Wash Your Hands

I was recently telling a friend of mine some of the things I learned researching death statistics for the Cause of Death book that have changed the way I do things. I’m more careful now when I cross the street, for example. And, although I’ve always been pretty good about washing my hands, I am even better about it now. It turns out there are millions of microbes that live on our hands. While most of them are harmless, many cause the illnesses that are responsible for over 10 million deaths a year in the world. In 2002, for example, at least 17% of all 57 million deaths in the world were caused by the common bugs that can live on your hands. These deadly microbe-caused diseases include flu, bronchitis, pneumonia, diarrhea, TB, measles, whooping cough, meningitis, some types of hepatitis and approx. 18% of all cancers. For more interesting info on microbes, check this out: http://www.microbeworld.org/know/important.aspx and don’t forget to wash!

Toxic Tomatoes?

Top 5 Parasitic and Infectious Disease Deaths, U.S. 2005
(not including BUGS deaths coded to “other” by the CDC)
1. Septicemia (included in “Other” worldwide deaths) 32,238
2. HIV/AIDS 12,543
3. Hepatitis 5,529
4. Meningitis 669
5. Tuberculosis 648
Estimates of total U.S. deaths from salmonella, including Salmonella-caused deaths in septicemia death totals, run between 500 and 600 per year whereas CDC coded deaths from Salmonella infections alone totaled only 30 in 2005 and 41 in 2001. Over 75% of all septicemia deaths occur over age 65.
According to research done by Margie Lees, a microbiologist at UGA’s College of Veterinary Medicine (http://www.ovpr.uga.edu/researchnews/9697fw/fatal.html), there is only one type of chicken-borne salmonella that can cause septicemia, a potentially fatal blood disease. So salmonella from tomatoes, or other vegetables, is not too likely to kill anyone and is far less dangerous than a multitude of other BUGS.
According to a 7/4/2008 article in theWashington Post, the latest salmonella scare has tomato crop losses above $100 million dollars. This result could bring on bouts of depression, with far worse consequences than salmonella-caused disease (see suicide stats below).
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/04/AR2008070400638.html)
http://www.fsis.usda.gov/FactSheets/Salmonella_Questions_&_Answers/index.asp

Americans and Guns

According to a 7/9/08 Reuters article, the editors of the New England Journal of Medicine said that the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down a strict gun control law in the U.S. capital will lead to more deaths and accidental injuries. According to Justice Antonin Scalia (who was in the 5-4 majority on the decision) citizens may prefer handguns for home defense because they “can be pointed at a burglar with one hand while the other hand dials the police.” I would agree with the New England Journal of Medicine. Based on the stats related to deaths in the U.S. from firearms, it’s more likely those citizens with easier access to guns will be pointing them at their own heads, or at the heads of other people they are mad at, than using them for self defense in their homes.
Number of firearm caused deaths in the USA, 2005
17,002 Suicides (out of 32,637 total suicides)
12,352 Homicides (out of 18,124 total homicides )
789 Accidental discharges (out of 117,809 total accidental deaths)
143 Number of private citizen justifiable homicides (out of 192 total)
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSN0938674920080709
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr56/nvsr56_10.pdf (Table 10)
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/05cius/offenses/expanded_information/murder_homicide.html (Table 14)

Writer Commits Suicide in July

Recent news reports Sci-Fi writer Thomas M. Disch committed suicide in his New York apartment July 4th. He had been suffering from depression but I wonder if it was the summer heat that tipped the scale. According to the Centers for Disease Control, in 2004 most suicides occurred during the month of July (the least occurred in December). Although more Americans die from exposure to excessive natural cold (676 deaths in 2004) than excessive natural heat (226 deaths in 2004), if you add in the nearly 8,400 deaths from suicide June through August, heat becomes a more formidable threat. Then, again, I could be thinking about heat because it is unnaturally hot in California right now.

http://www.locusmag.com/2008/Disch_Obit.html
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/sto/

Corn/Hormone Connection Redux

More often than not, what we put in our mouths while we’re alive, impacts how we die.
Debra Eschmeyer is the Marketing & Media Manager of the National Farm to School Network (http://www.farmtoschool.org/) and the Occidental College Center for Food & Justice (http://departments.oxy.edu/uepi/cfj/) . She works from a fifth-generation family farm in Ohio, where she continues her passion for organic farming raising heirloom fruits, vegetables, and chickens. Her blog on food safety, nuitrition sustainability and other food/health issues is recommended.

Bittersweet Posted 7/2/08 by Debra Eschmeyer “Earlier this week the Corn Refiners Association launched a $20-30 million media campaign to defend High Fructose Corn Syrup’s reputation as a quality [read: cheap] sweetner. Perfect timing as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revealed that the number of Americans with diabetes increased to 27 million in 2007. On top of that diabetic sundae, another 57 million Americans have pre-diabetes, a condition that vastly increases the risk of developing diabetes in the future." For more of this article see Debra's blog (http://debraeschmeyer.wordpress.com/).