Eideard

A German pensioner who received a tin of American lard 64 years ago in an aid package has only just tasted it, after discovering that it is still edible.

“I just didn’t want to throw it away,” said Hans Feldmeier, 87. I love my fellow pack rats.

Food safety experts in Rostock, his home town on Germany’s Baltic coast, said the pig fat was still safe to eat.

Mr Feldmeier was a student in 1948 when the US was running a huge aid programme to rebuild war-ravaged Germany. He kept the tin of lard for emergencies…

A food expert, Frerk Feldhusen, said the lard was rather gritty and tasteless and hard to dissolve, though quite edible. Mr Feldmeier provided some black bread to go with it.

The red, white and blue tin of Swift’s Bland Lard bore no expiry date.

Eeoough!

After all, it works for cheese and most wine.

X-ray shows tiny particles of tungsten in breast tissue

Women participating in a study of patients with breast cancer have been inadvertently left with hundreds of tiny particles of the heavy metal tungsten in their breast tissue and chest muscles. The particles came from a device used during surgery. The device has since been recalled.

It is not known if the metal is dangerous to health because relatively little research has been done on its long-term effects in the body. But it shows up on mammograms, and may make them difficult to read, an especially troubling effect for women who have already had breast cancer and worry about recurrences. (The particles resemble calcium deposits, which can indicate cancer.)

About 30 women have been affected, according to the manufacturer of the device that caused the problem, the Axxent FlexiShield Mini. The women are in a quandary. At least one, fearing that the tungsten could cause cancer or another illness, is trying to decide whether to get rid of the particles by having her breast and its underlying tissue removed in a radical and disfiguring operation…

The episode casts doubt on the safeguards for people who participate in medical research and on the Food and Drug Administration’s ability to protect the public from flawed medical devices…

Karen Riley, FDA spokeswoman, said the 510(k) process was used to avoid “reinventing the wheel” for products that were essentially the same as others that had already passed muster with the agency.

RTFA as a cautionary tale. An accepted procedure for passing medical devices as safe – and has a fine track record – failed a number of women. They are left with years of wondering just what medical issues may follow the tests of the Flexishield.

Dexia bank tower in Brussels

A Belgian man renovating a house in Ghent found €300,000 in cash that had been left behind unclaimed from when the building had housed a bank almost 10 years ago.

Ferhat Kaya, 33, had bought the property, a former branch of the Dexia bank, at a cost of €180,000 to house his accounting firm and before accepting the keys turned down the estate agent’s quote of €3,500 to remove an old safe.

Instead he called two close friends, the brothers Murat and Hurun Tufan to remove the metal vault. “When the vault was open it revealed bags of 20 and 50 euro bills,” said Murat Tufan. “The receipts were still there, dated December 31, 2001. We started counting, and it came to some 300,000 euros.”

After speaking to his Turkish father, Mr Kaya decided to call the police even though it would have been easy to keep the cash as it had been lost and left unwanted by the bank for almost a decade.

“My friends and I thought we would really make a statement with it: that even immigrants are people that say honesty is the best policy,” he said.

Ulrike Pommée, a spokesman for Belgium’s Dexia Bank, said that an investigation had been opened but suggested that no trace of money would ever be found.

“We will carry out the investigation and then see if there will be a decision to give him a reward for reporting the money to police straight away.”

Bravo!

Laser labeling of fruit and vegetables is a new, patented technology in which a low-energy carbon dioxide laser beam is used to label, or “etch” information on produce, thereby eliminating the need for common sticker-type labels.

The technology has been licensed for use on a variety of fruits and vegetables and is being used in New Zealand, Australia, and Pacific Rim countries. It has been been approved in Asia, South Africa, Central and South America, Canada, and the European Union. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is in the final stages of approving the use of laser etching in the United States.

Of course. We’ll figure it out after the licensing and royalties are sorted.

