California cellphone rules don't appear to be reducing car accidents, study finds

California cellphone rules don't appear to be reducing car accidents, study finds: "

Think your commute is safer now that California requires drivers to use hands-free cellphones?

Think again.

A new study from the nonprofit Highway Loss Data Institute found that rates of crashes before and after the landmark law took effect in 2008 have not significantly changed.
It also found that the trend of California’s crashes before and after the law followed that of neighboring states -- like Arizona and Nevada -- that do not have bans on hand-held phones.

“The laws aren’t reducing crashes, even though we know that such laws have reduced hand-held phone use, and several studies have established that phoning while driving increases crash risk,” Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and its affiliate, the data institute, said in a statement.

“If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it’s illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes. But we aren’t seeing it. ... We’re currently gathering data to figure out this mismatch,” Lund said.

The group, which receives claims information from more than 80% of the nation’s insurers, looked at data on crashes involving cars that are brand-new to 3 years old, and concluded that there is no evidence the hands-free rule is reducing crashes.

About 1.7 million claims in all were used for the study, according to officials with the group.
In California there were slightly more than eight crashes per 100 vehicles 18 months before the ban on hand-held phones went into effect.

Twelve months after the law, there were about 7.5 crashes per 100 vehicles, the study shows.
Authors of the study were quick to point out that the slight decline in crashes follows a similar trend in neighboring states where there is no such ban.

In Arizona, Nevada and Oregon (which recently passed its own ban), there were a little over seven crashes per 100 vehicles 18 months before the ban was passed in California. Twelve months after the ban in California, there were a little over five crashes per 100 vehicles in those three states, the study shows.

-- Ari B. Bloomekatz

Credit for 2007 photo: Los Angeles Times

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Are You A Religious Naturalist Without Knowing It?

Are You A Religious Naturalist Without Knowing It?: "

By Ursula Goodenough

Each religious tradition has its core narrative, often referred to as its Mythos, a term that connotes a large story and not a judgment on its veracity. The life of the Buddha or Christ, the sagas of the peoples of Israel or the Greek gods, the elaborate adventures of the Hindu deities -- these accounts 'define' a tradition. Interpretations of the mythos and moral/ethical edicts are built into the fabric of each narrative and elaborated by clerics (theologians, talmudic scholars, Buddhist monks). Spiritual responses are supported by wondrous art and ceremony.

In these traditions, nature is usually framed with respect to the human. In indigenous perspectives, animals are endowed with human sensibilities; in theistic accounts, nature is created by a god with human attributes. The natural world is commonly depicted as a human resource.

Scientific inquiry has provisioned us with a mind-blowing core narrative--the story of the cosmos and our place within it -- where its coherence is a very recent achievement. Of the many names on offer -- the universe story, the epic of evolution -- my favorite is Everybody's Story since it conveys a foundational concept: this is a narrative about us all. The account is based on human discoveries but was not written by humans, and indeed, humans don't show up until the very last moment, albeit our evolution is anticipated in all of its biological chapters and was made possible by the nucleosynthetic marvels called stars.

A naturalist can be said to take nature seriously, to adopt this account as a core narrative. This then raises a question: what would it mean to be a religious naturalist? Are there ways to work with the narrative religiously? What is its interpretive, spiritual, and moral potential? Here are some thoughts.

The interpretive axis of any religious tradition -- akin to the philosophical -- entails probing the narrative for its Meanings: what does it tell me about Incarnation? Suffering? Death? Free will? And, of course, the big one: is nature all there is, or is there 'Something Else' in addition, be it God or an afterlife or a timeless consciousness that moves in and out of beings?

Persons who couple the natural world to Something Else are presented with another set of questions -- what is the relationship of this Something Else to the natural world? What is its agency? Its presence? But the coupling also offers some answers; for example, the Purpose and Value of the natural world is usually attributed to this Something Else, as in 'God gives my life meaning.'

