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Overweight and obese individuals incur up to $1,500 more in annual medical costs than healthy-weight individuals, according to a two-year study of nearly 200,000 employees of General Motors. Average annual medical costs for normal weight individuals in the study were $2,225, while costs for overweight and obese individuals rose steadily, from $2,388 for overweight individuals to $3,753 for the most severely obese persons. The study, by Dee W. Edington, Ph.D., of the University of Michigan and colleagues, is the first to examine the relationship between medical costs and the six weight groups defined by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute's weight guidelines. The guidelines separate individuals into categories of underweight, healthy-weight, overweight and three different obesity designations, based on average body mass index.
University of California President Richard C. Atkinson has announced sweeping management changes at Los Alamos National Laboratory, including the resignation of Director John C. Browne. Atkinson immediately appointed as interim director retired Vice Admiral George P. "Pete" Nanos, the former commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) and of the Navy's strategic nuclear program. Nanos currently is principal deputy associate director for Los Alamos' Threat Reduction Directorate. Nanos will serve as interim director for a period of several months while the University conducts a nationwide search for a new permanent director.
It's a tough time to be a young chemist. Last year's demand for new graduates was down substantially from the previous year as companies have been hiring fewer people, a new study finds. Even pharmaceutical companies, a good source of jobs for chemists in recent years, have cut back on hiring. Because drug companies and universities are delaying hiring while they wait for signs of economic recovery, new graduates in chemistry or chemical engineering are going to have a more difficult time finding their first job than they have had in many years.
A survey has found that while 80 percent of attendees at a recent international biosecurity conference say their organizations --- including first responder, medical, military and industrial outfits --- have plans in place to counter bioterrorism, two-thirds doubt they would be safe in the event of a biological or chemical attack.
The greater use of intensivists, physicians who specialize in the management of critically ill patients, in intensive care units (ICUs) significantly reduces ICU mortality, hospital mortality and length of stay, according to a study published by University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine researchers.
Michigan researchers say they've found that shooting the bull with friends has measurable benefits for the brain, keeping it sharp in later life. "Most advice for preserving and enhancing mental function emphasizes intellectual activities such as reading, doing crossword puzzles, and learning how to use a computer," says the lead researcher. "But my research suggests that just getting together and chatting with friends and family may also be effective."
FBI investigators say photocopy machines were the reason anthrax spores spread so far and so quickly in a newspaper office where a tainted letter was mailed in last year's attacks. As reported by the Associated Press, federal investigators found spores in all the copy machines in the three-story, 68,000 square foot building. The investigators returned to the building for 12 days armed with new tools and techniques for detecting anthrax. Investigators said they believe the spores spread from the first-floor mail room where the letter was opened, onto reams of nearby copy paper. When that paper was later loaded into copy machines, the anthrax spread both on the sheets of paper and through the air, blown by the copy machines' internal fans. National Enquirer photo editor Robert Stevens died from anthrax in October, the first of five people to die nationwide in the mailings. A mailroom employee was hospitalized with anthrax but survived.
The threat of bioterrorism is growing as more countries try to develop biological weapons, a CIA analyst told members of the Secretary of Health and Human Services' Council on Public Health Preparedness. "Biological warfare is an attractive option . . . because it's relatively inexpensive to develop," said Kimberly Stergulz, an analyst at the CIA's Weapons, Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control Center. A result, she said, is that countries such as Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya and Syria, and a growing number of non-state groups, are pursuing the capability. As reported by the Atlanta Journal Constitution, the CIA employee told the council that developing a biological weapons program could cost about $10 million, compared with $100 million to develop chemical weapon capability or $2 billion for nuclear capability. Stergulz presented the information at the first meeting of the council, a group of 21 health specialists and scientists who will advise the federal government on different aspects of potential public health emergencies.
Nearly a year after an editor at American Media Inc. died from anthrax exposure, FBI officials said a new search of the contaminated ghost-like AMI building could find the source of the fatal spores and the person who unleashed them. The Miami Herald reports the search of the shuttered Boca Raton building will use new and different techniques than those employed in an initial search last fall. "Last year, we were in the building for a different reason," the paper quotes Hector Pesquera, the FBI's special agent in charge of the Miami division. "This investigation will be scientifically driven for a criminal investigation." Last year's investigation focused on mailrooms and areas surrounding the infected employees' workstations. This time, scientists will search the entire three-story, 67,000-square-foot building. American Media publishes several tabloid newspapers, including The National Enquirer.