During commercial production, citrus fruit is waxed before being labeled, packed, stored, and transported. Whereas common sticker-type labels do not deteriorate during storage, researchers postulated that water loss resulting from laser etching may distort the physical appearance of the fruit’s surface, making it less effective and appealing…

The researchers concluded that, when compared with sticker-labeled fruit, laser etching provides a relatively tamper-free labeling method, while “the fruit quality remains high as the invasion of the epidermis does not incite decay, provide an avenue for food pathogens, and water loss is easily controlled. The technology will offer the grapefruit industry a safe alternative to adhesive sticker labeling without enhancing decay susceptibility.”

I wonder who will be the first to start laser-etching a logo – or a sales message.

Or politics. Florida lemons that say, “Pucker up for Jeb Bush!”

You know that Green is starting to happen when three variants on Green Cars get into a mixer with each other.

Shows you how strong a Prius is when – as far as I can see – it was the Prius in the photo that shoved theTesla underneath the VW Touareg.

All three drivers are presumed to have walked away from the crash including the Tesla Roadster pilot.

Yes, I count the Touareg as Green because other sources noted it as a diesel.

Doctor Mackert

Dental amalgam has been proven safe and effective for years, yet unfounded controversy still surrounds it.

Dentists have used amalgam, an alloy of mercury with at least one other metal, in fillings for over 200 years. Amalgam fillings don’t contain enough mercury to cause potential health problems associated with larger doses, says Dr. Rod Mackert, professor of dental materials.

“The dose makes the poison,” he says, quoting 16th century Swiss physician Paracelsus. A person would need between 265 and 310 amalgam fillings before even slight symptoms of mercury toxicity could be felt. A person with seven fillings, which is average, absorbs only about one microgram of mercury daily. About six micrograms are absorbed daily from food, water and air, according to the Environmental Protection Agency…

Urban legends abound, including erroneous reports linking vapors from amalgam fillings to kidney damage and degenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson’s disease. The only documented health effects of amalgam fillings are rare allergic reactions, Dr. Mackert says, but the controversy led many people to have their fillings removed in the misguided hope of curing neurological diseases.

That controversy continues today. “It’s mystifying that people persist in saying there is cause for concern with amalgam fillings when there’s no evidence that they cause adverse health effects,” Dr. Mackert says.

I have a few amalgam fillings in my noggin that are over a half-century old. No side effects other than a strange compulsion to smack people who refuse to read science upside the head.

We know X marks the spot on pirate maps — but it took a six-month University of Alberta study to show that felt pens used to mark the X where surgeons should cut can be reused, saving cash-strapped hospitals some treasure.

The study found that Sharpies, the felt pens often used by medical staff to mark the spot of an operation, don’t need to be discarded after each use.

That’s good news from a savings point of view, since more than 97,000 surgeries were performed in local hospitals last year. Each Sharpie costs more than $1, so that’s a potential saving of close to $100,000.

Infection control specialist Dr. Sarah Forgie came up with the Sharpie study after a chief surgeon questioned the need to throw out markers after each use, standard practice at most hospitals. The chief surgeon questioned if there really was any evidence that the nib of Sharpies can actually transmit bacteria.

A six-month study she headed up found that Sharpies don’t pose a risk of transmitting disease because they use an alcohol-based ink, and alcohol kills bacteria.

A surgeon can carry a Sharpie marker and use it on all of their patients until the ink runs out.

Zhai Zhigang waves to photographers

Three Chinese astronauts emerged from their capsule Sunday upon a jubilant return to Earth after successfully completing the country’s first spacewalk mission.

The state broadcaster CCTV showed their Shenzhou-7 spaceship landing under clear skies in the grasslands of China’s northern Inner Mongolia region at 5:37 p.m. Prime Minister Wen Jiabao applauded at mission control in Beijing.

“The astronauts feel very good,” the mission commander, Zhai Zhigang, said.

After landing, the astronauts were given medical examinations inside the module. They stayed inside for about 45 minutes to adapt to Earth’s gravity before crawling out of the entrance.

The astronauts waved as they emerged and were each presented with a bouquet of flowers.

The spacewalk, which was broadcast live Saturday and watched by crowds gathered around outdoor screens, further stoked national pride that has burgeoned since the Beijing Olympics.

Bravo! It’s a step forward for the whole world. And very nice that everyone made it back home safely.