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Cryptosporidiosis linked to tap water
Nuns’ stories throw
light
the 1930s, and shortly before took their religious vows, 93 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, penned brief autobiographies. Their words, in the convent archives ever since, form the basis of an unusual contribution to the study of ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Linguistic skill in early life, rather than education as such, seem to be a better mirror of a person’s ability to avoid cognitive decline. Susan J Kemper, a psychologist from the University of Kansas, and her colleagues have devised means of measuring that skill. Kemper, with a team from the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, now shows that the complexity of written sentences may predict Alzheimer’s disease (JAMA
In they
1996; 275: 528-32). 58
years,
between the
WHO
average, elapsed writing and the cognion
and
begun
"growing public anxspeculation"; WHO has 5-year investigation of
a
whether exposure to electrical and magnetic fields may harm human health. The$3-3 million project is
financed by extrabudgetary funding. A total of$500 000 has been offered
by Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Indonesia, and Sweden. Canada, France, and Italy have also pledged similar amounts. WHO will assess effects of static and time-varying EMF in the frequency range 0-300 GHz. It will collate information from organisations and working groups studying the possible biological effects of EMF, identify gaps in scientific knowledge and
encourage
IARC
ageing and Alzheimer’s disease
tive testing. 14 nuns had died, five with confirmed Alzheimer’s disease. A main focus of the paper is a set of regression models explaining the in Mini-Mental variance State Examination scores. The most powerful model (45%) included age, education, idea density, and gram-
matical complexity. If I have the methodology right, the shortest sentence in the New Testament ("Jesus wept") would score only 5 per ten words for ideas and none at all for grammatical complexity. Had its author continued in that style he might have succumbed to dementia before completing the first draft. However, the regression equations do suggest that ideas contribute more than syntax. So does the pathological evidence from nuns who died (here supplemented by 11 from other convents, not in the main study). 10 nuns had neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer’s disease,
investigates electromagnetic
response to
In iety
on
research,
provide
independent peer review of scientific literature, and produce publications. An international advisory committee is being set up to oversee the work and implement recommendations. In the USA, legal costs of cases alleging health damage from exposure to electromagnetic radiation are estimated to exceed$10 billion since 1993. "WHO would like the scientists to determine the risks, not the courts", said Mike Repacholi, project manager. He identified high-voltage power lines and mobile phones as the two "key areas", but emphasised that most scientists would put EMF risks "pretty far down" their list of environmental dangers. Alan McGregor
Monograph conclusion
group for volume 66 the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans (to be published later this year) has concluded that tamoxifen reduces the risk of contralateral breast cancers, that there is sufficient evidence in human beings that the drug increases the risk of endometrial cancer, and that there is inadequate evidence in human
of working The
fields
on
tamoxifen
that tamoxifen affects the risk of other cancers. The inclusion of tamoxifen in the Monographs had been controversial (see Lancet Feb 17, p 458), and IARC points out in a statement that the working group findings "do not invalidate the conclusions by clinical oncologists and surgeons that tamoxifen is a very important drug which substantially increases the survival of patients with breast cancer". n
beings
and 15 did not. The frequency of low-idea density, in the autobiographies, was 90% versus 13%, respec-
tively.
writings of the highest and scoring nuns show how the scoring works. For example, sister A wrote, "I prefer teaching music to any other profession", a worthy but low-scoring statement. Sister B’s prose goes, "Now I am wandering about in ’Dove’s Lane’ waiting, yet only three more weeks, to follow in the footprints of my Spouse, bound to Him by the Holy Vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience". A had died, with Alzheimer’s, while B lived on with no cognitive impairment. The findings suggest that reduced cognitive reserve capacity makes people "vulnerable later in life to the consequences of the neuropathology The lowest
of Alzheimer’s disease". David
Sharp
Cryptosporidiosis linked to tap water
A
case-control
study of
the out-
break of cryptosporidiosis in Clark County, Nevada, USA, in 1994 has shown that the odds ratio for acquiring the infection was 4.22 (95%CI 1-22-14-65) for persons who drank tap water, compared with those who drank only bottled water -even though the quality of the water and the state-of-the-art treatment plant "would be the envy of most cities in the United States" (Ann Intern Med 1996; 124: 459-68). No association was found with potentially contaminated persons, animals, food, or recreational water. Most of the affected patients were HIV positive, but further indicated that the investigation outbreak also affected non-HIVinfected persons. No specific source of the infection could be identified, but more frequent sampling of the water after the study period intermittently showed presumptive oocysts (residual shells of once-intact oocysts) in a nearby lake, in filter backwash, and in one finished sample. The paper concludes that more of detecting sensitive methods as are guideoocysts are needed, lines for the prevention of waterborne-Cryptosporidium infection among HIV-infected persons. 0
