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Show Page 13 Wor/rf&Nation Friday, Sept. 26, 2008 Mama's milk ice cream cone, anyone? WATERBURY, Vt. (AP) - Mooove over, Holsteins. PETA wants world-famous Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to tap nursing moms, rather than cows, for the milk used in its ice cream. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cows milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product. The idea got a cool reception Thursday from Ben & Jerrys officials, the company's customers and even La Leche League International, the world's oldest breast-feeding support organization, which promotes the practice - for babies, anyway. PETA wrote a letter to company founders Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield on Tuesday, telling them cow's milk is hazardous and that milking them is cruel. "If Ben and Jerrys replaced the cow's milk in its ice cream with breast milk, your customers - and cows - would reap the benefits," wrote Tracy Reiman, executive vice president of the animal rights advocacy group. She said dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies and obesity. Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA, acknowledged the implausibility of substituting breast milk for cow's milk, but said it's no stranger than humans consuming the milk of another species. "We're aware this idea is somewhat absurd, and that putting it into practice is a stretch. At the time same, it's pretty absurd for us to be drinking the milk of cows," she said. It takes about 12 pounds - or ID gallons of milk - to maKt a gallon of ice cream. Ben & Jerry's, which gets its milk exclusively from Vermont cows, won't say how much milk it uses or how much ice cream it sells. As a standardized product under federal regulations, ice cream must be made with milk from healthy cows. Ice cream made from goat's milk, for example, would have to be labeled as such. Presumably, so would mother's milk ice cream. To Ben & Jerry s, the idea is udderly ridiculous. "We applaud PETA's novel approach to bringing atten- tion to an issue, but we believe a mothers milk is best used for her child," spokesman Sean Greenwood said in an e-mail. He didn't respond to requests for an interview. Leon Berthiaume, general manager of the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, which provides milk products to Ben & Jerry's, called the dairy products "among the safest in the world." "Milk from cows has longterm health benefits and has been proven to be safe and healthy and an important part of the American diet for generations," he said. "I'm not ready to make that change." Cow's milk and mother's milk aren't interchangeable, according to La Leche spokeswoman Jane Crouse, who says breast milk is a dynamic substance that's different with each woman and each child and might have difficulty being processed into ice cream. Then there's the question of who would provide the milk, and whether they'd be paid. "Some women feel compelled to donate milk to a milk bank for adopted babies, or for someone who's ill or unable to breast feed. There's A YOUNGSTER BATTLES W I T H A N ICE CREAM CONE in front of the Ben & Jerry s ice cream shop in Montpelier, Vt. The Virginia-based nonprofit group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants Ben & Jerry's Homemade Ice Cream to consider making human breast milk instead of cow's milk in their products. AP photo plenty of anecdotal evidence about sisters who nurse each others' babies. There's a population of women very willing to share their milk. Whether there's enough to do it for a commercial entity, who can say?" she said. At the Ben & Jerry's factory in Waterbury, consumers gave a collective "Evvww" to the idea Thursday. "It's kind of creepy," said Jeff Waugh, 42, of Dayton, Ohio. "I think it's a little nutty," said the Rev. Roger Wooton, 83, of Maiden, Mass., finishing up a cup of Heath Bar Crunch. "How would they get all that milk?" said his wife, Jane Wooton, 77. Jen Wahlbrink, 34, of Phoenix, who breast-fed her 11-month-old son, Cameron, said she wouldn't touch ice cream made from mother's milk. She remembers her nursing days - and not that fondly. "The (breast) pumps just weren't that much fun. You really do feel like a cow," she said, cradling her son in her hands. Nine kids abandoned under Neb. law WASTE IS SECURED INSIDE STEEL DRUMS, encased in concrete vaults in an uncapped trench at Energy Solutions in Barnwell, S.C. A South Carolina law that took effect July I ended nearly all disposal of radioactive material at the landfill, leaving 36 states with no place to throw out such stuff. AP photo Nuclear waste piles up at hospitals OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Nine siblings are among 11 children as old as 17 who were left at Omaha hospitals Wednesday under Nebraska's unique and new safe haven law, which allows caregivers to abandon babies and teenagers alike at hospitals without fear of prosecution. The law, originally intended to protect infants, was expanded in a legislative compromise to protect any "child." Some have interpreted that to mean anyone under 19. - Gov. Davejtieineman, whov signed the law, and some other former supporters