US faces chronic doctor shortage

One university is attempting a radical approach to healing the healthcare system.

Last modified: 17 Dec 2013 02:05

Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds is an award-winning Al Jazeera senior correspondent.

The United States faces a severe shortage of doctors [Gallo/Getty]

Jennifer Han is a smart, 24-year-old native of Los Angeles whose lifelong dream has always been to be a doctor. The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, she's a first-year medical student at the University of California at Riverside. Recently, she took time out from the stressful final-exam week to talk to us about her goals and what it takes to become a doctor in America in 2013.
"Ultimately one of my major goals in going into medicine was to work with more under-served communities, hopefully with children and, of course, include their families in the health care system," she says.
Han has a strong desire to give back, and to serve. But in the US system of for-profit health care, becoming a physician carries a heavy price tag. Medical school tuition is expensive and requires students such as Han to take out large loans which must be repaid following graduation.
"We are acquiring a lot of debt," Han admits. "It ranges from $40,000 to $50,000 per year over four years, so it can be $200,000 or more altogether."
Riverside County and its surrounding area, where Han studies, is known in California as "The Inland Empire". It's an area of the state facing a severe shortage of doctors. "We have a desperate situation," says Dr Richard Olds, dean of the Riverside medical school.
Dr Olds spent much of his career practicing tropical disease prevention and treatment in the Philippines, Egypt and Central America. He says the lack of access to medical care in those developing countries is mirrored by a shortage of medical professionals in the Inland Empire.
"It's the fastest growing area in the state, and because 40 percent of the doctors in this area look like me - they are 55 years of age or older - we will have a 5,000 physician deficit in ten years, no matter what anyone does," he says.
Healthcare on life-support
The looming shortage is particularly severe for primary care doctors. These are family practitioners, internal medicine doctors, pediatricians and others. These physicians earn far less than elite specialists - plastic surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists,  or orthopedic surgeons, to name a few. Many doctors choose these relatively lucrative specialties partly in order to make a lot of money quickly and pay off those crushing medical school debts.
Dr Olds warns: "We have a really critical problem in not enough primary care doctors."
California is far from alone in grappling a looming doctor shortage. According to a new report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a nationwide shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade.
The shortage will worsen when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care act goes into effect next year, says the AAMC's chief public policy officer, Atul Grover.
"You are going to be putting a few million - maybe up to 30 million people - into a system where they are going to want to have access to care - or perhaps in the past, they only sought out emergency care," he says.
But the main cause of the shortage is that the country is simply getting older, and elderly people need more medical care than young people.
"Over the course of the next 20 years, 10,000 Americans a day will turn 65," says Grover. "And they are the ones who use the majority of healthcare services."
Triaging the system
Recognising the problem, UC Riverside is trying a bold experiment, the only one of its kind in the nation. Certain students who choose primary care - and agree to practice in the local community for a period of time after they complete their internships - will get full scholarships.
"We basically give them medical school for free," Dr Olds says. "At the end of the day, if they are a primary care doctor in inland southern California for five years, the deal's closed. They emerge debt free."
He notes that graduates who change their minds and choose to practice elsewhere simply have to pay back their loans. "We basically reverse the financial incentives to try to get the result that our area of California, and society in general, needs."
Han is one of the first students to participate in the programme. She says it is a good fit for her goals, and a great relief to her family.
"It definitely lifts a big weight off my shoulders, knowing that I won't have to pay back so many of my loans after I graduate," Han says. "And it gives me a better idea of what kind of doctor I want to be."
For the next several decades, a shortage of physicians will almost certainly be a fact of life in the US. Patients will most likely have to rely on second-tier health care professionals, such as nurse-practitioners, to pick up some of the slack. And the country will need more original thinking and innovative programs such as UC Riverside's - as well as plenty of dedicated students, like Jennifer Han.

Read More

US faces chronic doctor shortage

One university is attempting a radical approach to healing the healthcare system.

Last modified: 17 Dec 2013 02:05

Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds is an award-winning Al Jazeera senior correspondent.

The United States faces a severe shortage of doctors [Gallo/Getty]

