Tea drinking has been associated with decreased occurrence of cancer and heart disease. One potential mechanism for these findings is the strong antioxidant effect of tea polyphenols. A phase II randomized controlled tea intervention trial was designed to study the effect of high consumption (4 cups/d) of decaffeinated green or black tea on oxidative DNA damage as measured by urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) among smokers over a 4-mo period. A total of 143 heavy smokers, aged 18-79 y, were randomized to drink either green or black tea or water. Levels of plasma and urinary catechins and urinary 8-OHdG were measured monthly. A total of 133 of 143 smokers completed the 4-mo intervention. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the main effects and interaction effect of green and black tea consumption on creatinine-adjusted urinary 8-OHdG, with or without adjustment for potential confounders. Plasma and urinary levels of catechins rose significantly in the green tea group compared with the other two groups. Assessment of urinary 8-OHdG after adjustment for baseline measurements and other potential confounders revealed a highly significant decrease in urinary 8-OHdG (-31%) after 4 mo of drinking decaffeinated green tea (P = 0.002). No change in urinary 8-OHdG was seen among smokers assigned to the black tea group. These data suggest that regular green tea drinking might protect smokers from oxidative damages and could reduce cancer risk or other diseases caused by free radicals associated with smoking.

Environmental managers are increasingly charged with involving the public in the development and modification of policies regarding risks to human health and the environment. Involving the public in environmental decision making first requires a broad understanding of how and why the public perceives various risks. The Savannah River Stakeholder Study was conducted with the purpose of investigating individual, economic, and social characteristics of risk perceptions among those living near the Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Site. A number of factors were found to impact risk perceptions among those living near the site. One's estimated proximity to the site and relative river location surfaced as strong determinants of risk perceptions among SRS residents. Additionally, living in a quality neighborhood and demonstrating a willingness to accept health risks for economic gain strongly abated heightened risk perceptions.

The public is becoming increasingly distrustful of hazardous waste management activities. However, public trust is a requisite condition for effective environmental management of hazardous waste sites. Without trust, it is unlikely that such institutions can effectively convince the public that a site is safe and can be reused. The authors of this article conducted a study of the social, economic, psychological, demographic, and political factors that may affect environmental risk assessment and communication at the U.S. Department of Energy's Savannah River Nuclear Weapons Site (SRS). Public trust was a central focus of this study. A population survey was conducted to evaluate the level of public mistrust and correlates of public mistrust among residents living near the SRS. In this sample, several groups of respondents demonstrated high levels of trust. Respondents living upriver from SRS and respondents whose county was economically dependent on SRS voiced high levels of trust. Respondents who were predisposed toward accepting additional hazardous waste or accepting public health risks for economic gain also showed high levels of trust. Findings suggest that public trust is influenced by a variety of factors including personal traits, experiences, and economic needs.

The Strategic Differentiation-Integration Effort (SD-IE) hypothesis predicts regulation by life history speed (K) of the magnitudes of the correlations among its components, such that individuals with slower life history strategies exhibit life history traits that are less correlated with each other than individuals with faster life history strategies. This conative differentiation among high-K individuals is proposed to arise due to the elevated social competition in stable, predictable environments faced by these individuals and to facilitate mutualistic rather than antagonistic social interaction strategies via social-ecological nichesplitting and domain-specific resource allocation. We tested the predictions of SD-IE regarding relations among life history traits using the Continuous Parameter Estimation Method on data from two college student convenience samples, one all-female sample (N=382) and one mixed-sex sample (N=205), as well as two nationally-representative samples of the US population, the MIDUS (National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States, N=2080) and the NLSY (National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, N=5082). The predicted SD-IE effects were statistically significant and in the expected negative direction among most indicators of the lower-order slow life history factors and among all indicators of the single higher-order slow life history Super-K factor.

