Edmonton veteran finds unique way to cope with PTSD

Watching Trevor Petersen standing on his paddleboard, cutting calmly across the water, you would never know he suffers from a debilitating disorder.

Not long ago, Petersen was in a dark place in his life — isolated, alone and angry — when he discovered the unexpected source of relief.

"I kind of spiralled down and went through a lot of dark times," said 41-year-old war veteran. "I started doing therapy, slowly getting better and then I took up the sport of paddle boarding… and it really gave me something to centre on. All the stuff on my mind kind of disappeared."

Petersen was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 2007 shortly after his return from Afghanistan. He was eventually released from the military in 2010.

Although he underwent therapy, he hit a lot of low points, even trying to take his own life more than once. He said it wasn't until he discovered paddleboarding that he truly began to heal.

He wants people to hear his story, and learn that they too can lead fulfilling lives, despite suffering from PTSD.

Paddling with PTSD

This Canada Day, Petersen will embark on a solo paddling expedition that will take him along a fur trade route, from Sir Wilfrid Laurier Park in Edmonton all the way to Winnipeg, Man.

The trip will take approximately one and a half month to complete. He hopes the excursion will help raise awareness as well as funds for Wounded Warriors Canada.

Petersen's PTSD causes him to get confused and easily overwhelmed with stress. But paddleboarding has become a form of meditation for him, allowing him to concentrate on paddling and staying balanced standing on the board instead of the many thoughts running through his head.

Trevor Petersen — a war veteran diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder — has found relief in paddleboarding. (CBC News)

"It's kind of a meditative endeavour for me," he said. "For someone who can't concentrate on breathing exercises, it's fulfilled that role for me. It's helped me to be a calmer person, be more relaxed. I still have my moments, but it's a big help."

Petersen says this journey would not be possible without his mother. Marie-Paul Petersen knows first hand how far-reaching the effects of PTSD can be.

"I never knew if I would have him alive the next day," she said. "It's difficult because your life just goes into a real rollercoaster. You lose your own security, your own self worth, just as they do. You go downhill, and you have to learn to get back up."

Petersen's mother has developed PTSD as a result — something she says many people may not realize.

"If there is a member that has post traumatic stress disorder, many of the family members will be affected by it," she said.

Learning to manage

Petersen says he has come a long way since what he calls "dark times."  

Marie-Paul Petersen was deeply affected by her son's post traumatic stress disorder. (CBC News)

"I learned to socialize and talk to people again through paddleboarding," said Petersen. "I started going to surf camps… and go on vacations again, because that's something I just stopped doing as well. It's really defined who I am now."

He knows living with PTSD will be a lifelong struggle for him, but he has found a way to cope.

"When you have PTSD, you have it for the rest of your life," Petersen said. "However, we can learn to manage it and that's what I've done… I now have a fulfilling life and I'm smiling, which is something I haven't done in years."

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National food recall issued for baba ghanouj, soup starter

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is recalling two products from across Canada and another product from select provinces.

Ziyad brand baba ghanouj and soup starter soup base are being recalled nationally because they contain milk and sesame not declared on the label.

People with an allergy to milk or sesame are advised not to consume the following products:

• Ziyad brand baba ghanouj eggplant and tahini dip
• Ziyad brand soup starter soup base

As well, T-Brothers Food & Trading is recalling crackers because they contain egg, milk and soy that are not declared on the label.

People with an allergy to egg, milk or soy should not consume the following products:

• Korepab seaweed crackers with Korean characters on the label

Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

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Benefits of bilingualism extend across lifespan

Learning a second language benefits the brain in ways that can pay off later in life, suggests a deepening field of research that specializes in the relationship between bilingualism and cognition.

Mounting evidence suggests that learning more than one language benefits the aging brain.

Ori Mazor, 6, counts in English, French and Hebrew at home. Her parents want her to learn the languages for cultural and cognitive benefits. (CBC)

In one large Scottish test, researchers discovered archival data on 835 native speakers of English who were born in Edinburgh in 1936. The participants had been given an intelligence test at age 11 as part of standard British educational policy and many were retested in their early 70s.

Those who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive abilities on certain tasks compared with what would be expected from their IQ test scores at age 11, Dr. Thomas Bak of the Centre for Cognitive Aging and Cognitive Epidemiology at the University of Edinburgh reported in the journal Annals of Neurology.

"Our results suggest a protective effect of bilingualism against age-related cognitive decline," independently of IQ, Bak and his co-authors concluded.

Roots of bilingualism research in Canada

It was a watershed study in 1962 by Elizabeth Peal and Wallace Lambert at McGill University in Montreal that turned conventional thinking on bilingualism on its head and set the rationale for French immersion in Canada.

Psychologists at York University in Toronto have also been studying the effect of bilingualism on the brain across the lifespan, including dementia. They've learned how people who speak a second language outperform those with just one on tasks that tap executive function such as attention, selection and inhibition. Those are the high-level cognitive processes we use to multitask as we drive on the highway and juggle remembering the exit and monitoring our speed without getting distracted by billboards.

For the brain, the combination of those tasks is complex and taxes the energy resources, said Ellen Bialystok, who runs a cognitive research lab at York. She first observed how bilingual children perform better in the 1980s.

"What a bilingual always has to do is draw attention to the right language, and keep that other active language out of the way. Now the system that selects, inhibits, and switches is the executive function system. That means that every time a bilingual opens their mouth, they're using their executive function system. It's getting practised, it's getting fortified, and it's becoming more efficient," Bialystok said.

York University psychology professor Ellen Bialystock studies bilingualism's effects on the brain. (Penn State/Flickr)

Aside from the social and cultural benefits of bilingualism, there's also a payoff later in life as memory begins to fail in everyone. Those who are bilingual build up networks in the brain's frontal system. Located behind the forehead, the system is the last to develop in childhood and the first to decline in the final stage of our lives, Bialystok said.

While bilingualism has more benefits the earlier and more intensely it's practised, it is never too late to learn, a finding borne out in the Scottish study. Bilingualism is good for the brain and it's the cheapest way to build it up, she said.

The Mazor family of Montreal sees the benefits of bilingualism across three generations.

"Kids' brains are like a sponge," said father Ben Mazor, who speaks English, French and Hebrew. "They absorb everything and it comes to them so easy while they're young. So why not give them the privilege of learning another language that might as well benefit them in the future."

Mother Natalie Mazor, who also speaks Arabic, said she's not concerned that her daughter Ori, 6, and sons Azi, 4, and Tal, 2, will be confused by the constant switches in language at home. All three children understand Hebrew, but will sometimes answer in English.

"It's just the dynamics of our home and it's the way that we're brought up. It's very important for their future," she said.

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Maternal health programs cost billions with little proof strategies work: UN

Public health officials say they were taken aback by the findings that practices such as ensuring women giving birth get cheap drugs such as magnesium sulphate to treat labour complications didn't seem to improve survival rates for mothers. (Khalil Senosi/Associated Press)

In the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent trying to save the lives of mothers in developing countries using strategies — usually inexpensive drugs — deemed essential by the UN health agency.

Yet two large analyses of maternal health programs — including one conducted by the U.N. itself — report that the efforts appeared almost useless, raising troubling questions about why all that money was spent.

However although some critics are calling for the pricey global initiatives to be significantly overhauled, maternal health programs are still being implemented despite little proof they work, the reports suggest.

The practices mainly involve things like ensuring women giving birth get cheap drugs such as magnesium sulphate to treat labour complications or pre-emptive antibiotics for those getting a caesarean section.

Even public health officials acknowledge they were taken aback by the studies.

"Nobody could have been more surprised than I was when we got the results," said Dr. Omrana Pasha of Aga Khan University in Pakistan, who led a study of maternal health interventions in six countries in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

"In clinical medicine, we would not prescribe a drug unless multiple trials show that it works," she added. "The FDA won't allow a drug to be marketed without that evidence. But things are different in public health."

At an international meeting of U.N. partners starting Monday in South Africa, health officials are getting ready to ask donors for even more money to pour into maternal health programs. Since 2009, the U.S. has invested more than $13 billion in maternal and child survival, hoping to save lives by supporting "high-impact" health interventions.

According to the research papers, including one done in 30 countries that tracked more than 300,000 women, scientists found no link between the supposedly life-saving interventions and the death rates of women giving birth. Areas that used the interventions didn't have better survival rates for mothers than areas that didn't.

The two papers published last year are the biggest to assess the effectiveness of maternal health strategies, although smaller studies have previously suggested the methods help. But they gained little traction, perhaps because there doesn't appear to be an easy fix.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has made maternal and newborn health a major focus of Canada's foreign aid. He hosted an international conference on the subject this spring where he pledged an additional $3.5 billion over five years toward the government's initiative.

A spokesman for the prime minister said he can't comment directly on the reports because he had not read them, but said there had been "real, concrete results" achieved since Harper launched the Muskoka Initiative, with funding of $2.8 billion, at the G8 summit in 2010.

