Eye Infections tied to contact lens cleaning solution

from the NYT...

Acanthamoeba keratitis is caused by a parasite, can be difficult to detect and is hard to treat. This outbreak has involved at least 138 patients.

Last year, an outbreak of fusarium keratitis was caused by a fungus; there were 164 confirmed cases. It was linked to ReNu With MoistureLoc made by Bausch & Lomb, but how the product caused the problem is unknown.

Epidemiologists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have linked the acanthamoeba keratitis outbreak to AMO Complete Moisture Plus Multi-Purpose Solution. Advanced Medical Optics of Santa Ana, Calif., manufactures the solution, which is used to clean and store soft contact lenses.

Plastic Water Bottles : Unintended Consquences

from the NYTimes mag

This year, Americans will drink more than nine billion gallons of bottled water, nearly all of it from polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, plastic bottles. Water, together with other nonfizzy drinks, accounted for 90 percent of the growth of the entire beverage industry between 2002 and 2005. By the end of the decade, they are expected to outsell soda.

It's an oil issue:

Americans will throw out more than two million tons of PET bottles this year. Even when recycled, it is hard to turn scrap PET into new bottles. More virgin material is always necessary. PET is a petroleum product; it comes from oil. The Container Recycling Institute estimates that 18 million barrels of crude-oil equivalent were needed to replace the bottles we chucked in 2005, bottles that were likely shipped long distances to begin with —from Maine or Calistoga or Fiji.

Solution?

... the bottle bill is designed to hold industry accountable for the disposal of its products. This accountability has practical, not just philosophical, benefits: forcing companies to take back their empties has ensured they make their containers recyclable and build markets for the scrap. (It is because of the bottle bill that fleece jackets, mattresses and carpeting are now made from recycled plastic bottles; recycled bottles have become one of the most valuable scrap materials.) Nevertheless, defenses of the bottle bill often boil down to an insistence that the essential rightness of its principle, the idea of producer responsibility, simply outweighs its many other costs and inconveniences — particularly since the bulk of those costs and inconveniences are borne by the industry. That’s only just.

FUN FACT:

Globally, Nestlé owns 72 different brands of water, including Poland Spring, Deer Park and Arrowhead

Tribune, you suck

Cross-post with another on of my blogs. Bob Norman's post (link above)on Flower's boot from her beat at the Sun-Sentinel. Stupid newspaper penny pinchers.


Pulp writes:

And there are murmurings that this could be a Tribune Company-wide trend that could kill local movie coverage in a number of Tribune newspaper towns.

Otherr commenters note:

Tribune will have one central copy editing system operating for all of its newspapers in a few weeks. Local copy desk staffs around the country will work on the same CCI system producing their own newspapers. Once that happens, all Tribune newspapers can share previously edited stories with photos and graphics already attached. The newsroom is rife with speculation about which coverage and sections will be produced by Tribune, with a local designer to fit the chain-wide copy around the ads. Travel? TV? Books? National and international news? Business? Whatever the plan is, the Sun-Sentinel is moving to a universal copy desk to handle the changed workflow.

Yeah. Those of us in the biz know how important it is to make friends with the copy desk. Dude, how do I bring donuts to a universal desk. Not to mention -- papers are supposed to be local.

Another poster notes:

The S-S also is not replacing horse racing writer Dave Joseph, who left to work for the Bank Atlantic Center in Sunrise.

Bad, bad, bad news...

Poisoned Toothpaste in Panama -> from China

From the NYTimes:

Diethylene glycol, a poisonous ingredient in some antifreeze, has been found in 6,000 tubes of toothpaste in Panama, and customs officials there said yesterday that the product appeared to have originated in China.

This is the second time this has happened.

Diethylene glycol is the same poison that the Panamanian government inadvertently mixed into cold medicine last year, killing at least 100 people. Records show that in that episode the poison, falsely labeled as glycerin, a harmless syrup, also originated in China.

Hillary and Wal-Mart

Things I didn't realize about Ms. Clinton and Wal-Mart:

• she was there for six years from 1986 to 1992, which was a long time ago. Not thrilled she was on this board, but let's keep the time frame in context for fairness. She doesn't seem proud of it:

Mrs. Clinton rarely, if ever, discusses it, leaving her board membership out of her speeches and off her campaign Web site.

Fellow board members and company executives, who have not spoken publicly about her role at Wal-Mart, say Mrs. Clinton used her position to champion personal causes, like the need for more women in management and a comprehensive environmental program, despite being Wal-Mart’s only female director, the youngest and arguably the least experienced in business. On other topics, like Wal-Mart’s vehement anti-unionism, for example, she was largely silent, they said.

• She gave back a $5,000 donation in 2005 from Wal-Mart because of “serious differences” with the company.

• Wal-Mart is based in Arkansas, duh. Forgot about that connection.There's still ties, via Bill and the company's top dog H. Lee Scott Jr.

from NYTimes. Photo credit: Richard Berquist of the 1990 board.