are among those now saying changes are needed. "People are leaving them off just because they can't control them," state Sen. Arnie Stuthman, who introduced the original bill, said Thursday. "They're probably in no real danger, so it's an easy way out for the caretakn BARNWELL, S.C. (AP) - Tubes, capsules and pellets of used radioactive material are piling up in the basements and locked closets of hospitals and research installations around the country, stoking fears they could get lost or, worse, stolen by terrorists and turned into dirty bombs. For years, truckloads of low-level nuclear waste from most of the U.S. were taken to a rural South Carolina landfill. There, items such as the rice-size radioactive seeds for treating cancer and pencil-thin nuclear tubes used in industrial gauges were sealed in concrete and buried. But a South Carolina law that took effect July 1 ended nearly all disposal of radioactive material at the landfill, leaving 36 states with no place to throw out some of the stuff. So labs, universities, hospitals and manufacturers are storing more and more of it on their own property. "Instead of safely secured in one place, it's stored in thousands of places in urban locations all over the United States," said Rick Jacobi, a nuclear waste consultant and former head of a Texas agency that unsuccessfully tried to create a disposal site for that state. State and federal authorities say the waste is being monitored, but they acknowledge that it is difficult to track and inspected as little as once everyfiveyears. Government documents and dozens of Associated Press interviews with nuclear waste generators, experts, watchdogs and officials show that thousands of these small radioactive items have already been lost, and that worries are growing. "They'll end up offered up on eBay and flea markets and sent to landfills, or metal recycling plants - places where you don't want them to be," said Stephen Browne, radiation control officer at Troxler Electronic Laboratories, one of the world's largest manufacturers of industrial gauges that use radioactive material. There are millions of radioactive devices in use for which there is no long-term disposal plan. These include tiny capsules of radioactive cesium isotopes implanted to kill cancerous cells; cobalt-60 pellets that power helmet-like machines used to focus radioactive beams on diseased brain tissue; and cobalt and powdered cesium inside irradiation machines that sterilize medical equipment and blood. Most medical waste can simply be stored until its radioactivity subsides within a few years, then safely thrown out with the regular trash. Some institutions store their radioactive material in lead-lined safes, behind doors fitted with alarms and covered with yellow-and-black radiation warning signs. Yet in 2003, the federal Government Accountability Office reported there wasn't even a record of how many radioactive sources existed nationwide. In June, the GAO concluded that while there has been progress, more must be done to track radioactive material to prevent it from falling into terrorists' hands and ending up in a dirty bomb, or one that uses conventional explosives to scatter radiation. er. The nine siblings - five boys and four girls ages 1 to 17 - were left by their father, who was not identified, at Creighton University Medical Center's emergency room, according to the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. Unrelated boys ages 11 and 15 also were surrendered Wednesday at Immanuel Medical Center. At least 16 children have been abandoned since the law took effect in July, the state agency said. Todd Landry, director of the state division of Children ^andWmllyoefVices,^sVioftfaa in nearly every case, the parents who left their children felt overwhelmed and had decided they didn't want to be parents anymore. None of the kids dropped off so far have been in danger, he said. "It was the parents not wanting to continue the journey with their kids," Landry said Thursday at a news conference in Lincoln. The department was still investigating Wednesday's drop-offs. The abandoned sib- lings were in no danger and it wasn't clear why their father gave them up, Landry said. Five of the nine siblings were placed in a foster home and the rest were taken to an emergency shelter, he said. The department was working on a new arrangement that would keep the kids together. In the other cases on Wednesday, one child was temporarily placed in foster care and the other was in the hospital for evaluation. Youngsters abandoned under tne sarenaverTlaw are generally placed in protective custody while the courts decide where the child should live. Parental rights don't end automatically but parents who change their minds about abandonment may find it difficult to regain custody. A county attorney may determine that a child should be allowed to return home, Landry said. Nebraska was the last state in the nation to adopt a safe haven law. Under previous law, a parent who abandoned a baby could have been charged with child neglect or abandonment, both misdemeanors, or child abuse, a felony. Sen. Stuthman said he introduced the bill intending to protect infants. In a compromise with senators worried about