italy, and
Belgium on 186 people with advanced colon cancer. Tumors shrunk by at
least half in 51% of the chronotherapy patients, compared with 28% of
those getting steady doses of drugs." (Cancer Therapy Is Hitched to
Body's Rhythms, New York Times, 5/17/94)

"Researchers are finding ways to answer a question that haunts every
cancer patient: Why me? The explanation, they say, can be found deep
within the cells of the body in biological factors called markers. Like
the smoking gun in a crime novel, markers are physical evidence of the
foul interplay between cancer-causing agents in the environment and a
person's genes. But as in all whodunits, the true villain can be the one
who arouses the least suspicion. The new research shows that cancer is
not primarily caused, as many Americans tend to thin, by the poisons
spewed into the air, water, and land by uncaring industrialists. Rather,
each person is born with various genetic susceptibilities, essentially
weak spots in their genetic makeup, that play a leading role in the
cellular mayhem called cancer." (Genes Tell Story of Why Some Get Cancer
While Others Don't, Sandra Blakeslee, New York Times, 5/17/94)

"The Food and Drug Administration is reexamining three common allergy
drugs after Canadian researchers concluded they can promote cancer growth
in laboratory mice, even at low doses. In a study to be published today
in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, researchers at the
Manitoba Institute of Cell Biology in Winnipeg report that some tumors
grew faster and larger in mice injected with larotadine, astemizole, and
hydroxyzine, three antihistamines. Two other tested antihistamines,
doxylamine and cetirizine, were found not to stimulate tumor growth, said
Lorn J. Brandes, the study's principal author. 'I am very concerned about
these findings, and so is the FDA,' he said." (3 Allergy Drugs Found to
Promote Cancer, Washington Post, 5/18/94)

"Breast cancer researchers have some advice for twentysomething women
starting to put on a few extra pounds: Lose weight. A study suggests that
weight gain around age 30, even an extra 10 or 20 pounds, may
substantially increase the risk of breast cancer later in life.
Researchers have long noticed that obesity is linked with breast cancer.
So they set out to see if there is any particular time of life when
gaining weight is especially hazardous. 'We found that the most important
decade in a woman's life is the third decade,' said Noreen Aziz. 'Of all
decades in which you should lose the extra weight, it's the third.' After
lung cancer, breast cancer is the leading cancer killer of US women. An
estimated 46,000 people will die from it this year...The latest study was
conducted by Aziz and colleagues at the H. Lee Moffit Cancer Center and
Research Institute in Tampa." (Weight Gain in 20s May Raise Women's Risk
of Breast Cancer, Washington Post, 5/18/94)

"Non-Hodgkins lymphoma, the form of cancer that took the life of
Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, is actually a family of diseases whose
members have widely variable prognoses and chances of cure. All lymphomas
involve uncontrolled growth of immune system cells known as lymphocytes.
Some types of the disease run an indolent course. Others are aggressive,
with survival of little more than six months if treatment fails.
Ironically, the faster-growing and more malignant forms are the ones more
likely to be cured." (Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma: Prognoses Vary Widely,
David Brown, Washington Post, 5/20/94)

                         COMPUTations

"A reporter for The Poughkeepsie Journal needed to learn about people who
keep crickets as pets. An Associated Press writer had about four hours to
find an ethnomusicologist knowledgeable about relationships between black
and Jewish jazz musicians. A journalist with Radio Canada wanted an
agricultural expert in the United States who could speak about the
problems posed by pig manure--in French. A few years ago, a well-stocked
Rolodex and hours on the telephone would have ben needed to find such
authorities in arcana, if they could be found at all. But these reporters
succeeded with only one call to Profnet, a computer network of university
public information officers. It is the global village's matchmaking
service for academia and news organizations and it has reporters and
public information officers gushing about a new dialogue between the
ivory tower and the news media...'It's a quantum leap forward in how you
locate a source,' said Dan Forbush, the system's founder and an associate
vice president for university affairs [at the State University of New
York] at Stony Brook. 'Imagine being able to send a telegram at no charge
to more than 1,000 people around the world, and to convert each of them
into research assistants.'" (Computer Network Helps Journalists Find
Academic Experts, Jonathan Rabinovitz, New York Times, 5/23/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: As a new Internet surfer, I'm impressed. Still my ABLEnews
rolodex would have referred "Dennis Kipps, the Poughkeepsie reporter,
[who] had tried twice and failed to write a column on the virtues of
crickets...[as] he was convinced the little creatures his daughter fed to
her pet lizards were themselves potential pets" to ABLEnews SysOp Phil
Scovell in Denver, CO (Electronic Library Exchange, 1:104/810), the
author of Hot Crickets: an amusing account of the crickets fed by his son
to his pet frog, posted here on ABLEnews in April. BTW, Dennis could have
echomailed Phil for the cost of a LOCAL phone call to ABLEnews SysOp Rob
Flor's Purple Rose of Cairo (1:272/58). Profnet we're not <grin> but
thanks to our more than 300 sysops and uncounted participants, ABLEnews
can make a link or two for the Cause <smile>.

Courting Disaster

"First it was the Dalkon shield, and then came asbestos. Now lawyers are
scrambling to grab part of the $4 billion settlement fund involving
silicone breast implants. The largest such fund in history, it has
spurred lawyer ads in a class by themselves. One little gem asked
potential clients to call Florida lawyer Richard B. Baker at 1-800-
RUPTURE. But Baker isn't out there alone. When word first spread last
September that some implant manufacturers would set up a huge fund for
women who claim they were injured by silicone implants, ads started
popping up from Los Angeles to the District, from the Rhode Island
Monthly to TV Guide." (Breast Implant Settlement Fund Sparks a Scramble,
Saundra Torry, Washington Post Business, 4/4/94)

                         Dateline World

"Gaza City, Gaza--An urgent appeal went out recently from Shifa Hospital,
the largest and best equipped in the Gaza Strip. The hospital had run out
of oxygen and could not get any from Israel because the border was closed
for security reasons. Mechanics from car repair shops responded to the
call by rushing bottled oxygen from their garages, where it is used for
welding. The episode was an ominous portent for Palestinian self-rule.
When Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat signed the
autonomy agreement with Israel last week, he agreed to take over the
health system run by Israel's military government for 800,000
Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. But according to Israeli and Palestinian
officials, the Palestinians do not have the money to run the health care
system in Gaza for very long. While Arafat has obtained symbols of
sovereignty,...his ability to provide a basic service here--health care--
is in serious doubt...In health care, potential life-and-death crises
could easily sour the community on the larger experiment in self rule,
Palestinian leaders say. According to doctors, the recent oxygen crisis
may seem minor compared with shortages of medicines, food, equipment, and
skills that loom." (Health Care Shortfall-a Dose of Reality for
Palestinians, David Hoffmann, Washington Post, 5/8/84)

                         Doctor, Doctor

"For the first time, I'm away from my parents, and it's a big adjustment
living in a dorm. I have to decide everything--when to sleep, when to
study, when to eat, when to socialize." --Alex Saeed, 14, on entering
John Hopkins University with enough credits to start as a junior. The
Gaithersburg, MD teenager who had taken more than two years of pre-med
courses at Montgomery College is majoring in biology and psychology and
hopes to specialize in either cardiovascular surgery or neurosurgery.
While academics remain the top priority for Alex, who has earned nothing
less than a B to date, he spends hours on the university's computer
bulletin board e-mailing his cyber-pals. (Precocious, Homesick,
Washington Post, 5/2/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Anyone have the number
for the John Hopkins BBS? We think it would be great to get this future
physician online with ABLEnews, don't you?