Jennifer Han is a smart, 24-year-old native of Los Angeles whose lifelong dream has always been to be a doctor. The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, she's a first-year medical student at the University of California at Riverside. Recently, she took time out from the stressful final-exam week to talk to us about her goals and what it takes to become a doctor in America in 2013.
"Ultimately one of my major goals in going into medicine was to work with more under-served communities, hopefully with children and, of course, include their families in the health care system," she says.
Han has a strong desire to give back, and to serve. But in the US system of for-profit health care, becoming a physician carries a heavy price tag. Medical school tuition is expensive and requires students such as Han to take out large loans which must be repaid following graduation.
"We are acquiring a lot of debt," Han admits. "It ranges from $40,000 to $50,000 per year over four years, so it can be $200,000 or more altogether."
Riverside County and its surrounding area, where Han studies, is known in California as "The Inland Empire". It's an area of the state facing a severe shortage of doctors. "We have a desperate situation," says Dr Richard Olds, dean of the Riverside medical school.
Dr Olds spent much of his career practicing tropical disease prevention and treatment in the Philippines, Egypt and Central America. He says the lack of access to medical care in those developing countries is mirrored by a shortage of medical professionals in the Inland Empire.
"It's the fastest growing area in the state, and because 40 percent of the doctors in this area look like me - they are 55 years of age or older - we will have a 5,000 physician deficit in ten years, no matter what anyone does," he says.
Healthcare on life-support
The looming shortage is particularly severe for primary care doctors. These are family practitioners, internal medicine doctors, pediatricians and others. These physicians earn far less than elite specialists - plastic surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists,  or orthopedic surgeons, to name a few. Many doctors choose these relatively lucrative specialties partly in order to make a lot of money quickly and pay off those crushing medical school debts.
Dr Olds warns: "We have a really critical problem in not enough primary care doctors."
California is far from alone in grappling a looming doctor shortage. According to a new report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a nationwide shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade.
The shortage will worsen when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care act goes into effect next year, says the AAMC's chief public policy officer, Atul Grover.
"You are going to be putting a few million - maybe up to 30 million people - into a system where they are going to want to have access to care - or perhaps in the past, they only sought out emergency care," he says.
But the main cause of the shortage is that the country is simply getting older, and elderly people need more medical care than young people.
"Over the course of the next 20 years, 10,000 Americans a day will turn 65," says Grover. "And they are the ones who use the majority of healthcare services."
Triaging the system
Recognising the problem, UC Riverside is trying a bold experiment, the only one of its kind in the nation. Certain students who choose primary care - and agree to practice in the local community for a period of time after they complete their internships - will get full scholarships.
"We basically give them medical school for free," Dr Olds says. "At the end of the day, if they are a primary care doctor in inland southern California for five years, the deal's closed. They emerge debt free."
He notes that graduates who change their minds and choose to practice elsewhere simply have to pay back their loans. "We basically reverse the financial incentives to try to get the result that our area of California, and society in general, needs."
Han is one of the first students to participate in the programme. She says it is a good fit for her goals, and a great relief to her family.
"It definitely lifts a big weight off my shoulders, knowing that I won't have to pay back so many of my loans after I graduate," Han says. "And it gives me a better idea of what kind of doctor I want to be."
For the next several decades, a shortage of physicians will almost certainly be a fact of life in the US. Patients will most likely have to rely on second-tier health care professionals, such as nurse-practitioners, to pick up some of the slack. And the country will need more original thinking and innovative programs such as UC Riverside's - as well as plenty of dedicated students, like Jennifer Han.

Read More

US faces chronic doctor shortage

One university is attempting a radical approach to healing the healthcare system.

Last modified: 17 Dec 2013 02:05

Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds is an award-winning Al Jazeera senior correspondent.

The United States faces a severe shortage of doctors [Gallo/Getty]

