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Efforts Fund Breast Cancer Services For Minorities; Seek To Address Health Disparities; Call For HIV Testing Among Asians, Pacific Islanders
The following highlights efforts that seek to reduce racial and ethnic health disparities.
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Senate HELP Panel Begins Mark Up Of Bill Placing Tobacco Under FDA Oversight
The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Tuesday began marking up a bill (S 982) that would allow FDA to regulate tobacco products, CongressDaily reports. The bill would allow FDA to place larger, color warning labels about the health risks of smoking on cigarette packs, as well as to regulate the marketing of tobacco products and advertising to children. The agency could not ban tobacco products or eliminate nicotine from cigarettes, but it could regulate their production and ban flavored cigarettes other than menthol. Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) said, "Over the years, this bill has been reviewed; it has been vetted; it has been debated, over and over and over again. The time has come to act." The House in April passed its version of the bill, 298-112 (Hunt, CongressDaily, 5/20). The committee by voice vote approved an amendment proposed by Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) that would give FDA priority to review products that contain nicotine, such as candies. Committee ranking member Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) proposed two amendments, one that would have given regulatory authority over tobacco to CDC and another that would have ordered FDA to study which flavors to ban, instead of a current provision that bans specific flavors. Both amendments were defeated. Enzi said, "I think the FDA is the wrong regulator. It approves cures, not poisons." The only Democrat who opposed the bill was Sen. Kay Hagan (N.C.), who said the measure would harm the tobacco industry in her home state (Armstrong, CQ HealthBeat, 5/19). The panel"s other member from North Carolina, Sen. Richard Burr (R), said he would filibuster the bill. He said, "I put my fellow senators on notice: This is something that will be a much longer time on the floor than it will be in this hearing" (CongressDaily, 5/20). The committee plans to continue marking up the bill Wednesday and possibly Thursday.The Obama administration has expressed its support for the bill (CQ HealthBeat, 5/19). FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg also has said her agency should regulate tobacco (Armstrong, CQ HealthBeat, 5/18).
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HSE Responds To Lord Gill's Inquiry Report Into The Explosion At ICL Plastics, Glasgow (2004), UK
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) received copies of Lord Gill"s report[1] into the explosion, caused by a leak of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) on 11 May 2004, when nine people died and many more were injured at the ICL Plastics factory in Maryhill, Glasgow.
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Beating The Radar: Getting A Jump On Storm Prediction

Satellite observation of cloud temperatures may be able to accurately predict severe thunderstorms up to 45 minutes earlier than relying on traditional radar alone, say researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Space Science and Engineering Center. Scientists from the Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies (CIMSS) have developed a way to measure temperature changes in the tops of clouds to improve forecast times for rapidly growing storms. "The value of detecting and analyzing these changes is that we can get up to a 45-minute jump on radar detection of the same storm system. A "nowcast" becomes a "forecast,"" says CIMSS scientist Wayne Feltz. Clouds start cooling long before radar can identify them as storms. As a warm cumulus cloud grows and expands upward into higher altitudes, it will rapidly cool. Rapid cloud-top cooling indicates that a cloud top is rising into the frigid upper reaches of the atmosphere and can reveal the formation of a severe storm. Cloud temperatures can be measured by the wavelengths of light they radiate in the near-infrared and infrared frequencies. Current geostationary satellites - satellites that stay over the same location on Earth - over the U.S. can discern five different bands in these frequencies, each band revealing a different state of cloud development. Looking down from space, the satellite can determine whether the cloud top consists of liquid water, supercooled water or even ice. By running high-speed five-minute satellite scans through a carefully designed computer algorithm, the scientists can quickly analyze cloud top temperature changes to look for signs of storm formation. "We are looking for transitions," says Feltz. "Does the cloud top consist of liquid water that is cooling rapidly? That could signal a possible convective initiation." Feltz and other CIMSS colleagues, including Kris Bedka and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientist Tim Schmit, demonstrated their "Convective Initiation Nowcast" and "Cloud Top Cooling Rate" products at NOAA"s annual Hazardous Weather Testbed (HWT), held May 4-June 5 at the Storm Prediction Center in Norman, Okla. The HWT is designed to accelerate the transition of promising new meteorological insights and technologies into advance forecasting and warnings for hazardous weather events throughout the United States. "The Hazardous Weather Testbed brings in outside experts in all areas, a melting pot of people to encourage collaboration and interactions and proposal opportunities," Feltz says. "The point of this is working with forecasters in the field - the Weather Service, the Storm Prediction Center, the Hurricane Center - whoever is interested in looking at more advanced satellite products." Wayne Feltz University of Wisconsin-Madison


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