The alternative axis of interpretation can be called non-theistic: Nature is all that we know there to be; its source is a mystery; its dynamics generate emergent phenomena of increasing complexity. Full stop. How might one find Purpose and Value in such a perspective?

There are many responses, but my own is to see purpose and valuation in every biological trait, every adaptation, every humming bird dipping into a flower with its exquisitely shaped beak. Traits are about something, for something. They have been evaluated and selected in their ecological contexts. Therefore, for me, the flourishing and continuation of life has deep intrinsic Value and Purpose.

The spiritual entails inward responses to one's core narrative, and here the menu is rich. Nature elicits both awe and humility, as lifted up beautifully by Marcelo; there's the gratitude and astonishment of being alive at all; there's reverence for nature's outrageous beauty and complexity; there's the joy of participation.

And finally, what about the moral/ethical, which entails outward communal responses to one's core narrative? Here many argue that while nature may tell us how things are, it doesn't tell us how things ought to be nor how we should behave; moral precepts must come 'from without.'

This perspective is countered by students of our primate lineage, like Frans de Waal, who lifts up 'the antiquity of our moral sense.' Our moral history, as reflected in the group life of modern great apes, includes robust nurture of the young by all troop members, strong friendship bonds, empathy towards the suffering of others, and complex patterns of reciprocity and respect. These traits have not been left in the evolutionary dustbin. Nor are they experienced as non-human primates experience them. They are experienced as human minds experience things: symbolically. Our symbolic language has generated the capacity to transfigure our proto-moral sensibilities into concepts, such that we speak of nurture in terms of care and love, empathy in terms of compassion, and reciprocity in terms of fair-mindedness. Critically, the religious naturalist is also immersed in an orientation we can call ecomorality -- the recognition that morality is a far larger concept than human interactions, that the earth itself merits our respect and responsibility.

So what's the difference between a naturalist and a religious naturalist? Both take nature seriously; both adopt Everybody's Story as their core narrative. And then, in the words of Loyal Rue, the religious naturalist also takes nature to heart. Taking something to heart means that your heart can be broken: you can experience moral outrage when that which is revered is desecrated.

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Gates Foundation Pledges $10 Billion For Vaccines

Gates Foundation Pledges $10 Billion For Vaccines: "

By Richard Knox

Bill and Melinda Gates in Davos, Switzerland, January 29, 2010.(FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

The $34 billion Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is more than doubling its vaccine portfolio -- already its largest focus.

The Gateses announced today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that they plan to spend $10 billion on vaccine development and deployment over the next decade. 'We must make this the decade of vaccines,' Microsoft founder Bill Gates says.

Since its inception in 1994 the Gates Foundation has spent $4.5 billion on vaccine programs. The new $1 billion-a-year pledge is $200 million over its current annual outlay for vaccine work.

'We're continuing to ramp up the amount we're spending on vaccines because it's been such a good investment,' Bill Gates tells NPR in an interview.

Successes so far in getting established and new vaccines out into poor countries and into children's arms, Gates says, show that 'even in the poorest countries vaccine delivery can be done well.'

Gates points out that globally 79 percent of children currently receive all three recommended doses of DTP (diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis) vaccine.

A goal of the foundation's expanded funding is to raise that to 90 percent coverage. Another goal is to get comparable vaccination coverage among children in the poorest nations for measles, HiB (Hemophilus influenza type B), pneumococcal disease, rotavirus (the leading cause of childhood diarrheal death), and, after 2014, a 50 percent effective malaria vaccine that's now in final human trials.

If those goals are met, Gates says, 8.7 million more children will avoid death from vaccine-preventable diseases. That comes from unpublished projections by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Gates says some of the foundation's new money will go toward work on vaccines against AIDS and tuberculosis. 'But we don't know when those breakthroughs will take place,' he says. 'So when we say we'll save more than 8 million additional lives, we're not putting anything in for those. It's just the vaccines that are out and available or in their final phase of testing.'

