Month: May 2008

"We have such a good relationship with the Myanmar people, and we never empower ourselves," said Cathy Bradner, 52, preparing to take a shipment of water purification tablets and filtration equipment into Yangon, the country's largest city.

"We always empower them, and I think that's why they like us."

Visas have become a sought-after prize for Western aid workers, foreign disaster specialists and journalists waiting for permission to enter Myanmar following the May 3 cyclone that flooded a large swath of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta. More than 60,000 people were killed or are missing, and more than a million are homeless, according to the U.N.

Some aid has started trickling in, with the first U.S. shipment delivered Monday by a military cargo plane. But the authoritarian government has restricted most foreigners from leaving the airport after supplies are unloaded. Many agencies fear relief is not reaching those who desperately need it, as diarrhea spreads and a lack of food and clean water heightens fears that thousands more could die.

"It's killing (victims) that we're sitting here," said Rahul Singh, a paramedic with Toronto-based Global Medic, who was stuck in Bangkok waiting for the go-ahead to enter Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"I was grinding my teeth so hard I snapped a tooth. That's how frustrated I am."

When Singh found out about the Bradners' access to the country, he asked them to carry in the aid group's supplies. On Sunday, Curt Bradner, 53, got in, followed a day later by colleague Bryan Berenguer of Virginia Beach, Va. They hauled in water filtration pumps that run on car batteries and more than a million purification tablets — enough to provide clean drinking water to about 20,000 people.

"We are giving it to local (aid agencies) who are distributing it out to needy areas," Berenguer said by telephone from Yangon. "We're basically trying to bring things in and coordinate with" Myanmar-run aid groups.

The military junta is extremely distrustful of the United States, which has been the loudest critic of its human rights record. But the Bradners, who spend nine months of the year in Myanmar working on their water project, Thirst-Aid, and the rest fundraising in the U.S., say their experience shows Americans can work with the regime.

"I really believe the world wants Burma to look like a horrible place, but it's not always evil," Cathy Bradner said.

While Myanmar's military regime encourages tourism, it limits most stays to two weeks, with longer ones granted to businessmen, especially those who fuel the economy, as well as U.N. and other aid groups. But long-term visas that allow travel in and out of the country, like those granted to the Bradners, are rare.

Cathy Bradner said she and the others at Thirst-Aid realize this rare opportunity allows them to ferry in much-needed aid.

"We're mules, we carry things in," she said. "Despite the disaster some really positive things are going on. The monks are helping distribute aid and they are setting up distribution centers."

Since the cyclone struck, even the United Nations has been having problems getting visas for its aid workers, especially Westerners. And for the few allowed in, most are confined to Yangon — hours away from the worst-hit delta areas where people are living without shelter and drinking water contaminated by dead bodies and animal carcasses.

The Bradners, who married 33 years ago, sold their house in Gunnison, Colo., along with their small engineering business and all of their possessions to go on a world tandem bicycling trek nearly a decade ago. They started working with Burmese orphans during that adventure and vowed to find a way to help people living in the impoverished country.

During the 2004 Asian tsunami, they used their mechanical engineering background to make ceramic water filters for victims in Thailand. They brought the technology to Myanmar in 2006 and say they started Thirst-Aid with the backing of UNICEF.

It is run by Burmese, who produce water filters at two factories. One was damaged by the cyclone, but Cathy Bradner said they are producing about 100 filters a day for victims desperate for clean water.

The filters, which resemble ceramic flower pots, are made out of clay with a rice-husk lining. They are porous so the water can filter through, trapping nearly all of the bacteria. A colloidal silver coating is added to kill any remaining bacteria.

The filters sell for about $3 each and will last as long as they're not broken. But the Bradners do not profit from them.

"We don't get a dime," Cathy Bradner said, adding that the plan was always to turn the project over to Burmese — a local potter who operates one factory in Twante and a Myanmar non-governmental group in charge of the other in Yangon. "We just come and help set them up and build capacity."

They fund the project, which runs on about $75,000 a year, through donations from Rotary and church groups, and by giving slide shows at sporting goods stores, private homes, coffee shops — "begging for dollars" from anyone willing to help, she said.

Daughters Bree Ervin, 29, of Eugene, Ore., and Willow Bradner, 31, of Denver, help with the fundraising, and run the group's Web site.

"I am so entangled in this country," Cathy Bradner said. "It's not about governments, it's about people and they need water."

Overall, nearly 4,900 families have filed claims with the U.S. Court of Claims alleging that vaccines caused autism and other neurological problems in their children. Lawyers for the families are presenting three different theories of how vaccines caused autism. The theory at issue Monday was whether vaccines containing the preservative thimerosal caused autism.

Lynn Ricciardella, a Justice Department lawyer, said that theory has not moved beyond the realm of speculation. She said that the Institute of Medicine and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have rejected any link between thimerosal and autism.

"There is no scientific debate," Ricciardella said. "The debate is over."

Autism is a developmental disability that typically appears during the first three years of life and affects a person's ability to communicate and interact with others. Medical experts don't have a comprehensive understanding of what causes autism, but they do know there is a strong hereditary component.