                         Family Affair

After a week of negotiations, Ernest and Regina Twiggs, the biological
parents of switched-at-birth teenager Kimberly Mays have been given
custody of her by Robert Mays, who raised the 15-year-old girl from
birth. "It's a nice Mother's Day present for Mrs. Twiggs, isn't it?" said
John Blakely, a lawyer for the Twiggs. In 1978, the Twiggs took home a
baby girl from a rural hospital they named Arlena. She died from a heart
condition in 1988 after medical tests during her illness had determined
that she was not biologically related to the Twiggs. Later genetic
testing established that Kimberly is the Twiggs' biological daughter and
the legal tug-of-war ensued. (Switched Child's Parents Given Legal
Custody, Washington Post, 5/8/94)

"When it comes to parceling out the blame for birth defects and genetic
disorders, women have historically shouldered most of the burden,
particularly older mothers who supposedly risked their offspring's well-
being by letting their eggs sit around growing progressively more stale
and chromosomally unstable. By contrast, men have been seen as eternally
fertile, able to father healthy children well into their dotage. But
growing evidence suggests that men, rather than women, may be the source
of most new genetic mutations in the population, and thus may be
responsible for the majority of congenital diseases that seem to come
from nowhere. In addition, the older a man gets, the more likely his
sperm is to carry genetic mutations." (Genetic Mutations Tied to Father
in Most Cases, Natalie Angier, New York Times, 5/17/94) ABLEnews Editor's
Note: Why should the mother or father be "blamed" for an act of nature?
The flippant tone ("eternally fertile") and TAB terminology (birth
"defect," "dotage") are better suited to the op-ed pages.

"In a challenge to a bedrock tenet of President Clinton's welfare reform
plans, a group of influential liberal House Democrats has begun
circulating a plan that would drop the requirements that most recipients
find work within two years or face the loss of their benefits. With many
details of the president's plan shrouded in uncertainty--particularly how
to finance the costly job-training and federally subsidized work
programs--the liberals' proposal is the latest attempt by Democrats and
Republicans to shape the debate before Clinton submits his long-awaited
bill, probably early next month. The so-called 'two years and out'
provision has been considered a given in the welfare reform debate since
Clinton proposed it in the 1992 campaign as part of his promise to 'end
welfare as we know it.' Welfare mothers, other than those with a
disability or who care for disabled or infant children, would be required
to find work within two years of enrolling for Aid to Families with
Dependant Children." (Tenet of Clinton Welfare Plan Faces Test, Eric
Pianin, Washington Post, 5/20/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: When I served
as the New Hampshire coordinator of the Work Incentive Program (WIN), a
federally-funded job training and placement program for AFDC recipients
we returned about $3 in welfare savings for every dollar expended, in
large measure by spending the second highest rate of program funds ion
the nation on on-the-job training contracts in the private sector. The
Post reports that "Clinton's package would be financed through a
patchwork of cost reduction, including $2 billion in cuts in SSI
benefits." The administration plan would cut off all Supplemental
Security Income and Medicaid to LEGAL immigrants. We deplore the further
exploitation of persons with disabilities in the guise of "reform"--
whether it is under so-called health or welfare reform.

                         Food for Thought

"A troubling pattern of unanswered questions is emerging that suggests an
altogether too cozy relationship between some FDA officials central to
this food decision and their close dealings with the Monsanto Company."
Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT). Sanders joined Reps. George Brown Jr. (D-CA)
and David Obey (D-WI) in calling on the General Accounting Office to
investigate the Food and Drug Administration's approval of recombinant
bovine somatotropin (bsT) or bovine growth hormone used to boost milk
production. Citing an anonymous March 16 complaint by members of the
FDA's Center for Veterinary Medicine, the Congressmen asked the GAO to
probe the roles of three key FDA officials in the approval of the
Monsanto drug: Michael Taylor, deputy commissioner for policy, who
rejoined the FDA after working for a Washington law firm which represents
Monsanto; Margaret Miller, deputy director of the FDA's office of new
animal drugs, a former Monsanto employee; and Susan Sechen, an FDA data
reviewer, who had worked as a graduate student for a Cornell University
professor conducting Monsanto-sponsored research on bsT. ABLEnews
Editor's Note:  Miller wrote the FDA opinion on why milk from bsT-treated
cows should not be labeled so that consumers could make informed
purchasing decisions. (Probe of 3 FDA Officials Sought, John Schwartz,
Washington Post, 4/19/94)

"A new report by Harvard researchers says fat in margarine and other
processed foods could be responsible for 30,000 of the nation's annual
deaths from heart disease. Harvard researchers also reported last year
that diets high in margarine, once considered a healthful alternative to
butter, and other foods with hydrogenated vegetable oils that contain
fats known as trans fatty acids could double the risk of heart attack.
But an article in The American Journal of Public Health on Monday goes
further, saying that trans fatty acids are probably worse that saturated
fat in butter and meat. 'Many people who are trying to make good
nutritional decisions for themselves and their kids are being grossly
mislead,' said a co-author of the report, Dr. Walter Willett, chairman of
the department of nutrition at the Harvard School of Public Health." (Fat
in Margarine Is Tied to Heart Problems, New York Times, 5/16/94)

"Saveur, a lush new magazine for people with sophisticated tastes in
food, enters the burgeoning field of epicurean food magazines this week.
A creme de la creme publication in very sense, it not only aims at the
top end of the market, but also tosses away concerns about calories and
fat. 'Enjoy food. Stop worrying about it. Trust your palate and your
heart,' writes Dorothy Kalins in the editor in chief's letter in the
first issue...Saveur and Fine Cooking, a magazine...aimed at a similar
audience, are staking out new ground. The two are deliberately taking the
opposite circulation strategy from the hugely successful seven-year-old
Cooking Light...aimed at a more general readership. Cooking Light, with
its health approach to food, broke through the one million mark in
circulation two years ago...The traditional Big Three of the field--Bon
Appetit, Food & Wine, and Gourmet--are monthlies that tend to be more
than food magazines...While the Big Three include some mentions of
healthy cooking, they are more likely to feature praline pecan tarts and
apricot jalousie with amaretto cream. But low-fat approaches to cooking
are found throughout the pages of two other magazines--Cooking Light and
Eating Well." (New Flavors for Readers of Food Magazines, Deirdre
Carmody, New York Times, 5/23/94)

                         Forget the Vet?