Here are other excerpts from NPR's interview with Bill Gates:

NPR: What went into your decision to increase vaccine outlays at this time?

GATES: Well, over the last 10 years we got several new vaccines out into poor countries through a partner called the GAVI Alliance.... We saw that even in the very poorest countries, vaccine delivery can be done well. And the number of scientists working on new vaccines has gone up... partly because of donations that we and others have come along with. A lot of young scientists are inspired to work in these areas, so we wanted to show that we have this long-term commitment. It will go to diseases that affect the poorest disproportionately.

NPR: What will this fund that otherwise would not get funded?

GATES: Well, certainly a malaria vaccine wouldn't happen without our giving money, and others as well. But we're one of the big funders of this. A TB vaccine would hardly be worked on. An AIDS vaccine would have far less in terms of resources.

NPR: How does this 10-year, $10 billion pledge rank in terms of commitment to a single area of health spending?

GATES: Well, if you take the National Institutes of Health, they spend, say, $5 billion a year on cancer. For rich-world diseases, both the U.S. government and pharmaceutical companies have very large numbers that they spend. But if you take something focused on developing world diseases such as malaria and diarrhea, this would be the biggest commitment that anyone's ever made.

NPR: What are the biggest obstacles to acceptance and adoption of new vaccines?

GATES: Each country is very conservative about adding something new... and then you've got a delivery challenge. You have to have enough refrigerators and backup generators and personnel involved in that delivery system. So we're going to have to get the approvals, we're going to have to scale up the delivery capacity.... A lot of things have to go right. But there's nothing more effective in terms of its impact. And then as you improve health you also have this huge benefit that people tend to have smaller families. So all your challenges -- whether it's the environment, or food, education, jobs -- those become possible when you improve health.

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Constitutionality of 'Jessica's Law' questioned

Constitutionality of 'Jessica's Law' questioned: "Treating sex predators differently from other violent offenders may violate equal protection guarantees, the California Supreme Court says.





The California Supreme Court ruled 5 to 2 Thursday that a 2006 ballot initiative that permitted the state to lock up sexually violent predators indefinitely may violate constitutional guarantees of equal protection.

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Nevada water pipeline: In jeopardy?

Nevada water pipeline: In jeopardy?: "

The Nevada Supreme Court dealt a huge blow Thursday to Las Vegas officials’ controversial plan to siphon water from the state’s rural north, saying that a faulty application process invalidates the south's claim to tens of thousands of acre-feet of water.

Starting in 1989, Las Vegas-area water officials – anticipating a massive population boom in thirsty southern Nevada – asked the state water engineer for groundwater rights in a number of rural valleys. Critics panned the proposal to channel water, via a 300-mile pipeline, from ranching to casino country as an Owens Valley-like grab. A number of people filed formal objections.

“It was very much a way to just lock up this water,” said Simeon Herskovits, the lead attorney for protesters including the Great Basin Water Network.

The state engineer was required by law to move on the water rights applications within a year. Nothing happened until 2005. As the state engineer began to consider the water requests, dozens of people, including the relatives of northern landowners who had died since the applications were first filed, tried to lodge formal objections. They were denied.

The state Supreme Court ruling sends the parties back to a District Court, which will decide whether the Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) must start the application process anew, as the protesters would like. Alternately, the court could recommend that the state engineer simply reopen the formal protest period.

“This sends the whole water rights decision back to the drawing board,” Herskovits said.

In a statement, the SNWA, a politically powerful agency headed by pipeline advocate Pat Mulroy, said it was disappointed by the decision and was considering asking the state Supreme Court to reconsider.

“We believe the justices may not fully appreciate the far-reaching ramifications of their decision on people throughout the state,” the statement said. It’s common, the agency said, for the state engineer to wait more than a year to weigh an application and, in light of the court’s ruling, thousands of permits “could be called into question.”