Thimerosal has been removed in recent years from standard childhood vaccines, except flu vaccines that are not packaged in single doses. The CDC says single-dose flu shots currently are available only in limited quantities.

Under a two-decades-old program, individuals claiming injury from a vaccine must file a petition for "no-fault" compensation with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. The secretary of Health and Human Services replaces the vaccine manufacturer or vaccine administrator to defend the claim.

Two 10-year-old boys from Portland, Ore., will serve as test cases to determine whether thousands of families can be compensated. Attorneys for the boys will try to show they were happy, healthy and developing normally — but, after being exposed to vaccines with thimerosal, they began to regress.

To win, the attorneys for the two boys, William Mead and Jordan King, will have to show that it's more likely than not that the vaccine actually caused the injury, which they described as regressive autism.

Tom Powers, one of the boys' attorneys, acknowledged that the evidence showing thimerosal led to regressive autism was indirect and circumstantial. Still, it's clear in the case of the two boys that they did not show any symptoms of autism until after they had received all their immunizations.

"Each of them had developed normally and typically well after their first year in life," Powers said.

The attorneys for the two boys said that a study in monkeys showed that mercury could ignite "neuroinflammation" in the brain, and such inflammation is the hallmark of somebody with autism. They also noted that previous studies of thimerosal were focused on autism, rather than on a more rare, specific form of the disorder that they described as regressive autism.

The first witness for the families, Sander Greenland, a professor at the UCLA School of Public Health, said published studies he reviewed failed to separate regressive autism from other types of autism when looking at thimerosal, thus they allow for a substantial association of the vaccines with clearly regressive autism.

Under the vaccine compensation program, officials titled special masters serve as the trial judges. The hearing that began Monday involved three special masters who will hear the evidence and determine whether thimerosal belongs on the list of causes for regressive autism. The rulings are appealable to the Court of Federal Claims.

If the families are successful, they could be entitled to damages that cover lost income after one turns 18 and up to $250,000 for pain and suffering.

Many members of the medical community are skeptical of the families' claims. They worry that the claims about the dangers of vaccines could cause some people to forgo vaccines that prevent illness.

Ricciardella argued that a marketing consultant fanned publicity about the supposed link between thimerosal and autism in a journal called Medical Hypothesis. She described the journal as willing to publish radical ideas, so long as they are coherent. She also said the authors pay to have the article published.

But Powers said those questioning conventional wisdom in the case cannot be easily dismissed.

"These are doctors who are willing to challenge the establishment on behalf of their patients," Powers said.

The court Web site says more than 12,500 claims have been filed since creation of the program in 1987, including more than 5,300 autism cases, and more than $1.7 billion has been paid in claims. It says there is now more than $2.7 billion in a trust fund supported by an excise tax on each dose of vaccine covered by the program.

Silver’s antibacterial properties have been known for thousands of years, and silver nanoparticles offer superior antibacterial activity while being non-toxic.  However, coatings containing antimicrobial agents have failed commercially in the past due to their complex, multi-step preparation methods and high cost of production.

The CCNY/Rice team developed a “green chemistry” approach to synthesize metal nanoparticles in common household paints in situ without using hazardous reagents and solvents.  “We extensively worked on poly-unsaturated hydrocarbon chain containing polymers/oils to devise a novel approach to nanoparticle formation” said Dr. George John, Professor of Chemistry at CCNY and lead author of the article.

Polyunsaturated hydrocarbons undergo auto-oxidation-induced cross-linking, which is similar to lipid peroxidation, the process by which fatty acids are oxidized in biological systems.  During this process a variety of chemically active species called ‘free radicals’ are generated.  These were used by the group as a tool to prepare metal nano-particles in situ in the oil medium.

“The simplicity of the process and economics should allow us to commercialize these paints as a versatile coating material for health and environmental applications” says Dr. Pulickel M. Ajayan, Professor of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science at Houston-based Rice University, and co-author.

“Using the same approach we should be able to produce a large variety of nano-particle dispersions useful in applications ranging from healthcare to catalysis,” added co-investigator Dr. Ashavani Kumar, a postdoctoral research associate at Rice.

The nanoparticle embedded coating can be applied like traditional paints to such surfaces as metal, wood, polymers, glass, and ceramics.  The metal nanoparticles show characteristic color but avoid the use of short shelf-life organic pigment paints.

In addition, these coatings exhibited efficient antibacterial activity toward Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus).  The antibacterial property is important for hospitals and other public buildings that are prone to bacterial growth, a main cause of infection and disease.

“We have been working on developing various in situ methods for organic soft matter-mediated metal nanoparticle synthesis,” noted Dr. Praveen Kumar Vemula, one of the investigators.  “However, to date, the present approach is the smartest as it is devised based on utilization of naturally occurring process.”

By Anna Boyd

Thursday was not the perfect day for swimming for Debbie Shoemaker of Toledo, Ohio. As she was enjoying a bath in Treasure Island waters, near the city of St. Petersburg she had the unpleasant surprise to have a pelican crashing into her cheek. The bird was apparently diving for fish.