2001-11-01 10:33:51 -- http://news.bbc.co.uk/olmedia/1630000/images/_1630162_wtcfire300.jpg

More than 4,000 firefighters who have been clearing the devastated site of the World Trade Center bombings are suffering persistent coughs and chest pain, according to reports in the US.

The condition has been dubbed 'World Trade Center cough' by New York City's fire department, the New York Times newspaper reports

One firefighter has been treated for allergic alveolitis, a rare lung inflammation.

And a Wall Street Journal editor who works near round zero developed a life-threatening autoimmune disease from ingesting the dust.



We do not know what we may have inhaled in the opening stages of the operation.

Thomas Manley
Fire commissioner Thomas Von Essen said about 20% of the firefighters had persistent coughing from dust at the site, which could have been made up of pulverised concrete.

Dr David Prezant, the chief pulmonary physician for the department said it was common for firefighters to have a brief spell of coughing after attending a fire.

'Still suffering'

But he said many of the firefighters who worked around-the-clock at ground zero are still suffering symptoms six weeks after the disaster.

They have been given steroid inhalants to treat coughing and heaviness in the chest.

The treatment aims to ease inflammation and reduce the coughs, and is generally given to people with asthma or chronic bronchitis.

Dr Prezant said 370 firefighters have been fully examined and given chest X-rays.

Up to 10,000 check-ups could take place within a month, he said.

Dr Prezant added: ''We know medically that from inhaling large particulate matter, the consequences can range from chronic cough to asthma to a higher incidence of heart attacks.''

Thomas Manley, the health and safety officer for the Uniformed Firefighters Association, said: 'My level of concern is high.

"We do not know what we may have inhaled in the opening stages of the operation.''

Christie Whitman of the Environmental Protection Agency said workers at ground zero had to take precautions to protect their health.




Ocean bugs used in sun lotion


The special ingredient comes from the bottom of the ocean

Heat-loving bacteria from the bottom of the ocean are being used to develop a hi-tech sun screen.
A French cosmetics firm has developed a "smart" sun lotion using bacteria harvested from deep-sea hydrothermal vents.

As a result, the lotion gives increased skin protection as the temperature rises.



It is possibly better than vitamin E, which is used in many cosmetic preparations for a similar effect

Dr Olga Gracioso
Deep-sea hydrothemal vents are fissures in the ocean floor that spew hot, acidic water.

Few organisms can survive at the high temperatures and pressures found within these vents. However, they are home to myriads of microbes.

Among these is Thermus thermophilus, a bacterium that thrives at around 75 °C.

New Scientist magazine reports that cosmetics company Sederma of Le Perray-en-Yvelines near Paris hopes to use T. thermophilus to make a range of skincare products.

The company have gathered bacteria from vents two kilometres down on the bottom of the Pacific's Gulf of California.

Fermentation

The ingredient that Sederma will put into its products is produced through a fermentation process using T. thermophilus.

The process is subject to a patent application, and the company will not reveal what else gets thrown into the pot.

However, project member Dr Olga Gracioso claims the result is "a cocktail of proteins" including enzymes that are particularly effective at mopping up a variety of highly reactive chemical complexes called free radicals.

These chemicals are produced by exposure to ultraviolet light and are known to be involved in reactions that damage the skin.

Sederma says its new ingredient can mop up hydrogen peroxide three times as effectively at 40 °C as at 25 °C.

Skincare

Dr Gracioso says that the company hopes that over the next few years, cosmetics manufacturers will use its ingredient to make skincare products whose efficacy increases with temperature.

The product seems to be particularly effective at preventing ultraviolet damage to fibroblasts - the cells that make the collagen and elastin proteins that keep skin durable.

Dr Gracioso believes that it may protect fibroblasts by preventing a process called lipoperoxidation, in which UV rays damage the molecules that form cell membranes.

She said: "It is possibly better than vitamin E, which is used in many cosmetic preparations for a similar effect."




Thursday, 1 November, 2001, 11:48 GMT
The boy with dissolving bones


X-rays revealed that Joshua's bones were severely thin

Surgeons are hoping to help a 10-year-old Yorkshire boy who is suffering from a very rare disease which is making his bones disappear.
Joshua Leighton, from Keighley, has Vanishing Bone Disease - there are thought to be fewer than 200 people worldwide suffering from the condition.

The cause of the disease is unknown, but it has left his spine so weak that doctors fear it could collapse at any time.



