UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Graveyard shift linked to cancer risk

GENEVA, Switzerland, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- The World Health Organization, based in Switzerland, says people who work at night may have a higher risk of developing cancer.

The results of an analysis by the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer, published in the December issue of the journal Lancet Oncology, suggests exposure to light on the night shift poses a similar cancer risk as agents such as anabolic steroids, ultraviolet radiation and diesel engine exhaust, the Scotsman newspaper said Friday.

The IARC plans to classify night shift as a "probable" carcinogen.

Several studies in recent years have found that women who work nights for long periods of time are more prone to breast cancer, animals whose days and nights are switched have more cancerous tumors and men working at night may have an increased rate of prostate cancer.

Scientists suspect shift work disrupts the circadian rhythm and reduces the production of the hormone melatonin, possibly raising the chance of developing cancer. Sleep deprivation also leaves the immune system vulnerable, the newspaper said.

FDA urged to crack down on salt content

WASHINGTON, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A U.S. food watchdog group says excessive salt consumption may be killing more than 100,000 people each year.

Testifying at a government hearing, the Center for Science in the Public Interest urged the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to enforce tougher regulations for sodium in food, The Washington Post said Friday.

The American Medical Association says 150,000 lives could be saved in the United States annually if salt in processed foods and restaurant foods were to be cut in half, CSPI said in a release.

"Very few people dispute that Americans get way too much salt from processed and restaurant foods, and that that excess promotes hypertension, stroke, heart attacks, kidney failure, and early death," CSPI Executive Director Michael F. Jacobson said in a statement. "While the FDA has historically declined to challenge companies to lower high sodium levels, it is increasingly hard for FDA officials to ignore the calls to action made in recent years by the medical community."

The group said the average person in the United States consumes 4,000 mg of sodium each day, twice the recommended maximum. One study suggested that 77 percent of sodium comes from processed and restaurant food.

Sixteen dead in Ebola outbreak

KAMPALA, Uganda, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- Health officials say an outbreak of Ebola has killed 16 people in western Uganda during the past three weeks.

Sam Zaramba, director of health services in Uganda, said 51 people have been infected in Bundibugyo district, which borders on the Democratic Republic of Congo, the United Nations Integrated Regional Information Networks reported Friday.

The latest outbreak was confirmed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Symptoms of Ebola include fever, diarrhea, severe blood loss and intense fatigue. It is transmitted through direct contact with the bodily fluids of infected persons or of other primates. There is no cure and health experts say between 50 percent and 90 percent of victims die.

The best way of halting its spread is through prevention, prompt detection and the isolation of suspected cases, IRIN said.

Data shows Venus could be Earth's twin

PARIS, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- European scientists say new data and images of Venus show the planet may once have been more Earth-like.

The new information comes from the European Space Agency's Venus Express, which is helping shed light on Earth's cloud-covered neighbor. At a news conference in Paris this week, one researcher with the ESA even described Venus as "Earth's twin, separated at birth."

ESA said Venus has been a mystery for centuries because of the curtain of clouds that obscures the view of its surface.

"The planet has approximately the same mass as the Earth yet it is a hellish place where surface temperatures are over 400 degrees Celsius and the surface pressure is 100 times that on Earth," ESA said Thursday in a release. "The key to understanding Venus lies in its atmosphere, which is much thicker than Earth's."

Scientist Dmitri Titov said the spacecraft has revealed the structure and movements of the atmosphere from its upper reaches to just above the surface, and obtained the best global map to date of atmospheric temperatures.