UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News

Viruses may be linked to lung cancer

LOUISVILLE, Ky., April 25 (UPI) -- U.S. and Israeli researchers suggest viruses may have a role in the development of lung cancer.

The researchers all agree smoking is by far the most important risk factor for lung cancer, but Dr. Arash Resazadeh and colleagues from the University of Louisville, Ky., found five out of 22 non-small-cell lung cancer samples tested positive for human papilloma virus.

"We think HPV has a role as a co-carcinogen which increases the risk of cancer in a smoking population," Resasadeh said in a statement.

In another study, Samuel Ariad from Soroka Medical Center in Beer Sheva, Israel, and colleagues found more than half of the 65 patients with non-small-cell lung cancer had evidence of measles virus in tissue samples taken from their cancer.

In his study, Ariad found the "measles virus is a ubiquitous human virus that may be involved in the pathogenesis of lung cancer. Most likely, it acts in modifying the effect of other carcinogens and not as a causative factor by itself."

Both studies have been presented at the First European Lung Cancer Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, jointly organized by the European Society for Medical Oncology and the International Association for the Study of Lung Cancer.

NASA faces long odds in shuttle schedule

WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- The United States' three-ship space shuttle fleet faces "significant challenges" in its future orbiter work, the U.S. government has warned.

The Government Accountability Office told Congress that completing construction and continuing operation of the $31 billion International Space Station raised the possibility of severe cutbacks, the Houston Chronicle reported from Washington.

Cristina Chaplain of Congress' watchdog agency told a House of Representatives aeronautics subcommittee that NASA must overcome immense odds to complete assembly of the space station on time. Eight shuttle missions are scheduled before the fleet's retirement in 2010.

EPA calls for Miracle-Gro pesticide recall

CHICAGO, April 25 (UPI) -- The U. S. Environmental Protection Agency has ordered major retailers to pull certain types of Scotts Miracle-Gro products from their shelves.

The EPA ordered Home Depot, Lowe's, Wal-Mart, Ace, Do-It-Best, True Value, Sam's Club, Meijer and K-Mart to stop selling and distributing "illegal, unregistered and misbranded" Miracle-Gro Shake 'n Feed All Purpose Plant Food Plus Weed Preventer and related pesticide products immediately, the agency said Thursday.

The pesticides have an invalid EPA registration number -- 62355-4 -- on the package.

Federal law requires all pesticides to be submitted to EPA for review, evaluation and registration to ensure that they do not pose an unreasonable risk to human health or the environment.

The Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. said it is initiating steps to strengthen its product registration practices and procedures.

"Over the last several days, we learned that one of our former employees deliberately circumvented company policies, caused invalid product registration forms to be submitted to federal and state regulators and then hid those actions from co-workers and managers," Jim Hagedorn, chairman and chief executive officer, said in a statement.

Ice Age relic at risk from warmer temps

WASHINGTON, April 25 (UPI) -- U.S. conservationists said they're studying musk ox to determine how the relics of the Ice Age may be affected by climate change.

The Wildlife Conservation Society -- working with the National Park Service, U. S. Geological Survey and Alaska Fish and Game -- has equipped six musk ox with GPS collars as part of a four-year study to determine the extent to which weather, disease and predation may be driving populations, the WCS said Friday in a release.

"Musk ox are a throwback to our Pleistocene heritage and once shared the landscape with mammoths, wild horses and sabered cats," study leader Joel Berger, a professor at the University of Montana, said in a statement. "They may also help scientists understand how arctic species can or cannot adapt to climate change."