"My Thanh, Vietnam--Sgt. 1st Class John Foggin of the United States Army
spent five hard years fighting the Vietcong, but he has buried the past
and found a home among his former enemies in this remote hamlet in the
Mekong Delta. Hidden in a rural palm grove across a river south of the
market town of Ben Tre us an oasis of modest luxury where Mr. Foggin and
his Vietnamese wife, Lan, plan to spend the rest of their days earning a
living as cafe owners...'As far as I know,' Mr. Foggin said, 'I'm the
first G.I. to come back to Vietnam to live. But I know I won't be the
last. There's something about this country that draws you back.'...The
refreshments, dancing, and foreign ambience attract crowds of young
people from Ben Tre on weekends. Mr. Foggin says many of his other
customers are former Vietcong guerrillas who come to swap war stories
with him and show off their wound scars. He says a few people in Ben Tre
still resent his presence...Mr. Foggin looks back on the war with mixed
feelings. 'We could have won the war if we had a consistent policy,' he
said, 'but as it was, I think the war was wrong. Now I think we ought to
be helping Vietnam." (GI Settles in Vietnam, at Peace with Old Foes,
Malcolm Browne, New York Times, 5/16/94)

"The death of Lew Puller, Jr. last Wednesday was a tragedy for his
country, for his family, and for me personally. He was a good friend and
a man I admired greatly for his courage, idealism, grace and kindness.
There are few enough heroes left for us today. He was one, and not just
because of what he did as a Marine officer in Vietnam to earn the Silver
Star. He showed himself to be a hero in all the battles he fought for the
next 25 years--against his physical disabilities, against depression and
alcoholism and drug dependency. He was not a victim. Nor would he want
the million other Vietnam Vets of America to be seen as victims. The
coverage of Lew's death has revived that stereotype of vet as damaged
human being, plagued by demons and unable to live in a normal world."
--Terry Anderson, co-chairman, Vietnam Memorial Association. (Lew Puller
Was No Victim, Anderson, op-ed, Washington Post, 5/16/94) ABLEnews
Editor's Note: It is only in his concluding paragraph that Anderson even
intimates the fact that Puller died at his own hand, a suicide, a factor
that doubtlessly contributed to the revived stereotypes of Vietnam
veterans, however, unjust. With due respect for this vet's heroic past,
the truest heroes are those who keep their posts against the odds until
relieved by their Commander.  For the complete text of Anderson's column,
see VET40516.* wherever ABLETEXT files are found.

"Maybe the cruelest thing that can happen after one's death, other than
to be forgotten, is being turned into a stereotype. That is what worries
the grieving friends of Lewis B. Puller, Jr. No way would Puller, who
took his life last week, be forgotten. He was too important to too many
people, those who knew him and those who only knew of him. The son of a
World War II officer whose valor had won him more decorations than any
other man in the long history of the Marine Corps, Puller was a Marine
lieutenant in Vietnam when he stepped on a land man 26 years ago. He lost
both his legs. Parts of both his hands were blown away, his body riddled
with shrapnel. Somehow he survived, after long months of hospitalization.
His book about the struggle to reassemble his life, 'Fortunate Son,' won
the Pulitzer Prize in 1992 and rightly was hailed as one of the classic
accounts of that terrible war and its aftermath. With the success of the
book. Puller left his job as a Pentagon lawyer and became a writer-in-
residence at George Mason University. The alcoholism and addiction to
pain-killing drugs he had battled for year returned and at the same time
his marriage began to unravel. The fatal, self-inflicted gunshot
followed. The tragedy made news and provided raw material for immediate
stereotyping that cast him as a victim of the war. The media were not
solely at fault for this; in their grief, many of his loved ones spoke in
exactly those terms." (A Living Memorial to Lew Puller, David Broder, op-
ed, Washington Post, 5/18/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Apparently in Mr.
Broder's p.c. world the only "victims" of war are the dead...and even
then they have to die DURING the war. Too bad Lew's loved ones didn't
know him as well as the liberal columnist.

"In front of me sat a row of grim and erect Marine officers in their
green suits and skull-shaped haircuts. By the other aisle was a row of
longer-haired suit-clad men in wheelchairs. We were at Fort Meyer to say
farewell to Lewis Puller, Jr., the Vietnam War casualty and memoirist. I
considered that funeral not a bad occasion to weight the sometimes
conflicting tugs of citizenship and memory--this at a moment when the new
official American opening to Hanoi prompts all of us to think again about
the war. The obligations of citizenship had taken Lew Puller a long way
towards reconciliation with the Vietnamese winners of the war in which he
suffered awful personal losses...The former Marine lieutenant. without
waiting for a government lead, was seeking his own way to bring the
peoples of the two countries together...The attention given to Puller's
death cannot fail to add energy to this already advancing process of
healing..If Puller with his wounds can forgive, who cannot?" (Thinking
Honestly About Vietnam, Stephen Rosenfeld, op-ed, Washington Post,
5/20/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Only the one who is injured can forgive.
Forgiveness is usually predicated on repentance and restitution. Speaking
solely for myself, the proud son of a World War II veteran and brother of
a veteran of the Persian Gulf War, it is not an obligation of citizenship
for a soldier betrayed by politicians to defeat--not on a foreign
battlefield but behind closed doors in his own nation to reconcile with
an unrepentant enemy.

"For President Clinton, the challenge on the coast of Normandy next month
will be a daunting one: to honor one of history's greatest military
victories as a president who avoided service and protested against the
nation's last lengthy war. The three-day, two-continent production,
orchestrated by the United States military and its allies to commemorate
the 50th anniversary of the invasion of Europe...will offer one of the
most visible tests of Clinton's mastery of the ceremonial side of the
commander-in-chief's role. Memories are still fresh of the bravura piece
of political theater President Ronald Reagan staged at the 40th
anniversary of the June 6, 1944 invasion. But Reagan had an easier role.
He represented the generation that fought the war, even if he spent it in
a Hollywood lot making training films, and he represented a superpower
with a cause, guarding Europe's freedom from Soviet encroachment."
(Clinton to Confront Echoes of Reagan on Normandy Trip, Ann Devroy and
John Harris, Washington Post, 5/20/94)

                         Front Lines

"Prof. Matthew Pollack's column praising the Uniformed Services
University of Health Sciences (USUHS)('A First-Class Federal Medical
School,' op-ed, March 15) revealed an understandable pride in the
institution for which he works. His evident dedication and enthusiasm for
the Pentagon's medical school demonstrate why it is often so difficult to
reduce federal spending--sometime programs with commendable goals and
admirable employees have to be cut. Unfortunately, given our federal
budget deficit, USUHS is a program we can no longer afford. I have
authored legislation (S. 1562) to phase it out and was pleased it was
also proposed in the vice president's performance review and President
Clinton's FY'95 budget." --Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI). (Close Down That
School, Feingold, op-ed, Washington Post, 4/12/94) CURE Comment: We
oppose false economies at the expense of those who serve our Nation.

Significant budget cuts and the critical challenges they pose to the
quality of health care provided the military and their family members
was a principal subject at the Second Annual North Atlantic Health
Service Support Area Conference held in Silver Spring, MD from April 13
through 15. "The challenges we face are many," declared Major General
Ronald Blanck, commander of the Walter Reed Medical Center, "because of
the continuing downsizing and budget reductions, we are still in
transition." (Conference Focuses on Health Care Challenges, Walter
Bonora, Stripe, 4/22/94)

The nomination of Dr. Stephen Joseph as Assistant Secretary of Defense
for Health Affairs was confirmed by the Senate on March 22. During his
confirmation hearings, Dr. Joseph cited two challenges: to provide both
medical readiness and excellent, accessible health care for 8.5 million
Department of Defense beneficiaries. The former dean of the School of
Public Health and professor of public health and pediatrics testified:
"The first, and in my view, the absolute bottom line is medical
readiness: to ready 'wherever and whenever' with the highest level of
preparedness and the highest possible quality of care for our deployed
servicemen and women." According to the Armed Forces Information Service,
"the new assistant secretary said he is committed to building triservice
regional managed care systems to--in his own words--"provide an
economically competitive alternative as the nation goes forward with
health reform." (Joseph Assumes Health Affairs Post, Evelyn Harris,
Stripe, 4/22/94) CURE Comment: And the cutbacks continue.