In some places the bone was actually crumbling

Professor Robert Dickson, St James' University Hospital, Leeds
Specialists at St James' University Hospital in Leeds built him an "exoskeleton" - a plaster cast from neck to thigh, which they hope will protect him from damage.

In the long term, they want to strengthen his bones with metal rods to protect him, and perhaps find a way of halting the chemical processes which they believe are driving the bone loss.

Joshua's parents first thought something might be wrong 18 months ago, when he began to complain of breathlessness.

Doctors took chest X-rays, and found that two of his ribs and part of his spine appeared to have almost disappeared.

Although it is far from unknown for young people to suffer from the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis, this condition is far less well understood.

In a healthy body, bone cells are constantly being added and removed - but in Joshua's case, the process which removes bone cells has gone into overdrive, leading over time to the thinning of his bones.

Filling with fluid

The breathlessness had been caused by his chest cavity filling with lymphatic fluid - and he needed an operation to drain it, as it would have been life-threatening if left untreated.

He has now also been given therapies normally reserved for cancer patients to halt the action of cells which remove bone, and has been confined to a fat-free diet for 16 weeks.



I don't let him play in the school playground because I would never forgive myself if someone bumped into him and he was hurt

Sharon Leighton, Joshua's mother
His mother Sharon told a newspaper: "He can do more things for himself now, although he can't run properly or walk very far.

"I don't let him play in the school playground because I would never forgive myself if someone bumped into him and he was hurt, but he sits on one side with his friends."

After his initial treatment, doctors have allowed Joshua to wear a cut-down version of his plaster cast, which gives him more freedom of movement.

Professor Robert Dickson, who is leading the team responsible for Joshua's care, said that while the ultimate hope was for a drug which would control his bone loss, he was hoping to insert steel rods to reinforce his spine.

However, at the moment, his bones are not strong enough to form a sturdy anchorage for the rods.

He told BBC News Online: "This is a very uncommon condition, but we are very encouraged at how he is responding to treatment.

"If we can get some normal bone growth, we might be in a position to put in some metalwork. That would be a more permanent solution."

He said that the plastercast "exoskeleton" was put in position because the bending of Joshua's spine put him at risk of paralysis.

He said: "In some places the bone was actually crumbling."




Heart patients 'benefit from prayer'


Research shows prayer has a beneficial effect

Patients admitted to hospital with heart problems suffer fewer complications if someone prays for them, according to scientists in the US.
The study, carried out at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina, found that patients who received alternative therapy following angioplasty were 25% to 30% less likely to suffer complications.



Some of the greatest scientific achievements have come from those who step outside of the box

Dr Harold Koenig
And those who received "intercessory prayer" had the greatest success rate.

The study, carried out between April 1997 and April 1998, involved 150 patients who had all undergone angioplasty - whereby a balloon is positioned in a hardened and narrowed artery and inflated to force it open.

This procedure was followed in all cases by coronary artery stenting - which involves a flexible mesh tube being inserted into the artery to keep it open.

Alternative therapy

Patients were chosen randomly to receive coronary stenting with standard care or coronary stenting plus one of four alternative therapies - guided imagery, stress relaxation, healing touch or intercessory prayer.

Intercessory prayer was provided by seven prayer groups of varying denominations around the world.

Neither the researchers nor the patients were aware who was being prayed for but the results showed that, of all the therapies, prayer appeared to have the greatest therapeutic benefits.

Suzanne Crater, a nurse practitioner and co-director of the study, said the clinical outcomes between treatment groups were not significantly different but those receiving alternative therapies "had lower absolute complication rates and a lower absolute incidence of post-procedural ischemia during hospitalisation."

Complications after angioplasty include death, heart failure, post-procedural ischemia, repeat angioplasty or heart attack.

Outside the box

Dr Harold Koenig, associate professor of psychiatry at Duke University Medical Center, said: "Some of the greatest scientific achievements have come from those who step outside of the box and I believe that is what this study does.

"The results tend to lean toward prayer helping people but more study is needed."

Janet Holloway, the UK prayer coordinator for the Evangelical Alliance - which represents more than one million evangelical Christians in the UK - said that other studies had shown prayer linked to a positive effect.

She said: "We'd welcome the finding - many doctors are involved with alternative therapies - and you could call prayer an alternative.

"There are lots of people who are doing this for patients in UK hospitals - lots of prayer networks and people simply praying for their local hospital and the patients in it.

"There are even some doctors and other health professionals we know who use prayer - often without telling the patient - as part of their healing practice."