"Canada is well on its way to achieving our goals under Muskoka," said Jason MacDonald.

 "Our [initiative] will save the lives of 1.3 million children and newborns, as well as more than 60,000 young mothers."

Experts, meanwhile, are largely stumped as to why their methods failed to prevent deaths.

"We assume that if women get these things, they will be saved. But it's too simple to say one plus one equals two," said Dr. Marleen Temmerman, director of WHO's maternal health department.

She isn't convinced the interventions don't work. She suspects there were problems implementing the strategies.

"Maybe the health facility has the medicine, but the man who has the key to the cupboard is gone," she suggested.

Temmerman also said it would be dangerous if donors abruptly slashed their support for maternal health initiatives.

"The message is not to stop investing, it's to invest money more wisely," she said.

Some experts said existing plans should be adjusted.

"These essential interventions are important but they are not enough," said Sandrine Simon, a public health adviser at Doctors of the World charity. "This is about more than buying the right medicines."

But others said major changes were required to save more women.

"We need to be more honest and serious about past failures otherwise we will keep making the same mistakes," said Bill Easterly, an economist at New York University. "It's not just the fault of countries receiving aid who aren't implementing the technology properly, it's the fault of Western aid agencies and donors who are not trying hard enough to get it right."

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Pregnant women should avoid bisphenol A, phthalates, doctors say

Canada banned the manufacture, import, advertising or sale of baby bottles that contain BPA to protect infants. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Women should be counselled about reducing their exposure to environmental hazards such as bisphenol A in some plastics, U.S. obstetricians say, on the heels of the first measurements of the chemicals in pregnant women in Canada.

Researchers in the U.S. found one in five of the 2,500 physicians surveyed routinely asked pregnant women about their exposure to toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A and phthalates that can have harmful reproductive effects.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make polycarbonate plastics and can be found in food and drink packaging. BPA is widespread and some animal studies suggest effects in fetuses and newborns exposed to the chemical, even at low doses.

Phthalates are found in air fresheners and dish soap, and have been linked to obesity and miscarriages.  

"Obstetricians feared broaching the topic of environmental health with patients, especially regarding chemicals other than lead and mercury. They felt they did not have adequate knowledge and understanding to answer patients' questions about exposures, and that this conversation would take time away from easier topics to address, like nutrition," said Dr. Naomi Stotland, an obstetrician and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She and her team did the study in this week's issue of journal PLOS One, published by the Public Library of Science.

About 78 per cent of obstetricians agreed they could reduce patient environmental exposures by talking to them about the topic. But less than 20 per cent regularly ask about phthalates, BPA, pesticides and PCB.

In contrast, virtually all of the doctors, 99 per cent, said they routinely counselled pregnant women about cigarette smoking, alcohol, weight gain and diet or nutrition.

BPA banned in baby bottles

Since 2010, Canada has banned the manufacture, import, advertising or sale of baby bottles that contain BPA. Both BPA and a phthalate called Di(2-ethylhexyl) or DEHP are on Health Canada's list of prohibited and restricted cosmetic ingredients.

Last week, Health Canada published the first results of its Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals study that looked at phthalate and BPA exposure among pregnant Canadian women.

Exposure to the chemicals among pregnant women is "comparable to, and in some cases lower" than what was found in a national survey of women of reproductive age.​

Phthalate breakdown products or metabolites were found in over 95 per cent of the urine samples.

Health Canada will continue to monitor Canadians' exposure to BPA through biomonitoring studies such as the Canadian Health Measures Survey, a spokeswoman said in an email. As part of the study, the department will also work with academic scientists "to examine the associations between maternal exposure to BPA and potential effects, if any, on the health of mother and baby."

Exposures 'widespread but low'

"Given the evidence from laboratory animal studies that these chemicals can disrupt hormone systems leading to developmental changes, it is important to keep doing research on these chemicals," said Scott Venners, a professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University. He's studied environmental endocrine disruptors and human reproduction and now applies biomonitoring studies to inform public health policy research.

"We can see clearly now that exposure to BPA and phthalates in pregnancy is widespread, but low," Venners said in an email.

The time from conception to birth is one of the times when we're most sensitive to these chemicals. To limit exposure before birth would require harder policy steps to protect all women of reproductive age, he said.

There are steps that women can take to reduce their exposure. In the U.S. study, obstetricians participating in a focus group commented on the barriers they face.

Preventive steps

"The information has to come in two pieces, like what does it mean for you and what can you do about it if you want to avoid it," one doctor said in a focus group for the study.

Environmental Defence, which lobbies governments and corporations for environmental policy changes, said it's important that the Canadian research has been done.

Tim Gray, the group's executive director, said endocrine disruptors mimic the behaviour of hormones that cause our bodies to mature. Tiny amounts can send confusing messages.

Gray gave some suggestions to reduce exposure:

• Avoid using plastic and stick to containers with 2, 4 or 5 in the recycling symbol.
• Air out your house.
• Try to avoid products with BPA and phthalates.
• Connect with provincial and federal governments to ask for clear labels and changes to the rules that allow products on the market without testing.

The U.S. study was funded by New York Community Trust, Passport Foundation, Johnson Family Foundation, the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Red Deer bans e-cigarettes under local smoking bylaw

Red Deer residents fond of electronic cigarettes will no longer be able to puff where they please, after city officials clarified the reach of a local smoking bylaw.

The city issued a statement Thursday morning clarifying the existing Smoke Free Bylaw in regards to the devices, saying vaping an e-cigarette falls under its definition of smoking.

That ruling means vapers will not be allowed to use their devices anywhere smoking is already banned, such as cafes, restaurants and near playgrounds.

"We've had a lot of questions and concerns raised by our public, residents plus proprietors of restaurants and bars saying, 'Is it okay if they smoke e-cigarettes?,'" said Red Deer Deputy Mayor Lynne Mulder.

"Smoking in our bylaw would encompass vaping, so we have applied the very same regulations against vaping as we do regular cigarettes."

E-cigarettes have soared in popularity in recent years. But, as often happens with new technology, government regulations have been slow to catch up.

Health Canada advises Canadians not to use the devices and has not authorized their sale in Canada. However, it lacks the resources to inspect retail stores to see if they're complying — and many people buy the devices online.

That has led some municipalities and provinces to take the matter into their own hands.

"We're really just doing this in the absence of federal and provincial regulation," said Mulder. "Health Canada has advised against it and it fits within our bylaw, so that's the approach that we've taken ... because we don't know whether it's safe or not safe, we have selected to ban it anyway."

Other jurisdictions consider local bans

Several provinces and municipalities have begun looking at ways to regulate the use of the devices in the absence of any federal regulation of them.

Nova Scotia plans to introduce legislation in the fall to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19.

In Ontario, the city of Hamilton voted in May to ask the province for the power to restrict who buys e-cigarettes and where they can be smoked.

In Red Deer, the clarification of the bylaw will give officials the power to crack down on vapers if a complaint is issued. 

Anyone who sees someone vaping in a banned area can call the RCMP non-emergency line and have the person forced to stop.

"Our hope is that we aren't putting people in handcuffs over this," said Mulder. 

Vaping advocates condemn move

While Mulder says she hasn't heard negative feedback from residents yet, vaping proponents say they are considering contacting the city to let officials know of their frustration with the decision.

The Electronic Cigarette Trade Association argues it isn't fair to group vapers together with smokers, especially given that many are trying to break the addictive habit by distancing themselves from smoking.

"If I've decided to vape, not smoke, then I yes, definitely do deserve to be protected from second-hand smoke," said Kate Ackerman, an e-cigarette retailer who is on the ECTA board of directors.

"It would be extremely unfair for any municipality to direct that somebody who is not smoking go and do an activity in a smoking area exclusively."

Ackerman says Red Deer is the first city in Canada to bring e-cigarette restrictions under a municipal bylaw.

However, Red Deer officials could not confirm that statement.

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West African nations should prepare for Ebola infected travellers

Health workers speak to relatives of people infected with Ebola at an isolation center at Donka Hospital in Guinea's capital, Conakry, in April. Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities. (Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty)

West African nations neighbouring those hit by the Ebola epidemic — Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea Bissau — should prepare for the possible arrival of travellers carrying the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The outbreak persists especially in forested areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and its spread is being fuelled by unsafe burial practices that infect relatives handling bodies, the U.N. agency said.

"We want other countries in West Africa to be ready — bordering countries, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau — to prepare themselves in case people affected with the disease may be also travelling," WHO medical officer Dr. Pierre Formenty told a briefing in Geneva.

Despite efforts by national health authorities and international aid organizations to contain its spread, the WHO has recorded 635 infections, including 399 deaths, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since the outbreak began in February.

Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities such as the Guinea capital of Conakry and Liberian capital of Monrovia, Formenty said.

"Roads exist in all of West Africa. There are roads going to Bamako, going to Abidjan, going to Dakar," he said.

Ebola causes vomiting and diarrhea, impairs kidney and liver function and may cause internal and external bleeding.