605
light
the 1930s, and shortly before took their religious vows, 93 members of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, penned brief autobiographies. Their words, in the convent archives ever since, form the basis of an unusual contribution to the study of ageing and Alzheimer’s disease. Linguistic skill in early life, rather than education as such, seem to be a better mirror of a person’s ability to avoid cognitive decline. Susan J Kemper, a psychologist from the University of Kansas, and her colleagues have devised means of measuring that skill. Kemper, with a team from the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, now shows that the complexity of written sentences may predict Alzheimer’s disease (JAMA
In they
1996; 275: 528-32). 58
years,
between the
WHO
average, elapsed writing and the cognion
and
begun
"growing public anxspeculation"; WHO has 5-year investigation of
a
whether exposure to electrical and magnetic fields may harm human health. The$3-3 million project is
financed by extrabudgetary funding. A total of$500 000 has been offered
by Britain, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Indonesia, and Sweden. Canada, France, and Italy have also pledged similar amounts. WHO will assess effects of static and time-varying EMF in the frequency range 0-300 GHz. It will collate information from organisations and working groups studying the possible biological effects of EMF, identify gaps in scientific knowledge and
encourage
IARC
ageing and Alzheimer’s disease
tive testing. 14 nuns had died, five with confirmed Alzheimer’s disease. A main focus of the paper is a set of regression models explaining the in Mini-Mental variance State Examination scores. The most powerful model (45%) included age, education, idea density, and gram-
matical complexity. If I have the methodology right, the shortest sentence in the New Testament ("Jesus wept") would score only 5 per ten words for ideas and none at all for grammatical complexity. Had its author continued in that style he might have succumbed to dementia before completing the first draft. However, the regression equations do suggest that ideas contribute more than syntax. So does the pathological evidence from nuns who died (here supplemented by 11 from other convents, not in the main study). 10 nuns had neuropathologically confirmed Alzheimer’s disease,
investigates electromagnetic
response to
In iety
on
research,
provide
independent peer review of scientific literature, and produce publications. An international advisory committee is being set up to oversee the work and implement recommendations. In the USA, legal costs of cases alleging health damage from exposure to electromagnetic radiation are estimated to exceed$10 billion since 1993. "WHO would like the scientists to determine the risks, not the courts", said Mike Repacholi, project manager. He identified high-voltage power lines and mobile phones as the two "key areas", but emphasised that most scientists would put EMF risks "pretty far down" their list of environmental dangers. Alan McGregor
Monograph conclusion
group for volume 66 the International Agency for Research on Cancer’s Monographs on the Evaluation of Carcinogenic Risks to Humans (to be published later this year) has concluded that tamoxifen reduces the risk of contralateral breast cancers, that there is sufficient evidence in human beings that the drug increases the risk of endometrial cancer, and that there is inadequate evidence in human
of working The
fields
on
tamoxifen
that tamoxifen affects the risk of other cancers. The inclusion of tamoxifen in the Monographs had been controversial (see Lancet Feb 17, p 458), and IARC points out in a statement that the working group findings "do not invalidate the conclusions by clinical oncologists and surgeons that tamoxifen is a very important drug which substantially increases the survival of patients with breast cancer". n
beings
and 15 did not. The frequency of low-idea density, in the autobiographies, was 90% versus 13%, respec-
tively.
writings of the highest and scoring nuns show how the scoring works. For example, sister A wrote, "I prefer teaching music to any other profession", a worthy but low-scoring statement. Sister B’s prose goes, "Now I am wandering about in ’Dove’s Lane’ waiting, yet only three more weeks, to follow in the footprints of my Spouse, bound to Him by the Holy Vows of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience". A had died, with Alzheimer’s, while B lived on with no cognitive impairment. The findings suggest that reduced cognitive reserve capacity makes people "vulnerable later in life to the consequences of the neuropathology The lowest
of Alzheimer’s disease". David
Sharp
Cryptosporidiosis linked to tap water
A
case-control
study of
the out-
break of cryptosporidiosis in Clark County, Nevada, USA, in 1994 has shown that the odds ratio for acquiring the infection was 4.22 (95%CI 1-22-14-65) for persons who drank tap water, compared with those who drank only bottled water -even though the quality of the water and the state-of-the-art treatment plant "would be the envy of most cities in the United States" (Ann Intern Med 1996; 124: 459-68). No association was found with potentially contaminated persons, animals, food, or recreational water. Most of the affected patients were HIV positive, but further indicated that the investigation outbreak also affected non-HIVinfected persons. No specific source of the infection could be identified, but more frequent sampling of the water after the study period intermittently showed presumptive oocysts (residual shells of once-intact oocysts) in a nearby lake, in filter backwash, and in one finished sample. The paper concludes that more of detecting sensitive methods as are guideoocysts are needed, lines for the prevention of waterborne-Cryptosporidium infection among HIV-infected persons. 0
605