briefs, health ‘ science

(MCT) – In January of this year, the New York City Board of Health voted unanimously to… (MCT) – In January of this year, the New York City Board of Health voted unanimously to require restaurant chains in the Big Apple to post the calorie content of the foods and beverages that they serve in a visible place on the menus and menu-boards. Starting in March of this year, all restaurants chains with more than 15 sites will have to comply with the new law.

This idea has been tossed around for a long time but has generally been opposed by the restaurant industry, which claims that such information will just make menus look cluttered.

Health advocates, on the other hand, strongly feel that providing consumers with this data may make a dent in the onslaught of overweight and obese people in the United States. This is in part because the vast majority of people (including health professionals) who eat at restaurants vastly underestimate how calorie-dense the food actually is. And, polls have suggested that two-thirds of Americans would like to have such information available on their menus.

We can all get hoodwinked when it comes to calories. For example, sometimes we’ll go for the poultry or salad item on a menu because we think it will have fewer calories and less fat than the meat. But think again. A tuna salad sandwich with mayo may contain almost twice as many calories (average 720) as a roast beef sandwich with mustard (average 460 calories).

And surprisingly, the chicken filet sandwich at Wendy’s weighs in at 940 calories, while the quarter-pounder single has 930 calories.

MINNEAPOLIS (MCT) – Mike Zumberge and Katy Dokter felt fortunate as they moved with their baby daughter into a three-bedroom, fully furnished mobile home just north of St. Paul, Minn., on Dec. 30.

Three days later – after they said they developed breathing problems and were told by a doctor to remove their infant from the home – they felt lucky to escape.

The mobile home was one the Federal Emergency Management Agency had bought in 2005 to house Hurricane Katrina victims. They’ve also been used to house people displaced by last August’s historic floods in southern Minnesota.

The young couple found themselves swept up in the national controversy over the safety of FEMA mobile homes and towable travel trailers. Many have complained about formaldehyde fumes that were making them sick.

FEMA spokesman James McIntyre said the mobile homes have stricter regulations than the travel trailers about allowable formaldehyde levels and were not believed to be a problem. But Becky Gillette, manager of the Sierra Club’s formaldehyde campaign in Arkansas, said her office has received dozens of complaints from those living in mobile homes and trailers around the country.

People did not suspect that the homes were a problem because they looked “new and nice,” she said, but many developed respiratory problems. “The experience of people we’ve heard from show that it’s just as bad in mobile homes,” she said.

“There’s supposed to be regulations about these sorts of things, but they’re not being enforced,” she said.

Fillmore County, Minn., officials said they have had no complaints from flood victims living in 93 mobile homes in Rushford and other hard-hit Minnesota cities.

Officials said it’s not clear how many of the mobile homes have been distributed for use as low-income housing. At least 10,000 of the travel trailers have been sold.

At the heart of the controversy is a wood preservative used in glue that bonds particle board, flooring and other construction materials. When it accumulates in spaces without enough ventilation, formaldehyde can cause respiratory problems, and long-term exposure has been linked to asthma, bronchitis, allergies and even cancer. -By Tom Meersman, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

SAN JOSE, Calif. (MCT) – In a bold but highly controversial move believed to be the first by a U.S. college, San Jose State University President Don Kassing has suspended all campus blood drives because of a longstanding U.S. Food and Drug Administration policy that bars gay men from donating blood.

The FDA’s policy “affecting gay men violates our non-discrimination policy,” Kassing said in a lengthy e-mail sent to faculty, staff and students earlier this week.

The issue has cropped up on college campuses across the country, primarily as gay student groups protest blood drives. The American Red Cross and other national organizations that regularly run blood drives have also been pushing the FDA to revise the policy, which has been in place since AIDS first emerged in the United States in the early 1980s. State-of-the-art blood-screening techniques make the lifetime ban unnecessary, the groups say.

The FDA policy affects any man who has had sex with another man since 1977. The agency says it is necessary because gay men are at increased risk for HIV, hepatitis B and other infections that can be transmitted by transfusions.

A university employee who has not been identified brought the policy to Kassing’s attention last spring. Kassing and his staff then spent several months talking to faculty members, blood banks, outside AIDS and HIV experts and high-ranking FDA officials before a decision was made.

“This is not a political issue. We’re not bowing to political pressure from some advocacy group,” said Larry Carr, SJSU’s associate vice president for public affairs. “It’s a position based entirely on principle. President Kassing stood up for our non-discrimination policy.”

The decision pits two values of higher education, community service and diversity, against one another.

Local blood banks on Thursday blasted Kassing’s decision, saying it could lead to a precipitous drop in blood donations at numerous Bay Area colleges and put patient’s lives at risk.

Kassing’s order, which takes effect immediately, applies to blood drives arranged by university employees as well as those organized by various student groups. At least two blood drives that were planned for this spring have now been canceled. -By Dana Hull and Leslie Griffy, San Jose Mercury News