It kills up to 90 per cent of those infected. It is spread by close contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected people or high-risk animals such as monkeys. The incubation period is from 2 to 21 days and there is no treatment or vaccine.

The epidemic is already the deadliest since Ebola first emerged in central Africa in 1976, and the number of infections continues to rise.

"In Sierra Leone, the staff are really working very hard to contain the outbreak, so in terms of statistics we are really behind … You should understand that probably the scope of the outbreak in Sierra Leone is bigger than what we are reporting today," Formenty said.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors without Borders said on Monday that the epidemic is out of control and requires massive resources from governments and aid agencies to halt its spread.

Health workers have been able to control outbreaks in some places but it was proving more difficult in some other sites, partly due to the difficulty of convincing families about the required changes in behaviour.

"We are not there yet, we shall continue our effort. Because for me the only way we will succeed is when the people will understand clearly how dangerous it is for their life to conduct unsafe burial [practices] during an outbreak of Ebola," he said.

But he added: "This is not out of hand."

Sierra Leone's health ministry warned Friday that it is a serious crime to shelter someone infected with the Ebola virus.
 
The health ministry statement also lamented the fact that a number of patients had discharged themselves from hospital in Kenema district, where the outbreak is taking place, and gone into hiding.
 
The statement said that those interfering with the health teams would be punished.
 
In remote parts of Sierra Leone, in some cases villagers believe the drugs used to treat the disease were causing the illness.
 
The worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has no known cure, is currently taking place in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
 
There are 176 cases in Sierra Leone with 46 fatalities.

He said the UN health agency is not considering recommending travel or trade restrictions on the three countries, calling them "drastic measures".

"We favour much more the dialogue with the affected family, the affected village and the affected district, than really trying to be a sort of sanitary police who would try to control any movement of the population."

WHO's Regional Director for Africa Luis Sambo on Thursday called for drastic action to halt what he said has turned into a cross-border crisis.

West African health ministers are due to meet in Accra, Ghana on July 2 and 3 to try to coordinate a regional response.

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National food recall issued for baba ghanouj, soup starter

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is recalling two products from across Canada and another product from select provinces.

Ziyad brand baba ghanouj and soup starter soup base are being recalled nationally because they contain milk and sesame not declared on the label.

People with an allergy to milk or sesame are advised not to consume the following products:

• Ziyad brand baba ghanouj eggplant and tahini dip
• Ziyad brand soup starter soup base

As well, T-Brothers Food & Trading is recalling crackers because they contain egg, milk and soy that are not declared on the label.

People with an allergy to egg, milk or soy should not consume the following products:

• Korepab seaweed crackers with Korean characters on the label

Recalled products should be thrown out or returned to the store where they were purchased.

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Canadian Blood Services says supply at seasonal 5-year low

Canada's blood supply is at a five-year low for this time of year, Canadian Blood Services says in appealing for life-sustaining donations.

The agency urged current and first-time blood donors to give blood before or immediately after the Canada Day holiday. All blood types are needed, particularly types O and A.

"Right now, we're seeing lower inventory and probably the lowest inventory that we've seen at this time of year compared to the last five years," said Kristina Guénette, director of communications for Canadian Blood Services in Ottawa.

"It's a real patriotic thing to do heading into Canada Day, to really be able to help save the life of a fellow Canadian."

Traditionally, demand for blood is steady over the course of the year, but the blood collections dip when large storms lead to cancellations of donor clinics.

Blood collections dipped this year when storms led to cancellations of donor clinics. (Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)

 In recent months, about 20 per cent of donors have missed their appointments.

"Historically, donors have come and Canadians stepped in and have been able to provide sufficient amount of donations for us to carry on through the summer. What's changed here is this has happened much earlier on than we typically see it," Guénette said.

The blood agency has been playing catch-up recently and the concern is heightened as people head into a long weekend where many Canadians are taking four days off, she said.

Platelets —  the smallest blood cells that work to prevent bleeding  — expire in five days, and Canadian Blood Services hopes donations will cover the longer holiday and build the inventory up to a healthy level.

Canadian Blood Services is responsible for the blood system in all parts of Canada except Quebec, which is served by Héma-Québec.

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Red Deer bans e-cigarettes under local smoking bylaw

Red Deer residents fond of electronic cigarettes will no longer be able to puff where they please, after city officials clarified the reach of a local smoking bylaw.

The city issued a statement Thursday morning clarifying the existing Smoke Free Bylaw in regards to the devices, saying vaping an e-cigarette falls under its definition of smoking.

That ruling means vapers will not be allowed to use their devices anywhere smoking is already banned, such as cafes, restaurants and near playgrounds.

"We've had a lot of questions and concerns raised by our public, residents plus proprietors of restaurants and bars saying, 'Is it okay if they smoke e-cigarettes?,'" said Red Deer Deputy Mayor Lynne Mulder.

"Smoking in our bylaw would encompass vaping, so we have applied the very same regulations against vaping as we do regular cigarettes."

E-cigarettes have soared in popularity in recent years. But, as often happens with new technology, government regulations have been slow to catch up.

Health Canada advises Canadians not to use the devices and has not authorized their sale in Canada. However, it lacks the resources to inspect retail stores to see if they're complying — and many people buy the devices online.

That has led some municipalities and provinces to take the matter into their own hands.

"We're really just doing this in the absence of federal and provincial regulation," said Mulder. "Health Canada has advised against it and it fits within our bylaw, so that's the approach that we've taken ... because we don't know whether it's safe or not safe, we have selected to ban it anyway."

Other jurisdictions consider local bans

Several provinces and municipalities have begun looking at ways to regulate the use of the devices in the absence of any federal regulation of them.

Nova Scotia plans to introduce legislation in the fall to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19.

In Ontario, the city of Hamilton voted in May to ask the province for the power to restrict who buys e-cigarettes and where they can be smoked.

In Red Deer, the clarification of the bylaw will give officials the power to crack down on vapers if a complaint is issued. 

Anyone who sees someone vaping in a banned area can call the RCMP non-emergency line and have the person forced to stop.

"Our hope is that we aren't putting people in handcuffs over this," said Mulder. 

Vaping advocates condemn move

While Mulder says she hasn't heard negative feedback from residents yet, vaping proponents say they are considering contacting the city to let officials know of their frustration with the decision.

The Electronic Cigarette Trade Association argues it isn't fair to group vapers together with smokers, especially given that many are trying to break the addictive habit by distancing themselves from smoking.

"If I've decided to vape, not smoke, then I yes, definitely do deserve to be protected from second-hand smoke," said Kate Ackerman, an e-cigarette retailer who is on the ECTA board of directors.

"It would be extremely unfair for any municipality to direct that somebody who is not smoking go and do an activity in a smoking area exclusively."

Ackerman says Red Deer is the first city in Canada to bring e-cigarette restrictions under a municipal bylaw.

However, Red Deer officials could not confirm that statement.

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West African nations should prepare for Ebola infected travellers

Health workers speak to relatives of people infected with Ebola at an isolation center at Donka Hospital in Guinea's capital, Conakry, in April. Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities. (Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty)

West African nations neighbouring those hit by the Ebola epidemic — Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea Bissau — should prepare for the possible arrival of travellers carrying the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The outbreak persists especially in forested areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and its spread is being fuelled by unsafe burial practices that infect relatives handling bodies, the U.N. agency said.

"We want other countries in West Africa to be ready — bordering countries, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau — to prepare themselves in case people affected with the disease may be also travelling," WHO medical officer Dr. Pierre Formenty told a briefing in Geneva.

Despite efforts by national health authorities and international aid organizations to contain its spread, the WHO has recorded 635 infections, including 399 deaths, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since the outbreak began in February.

Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities such as the Guinea capital of Conakry and Liberian capital of Monrovia, Formenty said.

"Roads exist in all of West Africa. There are roads going to Bamako, going to Abidjan, going to Dakar," he said.

Ebola causes vomiting and diarrhea, impairs kidney and liver function and may cause internal and external bleeding.

It kills up to 90 per cent of those infected. It is spread by close contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected people or high-risk animals such as monkeys. The incubation period is from 2 to 21 days and there is no treatment or vaccine.

The epidemic is already the deadliest since Ebola first emerged in central Africa in 1976, and the number of infections continues to rise.

"In Sierra Leone, the staff are really working very hard to contain the outbreak, so in terms of statistics we are really behind … You should understand that probably the scope of the outbreak in Sierra Leone is bigger than what we are reporting today," Formenty said.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors without Borders said on Monday that the epidemic is out of control and requires massive resources from governments and aid agencies to halt its spread.

Health workers have been able to control outbreaks in some places but it was proving more difficult in some other sites, partly due to the difficulty of convincing families about the required changes in behaviour.

"We are not there yet, we shall continue our effort. Because for me the only way we will succeed is when the people will understand clearly how dangerous it is for their life to conduct unsafe burial [practices] during an outbreak of Ebola," he said.

But he added: "This is not out of hand."

