Category: news

The number of people harming their health through alcohol is rising

Councils are to be put in charge of encouraging healthier lifestyles under new plans to be unveiled by ministers.

Local public health directors will be moved out of the NHS and into local government as part of the shake-up.

The government believes the wider remit of councils in areas such as housing, transport and leisure puts them in a stronger position to tackle smoking, drinking and obesity in England.

A ringfenced pot of NHS money will also be set aside to help.

The protection of the public health budget – the first time this has been done since the 1800s – is considered essential because of the cuts councils are facing following October’s Spending Review.

To support local government, the Department of Health’s public health white paper will also propose creating a new public health service that will provide advice and support on issues such as health protection, nutrition and treatment.

A health inclusion unit will be set up as well to oversee the drive to reduce health inequalities, which have widened over the past decade.

Extra money – dubbed health premiums – will be given to the poorest areas to help tackle some of the most entrenched problems.

But details on how the government aims to tackle individual problems, such as obesity, smoking and drinking, will not be spelt out until the new year.

Both the Association of Directors of Public Health and Local Government Association have welcomed the impending changes.

And Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told the BBC the new system would have a “real impact on improving health”.

He added: “Health is not just about the quality of healthcare. It’s probably at least as much about the quality of people’s lives – the environment, the housing, their education and employment.”

The public health White Paper will say the key to encouraging healthier behaviour lies in creating the right environment and then “nudging” people into making different choices.

Examples of this include schemes such as incentivising children to walk to school and providing more support through nurses and health visitors to encourage new mothers to breastfeed.

Employers will also be told they have an important role in helping and supporting staff as well.

Mr Lansley has in the past been critical of what he has said has been the lecturing tone of previous public health drives.

He has also been keen to stress that the solutions do not necessarily require greater regulation.

In fact, the White Paper is expected to make reference to a “responsibility deal” that could be launched in the new year which will see industry sign up to schemes to encourage healthier behaviour.

Angela Mawle, of the UK Public Health Association, which has members in both local government and the NHS, said: “Councils have the potential to make a real difference, but it important public health directors are given the power to influence what is happening.

“I also don’t think we should turn our back entirely on regulation. It still has a place.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The government is counting on a massive growth in wind power to meet its 2020 renewable target.

A public accounts watchdog has criticised the UK’s “unacceptably slow” progress towards meeting its renewable energy targets.

It also says that there was no clear understanding of the cost and success of some alternative technologies.

The strong criticisms have been made by MPs on the Committee of Public Accounts, chaired by Margaret Hodge.

She said that the Department of Energy and Climate Change needs “a greater sense of urgency and purpose”.

During its hearings, the committee was told that the UK would miss its target to supply 10% of electricity from renewable sources by the end of 2010.

The report, Funding the Development of Renewable Energy Technologies, said the Energy Department and its predecessors had not done enough to address the slow progress.

As a result, the Department did not expect to meet the 10% target until 2012, from a starting position of 2.7% in 2000.

Ms Hodge said: “Given the urgency and importance of the issue, progress in meeting renewable energy targets has been unacceptably slow over the last decade.”

She said that some £180m of the funds allocated to support renewable energy technologies had gone unspent.

The Energy Department seemed unprepared for the future despite signing up to the legally binding EU-target to supply 15% of the UK’s energy from renewable sources by 2020.

The UK agreed to the EU target, the report concludes, despite having no “clear plans, targets for each renewable energy technology, estimates of funding required or understanding how the rate at which planning applications for onshore wind turbines were being rejected might affect progress”.

The report criticised the complex web of organisations that deliver government funding for renewable energy technologies.

The Energy Department does not have direct control over these organisations, and consequently “does not have a clear understanding of how much has been spent or what has been achieved”, the report said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Drugs need to undergo extensive testing in animal and human trials before approval

In the current climate, many people are thinking about new or additional means to make ends meet, so they could entertain the idea of going to a clinic to be fed as-yet-unapproved drugs.

Clinical trials on humans take place to enable pharmaceutical companies to see whether or not they have any nasty side-effects from the drugs under development.

Depending on the type of product and the stage of its development, companies enrol healthy volunteers into pilot studies.

There are, however, some people who volunteer to be human guinea pigs as a full-time living.

The development of a new drug involves computer simulation and in vitro tests, followed by testing the drug on animals, mainly rodents, for toxicity.

The drug then has to be officially cleared for human testing.

During the initial clinical trial, researchers are often testing a treatment which may be in the earliest stages of its development.

Between 10 and 30 people are usually recruited for each trial.

Information gathered provides data on how the medicine is tolerated, how the body absorbs it, breaks it down and eliminates the drug, and whether any side effects have been experienced by those taking part in the trial.

The second stage of any trial involves testing the drugs on people who have a disease or condition which needs to be treated.

“People are paid to assess the safety of a drug – not if the drug works, but if it is safe to be consumed,” explains anthropologist Roberto Abadie, who has been studying this career path in the US.