                    Health Care Plans and Pans

"Everyone of the following health care provider organizations--
representing more than 1 million health professionals--supports universal
health coverage that can never be taken away. They believe that every
employer should provide its employees with private health insurance and
contribute to its cost. They have also said that any reform plan must
include a comprehensive benefits package, including long-term care and
prescription drugs. And, every one of them has agreed that we need system
wide cost containment in our health care system. American Academy of
Family Physicians; American Academy of Pediatrics; American College of
Physicians; American Medical Women's Association; American Nurses
Association; American Psychological Association; Catholic Health
Association; National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related
Institutions; National Association of Public Hospitals; National
Association of Social Workers." (Whose Opinion Do YOU Trust? The Health
Care Reform Project, advertisement, Washington Post, 3/17/94)

"Martinsburg [WV] businessman Mike Elins doesn't mind being a prop in a
campaign to promote the Clinton health plan, especially when it includes
a visit to the White House. 'If it helps to force the problem to be kept
at the forefront of all other problems, then why not?'...Elins, owner of
The Berkeley Upholstery Company was among 200 small business owners who
were invited by President Clinton to the White House Tuesday morning...
Last week, White House camera crews produced three advertisements at
Elin's business. One of those advertisements appeared Monday night during
the Academy Awards." (martinsburg Businessman Visits White House to Talk
Health Care, Rodney White, Martinsburg Journal, 3/23/94)

"An English couple waiting for a plane at Phoenix, we read with horror
Tony Snow's false statements about the British national health service
('Universal care a pipe dream.' Opinion USA, Monday). We concluded there
is more wool being pulled over the eyes of the American voter than sheep
grazing in Australia. We have never heard of a single hospital being
closed as the fiscal year ends, as Snow said. Nor is it remotely correct
to imply that British hospitals habitually run out of drugs at the end of
fiscal years. By all means learn from the mistakes--and long experience--
of our health service, but separate the facts from the fairy tales." --
Adrian and Kay McGrath, Liverpool, England. (Horrified by Column,
McGrath, letter-editor, USA Today, 4/6/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: We
implore our British friends online with ABLEnews to help us do just that
by sharing news and views--pro and con--on their national health service.

"We are about to make an historic about health care this year. At stake
are billions of dollars and the health care of millions of Americans.
Before you make up your mind about health reform, here are some facts you
should know. Over the course of a year, one in five Americans will be
without health insurance for some period of time. Since it could be you,
a critical question is: Do people without insurance get the medical care
they need?...A study of working age adults in fair or poor health shows
that the uninsured get half the amount of physician care as those with
insurance." (What Happens When People Don't Have Health Insurance? They
Get Less Care, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and The League of
Women Voters Education Fund, advertisement, Washington Post, 4/13/94)
ABLEnews Editor's Note: For copies of the sponsors reports, you may call
1-800-FACTS-94.

"Key Democratic chairmen moved yesterday to reduce a major barrier to
passage of President Clinton's health care bill by offering to ease the
financial burden it would place on small employers. Senate Majority
Leader George J. Mitchell (D-ME) spelled out options to reduce the
mandatory health insurance costs the Clinton plan would impose on
businesses. Across the Capitol, Rep. Pat Williams (D-MT), chairman of the
House labor-management relations subcommittee, said his panel will being
voting Thursday on a bill that would offer far greater subsidies to small
businesses. Both moves came as congressional Democrats continued their
search for compromises that would clear the way for committee approval f
health legislation before the May 27 Memorial Day break." (Easing Health
Plan's Financial Burden, David Broder and Spencer Rich, WP, 4/19/94)

"Havre de Grace (MD)--You can imagine how excited we were out in the
provinces when we switched on the government television station and saw
who'd been sent to Baltimore to give us the skinny on health care. There
on the screen, exuding compassion and power from a John Hopkins podium,
were the beaming faces of the Three Wise Women: Donna Shalala,
Barbara Milkulski, and Hillary Rodham Clinton...It's probably fortunate
for them their appearance wasn't broadcast nationally. If it had been,
the plan they're pushing would surely have been Kevorkianed by now. This
isn't intended as a personal rap against the Wise Women. It just happens
that as public officials, they're vivid symbols of much that;s troubling
about the Clinton health proposals...All seem almost obscenely eager to
organize everyone else's lives, hire a lot of supervisors, and put the
cost on the national credit card...The Three Wise Women eventually faded
from the screen, but in the interest of continuing education I hope their
appearance in Baltimore is rebroadcast from time to time...It reminded me
of P.J. O'Rourke's remark that if you think health care is expensive now,
wait until you see what it costs when it's free.'" (The Three Wise Women,
Peter Jay, op-ed, Baltimore Sun, 4/21/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Mr. Jay
is a writer and farmer.

"On a morning when the papers and the home screen vibrated with the
latest allegations about her husband and another woman, Hillary Rodham
Clinton had a bit of luck, draining though it turned out to be. She made
a public appearance in perhaps the only place in town that was not even
remotely interested in what may or may not have happened in a Little Rock
hotel room in 1991. Room 410 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building was
jammed to the walls with sick children and problems that make the tale of
a state trooper seem inconsequential...The misery level among the
chronically sick children who had been brought in as wordless lobbyists
for Clinton's health plan was beyond measure...There were dozens of
'uninsurable children'...A 2 1/2-year-old boy named Spenser Villinger,
sat in a large wheelchair in the front row. He was born without a vital
muscle in his diaphragm, and cannot breathe without a respirator. He is
extremely sensitive to noise, his mother, Sonya, of Little Rock, and the
clapping which was frequent as various champions of health care were
introduced or spoke, made him cry--but noiselessly, the breathing tube
interferes with his vocal cords. Around Spenser were children who sat
motionless in wheelchairs. their heads tilted back, their eyes staring
up." (Health Reform's Silent Lobbyists, Mary McGrory, op-ed, Washington
Post, 5/2/94) CURE Comment: And couldn't "the venerable chairman of
HealthRight" which organized the event stop the "frequent clapping" for
Spenser's sake. Makes us wonder whether these children and their parents
were brought there to be helped or exploited for political gain?

