Time for another installment of...

Hit & Run

Eat yer meat

May 30, 2007
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Bush administration said Tuesday it
will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals 
for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests less than 1 percent of 
slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to 
humans who eat tainted beef. But Kansas-based Creekstone 
Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if 
Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, 
they might have to perform the expensive test, too.

The Agriculture Department regulates the test and argued 
that widespread testing could lead to a false positive 
that would harm the meat industry.

A federal judge ruled in March that such tests must be 
allowed. U.S. District Judge James Robertson noted that 
Creekstone sought to use the same test the government
relies on and said the government didn't have the 
authority to restrict it.

-AP

Is it just me, or does a false positive seem like a good thing?

Everybody must get stoned

May 30, 2007
GENEVA (AP) - Smoking from a water pipe may pose the same 
health risks as cigarettes, the World Health Organization 
said Tuesday, adding that there's a need for more research 
into the link between hookahs and a number of fatal 
illnesses.

The hookah, used for centuries in North Africa, the Middle 
East and Central and South Asia, has become increasingly 
popular in the West, particularly among college students 
and young adults. Hookah bars have sprung up in cities 
across the United States, and groups of people often visit 
them to relax and talk while smoking from the water pipes.

WHO, however, warned that using the water pipe to smoke 
tobacco is "not a safe alternative to cigarette smoking." 
In a seven-page document on the practice, the U.N. health 
agency said the rising popularity of hookahs is partly due 
to commercial marketing.

"Contrary to ancient lore and popular belief, the smoke 
that emerges from a water pipe contains numerous toxicants 
known to cause lung cancer, heart disease and other 
diseases," said WHO, which also issued a 50-page report 
Tuesday urging all countries to ban smoking in public 
buildings.

WHO warned that using water pipes to consume shisha - a 
mixture of tobacco, molasses and fruit flavors - usually 
exposes a person to more smoke over a longer period of time 
than do cigarettes.

The health agency said a person can inhale more than 100 
times more smoke in a hookah session than in a single 
cigarette. By delivering nicotine, the water pipe can cause 
addiction. Preliminary research also indicates that hookah 
smoking may involve "some unique health risks," WHO said.

A hookah typically consists of a bowl connected to a vase 
of water with a long tube and mouthpiece. The tobacco sits 
inside the bowl with a layer of foil and a hot coal on top. 
The shisha is not lit, instead heated by the charcoal, which 
users say produces a vapor different from smoke.

"None of the accessories have been demonstrated to reduce 
smokers' exposure to toxins or risk of tobacco-related 
disease and death," WHO said.

While further research is required, the health body said 
those exposed to secondhand hookah smoke appeared to be at 
risk of the same diseases as those exposed to cigarettes. 
WHO warned that hookah smoke could also increase the risk 
of adverse effects during pregnancy.
-AP

Sounds like reason enough to legalize marijuana.

Is it red or white with kidney?

Netherlands TV contestants could win kidney
By ARTHUR MAX

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands -- A 37-year-old woman who has an 
inoperable brain tumor wants to donate a kidney before she 
dies and will choose the recipient from among three 
contestants on Dutch national television, a TV network said 
Tuesday, claiming it wants to highlight a crisis in organ 
donations.

Asked to intervene, the government declined, saying it would 
be censorship to stop the broadcast, regardless of how 
distasteful -- and unethical -- it might be. It's unclear if 
the contestants are a medical match with the terminally ill 
woman and if the winner would be capable of receiving her 
kidney.

The publicly financed television network, BNN, said it intends 
to go ahead with the program Friday, drawing attention to the 
hundreds of people who die each year for lack of a kidney 
transplant. BNN said it will air the 80-minute show as a single 
episode.

The scheduled broadcast of "The Big Donor Show" reached the floor 
of Parliament after a member of the governing Christian Democrats, 
Joop Atsma, questioned whether a public contest for a lifesaving 
organ would cross the boundary of objectionable to illegal.

"The information I have right now tells me that the program is 
unfitting and unethical, especially due to the competitive 
element, but it's up to program makers to make their choices," 
Education Minister Ronald Plasterk responded.

Government interference, he said, would amount to censorship.

BNN defended the program. "Some people will think it's tasteless, 
but we think the reality is even more shocking and tasteless: 
Waiting for an organ is just like playing the lottery," said 
network Chairman Laurens Drillich.

BNN also views the show as a tribute to its founder, Bart de 
Graaft, who died of kidney failure five years ago despite 
several transplants.

"The Big Donor Show" is produced by Endemol, a TV production 
company that created the "Big Brother" concept in 1999 and 
marketed it around the world, setting off the rage of reality TV.

The network identified the donor only as "Lisa." During the show, 
she will hear interviews with the three candidates, their families 
and friends before choosing who will get her kidney.

Viewers will be able to vote for a candidate via text message, but 
the final determination will be Lisa's, BNN said.

Though she intends to donate the kidney while still alive, she 
would be free to donate other organs after her death under the 
normal organ-allotment system, said BNN spokeswoman Marieke Saly.

But there's no guarantee Lisa's choice will receive the organ.

Plasterk said that as with any transplant, the tissues of the 
donor and the recipient must be compatible.

"So it's very possible that in practical terms, we're not talking 
about anything here, because it's possible this transplant can't 
take place," he said.

Paul Beerkens, director of the Kidney Association, welcomed the 
attention to the problem of organ donations but called on BNN to 
cancel the show now that it has gained publicity.

"There are about 1,500 people waiting on the list for more than 
four years, so something has to be done," he said. "But let's be 
clear: This is not the way."

Dutch TV producers have tested the limits of public good taste 
before. BNN is known for airing other controversial reality-TV 
shows, including one called "Shooting and Swallowing" illustrating 
the impact of drug use.
-AP, via:
The Seattle Times
Material from Reuters is included in this report.

Isn't time, really, to stop watching television?