CT scan radiation can cause cancer

Two US studies published in the Archives of Internal Medicine have found that radiation from computed tomographic (CT) scanners can cause cancer decades after patient exposure.

CT scans use blasts of X-rays in a test that allows doctors to see a three-dimensional image of a targeted organ or tissue.

The first study, undertaken in four San Francisco hospitals, found that "even the median doses (of radiation) are four times higher than they are supposed to be, according to the currently quoted radiation dose for these tests."

Just one CT coronary angiogram on average submits the patient to the equivalent of 309 chest X-rays.

This study found that one 40-year-old woman out of 270 who underwent a CT scan of coronary arteries would develop cancer as a result of the test.

A second test meanwhile found that the 72 million CT scan images done in the United States in 2007 would cause 29,000 supplementary cancers. The data excludes patients who already had a tumour or had the scan as part of end of life treatment.

Cancers caused by the radiation appear 20-30 years after the procedure, it found. "At a 50-per cent mortality rate (the scans) will cause approximately 15,000 deaths annually," the research said.

"The effort to avoid unnecessary excess cancers must be multifaceted," the study noted suggesting that "radiation protocols should be improved to eliminate the 13-fold difference in radiation dose for the same CT scan," the studies in the December 14 issue of the AIM said.

"There is far more radiation from medical CT scans than has been recognised previously, in amounts projected to cause tens of thousands of excess cancers annually," they warned.

Singapore's relationship with China is changing over time: MM Lee

Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on Tuesday said China may become an advanced world power in 50 years' time, but it does not mean that Singapore will be squeezed out.

Mr Lee was speaking at a dialogue organised as part of celebrations to mark the second anniversary of Business China - an organisation spearheaded by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry to strengthen cultural and economic ties with the Asian powerhouse.

He said Singapore's relationship with China is changing over time, and will continue to change, and faced with a more confident China, Singapore can find its role in other ways.

Mr Lee said that for Singapore to be an effective player on the world stage, it must retain its point of view, and not become a satellite of other bigger economies like the US, Japan or China.

Mr Lee said: "We are a little red dot but we are a special red dot. We are connected with the world, we play a special role. And we are not going to be in anybody's pocket.

"And if we lose that status, we are meaningless. Because of our status as independent actors, independent observers of situation, when we say something, they say yes that is a Singapore point of view and very often a realistic point of view."

Some participants asked how Singapore can continue to retain its competitive edge in China.

Replying in Mandarin, Mr Lee said the country can build on its familiarity with Southeast Asia and the West.

Mr Lee said: "What will you bring them? It is not just about language or your bilingualism. That is a small issue. The main point is what speciality do you have that he does not, that he wants to learn? Only then will they want to interact with you

Fatal accident along NS Highway.

The fatal accident involving a double-decker express bus along the North South Highway recently that killed 10 innocent passengers should not have happened if the govt have acted strictly.How could a sleepy bus driver be allowed to drive and put the lives of passengers at risks?The Ministry of Transport have to act fast and allow the full force of the laws to be applied on those errant bus drivers and their bus operators.We do not want to see a repeat of such accidents on our roads anymore.The authorities concerned especially Road Transport Department must act without fear and favour on those manning the long distance express buses so that every passenger sitting and travelling on them will feel safe as they know they are in good hands.

Nazri against single stream school system

Minister in the Prime Minister's Department Datuk Seri Mohd Nazri Abdul Aziz says he is against the proposal for single stream school system as "we cannot force other (non-Malay) races to sacrifice their characteristics and become Malays (Malaynised)".

What is more, he said, the 1Malaysia concept allows the non-Malays to use and preserve their languages.

"What we want is a united people and country, not forcing all races to become Malays (Malaynised).

"Chinese and Tamil primary schools can continue to to exist, as long as these schools teach Bahasa Malaysia as it is the national language with which (Malaysians of) various races communicate and interact with one another to promote unity."