Before speaking in a Senate hearing room, Hillary Clinton heard from a
number of families struggling to care for their sick children at home.
They "told heart-wrenching stories about huge medical bills, abruptly
canceled insurance policies, and endless, churning fear. 'I think Travis
is one of the nation's fastest dropped individuals,' Stephanie Carlson of
Bountiful, Utah, said of her year-old son, whose health insurance was
dropped shortly after he was born deaf, blind, and with paralyzed vocal
chords." (Hillary Clinton Is Moved, Washington Post, 5/5/94)

"While billions of health care dollars are being rhetorically tossed
around Capitol Hill, it is worthwhile to remember the number 17. That is
how many people the Congressional Budget Office has on its staff to
calculate the cost of different health bills, including those being
drafted in five congressional committees. The White House had several
dozen economists and actuaries helping it draw up a plan and it still
took a year...On Tuesday, several Republicans met with [CBO Director
Robert] Reischauer to push him to finish reports on GOP bills so they can
hold them up as legitimate alternatives to the Democrat proposals. After
the meeting, several people taking notes quotes Reischauer as saying,
'Listen, I run an agency in a partisan institution [Congress]. The
Democrats are a majority and you are a minority. They have more clout
than you and they use it." (CBO's Force of 17, Dana Priest, WP, 5/5/94)

"Two prominent Democrat senators Wednesday spurned President Clinton and
endorsed a leading Republican health care plan, signaling increased
desire in Congress to reach bipartisan consensus. The endorsement
immediately gave Sen. John Chafee (R-RI) twice as many Democrats backing
his plan as Clinton has Republican. Sen. Robert Kerry (D-NE) whose 1992
presidential campaign focused largely on the health care issue and Sen.
David Boren (D-OK), a moderate voice on the Senate Finance Committee,
both say they expect more Democrats to move their way within days. Their
move comes after a flurry of phone calls on which top Clinton aides first
urged the two Midwestern moderates to delay, then threw in the towel.
'This is a constructive effort to move this thing,' says Kerrey. 'It is
much more likely that we can bring Democrats onto the Chafee bill than it
is that we can move Republicans onto the president's bill.'" (2 Top Dems
Line Up Behind GOP Health Plan, Richard Wolf, USA Today, 5/5/94)

"Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA), one of the Senate's most fervent supporters
of President Clinton's health plan, proposed yesterday to eliminate
Clinton's unpopular compulsory health purchasing alliances and to soften
Clinton's provisions requiring small businesses to insure their workers.
The changes are an effort to woo Republican supporters and soothe the
fear of small businesses, which have mobilized tremendous political
forces against compulsory coverage. It was the first time a leading
Senate backer of the Clinton plan has moved formally to cut back the
scope of mandatory employer payments, which the White House has
identified as a pivotal element of the president's plan." (Kennedy Acts
to Soften Health Plan, Spencer Rich, Washington Post, 5/10/94)

"I don't think either individual or employer mandates" will work. --
Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole (R-KS), reversing his support for
health care proposals that would require persons to buy their own health
insurance. "If you can't sell an employer mandate, it will be harder to
sell and individual mandate," he concluded. (A Reversal by Dole, WP,
5/11/94)

"We are going to have to pay for the package. If somebody can show me how
we can fill...a $40 billion hole in the year 2000, I'll be glad to
listen." Rep. Dan Rostenkowski (D-IL), chairman, House Ways and Means
Committee, calling for across-the-board tax increases to fund health
insurance for uninsured Americans, a step President Clinton has described
as unfair, but declined to rule out. (Rostenkowski Defends Need for Tax
Increase, Washington Post, 5/11/94)

"The Clinton administration sent out three of its most prominent women
yesterday--Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala, Energy
Secretary Hazel R. O'Leary, and Environmental Protection Agency
Administrator Carol M. Browner--to argue that women have been
particularly burdened by the nation's current health system and would
benefit by the president's plan...Women overall are more likely than men
to be insured." (Women's Burden, Washington Post, 5/11/94)

"Although its chairman insists it will eventually back a health care bill
that promises universal insurance, the pivotal Senate Finance Committee
is probably further from taking a position than any of the other
congressional committees working on the topic. Sen. Daniel Patrick
Moynihan, the New York Democrat who heads the committee, and its other
members expect the committee to play the central role in shaping a bill.
They point to their knowledge about health, the fact that the margin of
11 to 9 Democrats to Republicans mirrors the Senate itself, and, not
least, to their jurisdictional authority over taxes, Medicare, and
Medicaid. An while some senators who strongly back President Clinton's
approach to the issue contend that they could overcome elsewhere a
deadlock in the Finance Committee, many consider that impossible. No one
believes it would be simple." (Critical Senate Panel Remains Uncommitted
on Health Plan, Adam Clymer, New York Times, 5/16/94)

"Drawing sharp protests from consumer groups, the chairman of a powerful
House committee has offered significant concessions to the health
insurance industry in exchange for the industry's agreement to mute its
attacks on health reform legislation. The bargain struck by Rep. Dan
Rostenkowski, chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee with the
Health Insurance Association of America--a powerful force in the health
care debate--marks the first erosion of consumer protections included in
most of the health bills under consideration." (Deal on Health Reform
Irks Consumer Groups, Karen Hosler and John Fairhall, Baltimore Sun,
5/18/94) CURE Comment: And patient protection is not their long suit. The
Post reminds us: "Those protections, which include a guarantee that no
one could be denied insurance on account of age or illness, are intended
to end serious abuses committed by insurers. They represented the least
most lawmakers assumed Congress could achieve on health reform this
year." No wonder Rep. Benjamin Cardin (D-MD), who serves on the committee
concludes, "It's not a good deal."

"One of the leading Democrat sponsors of health care legislation that
spares employers from a requirement to provide insurance for their
workers reversed his position yesterday, offering a compromise that may
improve chances of passing a bill with universal coverage in the Senate.
In a meeting with Democratic colleagues yesterday, Sen. John Breaux (LA)
outlined a proposal that would require most firms to provide insurance
coverage for their workers. Businesses with fewer than 11 employees would
be exempt from the requirement, called an 'employer mandate.' 'I don't
like [mandates]...but let's ask where they're bad and less address the
problem,' said Breaux, who is the cosponsor with Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN)
of a plan that does not contain the mandate...He called his [latest]
proposal 'an attempt to find a middle ground that is fair.' Concern about
the economic effect of employer mandates on small businesses has impeded
a number of major committees from reaching an agreement on a health
bill." (Key Sponsor of Health Care Bill Taking New Look at 'Mandates,'
Dana Priest, Washington Post, 5/18/94)

"Republican and Democratic senators concerned that President Clinton's
health bill goes too far in promising Americans a soup-to-nuts list of
health benefits that would increase the deficit yesterday approved a
measure that would check Congress's ability to do the same. The measure
was the first approved by the liberal-leaning Senate Labor and Human
Resources Committee and won an unexpected unanimous vote...Committee
debate made it clear that members of Congress also are afraid of their
own spending habits. 'It's human nature for us to want to give benefits
because it makes people happy,' said Sen. Dan Coats (R-IN). 'It's the
very nature of the political process us to say yes.'" (Senate Panel Acts
to Limit Congressional Promises on Health Benefits, Dana Priest,
Washington Post, 5/20/94) CURE Comment: And it's the very nature of the
politician for you to duck accountability to the voter and hide behind
bureaucratic front men to do your dirty work of rationing health care.

On a 17-to-0 vote, the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee voted
to grant the proposed National Health Board sweeping power to determine
the basic health benefits of every American. Committee Chairman Sen.
Edward Kennedy (D-MA) boasted that the unanimous vote was "one small step
for health care, one giant step for bipartisanship." Less bipartisan was
an earlier vote in which the committee rejected a Republican proposal for
a full cost analysis prior to final action on any health reform bill on a
party-line vote of 10 to 7. (Senate Panel Delegates Powers to Health
Board, J. Jennings Moss, Washington Times, 5/20/94) CURE Comment: The
Republicans and Democrats are already quibbling over how "sweeping" the
powers bestowed on these health czar wannabees are. As Sen. James
Jeffords (R-VT) expressed it, "It was one way to show unanimity. Without
the ambiguity, there would not have been unanimity." How 'bout showing a
little backbone, Senators? Or is that too much to ask for one of millions
of Americans at risk by such bureaucratic ambiguities?

