Sony Playstation Warning, Teenage Anorexia, Antibiotics in Chinese Food, GM Food & Babies, MMR

SONY PLAYSTATION VIBRATION WARNING

A letter in this week's British Medical Journal (BMJ) discusses one case of hand inflammation in a child who played on a Sony Playstation for up to seven hours a day often using the hand control device that vibrates. He developed swollen white hands when cold, which became red and painful when warmed up. This is alarming because it is similar to the hand abnormalities seen in people working with vibrating power tools, which can cause long term damage. In fact legislation has been introduced to control the hours people are allowed to work with these tools. Read the full report in this week's British Medical Journal. Read an article about this in the Independent newspaper.

HOW TO SPOT THE EARLY SIGNS OF TEENAGE ANOREXIA

An article in Monday's Times newspaper reports on a new guide from the The Eating Disorders Association about early signs of anorexia in teenagers. These include cutting food into tiny pieces, eating very slowly, wearing baggy clothes, hoarding worthless objects and hiding pictures of themselves weighing more than they do now. Read the article at The Times.

CHINESE FOOD CONTAINS ANTIBIOTICS

The European Commission has just banned poultry, rabbit, meat, shellfish and fish imports from China because of residues of veterinary drugs found in the food. The drug that they particularly mention is the antibiotic chloramphenicol. The ban affects the whole of the EU and most supermarkets are removing Chinese food products that are affected from their shelves. The Food Standards Agency says that Chinese takeaways usually use locally bought food and not imported Chinese food and so are safe. Read the report at European Union Chinese food ruling. And the Food Standards Agency - EU suspends import of animal products from China, which is their comment on the ruling. It was reported in The Times newspaper this week.

CAN GM FOOD HARM YOUR BABY?

The Royal Society has this week produced a report that says there are no known health effects for GM foods currently on the market but that GM technology could lead to unpredictable harmful changes in the nutritional status of food which should be monitored. They also say that safety checks need to be improved before GM foods are declared fit for human consumption and also mention the problem of people being allergic to inhaled GM pollen.

As babies are particularly vulnerable to changes in their diet they recommend that babies are not given GM foods until very thorough testing has been instituted. Read the report at The Royal Society Press releases. And also read an article in the Independent this week on the potential risk of food allergy if babies are fed on GM soya containing food or milk and a report also in the Independent on the Royal Society’s report.

SINGLE JABS FOR MEASLES, MUMPS AND RUBELLA

A report commissioned by ITV shows that, despite their being an 88% uptake of MMR vaccination by parents in the UK, 80% would like the vaccines to be available singly. Read the report Parents want more MMR choice from ITV. We have updated and expanded our MMR section in view of the recent cases of measles and increased press coverage of the links between MMR and autism – make sure you are informed. We present the facts as they are known and good informative links to both sides of the debate. Decisions about vaccinating your children are important – make sure your decision is educated and intelligent. Read our article on MMR.