Kabul, Afghanistan - Blood samples taken from Afghan schoolgirls who collapsed in apparent mass poisonings showed traces of toxic chemicals found in herbicides, pesticides and nerve gas, the Health Ministry said Wednesday.
Suspicion has fallen on sympathizers of the Taliban, the hard-line Islamist militia that opposes education for women and prohibited girls from going to school when it was in power until it being ousted by a 2001 U.S.-led invasion.
Poisonous levels of organophosphates were found in samples taken from girls sickened in incidents over the past two years, said ministry spokesman Dr. Ghulam Sakhi Kargar.
Samples from more recent cases have been sent to Turkey for analysis and no results have been issued yet, Kargar said.
Health & Wellness
© Ellen Weinstein
And check out the classroom. Does Junior's learning style match the new teacher's approach? Or the school's philosophy? Maybe the child isn't "a good fit" for the school.
Such theories have developed in part because of sketchy education research that doesn't offer clear guidance. Student traits and teaching styles surely interact; so do personalities and at-home rules. The trouble is, no one can predict how.
Yet there are effective approaches to learning, at least for those who are motivated. In recent years, cognitive scientists have shown that a few simple techniques can reliably improve what matters most: how much a student learns from studying.
© Australian Associated Press
Students admitted using social networking sites are a distraction
Students admitted using social networking sites are a distraction
And it makes no difference if the site is on in the background - exam results were 20 per cent lower than for non-users.
Study author Prof. Paul Kirschner said the research countered the trendy view that children can multi-task and education systems should keep up with the times.
"The problem is that most people have Facebook or other social networking sites, their emails and maybe instant messaging constantly running in the background while they are carrying out other tasks," he said.
Student Brittany, 17, from Melbourne's Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar school said Facebook was useful when doing group study tasks, but could also be a distraction.
© Unknown
Over the past three decades, obesity rates have doubled among children age 2 to 5, and tripled among 6- to 11-year-olds. So University of Washington maternal and child health researcher Janice Bell wanted to know whether sleep had anything to do with it.
She looked at federal data collected on nearly 2,000 children and compared those who slept 10 hours or more a night with those who slept less. She also looked at how much the children weighed over a five-year period. The most striking findings had to do with infants and toddlers. The study appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
"They were nearly twice as likely to move from normal weight to overweight, or overweight to obese in that five-year period," she says.
© Dazeley/Getty
More than 250,000 students in New York City were found to be too heavy
More than 250,000 students in New York City were found to be too heavy
In the largest study of childhood obesity ever conducted in the city, 40% of kindergartners through eighth-graders - more than 250,000 kids - were found to be too heavy.
Officials say even though the data seem startling, the rate of obesity in city kids is actually flat-lining, while it's rising nationwide.
"While it would be great if we saw the numbers go down, it is encouraging that they're holding steady," said Laurie Benson, executive director of the Department of Education's Office of School Wellness, refering to previous studies with smaller sample sizes.
© Reuters
How they compare: The larger fish is the GM salmon (24in in length and 6.6lb) and the Farm salmon (13in in length and 2.8lb)
How they compare: The larger fish is the GM salmon (24in in length and 6.6lb) and the Farm salmon (13in in length and 2.8lb)
The first GM salmon could be on American dinner tables within two to three years, and possibly on British plates soon after that, paving the way for the genetic modification of other fish and food animals into what critics are calling 'Frankenfood'.
Shares in the company behind the technology leapt by 26 per cent on the London Stock Exchange on Friday, providing evidence that analysts see GM as the future of fish production.
However, the science is highly controversial and consumers will have questions about the impact on human health and the environment.
A second look at British registry data indicates that esophageal cancer may be more common after all in patients taking oral bisphosphonate drugs for long periods.
In a nested case-control analysis involving some 80,000 patients tracked for more than seven years on average, individuals diagnosed with esophageal cancer of were 1.93 times as likely (95% CI 1.37 to 2.70) to have received at least 10 prescriptions for oral bisphosphonates, compared with controls not having cancer, reported Jane Green, MD, DPhil, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues online in BMJ.
