Mobile!!! Which May Be Harmful for Children

No hard evidence exists to show mobile phones damage health but users - especially children - should take care, UK scientists said.

Britain's National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), an independent advisory group, said there have been reports of adverse health effects but some have not yet been independently confirmed and are of variable quality. "We are still recommending a precautionary approach because there is still no hard evidence that the health of the public in general has been adversely affected by the use of mobile phone technologies," NRPB chairman Sir William Stewart told a news conference.

But Stewart added that he did not think he could put his hand on his heart and say mobile phones are totally safe because the technology is relatively new and is evolving so rapidly it is outstripping the analysis of any potential impact on health. Some research suggests radio frequency fields could interfere with biological systems but it has not been possible to carry out long-term studies. The Mobile Operators Association in Britain, which represents operators on health and planning, welcomed the report. "The key point of the NRPB advice is that there is no hard information linking the use of mobile telephony with adverse health effects," said its executive director Mike Dolan in a statement.

Children May Be More Vulnerable:

Children might be more vulnerable because their nervous system is still developing, they have a greater absorption of energy in the tissues of the head and they would have a longer lifetime exposure than adults, according to the report. Stewart recommended children use mobiles phones for as short a time as possible. They should text instead and use a phone with a low SARS value. Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) is the measure of the rate of energy absorption in body tissue. "We have got to be cautious. We can't say there will be no effects," he added.

Mobile phones have become a $100 billion a year industry. About 650 million are expected to be sold to consumers this year and over 1.5 billion people around the world use one. Third generation, 3G phones, which emit higher rates of radiation than earlier models are now marketed in Britain and elsewhere. The report also called for the monitoring of base stations, including new 3G stations and Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA), used by police.

Stewart said studies suggesting mobile phones can cause non malignant brain tumors, cognitive impairment or DNA damage should be not be dismissed but more research is needed. "The general public, the man in the street,. must be able to get information easily and he must be able to get it readily," he added.

Most Bone Growth Occurs at Night

The perception that children seem to grow taller overnight. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin's School of Veterinary medicine in Madison placed sensors on the leg bones of lambs to monitor bone growth in the animals. Ninety percent of bone growth occurred when the animals were sleeping or otherwise at rest, according to the study published in the Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics.

"We observed this noncontinuous pattern of growth, but what was really interesting was that the bones were growing only when the animals were lying down, and almost no growth occurs when the lambs are standing or moving around," study author Norman Wilsman said.

He reasoned that growth plates consisting of soft cartilage at the ends of bones become compressed when walking or standing, preventing growth. When lying down, the pressure on the growth plates is off and the bones elongate.

Co-author Kenneth Noonan Said:

"This is a study that points out that growth is not a continuum. There are growth spurts, which may occur within the daily life of lambs and possibly humans too."

Previous research has shown children grow in spurts that may last just a few days. Children sometimes complain of intense growing pains at night that emanate from the ends of their lower extremities where the growth plates are, Wilsman said. There is no treatment for growing pains.

SGH Deal Spells Cheer for Hip Patients

Painful hip replacement surgery with long recovery periods could soon be found only in medical history books.

Using a new procedure developed in the United States/ doctors can now have patients out of hospital within three days, rather than a week, and back on their feet in less than a month, without the need for lengthy rehabilitation.

Today, the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) signs an agreement with Zimmer Inc, an international manufacturer of reconstructive orthopaedic implants and trauma products, to open the SGH-Zimmer Institute, where surgeons from Singapore and other countries in the region will be trained to perform the procedure.

Located within the SGH campus, the institute will be part of a network of satellite training centres affiliated to The Zimmer Institute in the US. The deal is the first such collaborative partnership in Asia.

Dr Lo Ngai Nung, a senior consultant orthopaedic surgeon at SGH, said Singapore was the first country in Asia to adopt the Minimally Invasive Solutions (MIS) mini-incision procedure.