arbitrary age limits, the measure was expanded. Though the governor has called for changes to the safe haven law, the Legislature c^e^'iioTnie^rTifiTfFllhuar When asked whether Heineman would call a special session, his spokeswoman said the focus now is on educating parents about alternatives to abandonment. Speaker of the Legislature Mike Flood said he talked with Heineman on Thursday about the recent uses of the law. Flood, of Norfolk, said other state senators have also been discussing what changes need to be made. Govt. probes chelation-heart disease study (AP) - The largest alternative medicine study the government has ever launched has stopped enrolling people while officials investigate whether participants were fully informed of the risks and are being adequately protected, The Associated Press has learned. More than 1,500 heart attack survivors are involved in the research, which tests a controversial treatment called chelation. It is mainly used to treat lead poisoning. More than two people have died, although the Miami doctor leading the study said the deaths were not a direct result of the treatments. He said he doesn't know exactly how many deaths have occurred. He also acknowledged that some doctors who had been involved in the study have been disciplined by state boards or have criminal records and have been asked to drop out. "We think we have a safe and ethical trial and we're protecting our patients," said the leader, Dr. Gervasio Lamas of the University of Miami. Federal officials confirmed their probe of the $30 million study on Thursday. Those directing the research, conducted at 100 sites around the United States and Canada, voluntarily stopped enrolling patients earlier this month, after the investigation was launched. The research was designed to test very high doses of vitamin and mineral supplements and chelation, which has not been proved effective for heart disease. Chelation (pronounced kee-LAY-shun) involves intravenous doses of a drug, in this case disodium EDTA, that proponents claim will bind to calcium built up in artery walls and help flush it from the body. Conventional treatments for heart disease include medicines, surgery and arteryclearing angioplasty. When the study was approved in 2002, federal officials said many heart patients were exploring chelation therapy, and the research would give answers about whether the treatment was safe and effective. A similar philosophy was behind an effort to test chelation on autistic children. However, the government recently scrapped that plan, citing safety concerns as one reason. The heart disease study was based on misrepresentations about safety and effectiveness and "should never have been approved," said Dr. Kimball Atwood, an anesthesiologist in suburban Boston and an assistant clinical professor at Tufts University. He and several others sent a complaint about the heart study to the federal research protection agency, and recently published a lengthy report detailing alleged problems. "The consent form is inadequate. It doesn't tell people, for example, that people have died from this drug," said a report co-author, Liz Woeckner. She is president of Citizens for Responsible Care and Research, or CIRCARE, a nonprofit group focused on research safety. More than half of the doctors running the study make money by selling chelation treatments - a conflict of interest, critics say. Study documents misrepresent what previous, smaller chelation studies have found and "omit abundant evidence of injuries and deaths," Atwood wrote. Woeckner and Atwood's article alleges problems with the licenses of several doctors who had roles in the trial, including a couple with criminal records. "That's frightening to me as a potential subject" in the study, Woeckner said. The federal Office for Human Research Protections determined there was merit to the complaint and opened an investigation, spokeswoman Pat El-Hinnawy said. Until June when he joined the University of Miami's Miller School of Medicine, Lamas had been at Mo.unt Sinai Medical Center and the Miami Heart Institute in Miami Beach, Fla. After the federal agency opened the probe, the study's leaders decided to stop enrolling subjects until it was resolved. People already enrolled are still being treated, said a spokeswoman for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is sponsoring the study with the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine. The American College for Advancement in Medicine, a group of chelation practitioners who helped design and run the research, put a statement on its Web site addressing the matter. The group vowed to work with Lamas "to answer the unfounded allegations of impropriety" and said federal officials "will find that the allegations are of a political nature." "We call for a swift end to the moratorium and resumption of the trial," says the statement by the group's president. Dr. Jeanne Drisko. Lamas said that any study involving older heart attack survivors was bound to have deaths. After federal officials questioned one death that study investigators had deemed unrelated to the trial, a change was made to report all deaths to the federal Food and Drug Administration, he said. |