The likelihood of receiving at least one bisphosphonate prescription among esophageal cancer patients was 1.30 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.66) relative to controls, the researchers found.
The findings were especially remarkable because another research group conducting a case-control study of the same registry -- Great Britain's General Practice Research Database, containing records on some six million patients -- recently reported no increase in esophageal cancer rates in patients treated with bisphosphonates.
In a nested case-control analysis involving some 80,000 patients tracked for more than seven years on average, individuals diagnosed with esophageal cancer of were 1.93 times as likely (95% CI 1.37 to 2.70) to have received at least 10 prescriptions for oral bisphosphonates, compared with controls not having cancer, reported Jane Green, MD, DPhil, of the University of Oxford in England, and colleagues online in BMJ.
The likelihood of receiving at least one bisphosphonate prescription among esophageal cancer patients was 1.30 (95% CI 1.02 to 1.66) relative to controls, the researchers found.
The findings were especially remarkable because another research group conducting a case-control study of the same registry -- Great Britain's General Practice Research Database, containing records on some six million patients -- recently reported no increase in esophageal cancer rates in patients treated with bisphosphonates.
© Associated Press
Scientists at Nottingham University found that the insects, which are widely reviled for their dirty image, could actually be more of a health benefit than a health risk.
They have identified up to nine different molecules in the tissues of cockroaches and locusts that are toxic to bacteria and they hope will pave the way for new treatments for multi-drug resistant bacterial infections.
The tissues of the brain and nervous system of the insects were able to kill more than 90% of MRSA and E.coli bacteria, without harming human cells.
Are you feeling tired, suffer from sleepiness, depression, increased irritability, unexplained aches and pains, headaches, skin rashes, ringing in the ears, numbness, an irregular heart beat, increased blood pressure or a foggy brain?
If so, you may be suffering from "Electrosensitivity". Dr. Magda Havas, a renowned international expert on electromagnetic radiation (EMR), says "dirty electricity" is a growing worldwide health concern.
Today, few of us would want to discard our electronic devices. But I never realized how modern electrical gizmos generated so much dirty electricity.
Dr. Havas says clean electricity originally powered our homes and workplaces, using a safe frequency of 60 Hertz (Hz). Today, transformers convert 60 Hz to low-voltage power for electronic devices. This creates micro surges of dirty electricity that contain up to 2,500 times the energy of a conventional 60 Hz electrical system. In effect, we've created electrical pollution, a contamination that's not good for us.
I discovered it's easy to get fooled by dirty energy if you're not an electrical engineer. For instance, our home has several dimmer devices. I naively believed this was a prudent move, but these devices, along with fluorescent lights, energy saving light bulbs and electrical entertainment centres and computers, generate dirty electricity. In fact, they generally emit more electromagnetic exposure than power lines.
If you want to get a major dose of dirty electricity, use a hair dryer. This device uses up to 500 times more dirty EMR than microwave ovens, electric ranges and washing machines.
If so, you may be suffering from "Electrosensitivity". Dr. Magda Havas, a renowned international expert on electromagnetic radiation (EMR), says "dirty electricity" is a growing worldwide health concern.
Today, few of us would want to discard our electronic devices. But I never realized how modern electrical gizmos generated so much dirty electricity.
Dr. Havas says clean electricity originally powered our homes and workplaces, using a safe frequency of 60 Hertz (Hz). Today, transformers convert 60 Hz to low-voltage power for electronic devices. This creates micro surges of dirty electricity that contain up to 2,500 times the energy of a conventional 60 Hz electrical system. In effect, we've created electrical pollution, a contamination that's not good for us.
I discovered it's easy to get fooled by dirty energy if you're not an electrical engineer. For instance, our home has several dimmer devices. I naively believed this was a prudent move, but these devices, along with fluorescent lights, energy saving light bulbs and electrical entertainment centres and computers, generate dirty electricity. In fact, they generally emit more electromagnetic exposure than power lines.
If you want to get a major dose of dirty electricity, use a hair dryer. This device uses up to 500 times more dirty EMR than microwave ovens, electric ranges and washing machines.
