Health Highlights: Aug. 18, 2005

Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

Drug Use in Schools Growing: Student Survey

Twenty-eight percent of middle-school students said drugs are used or sold in their schools, a 47 percent jump over a similar survey done three years ago, the Associated Press reported Thursday.

And the 12- to 17-year-olds who said drugs are kept or used in their schools were three times more likely to use marijuana or drink alcohol than those who attended drug-free schools, the latest Columbia University survey found.

Some 43 percent of the teens polled said they watched at least three R-rated movies in a typical month, and these teens were seven times more likely to smoke cigarettes and six times likelier to drink alcohol.

"If this survey does anything, it really shouts to parents: You cannot outsource your responsibility to law enforcement or the schools," said Joseph Califano Jr., president of Columbia''s National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, which conducted the survey.

"I think when parents feel as strongly about drugs in the schools as they do about asbestos in the schools, we''ll start getting the drugs out of the schools," he added.

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EPA Imposes $1.5 Million Clean Air Penalty

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has levied a $1.5 million fine against a Rhode Island firm for violating federal standards for ethylene oxide emissions, the first such settlement ever imposed, the agency said Thursday.

The settlement was reached with the Cosmed Group, Inc., which sterilizes products for the food and medical industries. The violations were cited at six of the company''s eight sterilization facilities in Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Illinois, Texas and California, the EPA said in a statement.

Ethylene oxide, a suspected cause of cancer, can irritate the lungs, damage the liver and kidneys, and may affect human fertility, the agency said. It also contributes to the formation of smog, aggravating conditions like asthma.

The violations were alleged to have occurred from at least 1998 until 2003, the EPA said. The agency estimated that more than 30 tons of excess emissions were produced at three plants in Rhode Island, New Jersey and Illinois alone.

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Jazz Musician Needs Blood, Marrow Transplants

Famed jazz saxophonist Michael Brecker has acquired a serious blood and bone marrow disease and needs blood stem cell and marrow transplants to save his life, The New York Times reported Thursday.

Brecker, 56, has been diagnosed with a form of cancer called myelodysplastic syndrome, in which the bone marrow stops making healthy blood cells. Doctors say the transplants are possible only if donors are found that are enough of a genetic match, the newspaper reported.

His two siblings and two children all have been tested, and none is a suitable donor, the Times said.

Brecker was diagnosed about a year ago after seeking treatment for severe pain in his pelvis and lower back. He''s been unable to practice or write music, the newspaper said.

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Mad Cow Testing Options Limited

Testing options for mad cow disease were limited in thousands of cases, the U.S. Agriculture Department admitted Wednesday.

Information posted on the department''s Web site said only one type of test was used in 9,200 cases despite efforts to do more surveillance throughout cattle herds in the United States. The type of test used in these cases -- immunohistochemistry (IHC) -- was the same one that failed to detect mad cow disease in a Texas cow late last year, the Associated Press reported.

The tests in these 9,200 cases, conducted over the past 14 months, weren''t included in the running tally of mad cow disease tests done since last summer, which numbered 439,126 as of Wednesday.

The Agriculture Department said brain samples in these 9,200 cases were preserved with formalin, meaning the samples could only be checked with the IHC test, the AP reported.

John Clifford, the department''s chief veterinarian, said officials intended to include the 9,200 test results later in an annual report.

"There''s no secret program. There has been no hiding, I can assure you of that," Clifford told the AP.

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New Device Treats Heart Aneurysm

A number of surgeons across the United States are undergoing training on how to use a new device designed to treat a deadly type of heart aneurysm that bulges out from the aorta, the body''s main artery.

The device, which resembles a child''s finger trap toy, was approved last March by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for treatment of thoracic aortic aneurysms. The device is a flexible tube made of Teflon-like material with an outer metallic support structure, the Associated Press reported.

It''s the first FDA-approved grafting system for this kind of aortic aneurysm, which often causes no symptoms but can quickly kill a person if it bursts and causes severe internal bleeding. Thoracic aortic aneurysms are diagnosed in about 15,000 people in the U.S. each year.

"The treatment options have been either open surgical repair or no repair at all," Dr. Joseph Bavaria, a University of Pennsylvania cardiac surgeon who was one of the lead investigators during clinical trials of the device, told the AP.

The University of Pennsylvania is one of several centers in the U.S. training surgeons to use the device.

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Heavy Baby Boomers Face Increased Arthritis Risk

Baby boomers are heavier and more likely to have obesity-related arthritis than previous generations, says a Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center study in the September issue of the American Journal of Public Health.

"We found that the obesity epidemic has affected both the baby boomers and their predecessors but that the baby boomers got a much earlier start, and have spent more of their lives in an obese state even though we''ve known that they have had better access to nutrition and information about exercise for much of their lives," study senior author Suzanne Leveille said in a prepared statement.

As baby boomer obesity rates increased, so did their risk of arthritis. Between 1971 and 2002, obesity-related arthritis cases in the United States climbed from 3 percent to 18 percent, the study found.

"Baby boomer are just approaching the age when arthritis rates begin to rise dramatically. Many baby boomers have lived with obesity for much of their lives. We can expect to see the health and functional consequences of this epidemic in the coming decades," Leveille said.

"Public health strategies to address obesity and arthritis management could have a major impact on the lives of aging baby boomers in the years to come," she noted.