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HSE Warns Employers About The Safety Of Equipment After Worker's Hand Is Damaged By Rotating Blades, UK
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning employers to ensure they assess the safety of equipment and ensure that it is sufficiently guarded after an employee"s left hand was severely damaged by the rotating blades of a valve that forms part of the extraction system in a metal recycling process.

U.N. Calls For Investing In Women To Ensure Economic Recovery, Reduce 'Health Gap'
To mark World Population Day on July 11, U.N. officials are calling for investment in women and girls during the global financial crisis as a way to promote economic recovery and tackle poverty and inequality, afrol News reports. "There is no smarter investment in troubled times," Thoraya Ahmed Obaid, executive director of UNFPA, said. According to Obaid, even before the financial downturn, women and girls were the majority of the world"s poor. "Now, they are falling deeper into poverty and face increased health risks, especially if they are pregnant," she said, adding that the "health gap" will get bigger "unless we increase social investments, maintain health gains and expand efforts to save more women"s lives."
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Blogs Comment On Sotomayor Confirmation Hearings, Health Reform, Other Topics
The following summarizes selected women"s health-related blog entries.~ "Judge Sotomayor Provides Important Testimony on the Constitutional Right to Privacy and Its Application to Reproductive Rights," Marcia Greenberger, Womenstake: "One major line of questions, asked repeatedly throughout the hearings" for President Obama"s Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor was her "views on the constitutional right to privacy," Greenberger writes, adding, "Given that this right is central to women"s lives, protecting" such "decisions involving whether to bear children ... and having consensual adult sexual relations, it is important to analyze Judge Sotomayor"s answers carefully." According to Greenberger, because Sotomayor "had not ruled directly on the right to privacy as a federal judge, her testimony in this area warrants particular attention." Following questions from senators such as Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Sotomayor portrayed a "clear agreement with the right to privacy and strong description of the court"s current precedents regarding Roe and women"s health," which "lend[s] further support to the view from her legal record that she would not undermine Roe v. Wade if confirmed to the Supreme Court" (Greenberger, Womenstake, 7/16). ~ "Major Steps Forward for Health Care Reform," Thao Nguyen, Womenstake: Nguyen, outreach manager for the National Women"s Law Center, reports that the health care reform legislation passed by the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee is "particularly important for women because of the critical headway it makes towards women"s ability to secure access to quality, affordable health care throughout their lives." The bill "works towards confronting many of the particular obstacles faced by women in our current health care system," such as banning the "discriminatory" practice of basing insurance premiums on gender, even when maternity benefits are excluded, Nguyen writes. The bill also bans insurance companies from rejecting patients based on medical history, which has prevented many domestic violence survivors and women who have had caesarean sections from obtaining coverage. Nguyen concludes that "the momentum for health care reform could not have come at a more needed time" because women and their families "need quality, affordable and comprehensive health more than ever" (Nguyen, Womenstake, 7/15).~ "Democrats for Life of America Ousts Member Who Supports Contraception," Feministing: Feministing reports that Democrats for Life of America removed Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio) from its advisory board because he supports efforts to improve access to contraception. According to Ryan, he was dismissed from the board after four years after attempting to persuade the group to support contraceptive use as a way to avoid unintended pregnancies. According to the blog, "This is why we call anti-choicers "anti-choice": because they"re not just about making abortion illegal." It adds, "They don"t want women to have access to contraception either -- something that 98% of American women will use at some point in their lives" (Feministing, 7/15). ~ "Umpires, Perspective and the Supreme Court," Jim Wallis, Sojourners" "God"s Politics": "During his opening remarks for his own confirmation hearing in 2005, Chief Justice [John] Roberts made" an analogy between judges and umpires "that has gotten a lot of play in the media and has already been used quite a few times during" Sotomayor"s confirmation hearing, Wallis writes. He adds that "nothing in the world would frustrate me more than an umpire who would call the game differently based upon the color of the jersey that" players were wearing. "But I haven"t seen that happen," Wallis writes, adding, "In fact, the biggest problem we face isn"t an umpire that has favored one team over the other, but umpires who make mistakes in their rulings and judgment because of their lack of perspective." He adds that Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and "others w
Cardiovascular

Ambulance Phone Triage System Misses More Than 50% Of Stroke Patients

[Is ambulance telephone triage using advanced medical priority despatch protocols able to identify patients with acute stroke correctly? Emerg Med J 2009; 26: 442-5] The ambulance phone triage system misses more than 50 per cent of people who have had a stroke, reveals research published in Emergency Medicine Journal. The triage system relies on computer software (Advanced Medical Priority Dispatch Software, or AMPDS) to code the level of emergency from the verbal description of symptoms provided by the caller to prioritise the ambulance response. AMPDS contains several stroke related questions, and people who are unconscious are automatically graded as Category A, which merits an 8 minute ambulance response. Stroke patients who are still conscious warrant a 19 minute response (Category B). There are around 110,000 cases of stroke each year in the UK. Stroke is the third most common cause of death and the leading cause of severe disability. An ambulance is called to around half of people who have had a stroke, and the evidence shows that prompt treatment can significantly reduce the risk of major disability and death. The authors compared the software based clinical coding with the clinical diagnosis made by a doctor for all patients admitted by ambulance from one regional service to the emergency department of one major hospital in southern England. During the six month study period, almost 5000 patients were admitted by ambulance, 126 of whom were subsequently diagnosed by a doctor as having had a stroke. But use of AMPDS only picked up 60 patients who had had a stroke; the remaining 66 were given another diagnosis. Fewer than one in four stroke patients were given a Category A ambulance response, and 3% were given a Category C response (60 minute response). The system also coded 62 other patients as having had a stroke, when they had other problems. AMPDS was developed to help call takers, most of whom have no medical training, and only up to 21 hours of dispatcher training, to prioritise symptoms accurately. Since 2002, all UK ambulance services have used some decision based tool, and most use AMPDS. This system is also widely used throughout the rest of Europe and America. "This first link in the chain of survival needs strengthening in order provide prompt and timely emergency care for these patients," conclude the authors, calling for the Category B response for conscious stroke patients to be upgraded to Category A. British Medical Journal


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