WHAT'S NEW Friday, September 10, 2004

WHAT'S NEW   Robert L. Park   Friday, 10 Aug 04   Washington, DC

1. SUPPLEMENTS: ANCIENT CHINESE WISDOM - OR A DEADLY HERBAL SCAM? 
Two years ago WN related the tale of PC-SPES, a mixture of seven
Chinese herbs sold by Botanic Labs to promote "prostate health" 
www.aps.org/WN/WN02/wn090602.cfm.  WN learned about it from Paul
Goldberg, editor of the Cancer Letter, a Washington publication. 
Sunday's Washington Post carried a front-page account of the PC-
SPES disaster with new details.  Thanks to the Dietary Supplement
and Health Education Act of 1994, PC-SPES was marketed without
testing, since no claim was made that it could cure any disease 
www.aps.org/WN/WN04/wn040904.cfm.  But it seemed to work as well
as prescription drugs for prostate cancer.  That's because the
mish-mash of herbs was laced with prescription drugs.  Patients
were grateful to have a "natural" product.  At least they were
until their penis shrank and their breasts grew.  It seems PC-
SPES included a synthetic estrogen.  There was also a problem
with blood clots, but Botanic fixed that by adding warfarin, a
blood thinner widely used as rat poison.  We'll come back to
passage of the 1994 Dietary Supplement and Health Education Act. 

2. CLIMATE CHANGE: THE CONFERENCE BOARD STARTS PAYING ATTENTION.
A non-profit organization of some 2,000 major corporations from
around the world, the Conference Board is best known for monthly
surveys of consumer confidence and economic indicators.  But on
Tuesday, it issued a report Climate Change: Clear Trajectory  
Haze in the Details, warning that "businesses that ignore the
debate over climate change do so at their peril."  The report
concludes: "The Earth - for whatever the exact reasons - is on a
trajectory toward an ever warmer climate.  This cannot be avoided
at this point, but the trajectory can be jiggled and potential
risks associated with the warming can be mitigated.  Ultimately
the trajectory could be reversed."  The political climate for
acknowledging warming is improved.  Just two weeks ago, the U.S.
Climate Change Program submitted its report to Congress, putting
the blame squarely on increased greenhouse gases (WN 27 Aug 04).  

3. NASA: HURRICANES ON THE CAPE AND A ROUGH LANDING IN UTAH.  
The shuttle fleet, it seems, is not safe even in its hanger on
Earth.  The Genesis mission was to be the first sample return
since Apollo 17.  It had been collecting solar wind particles for
three years, but its parachute failed to deploy and it crashed in
the Utah desert.  Whether any data can be salvaged is not clear.

4. NIH: FREE PUBLIC ACCESS TO AGENCY FUNDED RESEARCH IS PROPOSED. 
The move could drive some journals out of business and bankrupt
scientific societies that depend on journal profits.  But given
society's rising expectations of access, change seems inevitable.


THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND.  
Opinions are the author's and not necessarily shared by the
University of Maryland, but they should be.
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