Nazri, who is currently overseas, told Sin Chew Daily that Chinese and Tamil schools are not meant for only the Chinese and Indians respectively, the Malays can also enter these schools.

Malay parents should encourage their children to study in Chinese schools to learn an additional language, he said.

"To acquire another language, be it Chinese, Tamil, Arabic, Japanese etc is to gain an advantage.

"I am now in Chengdu, China, and because I don't speak Mandarin I feel I am at a disadvantage.

"We should regard language as a subject and there are benefits to gain from learning additional languages. Education should not be racialised."

On writer/poet Eddin Khoo's remark that he missed the chance to learn Chinese because his father, historian Prof Emeritus Tan Sri Khoo Kay Kim who raised the ire of many with his single stream school remark recently, was too patriotic, Nazri said such thinking be discarded.

Nazri said the government cannot compel all the races to learn only Bahasa Malaysia, forcing the non-Malays to give up their own languages.

"Malaysia is a multi-ethnic country where the various races enjoy the right to learn their own languages. Multi-culture and multi-lingual are the strong points of Malaysia, something which cannot be denied," he added.

Bilingual policy re-affirmed

EDUCATION Minister Ng Eng Hen on Tuesday spent much time re-affirming Singapore's bilingual policy, especially the teaching of the Chinese language, the subject of much discussion in recent months.

The policy remains relevant for economic and cultural reasons, as bilingual skills will benefit the children given the rise of Asia, he said.

But it has to be re-calibrated to cope with what he called an 'inexorable change' in the language environment in homes, with six in 10 Primary 1 Chinese students speaking English at home now, he noted.

Six in 10 Indian pupils and 3.5 in 10 Malay pupils are also using English predominantly with family members.

He made it clear that those who can excel in the Chinese language will have the opportunity to do so. If more students want this, he would even add a new Special Assistance Plan (SAP) school to the present 25 which teach the language at a higher level.

But accepting change also means that for the rest of the students, expectations, teaching methods and even tests have to be re-calibrated to keep the language alive and useful.

S'pore can't be a satellite

SINGAPORE has built up an unspoken understanding with China that will serve it well in future relations with the emerging giant, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said on Tuesday night.

But it must never descend to becoming a satellite of Beijing or any other power, he stressed to some 200 officials and businessmen who have dealings with China.

Singapore must keep its 'own point of view', or it will lose all effectiveness in the new world order, he said in a wide-ranging dialogue, part of a dinner to mark networking group Business China's second anniversary.

Mr Lee is patron of the non-profit organisation, which helps Singaporeans - especially businessmen - learn more about China. It was set up by the Singapore Chinese Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The 50-minute dialogue, which spanned the highs and lows of nearly 20 years of bilateral ties, was chaired by Mr Robin Hu, Singapore Press Holdings' senior executive vice-president of Chinese newspapers and newspaper services.

60,000 people pack Orchard Road for Christmas party

Over 60,000 people packed Orchard Road Friday evening for an annual Christmas street party called "Celebrate Christmas in Singapore".

And even a late afternoon downpour did not dampen the revellers' spirits.

From 1pm on Friday till 1am on Saturday, Orchard Road was turned into a pedestrian-only street, where human traffic took over motor traffic.

Organisers expect more than 60,000 people to visit the street celebration.

Lighted floats dotted the main street, drawing trigger-happy crowds. And just outside Ion Orchard, a group of line-dancers showed off some nifty moves, while others quickly got into the spirit of things.

This is the sixth year that the street celebration is being held, and it is supported by the National Council of Churches.

For Christians, December 25 marks the birth of Christ. But Christmas also became a festive holiday, embraced by many, for other reasons. After all, this is the season of giving.

And so, it was perhaps not surprising that the biggest mass celebration on Friday night was held in the shopping heart of Singapore.

Down memory lane.