The agency recently said it would build the water pipeline only if absolutely necessary. The recession has halted the Las Vegas region’s breakneck growth and water use has dipped, though a prolonged drought has so sapped Lake Mead, the region’s chief source of water, that a chalk-white bathtub ring marks the water's previous level.

-- Ashley Powers

Photo: The Southern Nevada Water Authority's Pat Mulroy has advocated pumping rural water 300 miles south to Las Vegas. Credit: Brian Vander Brug / Los Angeles Times

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Less Water Vapor May Slow Warming Trends

Less Water Vapor May Slow Warming Trends: "A decrease in water vapor in the middle atmosphere may help explain a string of years with relatively stable global surface temperatures.

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EPA to review oversight of toxic waste

EPA to review oversight of toxic waste: "

In a new focus on environmental justice issues, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to evaluate a Bush-era rule that could remove federal oversight of companies that generate and recycle 1.5 million tons of hazardous waste each year.

Much of that waste, generated by steel, chemical and pharmaceutical plants, ends up in dumps located near low-income, minority communities.

On Tuesday, the EPA launched a probe of birth defects and other health problems in the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Kettleman City, Calif., located about three miles west of the only chemical waste facility in the state permitted to accept carcinogenic PCBs.

The EPA on Thursday will discuss its planned analysis of the Bush-era exemptions with the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council in New Orleans.

"This is the first time the agency will conduct a comprehensive environmental analysis, although these reviews were first ordered by President Bill Clinton," Abigail Dillen, an attorney with the environmental group Earthjustice, said in a statement.

-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Maria Saulcedo sits next to a memorial to her daughter Ashley, who died at the age of 11 months. Five babies, including Ashley, were born with cleft palates in Kettleman City over a 14-month period, and some residents blame a nearby toxic waste dump. Credit: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

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Teen pregnancy rate rises. Are abstinence-only programs to blame?

Teen pregnancy rate rises. Are abstinence-only programs to blame?: "

Teen pregnancy rates plummeted in the 1990s, largely due to increased access to contraceptives. However, the trend stabilized in the last decade and now there's evidence that teen births are rising again.

Data released this week from the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization that conducts research on sexual and reproductive health, shows that the teen pregnancy rate rose 3% in 2006, the first increase since the late '80s. The institute, a pro-choice organization, says that abstinence-only sex education programs that took root during the Bush administration are to blame for the increase. They note that California's overall teen pregnancy rate has hit an all-time low -- based on 2005 data.

"California made tremendous strides in reducing teen pregnancy, birth and abortion," Elizabeth Nash, the Guttmacher Institute's state policy expert, said in a news release. "This is not surprising, considering that California -- the only state that never accepted federal abstinence-only dollars -- has committed to providing teens with comprehensive sex education and access to the services they need to prevent pregnancy and protect their health."

Nationwide, the 2006 teen pregnancy rate was 71.5 pregnancies per 1,000 women ages 15 to 19 (about 7% of this age group became pregnant). That's an increase from the 2005 rate of 69.5 per 1,000, which was the lowest point in 30 years. The upswing was seen in whites, blacks and Latino teens. Corresponding to the increased pregnancy rate, teen birthrates and abortion rates also rose.

California's rate in 2005 was 75 per 1,000, a decline of 52% from the peak (157 per 1,000) in 1992. California, which has the highest numbers of teenage females, still has the highest number of teen pregnancies. The report tallies the national rates from 2006; however individual state analyses are based on a different set of data, from 2005.

The report is entitled, "U.S. Teenage Pregnancies, Births and Abortions: National and State Trends and Trends by Race and Ethnicity."

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Geraldine Wilkins / Los Angeles Times

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Target stops selling farm-raised salmon nationwide

Target stops selling farm-raised salmon nationwide: "Citing environmental concerns, the discount chain says it will sell only wild-caught salmon.