Sierra Leone's health ministry warned Friday that it is a serious crime to shelter someone infected with the Ebola virus.
 
The health ministry statement also lamented the fact that a number of patients had discharged themselves from hospital in Kenema district, where the outbreak is taking place, and gone into hiding.
 
The statement said that those interfering with the health teams would be punished.
 
In remote parts of Sierra Leone, in some cases villagers believe the drugs used to treat the disease were causing the illness.
 
The worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has no known cure, is currently taking place in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
 
There are 176 cases in Sierra Leone with 46 fatalities.

He said the UN health agency is not considering recommending travel or trade restrictions on the three countries, calling them "drastic measures".

"We favour much more the dialogue with the affected family, the affected village and the affected district, than really trying to be a sort of sanitary police who would try to control any movement of the population."

WHO's Regional Director for Africa Luis Sambo on Thursday called for drastic action to halt what he said has turned into a cross-border crisis.

West African health ministers are due to meet in Accra, Ghana on July 2 and 3 to try to coordinate a regional response.

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Pregnant women should avoid bisphenol A, phthalates, doctors say

Canada banned the manufacture, import, advertising or sale of baby bottles that contain BPA to protect infants. (Jonathan Hayward/Canadian Press)

Women should be counselled about reducing their exposure to environmental hazards such as bisphenol A in some plastics, U.S. obstetricians say, on the heels of the first measurements of the chemicals in pregnant women in Canada.

Researchers in the U.S. found one in five of the 2,500 physicians surveyed routinely asked pregnant women about their exposure to toxic chemicals such as bisphenol A and phthalates that can have harmful reproductive effects.

Bisphenol A (BPA) is used to make polycarbonate plastics and can be found in food and drink packaging. BPA is widespread and some animal studies suggest effects in fetuses and newborns exposed to the chemical, even at low doses.

Phthalates are found in air fresheners and dish soap, and have been linked to obesity and miscarriages.  

"Obstetricians feared broaching the topic of environmental health with patients, especially regarding chemicals other than lead and mercury. They felt they did not have adequate knowledge and understanding to answer patients' questions about exposures, and that this conversation would take time away from easier topics to address, like nutrition," said Dr. Naomi Stotland, an obstetrician and researcher at the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine. She and her team did the study in this week's issue of journal PLOS One, published by the Public Library of Science.

About 78 per cent of obstetricians agreed they could reduce patient environmental exposures by talking to them about the topic. But less than 20 per cent regularly ask about phthalates, BPA, pesticides and PCB.

In contrast, virtually all of the doctors, 99 per cent, said they routinely counselled pregnant women about cigarette smoking, alcohol, weight gain and diet or nutrition.

BPA banned in baby bottles

Since 2010, Canada has banned the manufacture, import, advertising or sale of baby bottles that contain BPA. Both BPA and a phthalate called Di(2-ethylhexyl) or DEHP are on Health Canada's list of prohibited and restricted cosmetic ingredients.

Last week, Health Canada published the first results of its Maternal-Infant Research on Environmental Chemicals study that looked at phthalate and BPA exposure among pregnant Canadian women.

Exposure to the chemicals among pregnant women is "comparable to, and in some cases lower" than what was found in a national survey of women of reproductive age.​

Phthalate breakdown products or metabolites were found in over 95 per cent of the urine samples.

Health Canada will continue to monitor Canadians' exposure to BPA through biomonitoring studies such as the Canadian Health Measures Survey, a spokeswoman said in an email. As part of the study, the department will also work with academic scientists "to examine the associations between maternal exposure to BPA and potential effects, if any, on the health of mother and baby."

Exposures 'widespread but low'

"Given the evidence from laboratory animal studies that these chemicals can disrupt hormone systems leading to developmental changes, it is important to keep doing research on these chemicals," said Scott Venners, a professor in the faculty of health sciences at Simon Fraser University. He's studied environmental endocrine disruptors and human reproduction and now applies biomonitoring studies to inform public health policy research.

"We can see clearly now that exposure to BPA and phthalates in pregnancy is widespread, but low," Venners said in an email.

The time from conception to birth is one of the times when we're most sensitive to these chemicals. To limit exposure before birth would require harder policy steps to protect all women of reproductive age, he said.

There are steps that women can take to reduce their exposure. In the U.S. study, obstetricians participating in a focus group commented on the barriers they face.

Preventive steps

"The information has to come in two pieces, like what does it mean for you and what can you do about it if you want to avoid it," one doctor said in a focus group for the study.

Environmental Defence, which lobbies governments and corporations for environmental policy changes, said it's important that the Canadian research has been done.

Tim Gray, the group's executive director, said endocrine disruptors mimic the behaviour of hormones that cause our bodies to mature. Tiny amounts can send confusing messages.

Gray gave some suggestions to reduce exposure:

• Avoid using plastic and stick to containers with 2, 4 or 5 in the recycling symbol.
• Air out your house.
• Try to avoid products with BPA and phthalates.
• Connect with provincial and federal governments to ask for clear labels and changes to the rules that allow products on the market without testing.

The U.S. study was funded by New York Community Trust, Passport Foundation, Johnson Family Foundation, the U.S. National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

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Red Deer bans e-cigarettes under local smoking bylaw

Red Deer residents fond of electronic cigarettes will no longer be able to puff where they please, after city officials clarified the reach of a local smoking bylaw.

The city issued a statement Thursday morning clarifying the existing Smoke Free Bylaw in regards to the devices, saying vaping an e-cigarette falls under its definition of smoking.

That ruling means vapers will not be allowed to use their devices anywhere smoking is already banned, such as cafes, restaurants and near playgrounds.

"We've had a lot of questions and concerns raised by our public, residents plus proprietors of restaurants and bars saying, 'Is it okay if they smoke e-cigarettes?,'" said Red Deer Deputy Mayor Lynne Mulder.

"Smoking in our bylaw would encompass vaping, so we have applied the very same regulations against vaping as we do regular cigarettes."

E-cigarettes have soared in popularity in recent years. But, as often happens with new technology, government regulations have been slow to catch up.

Health Canada advises Canadians not to use the devices and has not authorized their sale in Canada. However, it lacks the resources to inspect retail stores to see if they're complying — and many people buy the devices online.

That has led some municipalities and provinces to take the matter into their own hands.

"We're really just doing this in the absence of federal and provincial regulation," said Mulder. "Health Canada has advised against it and it fits within our bylaw, so that's the approach that we've taken ... because we don't know whether it's safe or not safe, we have selected to ban it anyway."

Other jurisdictions consider local bans

Several provinces and municipalities have begun looking at ways to regulate the use of the devices in the absence of any federal regulation of them.

Nova Scotia plans to introduce legislation in the fall to ban the sale of e-cigarettes to anyone under the age of 19.

In Ontario, the city of Hamilton voted in May to ask the province for the power to restrict who buys e-cigarettes and where they can be smoked.

In Red Deer, the clarification of the bylaw will give officials the power to crack down on vapers if a complaint is issued. 

Anyone who sees someone vaping in a banned area can call the RCMP non-emergency line and have the person forced to stop.

"Our hope is that we aren't putting people in handcuffs over this," said Mulder. 

Vaping advocates condemn move

While Mulder says she hasn't heard negative feedback from residents yet, vaping proponents say they are considering contacting the city to let officials know of their frustration with the decision.

The Electronic Cigarette Trade Association argues it isn't fair to group vapers together with smokers, especially given that many are trying to break the addictive habit by distancing themselves from smoking.

"If I've decided to vape, not smoke, then I yes, definitely do deserve to be protected from second-hand smoke," said Kate Ackerman, an e-cigarette retailer who is on the ECTA board of directors.

"It would be extremely unfair for any municipality to direct that somebody who is not smoking go and do an activity in a smoking area exclusively."

Ackerman says Red Deer is the first city in Canada to bring e-cigarette restrictions under a municipal bylaw.

However, Red Deer officials could not confirm that statement.

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Canadian Blood Services says supply at seasonal 5-year low

Blood collections dipped this year when storms led to cancellations of donor clinics. (Chris O'Meara/Associated Press)

Canada's blood supply is at a five-year low for this time of year, Canadian Blood Services says in appealing for life-sustaining donations.

The agency urged current and first-time blood donors to give blood before or immediately after the Canada Day holiday. All blood types are needed, particularly types O and A.

"Right now, we're seeing lower inventory and probably the lowest inventory that we've seen at this time of year compared to the last five years," said Kristina Guénette, director of communications for Canadian Blood Services in Ottawa.

"It's a real patriotic thing to do heading into Canada Day, to really be able to help save the life of a fellow Canadian."

Traditionally, demand for blood is steady over the course of the year, but the blood collections dip when large storms lead to cancellations of donor clinics.

 In recent months, about 20 per cent of donors have missed their appointments.

"Historically, donors have come and Canadians stepped in and have been able to provide sufficient amount of donations for us to carry on through the summer. What's changed here is this has happened much earlier on than we typically see it," Guénette said.