On the 24th December my family and I stayed in Zen Zeng Hotel in JB.We checked in before noon.After taking bath and packed our things we took two taxis to the ICQ complex.We got to walk quite a distance to have our passports stamped.Frankly I feel that it is a waste of public funds to build such a big complex.I understand that the majority of the public feel the same.Then the immigration officer manning the counter on the Singapore side was young and unfriendly.He even stared at me as if I were a criminal.Lucky for him I didn't remember his name or else I would have complained to the Singapore Tourism Board..We took the MRT from Kranji station to Ang Moh Kio where we took our lunch.After our walk there we took a bus to Bukit Timah where I frequently went when my uncle was still around.I could not recognize the old place anymore as more housing estates and shops have surfaced.From Bukit Timah we took another bus to Orchard Road to join with the Christmas crowd.It was filled with crowds of peoples.After enjoying the Christmas spirits and the colourful lights we left Orchard Rd for JB at 8pm.We finally reached JB at about 10 pm.

No copying

SOME primary schools are starting early when it comes to teaching their pupils about plagiarism.

At Rulang Primary School in Jurong West, even Primary 1 pupils learn about citation. 'They learn to ask who's the author, who's the narrator, when they read something,' said principal Cheryl Lim.

Such lessons on the gravity of plagiarism gradually increase over the years. By Primary 6, all pupils know how to write a bibliography, which must be appended to everything they submit, she added.

North Vista Primary principal Phua Kia Wang ramped up cyber-wellness education at his school in Sengkang when he realised some pupils were unfamiliar with the concept of intellectual property.

'When told to do research, their first instinct was to copy whole paragraphs from their textbooks or the Internet,' he recalled.'The first thing we teach them is to understand and respect the rights of the author, and how to give credit.'

With children now turning to the Web for help with school projects, plagiarism - once an issue associated with higher education institutions - may soon become a problem at the primary level.

Sea rose 8m in warmer age

SEA levels were likely 8m higher around 125,000 years ago when polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C warmer, says a new study published on Wednesday to show the effects of global warming.

The research by the US universities of Harvard and Princeton was released in the journal Nature as the world's nations met in Denmark to forge a strategy to head off harmful effects of global warming blamed on greenhouse gases.

To understand the potential effects of a rise in temperature, the researchers reexamined data about the last interglacial stage - a warmer period within an ice age - which climaxed about 125,000 years ago, they said.

At the time, polar temperatures were 3-5 deg C higher than today, providing a comparison for current scenarios of future rises of 1-2 deg C, they said.

'We find a 95 per cent probability that global sea level peaked at least 6.6m higher than today during the last interglacial,' the study said.

'It is likely (67 per cent probability) to have exceeded 8.0m but is unlikely (33 per cent probability) to have exceeded 9.4m,' it said.

S.Arabia most restrictive

US ALLIES Saudi Arabia and Egypt are among 10 mostly Muslim nations whose governments impose the most curbs on religion, according to a report on Wednesday by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life.

Afghanistan's government also ranked poorly, highlighting a potentially sensitive diplomatic flashpoint as President Barack Obama sends more US troops to the Central Asian country to quell a growing insurgency. The Pew report says nearly 70 per cent of the world's 6.8 billion people who live in countries that have severe restrictions on religion.

The report ranked countries by two measures: government restrictions on religion and restrictions from violence or intimidation by private individuals or groups. Saudi Arabia was the only country to rank 'very high' in both measures.

The first index ranked 10 mostly Muslim countries as 'very high'. No. 1 oil exporter and US Middle East ally Saudi Arabia was ranked the most restrictive, followed by US adversary Iran. Pew noted both impose limits on minority faiths and 'enforce strict interpretations of Islamic law.'

Egypt was also in the 'very high' list and several of the countries, including Saudi Arabia, are routinely cited in the US State Department's annual International Religious Freedom Report under 'restrictions, abuses and concerns.' China was cited for restrictions on Buddhism in Tibet and on Uighur Muslims, its ban on the Falun Gong movement and its pressure on religious groups not registered by the government.

By region, the Middle East and North Africa were the most restrictive, while the Americas were the least.