                         Heart Beats

"Using a high-tech version of a toilet plunger to revive people who
suffer cardiac arrest may be more effective than standard cardiopulmonary
resuscitation, according to an abbreviated study in today's Journal of
the American Medical Association. The technique--discovered accidentally
by a son untrained in CPR whose father collapsed in front of his family--
is called active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR. In ordinary CPR
performed by hand pressure, it is easy to compress the chest--but
difficult to aid in decompression, which causes the patient to breathe
in. The suction-cup of the ACD device allows the user to decompress the
chest by pulling up on the device between compression strokes...The study
was terminated by the US Food and Drug Administration because of concerns
about informed patient consent, JAMA contributing editor Carin Olson
wrote in a comment. 'Prospective informed consent for research in
resuscitation--as well as severe head injury or drug overdoes--is
problematic,' Olson wrote." (Suction-Cup Resuscitation Outperforms
Standard CPR, Washington Post, 5/11/94)

                         Heart Stoppers

"Four stark oak trees, waiting to bud, stand about 10 feet tall in front
of the Adas Israel Congregation in Northwest Washington. They make up the
Garden of the Righteous--a tribute to non-Jews who risked their lives to
save Jews during the Holocaust, the systematic destruction of more than 6
million European Jews by the Nazis before and during World War II. The
trees commemorate not only the horrors of the Holocaust but also the
heroes." (Remembering Those Who Dared to Care, Maria Odum, Washington
Post, 4/11/94) CURE Comment: "Dare to Care" is an unofficial CURE slogan
in our daily combat against the encroaching euthanasia holocaust. Alas
the righteous heroes combatting today's holocausts are not commemorated
in this world, where the victors are often the killers.

"Khalid Abdul Muhammad, a prominent member of the Nation of Islam who has
been widely denounced for expressing anti-semitic views, toured the
Holocaust Museum yesterday and emerged contending that genocide against
black people has been far worse than what happened to the Jews. After a
90-minute visit, Muhammad, accompanied by his young son and several
aides, told reporters that the suffering Nazi Germany inflicted on 'so-
called' Jews and other minorities during World War II was minuscule
compared with the pain that blacks have endured from whites for
centuries. At one point, Muhammad, holding a poster-size portrait of a
lynching, stressed that the Holocaust only lasted for a decade...
Muhammad's brief remarks...infuriated Jewish leaders, who said that he
had not showed any hint of compassion for the victims of the Holocaust
and appeared instead to be minimizing its significance simply to promote
a lecture he is scheduled to give at Howard University tonight on 'the
black holocaust.'" (Comparing the Suffering if Millions, Rene Sanchez,
Washington Post, 4/19/94)

"A painting of Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler will remain on display at
Midland Lutheran College despite student protests, school officials
decided. Midland President Carl Hansen said the decision to keep the
painting hanging in the college library was based on free expression. But
the painting of the man who organized death camps in World War II will be
accompanied by a statement explaining that artist David Amland intended
the work to condemn Nazism." (Display of Nazi Painting Defending,
Washington Post, 4/19/94)

"The state of Virginia will electrocute a four-time murder next week, but
the prison system's head physician will not be there to perform his
traditional role and pronounce the prisoner dead. Balvir L. Kapil has
said he is worried about losing his license to practice, now that the
American Medical Association and other groups have ruled that any
physician who participates in an execution has breached medical ethics.
Last month, the AMA, the American College of Physicians. the American
Nurses Association, and the American Public Health Association issued a
statement that executions 'contradict the fundamental role of the health
care professional as healer and comforter.'" (Virginia Doctor Balks at
Role in Execution, Carlos Sanchez, Washington Post, 4/19/94) CURE
Comment: While CURE takes no position on capital punishment as an issue
outside our purview, we oppose its administration by lethal injection as
blurring the distinction between the life-saving calling of medicine and
the life-ending role of the executioner.

"When Jacquelyn Onassis returned home from the hospital Wednesday night,
her spokeswoman, Nancy Tuckerman, said her disease, non-Hodgkin's
lymphoma, had 'progressed to a point where there was no more they could
do.' 'She will not have any further treatment,' Tuckerman said. Although
no doctors would comment directly on Onassis' case, or discuss her
prognosis, one said it was becoming more common for patients with very
advanced cases to decide to stop treatment. In Onassis' case, it was not
known whether she decided to stop treatment or whether her doctors had
exhausted all possibilities." (Jackie Dies of Cancer at 64, Ridgely Ochs,
New York Newsday, 5/20/94) CURE Comment: There is a difference.

"Onassis checked herself out of New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center
on Wednesday evening after doctors said that the non-Hodgkins lymphoma,
with which she had been diagnosed in January, had spread so far and so
fast throughout her body that further treatment was fruitless. She was
taken by ambulance to her Fifth Avenue apartment, and all day today, as
she grew weaker and weaker, family members streamed in and out of her
apartment, paying a final visit. Early, this afternoon, Monsignor George
Bardes of the nearby St. Thomas More Roman Catholic Church heard her
confession, gave her communion, and administered the last rites."
(Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis Dies at 64, Malcolm Gladwell, WP, 5/20/94)

"'This is hurting me bad. I'm very upset.' Those were the anguished words
of Pearl Ward, a 58-year-old Queens mother, after learning that the pine
casket at her son's funeral service held a stranger's remains. Moses
Ward, a welfare recipient who served food to the homeless in a church
kitchen, was found dead in his Far Rockaway apartment by his landlord May
1, the day he was supposed to move, his mother said. With the cause of
death a mystery, Moses' body was one of two decomposed bodies autopsied
by the city's medical examiner's office on May 2 at Queens General
Hospital. That's when the macabre mixup began." (Wrong Body at Funeral,
Rob Polner, New York Newsday, 5/20/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: May God
have mercy on the souls of Jacquelyn Onassis and Moses Ward.

                         HOSPITALity

A restructuring plan released May 9 by the Office of Mayor Sharon Pratt
Kelly frees financially troubled DC General Hospital from city personnel
rules. The hospital would increase patient charges 15%, deny care to
uninsured patients from outside the District, and consolidate three
emergency departments in an effort to stem the flow of red ink
contributing to the city's financial crisis. Nearly half the 14,500
patients admitted to the 410-bed hospital last year were uninsured. A
third of the patients at the city's first resort for its poorest
residents receive Medicaid or Medicare benefits. Based on its $600,000
study, the New York-based health care management company, Kurron, had
recommended that DC General become a community hospital, independent of
city control. But, according to George Henry, a member of the mayor-
appointed commission that oversees DC General that degree of independence
was rejected as politically unpalatable. "When you talk about
privatization, it adds a racial dimension that makes it impossible to
move ahead." The mayor instead opted for a "public benefits corporation"
to manage the hospital and the city's 15 Neighborhood Health Centers.
(Kelly Would Relax Rules for Struggling DC General, Cindy Loose,
Washington Post, 5/10/94)