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We evaluated the infectious aetiology hypothesis of childhood leukaemia that rapid population influx into rural areas is associated with increased risk. Using data from the US SEER program, we found that in changes in rural county population sizes from 1980 to 1989 were associated with incidence rates for childhood acute lymphocytic leukaemia (ALL). The observed associations were strongest among children 0 -4 years of age, born in the same state as diagnosis, in extremely rural counties, and when counties adjacent to nonrural counties were excluded. Similar analyses for brain and central nervous system (CNS) cancer in children, a disease less linked to this infectious hypothesis, provide evidence against methodologic bias. Similar evaluations for other decades were not meaningful due to limited sample sizes and, perhaps, increased population mobility.

Since its introduction in the early 1990s, the laparoscopic cholecystectomy has become the standard surgical intervention for cholelithiasis. The laparoscopic technique is being used in an increasing number of abdominal procedures. Intestinal volvulus is a rare complication of laparoscopic procedures, such as the laparoscopic cholecystectomy. A review of the literature revealed 12 reports of this complication occurring without a clear cause. Etiologic factors that have been postulated include congenital malrotation, previous surgery, and intraoperative factors, such as pneumoperitoneum, mobilization of the bowel, and patient position. In this paper, we review the literature for this rare complication and report on a case of cecal bascule (a type of cecal volvulus) occurring following the laparoscopic cholecystectomy. Of the 12 prior reports of intestinal volvulus following laparoscopic procedures, 8 of these followed the laparoscopic cholecystectomy, of which two were cecal volvulae. This is the first reported case of a cecal bascule occurring following the laparoscopic cholecystectomy.

Glutathione S-transferase (GST), a member of the phase II group of xenobiotic metabolizing enzymes, has been intensively studied at the levels of phenotype and genotype. The GST 1 (GSTM1) and GST 1 (GSTT1) genes have a null-allele variant in which the entire gene is absent. The null genotype for both enzymes has been associated with many different types of tumors. The aim of this study was to determine the possible differences in increased oxidative stress susceptibility to smoking within the GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes and the impact of high tea drinking on this. We designed a Phase II randomized, controlled, three-arm tea intervention trial to study the effect of high consumption (4 cups/day) of decaffeinated green or black tea, or water on oxidative DNA damage, as measured by urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG), among heavy smokers over a 4-month period and to evaluate the roles of GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes as effect modifiers. A total of 133 heavy smokers (100 females and 33 males) completed the intervention. GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotype statuses were determined with a PCR-based approach. Multiple linear regression models were used to estimate the main effects and interaction effect of green and black tea consumption on creatinine-adjusted urinary 8-OHdG, with or without adjustment for potential confounders. Finally, we studied whether the effect of treatment varied by GSTM1 and GSTT1 status of the individual. Although there were no differences in urinary 8-OHdG between the groups at baseline, the between-group 8-OHdG levels at month 4 were statistically significant for GSTM1-positive smokers (P ‫؍‬ 0.05) and GSTT1-positive smokers (P ‫؍‬ 0.02). GSTM1-positive and GSTT1-positive smokers consuming green tea showed a decrease in urinary 8-OHdG levels after 4 months. Assessment of urinary 8-OHdG after adjustment for baseline measurements and other potential confounders revealed significant effect for green tea consumption (P ‫؍‬ 0.001). The change from baseline was significant in both GSTM1-positive (t ‫؍‬ ؊2.99; P ‫؍‬ 0.006) and GSTT1-positive (P ‫؍‬ 0.004) green tea groups, but not in the GSTM1-negative (P ‫؍‬ 0.07) or GSTT1-negative (P ‫؍‬ 0.909) green tea groups. Decaffeinated black tea consumption had no effect on urinary 8-OHdG levels among heavy smokers. Our data show that consumption of 4 cups of tea/day is a feasible and safe approach and is associated with a significant decrease in urinary 8-OHdG among green tea consumers after 4 months of consumption. This finding also suggests that green tea intervention may be effective in the subgroup of smokers who are GSTM1 and/or GSTT1 positive.