Chris Rayner and colleagues at Royal Adelaide Hospital studied eight healthy male volunteers. On one day, the subjects consumed an orange-flavored vodka drink made from alcohol and a mixer sweetened with sugar containing 478 calories. On the second day, the men drank the same amount of alcohol with a diet mixer containing 225 calories.

The researchers measured the rate of stomach emptying using ultrasound technology. Blood samples were also taken at 30-minute intervals for three hours.

The stomach had emptied half of its contents in 15.3 minutes after the diet drink and 21.1 minutes with the sugar-sweetened drink.

The peak blood alcohol concentration was significantly higher with the diet drink than with the regular drink. The blood alcohol concentration was also higher with the artificial sweetener than with the sugar-sweetened drink.

"It was surprising how much of a difference the artificial sweetener made," Rayner commented during his presentation.

"People tend to consume more because of the lower calorie content," he told Reuters Health. "These drinks also tend to be consumed at times other than meal times, when food would slow gastric emptying."

The findings have public health significance, Rayner said. He recommends that product labeling include information on the intoxicating qualities of artificially sweetened alcoholic drinks. There could be legal implications for those driving home, as well, he noted.

Rosenstein, dressed in a tan jailhouse outfit, said "not guilty, your honor" through a Hebrew translator when asked for a plea by U.S. Magistrate Judge Barry Seltzer. No trial date has been set.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison on each of the two counts in his drug indictment. His Ecstasy network allegedly spanned four continents and used Latin American smugglers to bring the drug into the United States.

Rosenstein is being held on $10 million bond. His attorney, Howard Srebnick, said Rosenstein is currently unable to make bail despite having significant financial resources around the world.

Rosenstein, who was on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's list of 44 top worldwide drug traffickers, was arrested in Israel more than a year ago. He is allegedly one of Israel's most powerful organized crime figures, although he has largely escaped prosecution until now.

Ecstasy is a synthetic drug that can induce euphoria, increased energy and sexual arousal. It also often suppresses appetite, thirst and the need to sleep, and in high doses can cause health problems and even death.

The coalition said it chose the people to represent both genders, different races, professions and people who live in different parts of the state, as well as people who were local leaders.

Laboratories in Victoria, British Columbia, Seattle, and Los Angeles tested the samples for 86 chemicals. Each participant, including state Sens. Bill Finkbeiner and Lisa Brown, both from opposite sides of the state, tested positive for at least 26 of the various chemicals, and as many as 39.

An extensive study on exposure to environmental chemicals by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year stressed that the presence of an environmental chemical in blood or urine "does not mean that the chemical causes disease." But state coalition members said they wanted people to be aware of potential risks.

"It's very likely each of us is walking around with a cocktail of chemicals in our bodies," said Erika Schreder, staff scientist for the Washington Toxics Coalition and the lead scientist on the report. "The chemicals that we found in our test participants are chemicals that are linked to very serious health problems. That's a concern."

But Dr. Elaine Faustman, a toxicologist and professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Washington, said it's important to keep in mind the levels of chemicals in each person, not just that they are detected.

She noted that there are persistent chemicals in almost everyone.

"For us, the dose makes the poison," she said.

However, Faustman said that while the sample size was very small, the report was a good tool to see specific data for the Pacific Northwest.

Among the chemicals found were phthalates, a manmade ingredient of many plastics, cosmetics and other consumer products.

Other chemicals included fire-retardant PBDEs, and PFCs, which are found in the plastic coating Teflon.

Finkbeiner, R-Kirkland, had 30 chemicals detected and a mercury level above the EPA "safe" level. Of the group tested, he had the highest levels of the Teflon chemicals and the pesticide carbaryl.

"I never gave too much thought or made too many lifestyle choices based on these issues prior to having this profile. It sure made me think a whole lot more," said Finkbeiner, who added that he has since stopped using Teflon pans, plans to buy more organic foods, and will pull weeds in his yard instead of spraying them with pesticides.

Schreder said the report should serve as a wake-up call to the state's lawmakers and Gov. Chris Gregoire.