The blood agency has been playing catch-up recently and the concern is heightened as people head into a long weekend where many Canadians are taking four days off, she said.

Platelets —  the smallest blood cells that work to prevent bleeding  — expire in five days, and Canadian Blood Services hopes donations will cover the longer holiday and build the inventory up to a healthy level.

Canadian Blood Services is responsible for the blood system in all parts of Canada except Quebec, which is served by Héma-Québec.

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Saudi MERS cases that went unreported described by WHO

The World Health Organization has released a demographic and geographic breakdown of the MERS coronavirus infections that Saudi authorities announced three weeks ago. (National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases/The Canadian Press)

Saudi Arabia's surprise 113 MERS cases have lost a little of their mystery.

Saudi authorities startled the global public health community on June 3 when they announced they had found 113 MERS cases that had previously gone unreported, and 92 additional deaths to the disease.

At the time, the Saudis offered no details about the new cases, but now the World Health Organization has released a demographic and geographic breakdown of the infections.

But while the WHO's statement answers some questions, it raises another.

It talks about 34 deaths among the 113 cases; it does not explain where or when the remaining 58 deaths occurred.

The majority of the previously missed infections with the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus occurred after March 1 of this year, though 29 were contracted between May 2013 and the end of February.

A huge surge in infections in Saudi Arabia started in March of this year, with spread among hospital patients and health-care workers fuelling the rapid rise in cases. Saudi Arabia, which has been the country hardest hit by MERS, has recorded more than 500 cases since the beginning of March.

The WHO said Thursday that it has been informed of 820 cases of MERS globally since the first known infections with the coronavirus took place in April 2012. Most of those have been recorded this spring; at the beginning of March, the global count was 188.

The 113 cases came to light during a retrospective review of hospital records done by Saudi health authorities in early May, the WHO statement says.

More than half of the previously missed cases were from Jidda (44) and Riyadh (21), though there was a smattering of cases from a range of locations within the country.

The cases ranged in age from three months to 89 years, with the median age being 41 years. Men made up 57 per cent of the cases.

Just over a quarter of the cases were asymptomatic — they had no symptoms, but were found by testing done on contacts of known cases. Seventy of the cases were hospitalized for their symptoms and three of those people remain in hospital.

Health-care workers made up 37 per cent of the cases. Of the 42 health-care worker cases, 39 have since recovered, one is still in hospital and two died.

The WHO says it has been informed of at least 286 MERS-related deaths worldwide. It is not clear why that number is that low, given that Saudi Arabia is reporting 292 deaths on its ministry of health website. MERS deaths have also been reported in Jordan, Britain, France, Germany, Tunisia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Yemen, Malaysia and Algeria.

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Ebola-sickened travellers may cross borders, WHO warns

Health workers speak to relatives of people infected with Ebola at an isolation center at Donka Hospital in Guinea's capital, Conakry, in April. Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities. (Cellou Binani/AFP/Getty)

West African nations neighbouring those hit by the Ebola epidemic — Mali, Ivory Coast, Senegal and Guinea Bissau — should prepare for the possible arrival of travellers carrying the deadly virus, the World Health Organization said on Friday.

The outbreak persists especially in forested areas of Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, and its spread is being fuelled by unsafe burial practices that infect relatives handling bodies, the U.N. agency said.

"We want other countries in West Africa to be ready — bordering countries, Ivory Coast, Mali, Senegal, Guinea Bissau — to prepare themselves in case people affected with the disease may be also travelling," WHO medical officer Dr. Pierre Formenty told a briefing in Geneva.

Despite efforts by national health authorities and international aid organizations to contain its spread, the WHO has recorded 635 infections, including 399 deaths, in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia since the outbreak began in February.

Some of the sick have travelled to get medical treatment, spreading the disease to big cities such as the Guinea capital of Conakry and Liberian capital of Monrovia, Formenty said.

"Roads exist in all of West Africa. There are roads going to Bamako, going to Abidjan, going to Dakar," he said.

Ebola causes vomiting and diarrhea, impairs kidney and liver function and may cause internal and external bleeding.

It kills up to 90 per cent of those infected. It is spread by close contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected people or high-risk animals such as monkeys. The incubation period is from 2 to 21 days and there is no treatment or vaccine.

The epidemic is already the deadliest since Ebola first emerged in central Africa in 1976, and the number of infections continues to rise.

"In Sierra Leone, the staff are really working very hard to contain the outbreak, so in terms of statistics we are really behind … You should understand that probably the scope of the outbreak in Sierra Leone is bigger than what we are reporting today," Formenty said.

The medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) or Doctors without Borders said on Monday that the epidemic is out of control and requires massive resources from governments and aid agencies to halt its spread.

Health workers have been able to control outbreaks in some places but it was proving more difficult in some other sites, partly due to the difficulty of convincing families about the required changes in behaviour.

"We are not there yet, we shall continue our effort. Because for me the only way we will succeed is when the people will understand clearly how dangerous it is for their life to conduct unsafe burial [practices] during an outbreak of Ebola," he said.

But he added: "This is not out of hand."

Sierra Leone's health ministry warned Friday that it is a serious crime to shelter someone infected with the Ebola virus.
 
The health ministry statement also lamented the fact that a number of patients had discharged themselves from hospital in Kenema district, where the outbreak is taking place, and gone into hiding.
 
The statement said that those interfering with the health teams would be punished.
 
In remote parts of Sierra Leone, in some cases villagers believe the drugs used to treat the disease were causing the illness.
 
The worst outbreak of the deadly Ebola virus, which has no known cure, is currently taking place in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
 
There are 176 cases in Sierra Leone with 46 fatalities.

He said the UN health agency is not considering recommending travel or trade restrictions on the three countries, calling them "drastic measures".

"We favour much more the dialogue with the affected family, the affected village and the affected district, than really trying to be a sort of sanitary police who would try to control any movement of the population."

WHO's Regional Director for Africa Luis Sambo on Thursday called for drastic action to halt what he said has turned into a cross-border crisis.

West African health ministers are due to meet in Accra, Ghana on July 2 and 3 to try to coordinate a regional response.

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Soda ban in New York City goes too far, court rules

Guzzlers prevailed Thursday as New York's highest court refused to reinstate New York City's ban on the sale of big sodas, ruling that the city's health department overstepped its bounds when approved the 16-ounce or 453- gram cap on sugary beverages.

The court largely ignored the merits of the ban in the 20-page ruling but determined the city's Board of Health engaged in policy-making, and not simply health regulations, when it imposed the restrictions on restaurants, delis, movie theatres, stadiums and street cart vendors.

Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's campaigned to stop fast food restaurants from selling super-sized, sugary drinks. (Spencer Platt/Getty)

"The Board of Health engaged in law-making beyond its regulatory authority," the opinion reads. "… It is clear that the Board of Health wrote the Portion Cap Rule without benefit of legislative guidance."

The city had hoped Thursday's ruling would overturn a lower court's decision that blocked the restrictions after restaurants, theatre owners, beverage companies and small stores sued.

In oral arguments earlier this month, attorneys for the city argued that sugary drinks are the largest source of added sugar in the American diet. They argued the restrictions were based on science, and weren't a true ban, only a limit on cup size.

Several judges on the Court of Appeals questioned where the board would draw the line.

Judge Eugene Piggott Jr. asked whether triple-decker burgers would be next. Judge Victoria Graffeo questioned the limit in light of exclusions like mixed coffee drinks loaded with more than 800 calories.

According to the American Beverage Association, New York City is the only jurisdiction attempting such a restriction, though several others around the country have tried and failed to impose special taxes on sugary drinks.

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From grocery stores to human bodies: Bar code technology turns 40

George Laurer had no idea his design would reach well beyond retail outlets when he created the black line and number sets known as the modern bar code while working for IBM as an engineer.

Forty years ago today, Laurer's creation — the Universal Product Code (UPC) — was first put to use in a U.S. grocery store. Since then, a new generation of bar code cataloguing devices has infiltrated multiple industries and even human bodies.

"I did not even envision that happening," Laurer, a Raleigh, N.C., resident who is now retired save for the occasional freelance consulting gig, said to CBC News in an email. "It was designed for the grocery industry. It proved that bar codes … were the way to go."

40 years later, UPC still in common use

On June 26, 1974, an Ohio cashier scanned Laurer's bar code, which was on a 67-cent pack of Wrigley's gum being purchased by a customer, for the first time. The Universal Product Code is still used widely today, mostly in retail stores.

The Smithsonian National Museum of American History now displays that 10-pack of gum in one of its exhibitions. It also has one of the first 10 scanners used in the Marsh supermarket where the Wrigley pack was purchased.

The first bar code did not come from Laurer.

Joe Woodland and Bernie Silver created what is affectionately dubbed the bull's-eye bar code — for its circular shape — after the food industry pleaded for someone to develop an automatic checkout system.

Before the UPC, paying for groceries could be tedious. Employees had to manually input prices for every product at the checkout and replace price tags whenever an item's cost fluctuated.