Target Corp. said Tuesday that it had eliminated all farmed salmon from its fresh, frozen and smoked seafood sections at stores nationwide."

Left-, right- or mixed-handed? Watching your kids' hands for clues to their brain

Left-, right- or mixed-handed? Watching your kids' hands for clues to their brain: "

A right-handed friend in high school was so worried about breaking her right hand -- thus leaving her incapable of taking high-quality notes -- that she would practice writing with her left hand just so she could be prepared. But kids whose dominant side seems to vary naturally ... they concern researchers.

A new analysis has found that kids who are "mixed-handed," or "cross-dominant," that is they do some tasks better with one hand, other tasks better with the other hand, are more likely to have language, learning and mental health problems, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms, at least compared with right-handed kids.

That's the word from a long, large study from Finland. Here's the abstract, published Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

The researchers conclude that mixed-handedness, which indicates the brain is wired a little differently than is the norm, could be used to help identify kids at risk of such problems.

But, please, no one's suggesting that kids be forced to use one hand or the other -- the treatment some lefties once endured before the rest of society got enlightened. For now, it's just one more thing about which easily unnerved parents can fret.

Here's more on handedness and brain lateralization from Indiana University, and a self-test known as the Edinburgh Handedness Inventory.

As for that high school friend, I opted to be impressed with her diligence. Perhaps a little unnerved, yes, but also impressed.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Which hand would you use to write a letter? Assuming there's no keyboard, of course.

Credit: Los Angeles Times

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Some good news about girls and math

Some good news about girls and math: "

Today’s story about the role of elementary school teachers in reinforcing gender stereotypes about math – boys are naturally good at it, and girls aren’t – may seem like bad news to those who would like to see more women pursuing careers as doctors, scientists and engineers.

But there is a silver lining to the report.

To recap, the study by University of Chicago psychologists found that women teachers who were anxious about math transmitted that anxiety to some of the girls in their class, and that the girls who subsequently subscribed to the math-is-for-boys stereotype got lower scores on a math test than the girls who didn’t.

But not all of the girls were susceptible to the math anxiety of their teachers. The researchers said they don’t know why some girls succumbed and others didn’t, but they speculate that girls who have mothers, older sisters or other female role models who enjoy math might have some protection, among other possibilities.

If so, that suggests that girls who believe the stereotype can be rehabilitated by pairing them with teachers who are confident and enthusiastic about math, said Susan C. Levine, the study’s senior author.

As Levine put it: “We don’t think they’re doomed.”

-- Karen Kaplan

Photo: Yes, girls, you can do math as well as the boys! Photo credit: Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times

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Hey Kids (And Parents), Watch Out For Toilet Seat Dermatitis

Hey Kids (And Parents), Watch Out For Toilet Seat Dermatitis: "

By Kevin Whitelaw

No, toilet seats are not out to get your children.

The other side of the seat may not be as clean as you think.( istockphoto.com)

But Dr. Bernard Cohen did think it was strange that, once every month or two, parents were bringing in children with distinctive half-moon shaped rashes on their rear ends.

As the director of pediatric dermatology at Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Cohen quickly realized he was witnessing a resurgence of toilet seat dermatitis.

'We call it on 'poop-on-the-toilet-seat dermatitis,' because you have to have a sense of humor about this,' he tells Shots in an interview.

In a new study in the journal Pediatrics, Cohen documents five cases of toilet seat dermatitis, although he has treated a number of other children for the condition, which is a skin irritation around the buttocks and upper thighs.

In a few of the cases he examined, the dermatitis was caused by an allergy to harsh chemical cleaners used on public or school toilets. Cohen says that exotic woods used in some new residential toilet seats might also provoke the irritation.

'People don't recognize the pattern and don't think of it,' Cohen says. 'These kids will go on for months, sometimes years before the correct diagnosis, and a simple treatment will make it go away.'

The condition used to be more common decades ago, when more toilet seats were made of wood and treated with harsh chemicals. The advent of plastic toilet seats helped minimize the condition.