"What we're really lacking is a comprehensive approach to ensure these harmful toxins are not in our products," she said.

A spokeswoman for the American Chemistry Council, which represents about 130 major chemical companies, said the small sample of the report doesn't warrant "the far-reaching conclusions or recommendations that are made."

Sarah Brozena said scientists have long known that humans can absorb chemicals from the environment.

"We are finding them now because there are much better analytical techniques that can measure them at these very trace (part per billion or part per trillion) levels," she said in an e-mailed statement. "Further, detection of chemicals in our bodies - by itself - is not an indication of risk to health and shouldn't be cause for alarm."

Earlier this year, the state Department of Health and the Department of Ecology asked the Legislature to ban all trade in PBDEs, arguing that the fireproofing chemicals are being found in Columbia River fish, seal blubber, grizzly bears and women's breast milk.

A bill died in the Legislature this year, though supporters said they will try again next year.

Schreder said that, in addition to the passage of the PBDE ban, the coalition wants the state to require companies that do business with Washington state to provide complete information on what types of chemicals are used. The coalition also wants to see an immediate plan to phase out certain products and manufacturing chemicals, and to help companies make the switch with either incentives or technical assistance.

Gregoire's office did not return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment on the report.

Brown, D-Spokane, said the report got her attention, and she's certain it will open a dialogue in the next legislative session.

"We pretty much take for granted that Washington state is a beautiful place to live and work," said Brown, who tested positive for 37 chemicals, including high levels of mercury. "We want it to be a truly healthy place to live."

"Chocolate contains many substances that act as stimulants, such as theobromine, phenethylamine, and caffeine," Dr. Bryan Raudenbush from Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia noted in comments to Reuters Health.

"These substances by themselves have previously been found to increase alertness and attention and what we have found is that by consuming chocolate you can get the stimulating effects, which then lead to increased mental performance."

To study the effects of various chocolate types on brain power, Raudenbush and colleagues had a group of volunteers consume, on four separate occasions, 85 grams of milk chocolate; 85 grams of dark chocolate; 85 grams of carob; and nothing (the control condition).

After a 15-minute digestive period, participants completed a variety of computer-based neuropsychological tests designed to assess cognitive performance including memory, attention span, reaction time, and problem solving.

"Composite scores for verbal and visual memory were significantly higher for milk chocolate than the other conditions," Raudenbush told Reuters Health. And consumption of milk and dark chocolate was associated with improved impulse control and reaction time.

Previous research has shown that some nutrients in food aid in glucose release and increased blood flow, which may augment cognitive performance. The current findings, said Raudenbush, "provide support for nutrient release via chocolate consumption to enhance cognitive performance."

Concerns over those effects have led some doctors to urge the Food and Drug Administration to require a "black box," its most serious warning, on package inserts for drugs such as Ritalin, Concerta and Adderall. Yet even doctors advising the FDA don't agree on whether that's warranted.

The issue was discussed in a series of letters in Thursday's
New England Journal of Medicine, including some from doctors worried about the dangers of not treating attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

"The numbers (of side effects) are puny compared to the numbers of stimulant prescriptions per year," said Dr. Tolga Taneli, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark. "I'm not alarmed."

An estimated 3.3 million Americans who are 19 or younger and nearly 1.5 million ages 20 and older are taking ADHD medicines. Ritalin is made by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corp. of East Hanover, N.J.; Concerta by Johnson & Johnson of New Brunswick, N.J., and Adderall by Shire US Inc. of Newport, Ky.

Twenty-five deaths linked to ADHD drugs, 19 involving children, were reported to FDA from 1999 through 2003. Fifty-four other cases of serious heart problems, including heart attacks and strokes, were also reported. Some of the patients had prior heart problems.

Still, there hasn't been a clear estimate of the scope of side effects. The CDC report, while not a rigorous scientific study, attempts to provide that by using a new hospital surveillance network.