On June 26, 1974, Sharon Buchanan, a cashier at an Ohio supermarket, was the first person to scan a GS1 barcode. (GS1)

Despite successful testing of the bull's-eye bar code in an Atlanta grocery store backroom, it did not catch on.

But the grocery store industry continued to push for some type of standardization, so IBM tasked Laurer with designing a standardized bar code. He strayed from the design by Woodland and Silver, opting for a rectangular, picket-fence resembling code.

Printing presses back then could not reproduce the bull's eye code without smudging it, Laurer explains. His linear code could be arranged so that the inevitable smear only lengthened the code's bars without compromising its reading.

On April 3, 1973, a U.S. panel chose Laurer's design over seven others and designated it the UPC as the only standard for identifying products at the time.

Microchipped IDs, health care

Bar codes, now known by various names, have evolved well past supermarket shelves and into government-issued IDs, hospital rooms and even human bodies.

What is a bar code?

A code, usually scanned and read by a machine, that relays information about a product it is attached to.

Bar codes can be visually represented in a variety of ways, but the most common UPC code is a set of vertical black lines separated by white spaces with a set of numbers attached to it.

"When we look to the future, the future is really limitless," says Ryan Eickmeier, the senior director of marketing, communications and government relations at GS1. The global, not-for-profit organization designs and manages supply chain standards across the world.

One type of ID system slowly phasing out the bar code, radio frequency identification or RFID, relies on radio waves to identify people or objects. A microchip with an antenna — sometimes the same size as a grain of sand — carries information about the person or product.

While RFID is not a traditional bar code, Eickmeier recognizes it as a modern system of identifying, capturing, sharing and using information — just like the four principles behind the historic bar code. 

RFID chips are commonplace in Canadian passports and some provincial drivers' licences now. Ontario and B.C. offer RFID-chipped drivers' licences, allowing for a passport alternative when Canadians cross over the American border by car or foot.

The chips also exist in so-called contactless credit cards, which let users tap their card to a reader instead of inserting or swiping.

GS1 has been working to standardize their use in hospitals to help eliminate human error in patient care.

Toronto's North York General Hospital uses bar code scanning to ensure patients are receiving the right medication, says Eickmeier.

An automated prompt lets a caregiver know if the patient is allergic to a certain type of medication or if they are being administered the wrong dose.

"It's not just, 'Are they giving you the wrong medication?'" he says, "It goes to the food served in hospitals. Is this food right for the patient? Is this patient allergic to peanuts? Is there peanuts in this food?"

RFID chips fixed to hospital equipment can also help administration better track surgical tools and patient equipment, like wheelchairs and crutches.

A bar code for the body

Some companies have even experimented with technologies similar to bar codes inside the human body.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration once approved — with some limitations — a human microchip.

VeriChip, the size of a grain of rice, was often compared to a pet's microchip. Placed under the skin of a person, it could transmit a 16-digit ID number to a scanner during a medical emergency. First responders or doctors could cross-reference the ID with a patient directory and access the person's medical history, including any drug allergies.

A couple and their then teenage son were the first people to receive VeriChip implants in 2002. Several years later, more than 100 Alzheimer's patients and caregivers received the chip as part of a special project.

But people worried the chips could be used to track them and invade their privacy, and the company, renamed PositiveID Corp., stopped actively marketing the chip in 2009.

An 'internet of things' catalogue

Laurer predicts the UPC system will stay in place for about another decade before the industry opts for a newer system.

He points to the use of QR codes as one new technology revolutionizing the market.

QR codes are squares filled with black and white boxes that can be scanned using a smartphone. They direct the users' phone to a URL.

QR codes are often used by advertisers, but some creative minds have used them to direct prospective employers to their resumes, to inform tourists at museum exhibitions, or to allow shoppers to record personalized messages on gift tags.

But, Eickmeier has more hope in the UPC's lasting power, saying the industry has already invested in the technology necessary to use the classic bar code

"The next 40 years are really the exciting part of what can we continue to do with it," he says.

One such project is GS1's 'internet of things,' which Eickmeier says he hopes will be available to the public within the next five years.

The massive database would allow customers to scan bar codes and receive information on a product's nutrition and allergens, among other things.

While some smartphone apps already provide this service, their information is crowdfunded and not as trustworthy, Eickmeier claims.

"I think the bar code will always have a use ... in the industry," he says. "It will just have to kind of evolve with time."

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Antibiotic scientist must push discovery to market

A McMaster University scientist has discovered a compound that attacks a dangerous new class of superbugs, providing a gleam of scientific hope against the spectre of antibiotic resistance.

Disease-causing bacteria share their evolving genes at such a galloping pace that the World Health Organization has warned of an emerging global health security threat, painting a post-apocalyptic image of a world sent back to the pre-antibiotic era, where a routine cut or infection could be deadly.

Against that backdrop, Gerry Wright went looking for a chemical compound that would tackle the fiercest of the emerging threats, an enzyme known as NDM-1, a bacterial cloak of invincibility that the bugs trade with each other.

He found what he was looking for in a lowly soil fungus from a Nova Scotia forest, in a sample stored in a refrigerator in his lab along with thousands of other microbes painstakingly collected from dirt randomly gathered across Canada.

The discovery of a superbug-disarming fungus compound was deemed to be significant enough to make the cover of the prestigious journal Nature. (Nature)

Wright's discovery was deemed to be significant enough to make the cover of Nature, one of the most prestigious scientific journals in the world, an impressive accomplishment reflecting the importance Nature's editors attached to the discovery.

Taking the next step 

So what is Wright doing now?  He is rolling up his sleeves and wading into the drug development business. Otherwise he's afraid the discovery that made the cover of Nature will never get out of the lab. In other words, Wright must now work on capturing the interest of a drug company.

"The business model of drug companies has changed very significantly," Wright said. "They are more interested in acquiring assets that are very well developed, and they are looking for others to do that work, and so if we don't do it at this stage then nobody will."

It's not because he wants to get rich. Wright laughs at the suggestion.

"There are better ways to get rich than working in the antibiotics field. That's why the drug companies are out of it," he said.

The fact is, there's not enough money to be made by producing antibiotics, and many drug companies have abandoned the field, even as alarm over antibiotic-resistant bacteria grows.

It's a situation so serious that the Infectious Disease Society of America put out an urgent call to action in 2010, for 10 new antibiotics by 2020. Halfway to the goal, only three new antibiotics have been approved so far.  

There are three major reasons why large pharmaceutical companies have lost interest in antibiotics. First, the science is hard. Most of the easy antibiotics were discovered in the last century, spawning a long line of drugs that are chemical variations on a basic theme.

Secondly, there are many regulatory hurdles, and it costs millions of dollars to conduct the necessary clinical trials.

'It's clear that for logical corporate reasons we have a failure of the drug development pipeline.'—Dr. David Patrick

And finally, the blunt truth is that antibiotics don't sell that well. Unlike drugs for heart disease and other chronic conditions, antibiotics are only taken for a short time. Doctors try not to use newer antibiotics at all, in order to preserve them and protect against antibiotic resistance.

But all antibiotics have a limited lifespan. Eventually, bacteria will evolve ways to fight them off. That means the world has a constant need for new antibiotics, a demand that is not being met by supply.

"It's clear that for logical corporate reasons we have a failure of the drug development pipeline," said Dr. David Patrick, medical epidemiology lead for antimicrobial resistance at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control. "We need a better model."

Recent U.S. legislation to extend patent protection and speed up the approval process for antibiotics has prompted some activity, but studies suggest there are not nearly enough new antibiotics in development, especially against the alarming Gram negative superbugs.

'Valley of death' trial phase ahead

All of that means it will be up to Wright to push this development through what is known in the drug development business as "the valley of death," the bleak early trial phase where promising lab discoveries often falter and die.

To preserve the value of the discovery, the first thing the researchers did was take out a patent, in the name of McMaster University. Wright said that without patent protection, future investors would not be able to recover their investment, which would be substantial. It costs millions of dollars to put new molecules through all of the clinical trials that are required to convince regulators that a compound is safe and it works.

The next step is to take advantage of U.S. government funding to complete the toxicology and pharmacological studies. The U.S. National Institutes of Health has accepted Wright's molecule into a special program that will cover the cost of some initial studies and help prepare the discovery for private investment.

"If we can get these studies done, then they'll be more interested," he said. "If not, then we'll just start our own drug company."

Despite the discovery's potential, Wright is realistic. "It could fail in a microsecond. It could have some side-effects that we don't want and that could ruin it all. But so far it looks pretty good."

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High radon levels in Winnipeg military couple's home

A Winnipeg couple are living in a government-owned house, managed by the Department of National Defence, that exposes them to potentially deadly radon gas at levels exceeding the government's own guidelines, CBC News has learned.

"They wouldn't put their family members in this house, so why would they put ours?" Lindsay Olafson said. "It's very disappointing and very unethical."

Olafson and her husband, who serves in the military, moved into the home in 2012.