Jennifer Han is a smart, 24-year-old native of Los Angeles whose lifelong dream has always been to be a doctor. The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, she's a first-year medical student at the University of California at Riverside. Recently, she took time out from the stressful final-exam week to talk to us about her goals and what it takes to become a doctor in America in 2013.
"Ultimately one of my major goals in going into medicine was to work with more under-served communities, hopefully with children and, of course, include their families in the health care system," she says.
Han has a strong desire to give back, and to serve. But in the US system of for-profit health care, becoming a physician carries a heavy price tag. Medical school tuition is expensive and requires students such as Han to take out large loans which must be repaid following graduation.
"We are acquiring a lot of debt," Han admits. "It ranges from $40,000 to $50,000 per year over four years, so it can be $200,000 or more altogether."
Riverside County and its surrounding area, where Han studies, is known in California as "The Inland Empire". It's an area of the state facing a severe shortage of doctors. "We have a desperate situation," says Dr Richard Olds, dean of the Riverside medical school.
Dr Olds spent much of his career practicing tropical disease prevention and treatment in the Philippines, Egypt and Central America. He says the lack of access to medical care in those developing countries is mirrored by a shortage of medical professionals in the Inland Empire.
"It's the fastest growing area in the state, and because 40 percent of the doctors in this area look like me - they are 55 years of age or older - we will have a 5,000 physician deficit in ten years, no matter what anyone does," he says.
Healthcare on life-support
The looming shortage is particularly severe for primary care doctors. These are family practitioners, internal medicine doctors, pediatricians and others. These physicians earn far less than elite specialists - plastic surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists,  or orthopedic surgeons, to name a few. Many doctors choose these relatively lucrative specialties partly in order to make a lot of money quickly and pay off those crushing medical school debts.
Dr Olds warns: "We have a really critical problem in not enough primary care doctors."
California is far from alone in grappling a looming doctor shortage. According to a new report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a nationwide shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade.
The shortage will worsen when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care act goes into effect next year, says the AAMC's chief public policy officer, Atul Grover.
"You are going to be putting a few million - maybe up to 30 million people - into a system where they are going to want to have access to care - or perhaps in the past, they only sought out emergency care," he says.
But the main cause of the shortage is that the country is simply getting older, and elderly people need more medical care than young people.
"Over the course of the next 20 years, 10,000 Americans a day will turn 65," says Grover. "And they are the ones who use the majority of healthcare services."
Triaging the system
Recognising the problem, UC Riverside is trying a bold experiment, the only one of its kind in the nation. Certain students who choose primary care - and agree to practice in the local community for a period of time after they complete their internships - will get full scholarships.
"We basically give them medical school for free," Dr Olds says. "At the end of the day, if they are a primary care doctor in inland southern California for five years, the deal's closed. They emerge debt free."
He notes that graduates who change their minds and choose to practice elsewhere simply have to pay back their loans. "We basically reverse the financial incentives to try to get the result that our area of California, and society in general, needs."
Han is one of the first students to participate in the programme. She says it is a good fit for her goals, and a great relief to her family.
"It definitely lifts a big weight off my shoulders, knowing that I won't have to pay back so many of my loans after I graduate," Han says. "And it gives me a better idea of what kind of doctor I want to be."
For the next several decades, a shortage of physicians will almost certainly be a fact of life in the US. Patients will most likely have to rely on second-tier health care professionals, such as nurse-practitioners, to pick up some of the slack. And the country will need more original thinking and innovative programs such as UC Riverside's - as well as plenty of dedicated students, like Jennifer Han.

Read More

US faces chronic doctor shortage

One university is attempting a radical approach to healing the healthcare system.

Last modified: 17 Dec 2013 02:05

Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds is an award-winning Al Jazeera senior correspondent.

The United States faces a severe shortage of doctors [Gallo/Getty]

Jennifer Han is a smart, 24-year-old native of Los Angeles whose lifelong dream has always been to be a doctor. The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, she's a first-year medical student at the University of California at Riverside. Recently, she took time out from the stressful final-exam week to talk to us about her goals and what it takes to become a doctor in America in 2013.
"Ultimately one of my major goals in going into medicine was to work with more under-served communities, hopefully with children and, of course, include their families in the health care system," she says.
Han has a strong desire to give back, and to serve. But in the US system of for-profit health care, becoming a physician carries a heavy price tag. Medical school tuition is expensive and requires students such as Han to take out large loans which must be repaid following graduation.
"We are acquiring a lot of debt," Han admits. "It ranges from $40,000 to $50,000 per year over four years, so it can be $200,000 or more altogether."
Riverside County and its surrounding area, where Han studies, is known in California as "The Inland Empire". It's an area of the state facing a severe shortage of doctors. "We have a desperate situation," says Dr Richard Olds, dean of the Riverside medical school.
Dr Olds spent much of his career practicing tropical disease prevention and treatment in the Philippines, Egypt and Central America. He says the lack of access to medical care in those developing countries is mirrored by a shortage of medical professionals in the Inland Empire.
"It's the fastest growing area in the state, and because 40 percent of the doctors in this area look like me - they are 55 years of age or older - we will have a 5,000 physician deficit in ten years, no matter what anyone does," he says.
Healthcare on life-support
The looming shortage is particularly severe for primary care doctors. These are family practitioners, internal medicine doctors, pediatricians and others. These physicians earn far less than elite specialists - plastic surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists,  or orthopedic surgeons, to name a few. Many doctors choose these relatively lucrative specialties partly in order to make a lot of money quickly and pay off those crushing medical school debts.
Dr Olds warns: "We have a really critical problem in not enough primary care doctors."
California is far from alone in grappling a looming doctor shortage. According to a new report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a nationwide shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade.
The shortage will worsen when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care act goes into effect next year, says the AAMC's chief public policy officer, Atul Grover.
"You are going to be putting a few million - maybe up to 30 million people - into a system where they are going to want to have access to care - or perhaps in the past, they only sought out emergency care," he says.
But the main cause of the shortage is that the country is simply getting older, and elderly people need more medical care than young people.
"Over the course of the next 20 years, 10,000 Americans a day will turn 65," says Grover. "And they are the ones who use the majority of healthcare services."
Triaging the system
Recognising the problem, UC Riverside is trying a bold experiment, the only one of its kind in the nation. Certain students who choose primary care - and agree to practice in the local community for a period of time after they complete their internships - will get full scholarships.
"We basically give them medical school for free," Dr Olds says. "At the end of the day, if they are a primary care doctor in inland southern California for five years, the deal's closed. They emerge debt free."
He notes that graduates who change their minds and choose to practice elsewhere simply have to pay back their loans. "We basically reverse the financial incentives to try to get the result that our area of California, and society in general, needs."
Han is one of the first students to participate in the programme. She says it is a good fit for her goals, and a great relief to her family.
"It definitely lifts a big weight off my shoulders, knowing that I won't have to pay back so many of my loans after I graduate," Han says. "And it gives me a better idea of what kind of doctor I want to be."
For the next several decades, a shortage of physicians will almost certainly be a fact of life in the US. Patients will most likely have to rely on second-tier health care professionals, such as nurse-practitioners, to pick up some of the slack. And the country will need more original thinking and innovative programs such as UC Riverside's - as well as plenty of dedicated students, like Jennifer Han.