From August 2003 through December 2005, the researchers counted 188 ER visits for problems with the drugs at the 64 hospitals in the network, a representative sample of ERs monitored to spot drug side effects.

Doctors linked use of stimulant ADHD drugs to 73 patients with side effects or allergic reactions. Another 115 accidentally swallowed ADHD pills, including a month-old baby, or took too much.

"These are cases where a young child took someone else's medication or they took too much of their own," CDC epidemiologist Dr. Adam Cohen said of the second group.

Nearly 1 in 5 patients was admitted to the hospital, 1 in 5 needed stomach pumping or treatment with medicines, and 1 in 7 had cardiac symptoms. Sixteen percent of the side effects involved interaction with another drug.

Besides cardiac problems, common symptoms included abdominal pain, rashes and spasms, pain or weakness in muscles, according to Cohen. No patients died.

Extrapolating to all U.S. hospitals, the researchers estimated 3,075 ER visits occur each year.

In another letter in the journal, the heads of the American Psychiatric Association and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry wrote they are concerned a black box warning would discourage use of ADHD drugs, raising patients' risks of academic failure, substance abuse and other problems.

This past February, an FDA drug safety advisory panel voted 8-7 for a black box warning. The next month, another FDA panel instead recommended data on cardiac and other risks go in a new "highlights" section the agency plans to add to the top of drug inserts.

Dr. Marsha Rappley, pediatrics professor at Michigan State University, and two other doctors on the advisory panels believe the vote for a black box was premature.

She said studies show the drugs raise blood pressure and pulse rates a bit, but it's unknown whether that would harm children taking them for years, and that cardiac risks may be higher for adults.

Dr. Steven Nissen, cardiology chief at the Cleveland Clinic, who had pressed for a black box warning at the FDA panel meeting, said ADHD drugs are powerful stimulants and inherently risky. Nissen and other doctors say the drugs are being prescribed to some who don't need them.

This week, the FDA said it is "working diligently" on "labeling changes that we feel accurately reflect the available data and the advice of the committees." The agency declined interview requests.

The same trend applies to household pets, with an increase in the number of overweight cats and dogs being dealt with by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), and even one case of an obese pet mouse.

"It's a big problem, and quite reflective of what's happening in the human situation," said Mark Lawrie, the RSPCA's chief vet.

Australia is a nation of 20 million people, almost 4 million dogs, 2.5 million cats, 8.7 million pet birds and more than 12 million pet fish.

It has one of the world's highest rates of pet ownership at 64 percent of households, compared to 62 percent in the United States and 44 percent in Britain.

Lawrie told Reuters surveys had found that between 40 and 44 percent of dogs and more than one in three household cats were now overweight, due to poor diet and a lack of exercise.

Fat cats and dogs were more vulnerable to diabetes, arthritis, heart problems and liver disease.

Dogs most at risk were Labradors, Beagles and cross-breeds such as Labradoodles -- a mixture of a Labrador and a Poodle -- with household moggies more at risk than other types of cats.

The RSPCA said de-sexing and lower levels of exercise had an impact on pet obesity, but the key issue was over-eating.

"It's really the calorie intake and food that makes the big difference," Lawrie said, adding that many pet owners could not resist giving their animals food when they asked for it.

Because all the women in the study were completely sterile and undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF), the age of the fathers was key. And while past studies have suggested that older men are less likely to father children, the extent to which this was related to biological changes or to decreased sexual activity has been unclear.

"Our results provide, for the first time, strong evidence for a paternal age effect on failure to conceive that is linked only to biological male aging," the study authors report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.

Dr. Elise de La Rochebrochard of the French national health institute INSERM led the study.

According to the researchers, the lower IVF success rate among relatively older men may be due to poorer-quality sperm.

It has long been known that women are less likely to conceive after the age of 35 than before, de La Rochebrochard and her colleagues note. But the current findings, they write, suggest that for men, the age of 40 is similarly important.

"In reproduction," the researchers conclude, "age must no longer be considered as the concern of the woman, but as that of the couple."

SOURCE: Fertility and Sterility, May 2006.