Three years earlier, the department had discovered that the home's radon levels were five times the Health Canada guideline, and it performed some mitigation to bring the levels down.

But Olafson said they weren't told about any of this when they moved in.

CBC News arranged to test the Olafson home, and the result revealed a level of 481 becquerels per cubic metre — about 2½ times the government guideline for radon exposure.

"It's an awful feeling trying to fall asleep at night," she said. "My husband and I could get sick from this and possibly die."

Radon is a radioactive gas that seeps into homes from decaying uranium found in rocks and soil beneath houses.

Long-term exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer.

Mitigation does not always work

The Winnipeg couple may not be alone. Starting in 2007, the federal government began testing its buildings for radon and found that nearly four per cent have readings above Health Canada guidelines.

Some buildings have since been modified to reduce the radon levels, but the process hasn't always been successful.

Olafson measured radon levels in her basement using this testing device. (CBC)

​Data obtained by CBC News on 489 affected federal buildings from 16 departments show at least six of those buildings went through radon mitigation that didn't bring levels below the guideline.

The federal departments responsible told CBC News the vast majority of the buildings have been mitigated or that mitigation and retesting were underway.

Some departments now need to go back a second time to solve the problem.

One residence used by the Canada Border Services Agency in Yukon shows an original radon reading of more than twice the guideline when tested, but two years later, that reading was still 366 becquerels per cubic metre​. More mitigation is planned.

An RCMP detachment in Doaktown, N.B., had a level of 1,438, which only dropped to 1,383 post-mitigation, but more work is planned for that building.

Dozens of buildings have not begun mitigation at all. Some are slated for disposal and some are no longer owned by the government.

Effectiveness of mitigation varies

The Department of Defence told CBC News it mitigates military houses using proven methods that include sealing cracks and installing a heat recovery ventilator.

The department's website indicates the ventilation unit would lower the radon level between 25 to 75 per cent.

Radon expert Bob Wood of Toronto said that in most cases his first choice wouldn't be a heat recovery ventilator.

"With radon being a radioactive gas in a home, we want to make sure that the system that goes in is simply the best and takes little or no maintenance," he said.

He adds that ventilators need weekly, monthly and yearly maintenance to ensure that the system is effective.

Health Canada agrees. Its own guide for radon mitigation states that continued effectiveness of a heat recovery ventilator depends on regular maintenance and that "dilution is expected to be able to reduce average radon concentrations to only about 50 per cent of the initial value."

Olafson said she wasn't told the heat recovery ventilator in her house was to prevent radon exposure, and at times she left it off.

"If they don't tell people what they are for, then what's the use?" she said. "Your house is supposed to be a safe haven, not a silent killer."

Post-mitigation testing not done

Some government departments provided full results to CBC News, including post-mitigation test results, while others either declined to answer specific building information or indicated they haven't done followup testing.

Health Canada's guidelines recommend post-mitigation testing and so does Wood.

"Days after the mitigation has been completed you are supposed to perform a short-term radon test to establish what the levels now are, to make sure that the system has been effective," Wood said.

Advice to people exposed to high radon levels

Dr. Ray Copes, chief of environmental and occupational health at Public Health Ontario, said nothing can be done about past exposure to radon, but workers can protect themselves by limiting future exposure.

"It's even more important for people to give up smoking where there are high levels of radon," he said.

"There's an interaction between radon and smoking."

Copes adds that workers have a right to know about hazards they are facing in the workplace.

"I would expect that if workers wanted to know what levels of radon were present in their workplace, and those results were available," he said.

The union that represents federal workers, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, told CBC News it will be advising its health and safety committees how to get the necessary information about past tests and how to get current tests done.

Many departments stated they've already passed on that information to their workers and health and safety committees.

Kelley Bush, head of Health Canada's national radon program, told CBC News in May the department plans to retest federal buildings.

"What we are going to do next is follow up and find out what was done from a mitigation perspective," she said. "And understand the percentage of buildings that were actually mitigated."

Olafson said that regular testing should be done in all military houses and that the department should fix her home's radon problem.

"My husband helps keep the country safe, and in turn [Canadian Forces Housing Agency] isn't keeping us safe," she said. "It should be fixed so we can live here safely."

The Department of National Defence declined an interview and would only say it planned further testing on Olafson's house in the fall of 2014.

Olafson said the military has not told her what it will do to fix her house.

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GlaxoSmithKline, flu vaccine maker, gets warning from U.S. FDA

GlaxoSmithKline received a letter of warning from the FDA about conditions at its manufacturing facility at Ste-Foy, Que., where the company makes flu vaccine for the Canadian and U.S. markets. (CBC)

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has sent a warning to the company that makes most of Canada's annual flu vaccine.

The U.S. regulator sent a letter to British drug-maker GlaxoSmithKline about conditions at the company's manufacturing facility in Ste-Foy, Que.

FDA investigators "documented deviations from current good manufacturing practice requirements" in the manufacture of the FluLaval vaccine and its intermediates," the regulator said in a letter dated June 24.

The regulator said the company had failed to take appropriate steps to prevent microbial contamination of products. The FDA also has concerns about the company's purified water systems.

The FDA warned that the company's licence to produce vaccine for the U.S market could be suspended or revoked if the problems are not fixed quickly.

GSK makes seasonal flu vaccine for the Canadian and U.S. markets. The company's FluLaval vaccine is used to immunize people aged three and older against seasonal influenza.

Cécile Tremblay, medical microbiologist and director of the Quebec Public Health Lab in Montreal, said it's not uncommon for manufacturers to have a small amount of contamination, but they must deal with it promptly.

"It's a question of being able to have processes that ensure that at every step of the manufacturing process, you will make sure that nothing avoids your attention," Tremblay said. "It seems that some of these steps were not appropriately addressed."

While the issue is serious, Tremblay stressed there isn't a public risk, and people should not be afraid to get a flu shot.

The company has 15 days to notify the FDA in writing about how it is correcting the violations. 

GSK said it's working with the agency.

"We are making progress addressing these concerns, and we are committed to working with the agency to fully resolve all outstanding issues," GSK said in a statement.

"Patient safety is our first priority and we are confident in the safety of the influenza vaccines we have provided to patients. Every batch of GSK vaccines is subject to extensive review before it is released. Vaccines that do not pass this rigorous review are discarded."

Health Canada said it is aware of the issues identified by the FDA.        

"Seasonal flu vaccines on the market currently are not impacted by these manufacturing issues," a spokeswoman for Health Canada said in an email.

"The government maintains contracts for vaccine production with a number of other companies and can request additional supply if needed," the email said.

Health Canada said it is working closely with the company and the FDA to determine the next steps.

About 600 people work at the GSK's manufacturing site at Ste-Foy.

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Nanoparticles in food, cosmetics, medical therapies catch FDA's attention

Nanotechnology has a broad range of potential applications, such as improving the packaging of food and altering the look and feel of cosmetics, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

Federal regulators in the U.S. want to hear from companies using engineered micro-particles in their products, part of an effort to stay abreast of the growing field of nanotechnology.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued final recommendations Tuesday for companies using nanotechnology in products regulated by the government, which can include medical therapies, food and cosmetics.

FDA regulators want companies to consult with the government before launching nanotechnology products, though the decision will essentially rest with manufacturers.

The guidelines don't make a judgment on the overall safety of nanotechnology or even define the term.

Industry groups generally consider nanoparticles as those less than 100 nanometers wide. A nanometer is one billionth of a meter. A human hair, for example, is 80,000 nanometers thick, while a sheet of paper is 100,000 nanometers.

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Concussion experts launch guidelines for treating kids' 'unique' brains

Emergency medicine researchers at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario and the Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation have launched recommendations aimed at treating children and teens with concussions.

Project leader Dr. Roger Zemek, director of pediatric emergency research at CHEO,​ said there was a need for recommendations specifically covering children five to 18 years old, since existing guidelines focus on adults and sport-related injuries.

"Children and adolescents are actually at a higher risk of developing concussions than adults, and we also know that children are at a higher risk of having prolonged symptoms," Zemek said Wednesday. 

"There's been recommendations out there for adults, there's been recommendations specific to sports, but we know that children do not necessarily act like little adults at all times and we know that the developing brain is unique."

The first comprehensive set of pediatric concussion guidelines were written to inform health-care providers, parents, teachers and coaches, Zemek said.

He said the thrust of the guidelines cover:

• How to recognize a concussion.
• How to determine if a family doctor, emergency doctor or pediatric specialist is needed.
• Ultimately, how to treat a concussion with rest. 

The project team spent more than two years reviewing some 4,000 academic papers in a range of pediatric health disciplines, including emergency medicine, family practitioners, neurologists and rehabilitation professionals, he said.

Click here to access the guidelines for pediatric concussions online. 

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Man faked cancer, charged with fraud, police say

A Sarnia, Ont., man who allegedly pretended to have cancer faces a fraud charge.

Sarnia police say the 52-year-old told friends he had terminal cancer.