Prevention is simple. Doctors suggest that children use toilet seat covers in public restrooms, and that parents swap wooden toilet seats for plastic ones at home and avoid using harsh cleaners.

Cohen says that based on the numbers of cases of toilet seat dermatitis he has treated, it is probably more common than many doctors realize. 'These are kids that came to us because their parents had tried everything else,' he says.

Still Cohen doesn't blame them for missing the diagnosis, saying that he certainly doesn't remember toilet seat dermatitis from his childhood.

'It wasn't a problem for us, maybe because nobody used the toilets at school,' he says. 'They just held it until they got home.'

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'Toilet-seat contact dermatitis' sounds dire, but...

'Toilet-seat contact dermatitis' sounds dire, but...: "

Appearing in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics -- and thus in headlines -- is a warning about "toilet-seat contact dermatitis." The journal article says the condition is common around the world and that it's "re-emerging" in the United States.

We appreciate new health scares as much as the next person, but keep in mind that the article in question was a case report, not a full-fledged study, not an analysis, but a report on individual cases of a skin condition. How many cases? Five. Not all of them from this country.

Researchers at McGill University, Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere are largely attempting to give fellow doctors a heads up about this form of dermatitis -- so rare that many of their colleagues may not recognize it. They're simply saying, hey, guys, should you find some weird rash on kids' posteriors, consider toilet seats as a culprit.

They're not even targeting all toilet seats, but rather what they call "exotic wooden toilet seats" and the residue from chemicals used to clean toilet seats in general.

So don't panic. Contact dermatitis, which causes skin irritation on the buttocks and upper thighs, is easily treatable, if doctors know what they're seeing. Hence, the article.

Here's the abstract. Here's more information on contact dermatitis in general from eMedicine. And here's the Johns Hopkins news release, which contains tips on how to avoid the potential problem. The first one: Use paper toilet seat covers in public restrooms. The second one: At home, go for the considerably less exotic plastic toilet seat.

The breathless coverage of this relatively small journal article might be explained less by the actual threat and more by the term "poop dermatitis" in the release.

-- Tami Dennis

Photo: Harsh cleaners used to scour public toilets could, possibly, cause a skin reaction.

Credit: Los Angeles Times

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Answers About Salt and Health

Answers About Salt and Health: "Jane Brody explores the science and reasoning behind efforts to curb salt intake."

Reproductive coercion is a factor in unintended pregnancies

Reproductive coercion is a factor in unintended pregnancies: "

It's sometimes assumed that unmarried teenagers and young women become pregnant because they don't use contraception or because they want a baby. But the authors of a new study say there's another reason. Some women are coerced into pregnancy by their boyfriends. Young women even report that their boyfriends sabotage birth control to get them pregnant.

Researchers at UC Davis conducted a survey of 1,300 young women at five reproductive health clinics in Northern California. The women ranged in age from 16 to 29. They were asked questions about birth-control sabotage, pregnancy coercion and partner violence. The study found that one in five women said they had experienced pregnancy coercion and 15% had experienced birth-control sabotage. More than half had experienced physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner. The researchers concluded that the rate of unintended pregnancy was double among women who experienced reproductive coercion and partner violence. The study is published online today in the journal Contraception.

"This study highlights an under-recognized phenomenon where male partners actively attempt to promote pregnancy against the will of their female partners," Elizabeth Miller, a co-author of the study, said in a news release.

"What this study shows is that reproductive coercion likely explains why unintended pregnancies are far more common among abused women and teens," Jay Silverman, a co-author of the study and a professor at Harvard School of Public Health, said in a news release.

Perhaps we've been over-focused on contraceptives. Rates of unintended pregnancy might decline if more young women learned to recognize, avoid or leave abusive relationships or were given the skills and support to do so.

-- Shari Roan

Photo credit: Stefano Peralta / For the Times

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