"More than 200,000 patient visits are logged at DC General Hospital's
doors each year. Most who are treated fit the description Emma Lazarus
had in mind when she penned Lady Liberty's famous welcome to the tired,
poor, huddled masses. Fewer than 24% have private insurance, and their
insurance often falls short of being comprehensive. About half are 'self-
pay,' known less euphemistically as 'no pay' or 'uninsured.' Others are
covered by Medicare and Medicaid. Nearly one of every three in-patients
tests positive for the AIDS virus. Some arrive in shackles from the DC
jail. Their reluctance to leave hospital beds to return to jail cells is
one reason the average patient stay at DC General exceeds the industry
average by one third. While all hospitals provide some uncompensated
care..., DC General is the only hospital in the area that will take
anyone who comes through the door. DC General also gets the area's most
difficult mix, including the biggest share of gunshot victims. Meanwhile,
patients needing routine care, such as babies with colds, regularly
receive costly emergency room treatment because they have no primary care
doctor." (What Ails DC General Defies Simple Solutions, Cindy Loose,
Washington Post, 5/16/94) CURE Comment: Rather than radically
restructuring the nation's entire health care system in ways whose
dangers we have noted over several months and rather than gut already
anemic Medicare and Medicaid programs through the draconian cuts
advocated by the administration and its Republican "loyal opposition,"
close down public hospitals, and other measures promoting checkbook
euthanasia, CURE believes we should strengthen and improve such public
health programs through adequate funding and constructive changes. IOHO,
that would constitute genuine reform.

                         Mal-Practice

"How seriously are federal agencies pursuing the history of Cold War
radiation experiments conducted by government scientists on unknowing
subjects? It depends on the agency, according to documents released this
week by a White House panel investigating the history of federal
radiation research. While the Department of Education has looked into the
radiation issue with zeal, the panel's preliminary findings indicate the
Department of Health and Human Services needs to do more. And some
Department of Defense specialists appear reluctant to declassify
documents detailing military experiments, several government officials
said. The panel, the Advisory Committee on Human Radiation Experiments,
was established by White House executive order in January. It was charged
with examining the extent of government radiation experiments and the
conditions under which they were conducted. The panel is also acting as a
gadfly, exhorting various agencies to search their records for
unpublicized cases. In addition to Energy, HHS, and Defense, the panel is
examining tests that may have been conducted by the Central Intelligence
Agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department
of Veterans Affairs, and the National Security Council." (Agencies Probe
Radiation Tests in Uneven Ways, Gary Lee, Washington Post, 5/20/94)

                         Medicine Chest

"Federal regulators yesterday were asked to approve the use of acyclovir
as the first non-prescription drug for a sexually transmitted disease.
The Burroughs-Wellcome Company told a government hearing that allowing
the prescription drug to be sold over the counter would offer relief to
55 million Americans with genital herpes. But critics--including the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and others--
vehemently opposed the move, saying it would endanger patients by
increasing drug resistance and blocking doctors' ability to diagnose AIDS
and other diseases that mimic or accompany herpes." (Herpes Drug Stirs
Protest, Newsday, 5/20/94)

                         Mental Health

"Indicted Baltimore Comptroller Jacqueline F. McLean's medical insurance
benefits ran out over the weekend, jeopardizing her continued treatment
for depression at a private psychiatric hospital. Mrs. McLean, who is
accused of stealing more than $25,000 in public funds and trying to
arrange a city lease for the former headquarters of her travel agency,
has been under care at Sheppard and Enoch Pratt Hospital in Towson. Her
city health benefits expired Saturday, however, and Mrs. McLean could
either be discharged or committed to a state mental health institution,
warned her attorney, M. Cristina Gutierrez. 'We're very concerned,' Ms.
Gutierrez said Friday. 'She has been diagnosed as having severe
depression. It is considered to be a lethal mental illness. After the
comptroller took a near-fatal overdose of prescription pills and alcohol
April 14, the city granted her an emergency extension of medical benefits
to return to Sheppard Pratt" (McLean, Still Under Care, Out of Medical
Benefits, JoAnna Daemmrich, Baltimore Sun, 5/16/94)

"Dear Ann: When I read your column about the False Memory Syndrome
Foundation, I felt as if I had been stabbed in the back by a trusted
friend. I sat at my kitchen table and cried with that column in front of
me. I heard the wails of anguish from around the country and felt the
pain of loyal readers like myself who have been sexually abused by family
members...Carterville, IL." (Readers Question Reality of False Memory,
Ann Landers, Martinsburg Journal, 5/16/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: For
the rest of this letter and two others on the same subject, see
FMS40516.* wherever ABLETEXT files are found.

"To the Editor: In 'Nimby Groups Can't Legally Bar Mentally Ill' (letter,
May 3), Katina Zachmanoglou claims that community residents who are
trying to prevent New York State and New York City from dumping still
more mentally ill, chemically addicted patients in residential
neighborhoods use 'strong arm tactics' in violation of the Federal Fair
Housing Act. Ms. Zachmanoglou's organization, AMI [Alliance for the
Mentally Ill] Advocacy Project, has threatened litigation against
residents attempting to exercise their First Amendment rights to free
speech and to petition their elected representatives....The opponents of
dumping this population on the Upper West Side are not crying 'not in my
backyards;' these facilities do not belong in anyone's back yard." --
Douglas Levene, New York, NY. [Unlocked Wards Don't Belong in Anyone's
Yard, Levene, letter-editor, New York Times, Levene, letter-editor,

Bowing to mental health advocates and lobbyists, a House Education and
Labor subcommittee yesterday voted for a significant expansion of the
mental health benefits to be included in a proposed national health plan.
The voice vote was the third time in recent weeks that advocacy groups
have won a battle in their fight for full coverage of mental health
benefits, which critics claim would "break the bank." (Panel Votes to
Expand Mental Health Benefits, Spencer Rich, Washington Post, 5/18/94)

                         No Place Like Home

"On a chilly night in March 1990, the Census Bureau sent 15,000 workers
into the street to count the homeless. They visited shelters, bus
stations, parks, vacant lots, and shanty towns, seeking to quantify one
of the nation's most pernicious and debilitating social phenomena. A year
later, the bureau released its figures, but discredited them even as it
did so. The census takes, bureau spokesman, John Connolly said 'did not
produce a count of the 'homeless' population of the country.' The bureau
agreed that its number, 228,821 homeless, was not large enough. But how
many are there? For the past 15 years, public officials, social
scientists, and advocates for the homeless have argued intensely abut the
size of the homeless population and how to count it. The stakes are
large, for scores of federal anti-poverty programs allocate money on the
basis of numbers, and undercounting can mean underfunding. In 1992 more
than 20 advocacy groups and providers of services to the homeless sued
the Census Bureau, charging a deliberate short count." (Institute Finds a
Number That Adds UP, Has Meaning on the Streets, Guy Gugliotta,
Washington Post, 5/16)

Officials and analysts charged yesterday that a proposal by Joseph Rose,
chairman of the New York City Planning Commission to place homeless
shelters, drug clinics, and other social service operations in sections
zoned for light manufacturing would complicate redevelopment efforts. "It
sounds to me like he is looking for an easy answer to a difficult
problem," said City council member Stephen DiBrienza, who represents Park
Slope, Carroll Gardens and other Brooklyn neighborhoods that could be
affected. "I'm willing to hear more. but I'm very skeptical. I don't want
to see any dumping grounds singled out so that other places can avoid
their fare share." (Site Proposal for Shelters Stir Dispute, Tom Redburn,
New York Times, 5/16/94) ABLEnews Editor's Note: Isn't the dumping
grounds where they dump the garbage?