In traditional hip replacement surgery, surgeons have to make a cut about 20cm to 25cm long to expose the hip joint. They then remove the arthritic hip joint and replace it with a metal, plastic or ceramic implant.

The patient has to stay in the hospital for about a week and often requires months of rehabilitation.

MIS allows the surgeon to perform replacement surgery through two small incisions measuring between 5cm and 8cm, and remove the existing hip by splitting the muscles, rather than cutting them, which speeds up the healing process.

With the new method, the patient can often be discharged within three days and rehabilitation can be cut down to a month or less.

Dr Lo Said:

The aim here is to reduce hospital stays, hasten rehabilitation and reduce cost for patients. Scarring is also reduced.

'It's all hands-an at the institute. The surgeons will participate in wet-lab training, where they can interact with instructors and experience MIS procedures by working on cadavers,' he said.

Doctors at SGH perform an average of 150 hip replacement operations yearly. Of these, 60 per cent were carried out using the MIS method last year.

They hope to increase this number to about 70 per cent by the end of next year. To date, about 70 surgeons from China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and India have already been trained in the new procedure.

Hip replacement is a surgical procedure in which the diseased parts of the hip joint are removed and replaced with new, artificial parts.

The wearing down of the hip joint from osteoarthritis is the most common reason people need replacement surgery. Other contributing conditions include rheumatoid arthritis, avascular necrosis (loss of bone caused by insufficient blood supply), injury and bone tumours.

SGH Liver Cancer Treatment Proves A Success in Trial

The new liver cancer treatment spearheaded by Singapore General Hospital (SGH) is on track to becoming available to patients by 2007. The first human trial held to test the safety of the treatment was highly successful. All eight patients responded well to the treatment, and their tumours, some as big as 3cm, shrank.

In two of the patients, the tumours disappeared. In a third, the tumour disappeared but recurred three months later. The lead doctor in the trial believes this mav have occurred because the treatment dosage was too low. The team of SGH doctors is ready to move to the next stage in September - a multinational trial involving 60 patients. This time, they will attempt to treat larger tumours of up to 5cm.

Liver cancer is extremely, malignant and unless it can be completely removed through Surgery, patients often die within months. But some patients are too frail to survive m operation. Others may have so many tumours scattered around the liver that it is not possible to remove them surgically. The treatment being tested at SGH involves nanotechnology.

A tiny radioactive silicon particle, BrachySil, is inserted into the tumour. Over a few weeks, the dust-size particle produces radiation that slo",lv kills the tutnour around it. BrachySil was developed by the British Defence Ministry and is owned by pSivida, a listed companv that has the British government as its major shareholder. But the idea of using the biodegradable silicon particle to treat liver cancer was the brainchild of doctors from SGH, which owns a small share in pSivida .

Using radiation to kill tumours is not new. The advantage of BrachySil is that it can be placed within the tumour so there is little damage to other organs. Another advantage of BrachySil is that it is easily inserted, with the patient awake throughout the procedure, said Dr Pierce Chow, a senior surgeon specialising in liver operations. BrachvSil is also able to control the amount of radiation that bombards the tumour.

Because the malignant cells are killed slowly over several weeks, patients tolerate the treatment very well. If a tumour is killed off too quickly, the moss of (lead cells in the liver could result in a ran- Mg fever and low blood count. The next trial, which will involve cancer centres in countries like New Zealand and Vietnam, will be more aggressive. Aside from treating bigger tumours, it will also increase the dose of radiation - up to three times the previous amount. This is to determine the ideal close to remove the tumours.

Dr Anthonv Goh, acting head of nuclear medicine it SGH and the principal investigator in the trial, said patients will be monitored closely to ensure the-%, can tolerate the higher dose of radiation.

This trial will also test a multi-pronged inserter that can place three particles instead of just one into a ttnnottr.

If all goes well, a larger trial will be done next year. This will be the final step before putting the treatment on the market.

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