The industry says it has guidelines and follows regulations when it comes to professional guinea pigs.

But Mr Abadie is concerned because he doubts whether the companies are aware that some people take part in numerous trials.

“There is no central register for people who do these trials, so I’m not sure they are aware of the professionalisation,” he says.

“I don’t know if they know or if they care that some people do 100 trials,” he adds.

Many of those who participate in drug trials are poor African Americans and poor Latinos.

“There are probably only a few thousand guinea pigs but the bulk of trials are run with these people, who derive their income from such trials,” Mr Abadie says.

Individuals can earn $20,000 (£13,000) a year doing eight or 10 trials.

One trial usually lasts for about one month from the screening to the time they finish.

Former professional guinea pig Robert Helms says: “I probably never made more than $20-25,000 a year, but I knew people who were making a lot more than that. I called them workaholics.”

According to Mr Abadie, some people have been known to do two trials at the same time.

“It is more than they can earn working at McDonalds, which is a reference for a low-paying job,” he says.

Mr Abadie is worried about the large doses of chemicals people have in their bodies.

“Nobody knows what effect this will have when they interact with each other over 20-30 years,” he says.

Mr Abadie believes the pharmaceutical industry should have concerns as well.

In 2006, a drug trial in London went badly wrong, leaving one volunteer in a coma.

“There is a big issue about liabilities if it is proven down the line that the industry had suspicions that something could go wrong, but didn’t do anything because they needed the professional guinea pigs to keep coming to the trials so they could keep producing the drugs,” he says.

The pharmaceutical sector in Bangladesh and India has grown significantly in recent years

The pharmaceutical companies stress that they take every precaution possible when it comes to the human stages of drug trials.

Mr Helms can only recall one incident when things went wrong.

“One friend back in 1996 had a very difficult time. He was very delusional, he thought the movie 12 Monkeys was actually about him,” he says.

In the UK and Europe there has been new regulation over the previous few years, but not in the US.

Mr Helms wonders if enough is being done there.

“In the US the pharmaceutical industry owns the place, they are not going to change anything any time soon,” he says.

“They have more political clout than they know what to do with. It is a bad situation and I don’t believe it is going to change.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Japan’s export orders are contracting while the unemployment rate is rising

Japanese manufacturing activity shrank for a third consecutive month in November as a strong yen hit exports.

The Nomura/JMMA Japan Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) stayed below the 50 threshold that separates contraction from growth.

The index for new export orders fell to 46.9 from 48.4 in the previous month, showing that export orders contracted at their fastest pace in 19 months.

Also, new figures showed Japan’s jobless rate rose to 5.1% in October

“Real exports in gross domestic product statistics were already showing a slowdown in July-September,” said Kohei Okazaki, an economist at Nomura Securities.

“This trend appears to have persisted in October to November,” he said.

Meanwhile, Japan’s national unemployment rate rose to 5.1% in October, from 5% in September.

While the rate is still far below some other industrialised nations, it is relatively high for Japan.

Last week, the Japanese parliament passed a new $61bn stimulus package aimed at creating jobs and reviving the country’s faltering economic recovery.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

The skiff used by the pirates was burnt-out after the attack on the USS Ashland

A US court has sentenced a Somali man to 30 years in jail for attacking a US warship off the coast of Somalia.

Jama Idle Ibrahim was caught after an attack on a US naval flotilla which the pirates had apparently mistaken for merchant ships.

He pleaded guilty as part of an agreement which may see him return to court to testify against five other Somalis facing piracy charges.

He still faces other charges connected to an attack in 2008 on a Danish ship.

Monday’s sentence was handed down at a federal court in Norfolk, Virginia.

Last week, a Norfolk jury convicted five Somalis of acts of piracy for attacking the USS Nicholas frigate, also in April. They face life in prison at a hearing set for March.

“Today marks the first sentencing in Norfolk for acts of piracy in more than 150 years,” US Attorney Neil MacBride said in a statement.

“Piracy is a growing threat throughout the world, and today’s sentence, along with last week’s convictions, demonstrates that the United States will hold modern-day pirates accountable in US courtrooms.”

At a hearing in Norfolk in August, Ibrahim pleaded guilty to attacking to plunder a vessel, engaging in an act of violence against people on a vessel, and using a firearm during a crime of violence. Both Ibrahim and the authorities had agreed to the 30-year jail term.

A judge had earlier dismissed a charge of piracy – which carries a mandatory life sentence – against Ibrahim and his five alleged accomplices because the group had not robbed, boarded or taken control of the US ship.

The gang had chased the USS Ashland in a skiff in the Gulf of Aden on 10 April, opening fire on it.

US Navy personnel returned fire, killing one Somali and wrecking the skiff.

Somalia has been ravaged by internal conflict for two decades, and pirates have flourished amid the US court sentences Somali piratelawlessness.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.