Cancer risks from CT scans

RADIATION from CT scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers and kill nearly 15,000 Americans, researchers said on Monday.

The findings, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, add to mounting evidence that Americans are overexposed to radiation from diagnostic tests, especially from a specialised kind of X-ray called a computed tomography, or CT, scan.

'What we learned is there is a significant amount of radiation with these CT scans, more than what we thought, and there is a significant number of cancers,' said Dr Rita Redberg, editor of the Archives of Internal Medicine, where the studies were published.

'It's estimated that just from the CT scans done in one year, just in 2007, there will be 15,000 excess deaths,' she said in a telephone interview. 'We're doing millions of CT scans every year and the numbers are increasing. That is a lot of excess deaths.'

CT scans give doctors a view inside the body, often eliminating the need for exploratory surgery. But CT scans involve much higher radiation dose than conventional X-rays. A chest CT scan exposes the patient to more than 100 times the radiation dose of a chest X-ray. About 70 million CT scans were done on Americans in 2007, up from 3 million in 1980. Amy Berrington de Gonzalez of the National Cancer Institute and colleagues developed a computer model to estimate the impact of so many scans.

They estimated the scans done in 2007 will cause 29,000 cancers. A third of the projected cancers will occur in people who were ages 35 to 54 when they got their CT, two-thirds will occur in women and 15 per cent will arise from scans done in children or teens. The researchers estimated there will be an extra 2,000 excess breast cancers just from CT scans done in 2007

Master's degree at 17

A HIGH school diploma at 15 and a bachelor's degree at 16: precocious teenager Marian Kogler has now become Austria's youngest master's graduate at the age of 17.

Vienna's University of Technology (TU) announced on Monday that the young man had completed his master's degree in computational intelligence.

He also holds a bachelor's degree in software and information engineering, and has now embarked on a doctorate in computer science at the TU.

The son of a writer and an administrative assistant, Kogler could read and write at the age of three.

Part of his master's research has been presented at international conferences and published in scientific journals, according to his professor Rudolf Freund.

Giant iceberg breaking up

A MASSIVE iceberg edging slowly toward Australia's southwestern coast is breaking up into hundreds of smaller icebergs as it drifts into warmer waters, creating potentially hazardous conditions for ships trying to navigate the region, a scientist said on Tuesday.

The iceberg, known as B17B, was spotted last week on satellite imaging about 1,700 kilometres off Western Australia state, prompting Australia's Bureau of Meteorology to issue a shipping alert.

Since then, it has shrunk from 140 square kilometres to 115 square kilometres, or around 18 kilometres long and 8 kilometres wide, said glaciologist Neal Young of the Australian Antarctic Division.

The iceberg has broken up into hundreds of smaller icebergs, some up to several kilometres wide, and spread over more than 1,000 kilometres of ocean, he said. 'I expect it to dissipate,' Mr Young said. But exactly when, he added, is anyone's guess.

The iceberg is one of several that split off in Antarctica in 2000 when parts of two major ice shelves - the Ross Sea Ice Shelf and Ronne Ice Shelf - fractured.

New Zealand issued a shipping alert last month after authorities spotted a flotilla of icebergs heading toward South Island. Those icebergs have since moved east, away from New Zealand.

Teach subjects in English

FORMER premier Mahathir Mohamad warned on Monday that Malaysia risked being left behind technologically if it abandoned the teaching of mathematics and science in the English language.

The veteran leader introduced the policy of teaching maths and science in English six years ago, following criticisms that the standard of English among Malaysians had deteriorated. But this was dropped by the Najib administration in July.

'English is the language of the Knowledge Age. Countries which do not master English will not only be left behind but risk being colonised either directly or indirectly,' he said.

Poor knowledge led countries to be oppressed and even invaded, he was quoted as saying by Bernama.

Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who is also the Education Minister, said in July that the teaching of maths and science in English in national schools will be dropped from 2012.

The subjects will be taught again in Bahasa Malaysia, but the government will strengthen the teaching of English language at all levels of schooling.