"This is not a plan destined to stand on some shelf. It is destined for
action." --Henry Cisneros, Secretary, Housing and Urban Development, on
"Priority: Home!," a 100-page plan developed by the Interagency Council
on Homeless, comprised of staff from 17 federal agencies. Joining
Cisneros at the press conference in Franklin Park, a favorite haunt of DC
homeless, were Donna Shalala, Secretary, Health & Humans Services, and
Jesse Brown, Secretary, Veterans Affairs. Citing "reasonable estimates,"
Cisneros said there may be 600,000 homeless people in America at any
given moment and up to 7 million Americans who have been homeless at some
time during a five year period. But the 600,000 estimate comes from an
Urban Institute study that is seven years old, while the 7 million figure
is derived from research conducted at Columbia University in 1990.
(Strategy on Homelessness, Guy Gugliotta, Washington Post, 5/18/94)

                         Now Hear This

"'WHY DON'T YOU GET A HEARING AID?' These seven words can cut through you
like a knife. It is very embarrassing to have one's 'inadequacy' pointed
out publicly. Also, the person may not be able to afford a hearing aid. A
better approach is to place one hand gently on the person's forearm and
shoulder and say, 'I notice you are having a little trouble hearing me. I
will speak a little louder and more slowly.' That will surely help.
Please, Ann, print this. A great many seniors will be very grateful.
--Reader in Waterloo, IA. Dear Loo: Some juniors, too. A hearing deficit
is not the exclusive province of elders. Thanks for writing." (Advice,
Ann Landers, New York Newsday, 5/20/94)

                         Research Review

"Money and science, in fantastic proportions: mountains of dollars in a
quest for the secrets of life. These are the cornerstones of [an] unusual
organization..., a philanthropy through which he vast fortune of
industrialist Howard R. Hughes Jr. thrives beyond the grave. The Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, which sits in a quiet forest off Connecticut
Avenue in Chevy Chase [MD], is the largest private philanthropy in the
nation, and probably in the world. The institute's massive endowment of
$7.4 billion spun off enough return last year to enable it to give away
$295 million for medical research and scientific education...The
institute represents the vision of [the] younger Hughes, who turned an
inherited tool-works in Texas into one of the century's great personal
fortunes...It hires promising young scientists and frees them to follow
their intellect...When Hughes founded the institute in 1953, he said he
wanted to probe 'the genesis of life itself.' And the institute aims to
meet that lofty goal by providing scientists what scientists need most:
money and time." (Bankrolling the Future From the Grave, Kevin Sullivan,
Washington Post, 5/10/94)

                         TB or Not To Be

Grace Lopes, an attorney appointed by the US District Court to monitor
health care in the District of Columbia jail, advised Judge William
Bryant yesterday that despite a November 1993 court order, DC Correction
Department officials are still not isolating prisoners with infectious
tuberculosis, and have filed numerous "inaccurate and misleading" reports
to the contrary. On any given day about a half dozen of the jail's 1,700
inmates have infectious TB, according to a prisoner advocacy group. In
documents filed with the court Lopes charged that "the failure to provide
appropriate respiratory isolation facilities...subjects other inmates,
correctional, and medical staff, as well as the community at large, to an
unreasonable risk of infection." TB, which is carried by droplets in the
air, has killed at least 14 District prisoners in recent years. Once
forecast to disappear by the close of the century, tuberculosis has
become more prevalent in recent years, especially in prisons where
inmates live in crowded conditions. (DC Fails to Isolate Inmates with TB,
Paul Duggan, Washington Post, 5/5/94)

                         The Whole Tooth

"I was interested in the article about how popcorn, the supposed panacea
of the enlightened snacker, can be a threat to the consumer's health
{Style, April 26]. The additional bad news is that at least once a month
my receptionist receives a panicky phone call from a patient saying
something to the effect, 'Tell Doc that my gums are bleeding like crazy,
and they are really sore in one spot. I must have an abscess or
something. Nine out of 10 times the culprit is a piece of popcorn kernel
that has lodged itself between the gum and teeth and set up an irritation
that results in bleeding. My patient is relieved to learn this, and after
removing the kernel, I dismiss him or her with a caution to avoid popcorn
and thus avoid those unnecessary trips to the dreaded dental chair." --
Benner Finkelstein, Alexandria, VA. (Another Kernel of Concern,
Finkelstein, letter-editor, Washington Post, 5/10/94)

                         Word of Life

The Vatican reports that Pope John Paul II, who underwent surgery to
repair a broken leg bone 10 days ago, is walking with the aide of a
wheeled walker in his Rome hospital suite. Spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Vals
advised reporters that the recovery of the 73-year-old pontiff, who had
broken his right thighbone when he slipped in his bath, was proceeding
normally and he is expected to be discharged fro the hospital in another
10 days. (Pope Using Wheeled Walker, Washington Post, 5/10/94)

                         Telling Headlines

Broccoli Compound Blocks Breast Cancer in Rats, MJ, 4/12
Cancer Study Bars Two From Leadership Roles, Washington Post, 5/8
Charities Draw Younger Donors With Hip Events, Wall Street Journal, 4/25
Church Membership Leveling Off, Martinsburg Journal, 3/20
Clinton Gives Salvo to Health Insurers, Martinsburg Journal, 3/22
Donaldson on the Trail of Nazis in Argentina, USA Today, 5/5
EPA Cautions Well Users After Discovery of Lead in New Pumps, WP, 4/19
Italian Neo-Fascists Move Toward Center, But Europe Still Frets, WP, 5/20
National Data Seeking to Broaden Role in Health Information, WSJ, 5/16
New Asthma Spray Cuts Doses, Washington Post, 5/11
New Cure Seen for Leukemia Treatment, Martinsburg Journal, 3/22
Recognizing Klinefelter Syndrome, Washington Post, 3/15
Reporter Says CNN Held Motherhood Against Her, USA Today, 3/16
Seeking Birth Parents Disrupts Families, Martinsburg Journal, 3/26
Senate Passes New Version of Drinking Water Act, Washington Post, 5/20
Tobacco Hearing Postponed, Washington Post, 5/20
Toxic Waste Not for All, Martinsburg Journal, 3/27
Two Antiabortion Groups Assessed $1 Million Penalty, WP, 5/10
US Wants to Liberalize Abortion in UN Plan, Martinsburg Journal, 4/8
World Bank Plans Women's Health Push, Washington Post, 5/8

                    Wish We'd Said That...

     The memories of those 6 million Jews [murdered in the
     Holocaust] are precious to us. But we're also concerned that
     that not be the only thing our children learn. We want them to
     know there are good, moral, decent, and caring people in this
     world, and we want them to grow up to be like them. (Rabbi
     Jeffrey Wohlberg, Adas Israel, at the Garden of the Righteous
     Ceremony, on Yom Hashoa, the Holocaust memorial day)

                    ...Glad We Didn't

     In a letter to then CNN correspondent Patti Paniccia after the
     birth of her first child, CNN's top news executive Ed Turner
     wrote he'd consider her for a full-time job when she returned
     from maternity leave "assuming you have not gone all goo-goo on
     us. Meantime quit thinking CNN and start thinking Mommydom."

  Of Note is published biweekly by ABLEnews, a Fidonet-backbone echo
  featuring disability/medical news and information. ABLEnews is
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...For further information, contact CURE, 812 Stephen Street, Berkeley
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