So, they held a charity benefit to help him with the cost of treatment.

The event was held at a local bar two years ago. Food and prizes were donated.

Police say 30-50 people also paid a cover charge.

More than $2,000 was raised, according to police.

Police say there is no evidence the man had ever been diagnosed with cancer.

He was arrested Tuesday and charged with fraud under $5,000.

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Cleaner air contributes to fewer asthma, emphysema deaths

Air pollution controls help to save lives, a U.S. study suggests, as death rates from emphysema, asthma and pneumonia fell dramatically as air quality improved..

Most research has focused on a specific air pollutant or a couple of pollutants over short time periods. Now, researchers in North Carolina have cross-referenced data from air quality monitoring stations and vital statistics registries and found associations between levels of several air pollutants and deaths from respiratory diseases from 1993 to 2010.

Air quality in North Carolina improved after a series of federal and state acts reduced emissions. (Randall Hill/Associated Press)

Air quality has improved in North Carolina since the mid-1990s as U.S. and state regulations for heavy-duty truck engines, fuels and coal-burning generators were enacted. Levels of air pollutants started to drop and so did death rates.

"Our results support the hypothesis that improvement in air quality, especially declines in sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide and [a type of] particulate matter levels in the air, contributed to the improved respiratory health of the North Carolina population," Dr. Kim Lyerly, a professor of surgery at Duke University in Durham and his team concluded in Monday's issue of the International Journal of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.

The findings show environmental policies work if the goal is to improve health as well as the environment, he said.

Lyerly said emphysema and asthma deaths fell by roughly half and pneumonia deaths were cut by a third over the study period.

The findings are dramatic and maybe not entirely due to decreases in pollution, said Dr. Christopher Carlsten, who studies the health effects of air pollution at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.

"I think the study adds to the limited but growing body of evidence that the air pollution improvements in North American have had tangible benefits," said Carlsten, who holds a chair in occupational and environmental lung disease at UBC. "It would bolster the idea that we certainly shouldn't relax them."

Carlsten said the Duke study wasn't designed to fully account for falling smoking rates, which the researchers acknowledged as a limitation.

The Duke findings confirm previous studies, such as a higher prevalence of visits to emergency departments for COPD and emphysema where sulphur dioxide levels are higher.

Pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen dioxide and sulphur dioxide are considered major public health concerns that play a role in an estimated 1.4 per cent of deaths worldwide, and two per cent of all cardio-pulmonary deaths worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

The study was funded by a philanthropic donation by Fred and Alice Stanback.

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Ebola epidemic unprecedented in West Africa, medical aid group says

The Ebola virus epidemic in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia is "out of control," the medical charity Doctors without Borders said Monday as the World Health Organization works to enhance its response.

There have been 350 deaths since the epidemic began in Guinea's capital, Conakry, according to the WHO. The outbreak began in early December 2013 in Guinea, the European Centres for Disease Control and Prevention says. It is the deadliest outbreak since Ebola first emerged in 1976.

"The epidemic is out of control," said Bart Janssens, director of operations with Doctors without Borders. "With the appearance of new sites in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, there is a real risk of it spreading to other areas."

In terms of number of cases and deaths, this is the biggest outbreak of Ebola, said Marc Poncine, emergency co-ordinator for Doctors without Borders in Conakry. Poncine has also been at the centre of the epidemic in a rainforest region on the border of Sierra Leone and Liberia.

The epidemic is also unprecedented in its geographical distribution, the aid agency said.

Poncine said several factors are complicating efforts to control the current outbreak:

• Part of the population doesn't believe that Ebola exists as a contagious illness caused by a virus, so patients aren't coming to treatment centres.
• People have more confidence in traditional practitioners than the health system, which means health officials have trouble stopping the spread of the virus.
• The highest risk of infection occurs when a person dies. At funerals, people prepare the corpse and mourners also touch the body, which increases the risk of contamination.

"We are very stretched, that's for sure," said Poncine. "Patients can be cured."

Dr. Tim Jagatic of Windsor, Ont., is a general practitioner and volunteer with Doctors without Borders who was in Conakry from the end of March to mid-April, when he helped to treat the first small wave of patients.

"We were seeing good outcomes with these patients; there is a 90 per cent mortality attached with the Ebola virus, the Zaire strain, and in my personal experience we were seeing about a 50 per cent mortality rate," Jagatic said.

One of the misconceptions about Ebola surrounds the hemorrhagic part of the disease.

"One of the points of fear for many people is that they automatically assume that there is a violent hemorrhagic outburst associated with this disease," but less than half of infected patients develop those signs, Jagatic said.

The work itself is physically taxing, given the physiological stress of wearing hazard suits in 35 to 40 C heat, he recalled.

"At one point we did have a staff nurse who tested positive for Ebola. It was difficult seeing a colleague go through the emotional stress of being infected and not knowing what his outcome would be." The nurse has recovered.

In Sierra Leone, many people are worried, said Amara Bangura, a journalist in Freetown who works for BBC Media Action. He's been broadcasting health alerts on the radio to try to get the word out about the warning signs, travel restrictions and health precautions.

"In most traditional areas, people do not strongly believe that the virus does exist. What they believe is that this whole sickness is caused by evil spirits," Bangura said.

"It complicates things for the Ministry of Health and other health workers particularly, because people are refusing to go to the medical test centres that have been spotted in the Kailahun district."

Canada's government has responded to the World Health Organization's request for assistance. The Public Health Agency of Canada has deployed a team of scientists and a mobile lab to Guinea to contribute to efforts to control and stop the Ebola outbreak, a spokeswoman for the agency said.

In an update, the WHO said it is working with the West African governments to provide technical expertise.

The WHO plans a two-day regional meeting in Accra, Ghana, for July 2.

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Medical marijuana's benefits debated

Deciding when to prescribe medical marijuana is contentious for Canadian doctors. (Steve Dipaola/Reuters)

Many doctors remain ambivalent about prescribing medical marijuana for chronic pain, even though new federal rules allow patients in Canada to legally purchase dried cannabis with a doctor's prescription, a debate recently highlighted in a medical journal.

Monday's issue of the Canadian Medical Association Journal includes two pro and con commentaries: 

• New medical marijuana regulations: The coming storm
• Medicinal cannabis: Time to lighten up?

Dr. Meldon Kahan of the Substance Use Service at Toronto's Women's College Hospital and Dr. Anita Srivastava of St. Joseph's Health Centre and the University of Toronto argue physicians should advise some patients to quit smoking marijuana and refer them to treatment.

Kahan and Srivastava say the only clear indications for medical marijuana are neuropathic pain conditions (a type of chronic pain that affects the nerves) and spasticity from multiple sclerosis. Smoking cannabis is not recommended for common pain conditions such as fibromyalgia or lower back pain, they say.

Patients will ask doctors to prescribe cannabis for chronic pain but physicians need help to understand how to counsel people about the requests.

"Smoked cannabis has short-term and long-term safety risks," the pair wrote. "Smoking cannabis has been associated with an increased risk of motor vehicle crashes, schizophrenia, mood disorders and addiction."

Some of the products in smoked cannabis are carcinogenic, and a recent large long-term retrospective study showed an increased risk of lung cancer, the pair said.

Prescriptions should state that the producer supply a strain with no more than nine per cent THC, the main psychoactive ingredient in cannabis, Kahan and Srivastava said.

For people who smoke marijuana, they suggested doctors advise:

• Don't light up daily.
• Don't mix it with alcohol or sedating drugs.
• Don't drive after smoking.

Dr. David Juurlink, an internist and head of the division of clinical pharmacology at the University of Toronto, said doctors shouldn't accede to every request for medical cannabis as if it were an "innocuous panacea" because it is not.

But doctors also shouldn't reject cannabis as a medicine out of hand just because it makes them feel uncomfortable, he said. Concerns about pot's safety and effectiveness shouldn't deter doctors from prescribing it in some cases, especially when opioid drugs like oxycodone carry heavier baggage in terms of toxicity.

"I'm trying to discourage physicians from the perception that drugs obtained at a pharmacy are necessarily better for an individual patient than cannabis, if a patient has reported benefits from its use," Juurlink said.

Juurlink's motivation was partly a patient he saw in hospital with a long history of anxiety and a litany of psychotropic medications who almost took his own life in response to the addition of a new drug.

When Juurlink spoke to the man, he said the only time he felt relief was when he smoked a joint in the evening while walking the dog. Juurlink said the story resonated with him and prompted him to suggest that the man talk to his family doctor about medical marijuana.

In cases such as this man's, Juurlink advocates for doctors to make decisions about prescribing cannabis when it is sometimes deemed the right thing to do, just as every other prescription decision is made after balancing the risks, benefits and patient-specific factors.

Marijuana can also be inhaled through a vaporizer, which a hospital in Sherbrooke, Que., recently approved.

Two costly pharmaceutical synthetic cannabinoids, the pill nabilone and the spray nabiximol, are licensed for use in Canada and avoid the respiratory effects of smoking marijuana.

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