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Pet Bedding Company Fined After Migrant Worker Injured In Shredder, UK
Companies are being reminded of their duty to protect their workforce, especially workers from other countries, after a migrant worker employed at a pet bedding company suffered serious injuries in a shredder.
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MitraClip(R) Therapy Data Demonstrate Clinical Benefit In High-Risk Patients With Mitral Regurgitation
Results show percutaneous mitral repair using the MitraClip(R) system in symptomatic high-risk surgical patients with either functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) or degenerative mitral regurgitation (DMR) improves patient clinical status. The results from the 78 patient EVEREST II High Risk Registry demonstrated improvement in left ventricular function and reduced hospitalization for congestive heart failure for both MR groups at twelve months. Additionally, a reduction in mortality compared to the predicted mortality risk of surgery was reported for the registry. The results of the High-Risk Registry were presented at the third annual meeting of EuroPCR, the official congress of the European Association of Percutaneous Cardiovascular Interventions (EAPCI).
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GOP Senators Signal They Will Not Block Sotomayor; Full Senate Vote Expected By Aug. 7
Senate Republicans on Thursday said that they do not plan to block a vote on Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor, the Washington Post reports. Senate Judiciary Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) told Sotomayor that he would not support any effort to filibuster her nomination, meaning that she would need a simple majority of 50 votes to be confirmed. Because Democrats hold 60 votes in the Senate, Sessions" comments effectively end "any possible suspense over her fate," according to the Post (Kane et al., Washington Post, 7/17). Sessions said, "I will not support and I don"t think any member of this side will support a filibuster or any attempt to block a vote on your nomination," adding, "I look forward to you getting that vote before we recess in August." According to CQ Politics, Sessions" statement that Republicans will not filibuster "is bound to rile conservative activists," who have urged GOP senators to delay the vote to allow more time to build opposition.Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) also signaled that he would vote for Sotomayor"s confirmation (Perine, CQ Politics, 7/16). He said, "We"ll see what your future holds, but I think it"s going to be pretty bright" (Bendavid, "Washington Wire," Wall Street Journal, 7/16). Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said that although he will not support Sotomayor"s confirmation, he will not filibuster the vote (Rushing, The Hill, 7/16). Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) told Sotomayor, "Thank you for giving us such a cordial response, and I am mightily impressed" (Washington Post, 7/17).Voting Timeline UnclearSenate Judiciary Committee Chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) said he would schedule a committee vote on the nomination for July 21. It remains unclear whether committee Republicans will delay the vote until July 28, as they are permitted to do under committee rules. Sessions called the July 21 vote "unrealistic," adding that there "will be a number of questions submitted to the nominee that take some time" (CQ Politics, 7/16). A party-line vote on the nomination does not seem likely, as a number of committee Republicans have praised Sotomayor and signaled that they will vote to confirm her, the AP/Boston Globe reports (Holland, AP/Boston Globe, 7/17). The committee"s vote serves as a recommendation to the full Senate, which likely will hold its final roll-call vote on the nomination by Aug. 7 (Washington Post, 7/17). Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) on Thursday said he wants a floor vote on Sotomayor "as quickly as possible" (Brady, Roll Call, 7/16).During the hearing on Thursday, Sotomayor reiterated that she would consider each case individually and declined to state her specific views on abortion rights. In response to Coburn, she said, "Would you want a ... nominee who came in here and said, "I agree with you. This is unconstitutional," before I had a case before me?" She added, "I don"t know that that"s a justice that I can be" (Kiely/Biskupic, USA Today, 7/17). According to the New York Times, "Some observers thought they detected her tipping her hand on abortion rights when she said Supreme Court precedents required abortion restrictions to make exceptions for a woman"s health" (Savage, New York Times, 7/17).
Mental Health

Women More Susceptible To Harmful Effects Of Smoking

Women may be more susceptible to the lung damaging effects of smoking than men, according to new research by Inga-Cecilie Soerheim, M.D., and her colleagues from Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women"s Hospital and University of Bergen, Norway. They analyzed data from a Norwegian case-control study including 954 subjects with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and 955 controls. All were current- or ex-smokers, and the COPD subjects had moderate or severe COPD. "Overall our analysis indicated that women may be more vulnerable to the effects of smoking, which is something previously suspected but not proven," said Dr. Soerheim. The study results will be presented on May 18 at the 105th International Conference of the American Thoracic Society in San Diego. Examining the total study sample, there were no gender differences with respect to lung function (FEV1) and COPD severity, but the women were on average younger and had smoked significantly less than men. To explore these differences further, they also analyzed two subgroups of the study sample: COPD subjects under the age of 60 (early onset group) and COPD subjects with less than 20 pack-years of smoking (low exposure group). In both subgroups, women had more severe disease and greater impairment of lung function than men. "This means that female smokers in our study experienced reduced lung function at a lower level of smoking exposure and at an earlier age than men," said Dr. Soerheim. It has long been suspected that the effect of smoking on lung function may be modified by gender. Interaction analysis confirmed that being female represents a higher risk of reduced lung function and severe COPD, but this gender effect was most pronounced when the level of smoking exposure was low. "The gender difference in COPD susceptibility seems to be most important when smoking exposure is low. Women may tolerate small amounts of tobacco worse than men," Dr. Soerheim explained. According to Dr. Soerheim, the reason why women may be more susceptible to the effects of cigarette smoke is still unknown, but there are several possible explanations: "Women have smaller airways; therefore each cigarette may do more harm. Also, there are gender differences in the metabolism of cigarette smoke. Genes and hormones could also be important." "Many people believe that their own smoking is too limited to be harmful that a few cigarettes a day represent a minimal risk. However, in the low exposure group in this study, half of the women actually had severe COPD. Clearly, there is no such thing as a safe exposure to cigarette smoke. Our findings suggest that this is particularly true for female smokers," concluded Dawn DeMeo, M.D., M.P.H., of Channing Laboratory, Brigham and Women"s Hospital, the senior author of the study. American Thoracic Society (ATS)


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