Read More

US faces chronic doctor shortage

One university is attempting a radical approach to healing the healthcare system.

Last modified: 17 Dec 2013 02:05

Rob Reynolds

Rob Reynolds is an award-winning Al Jazeera senior correspondent.

The United States faces a severe shortage of doctors [Gallo/Getty]

Jennifer Han is a smart, 24-year-old native of Los Angeles whose lifelong dream has always been to be a doctor. The daughter of immigrants from South Korea, she's a first-year medical student at the University of California at Riverside. Recently, she took time out from the stressful final-exam week to talk to us about her goals and what it takes to become a doctor in America in 2013.
"Ultimately one of my major goals in going into medicine was to work with more under-served communities, hopefully with children and, of course, include their families in the health care system," she says.
Han has a strong desire to give back, and to serve. But in the US system of for-profit health care, becoming a physician carries a heavy price tag. Medical school tuition is expensive and requires students such as Han to take out large loans which must be repaid following graduation.
"We are acquiring a lot of debt," Han admits. "It ranges from $40,000 to $50,000 per year over four years, so it can be $200,000 or more altogether."
Riverside County and its surrounding area, where Han studies, is known in California as "The Inland Empire". It's an area of the state facing a severe shortage of doctors. "We have a desperate situation," says Dr Richard Olds, dean of the Riverside medical school.
Dr Olds spent much of his career practicing tropical disease prevention and treatment in the Philippines, Egypt and Central America. He says the lack of access to medical care in those developing countries is mirrored by a shortage of medical professionals in the Inland Empire.
"It's the fastest growing area in the state, and because 40 percent of the doctors in this area look like me - they are 55 years of age or older - we will have a 5,000 physician deficit in ten years, no matter what anyone does," he says.
Healthcare on life-support
The looming shortage is particularly severe for primary care doctors. These are family practitioners, internal medicine doctors, pediatricians and others. These physicians earn far less than elite specialists - plastic surgeons, cardiologists, oncologists,  or orthopedic surgeons, to name a few. Many doctors choose these relatively lucrative specialties partly in order to make a lot of money quickly and pay off those crushing medical school debts.
Dr Olds warns: "We have a really critical problem in not enough primary care doctors."
California is far from alone in grappling a looming doctor shortage. According to a new report by the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC), there could be a nationwide shortage of more than 90,000 doctors by the end of the decade.
The shortage will worsen when President Barack Obama's Affordable Care act goes into effect next year, says the AAMC's chief public policy officer, Atul Grover.
"You are going to be putting a few million - maybe up to 30 million people - into a system where they are going to want to have access to care - or perhaps in the past, they only sought out emergency care," he says.
But the main cause of the shortage is that the country is simply getting older, and elderly people need more medical care than young people.
"Over the course of the next 20 years, 10,000 Americans a day will turn 65," says Grover. "And they are the ones who use the majority of healthcare services."
Triaging the system
Recognising the problem, UC Riverside is trying a bold experiment, the only one of its kind in the nation. Certain students who choose primary care - and agree to practice in the local community for a period of time after they complete their internships - will get full scholarships.
"We basically give them medical school for free," Dr Olds says. "At the end of the day, if they are a primary care doctor in inland southern California for five years, the deal's closed. They emerge debt free."
He notes that graduates who change their minds and choose to practice elsewhere simply have to pay back their loans. "We basically reverse the financial incentives to try to get the result that our area of California, and society in general, needs."
Han is one of the first students to participate in the programme. She says it is a good fit for her goals, and a great relief to her family.
"It definitely lifts a big weight off my shoulders, knowing that I won't have to pay back so many of my loans after I graduate," Han says. "And it gives me a better idea of what kind of doctor I want to be."
For the next several decades, a shortage of physicians will almost certainly be a fact of life in the US. Patients will most likely have to rely on second-tier health care professionals, such as nurse-practitioners, to pick up some of the slack. And the country will need more original thinking and innovative programs such as UC Riverside's - as well as plenty of dedicated students, like Jennifer Han.

Read More

Fighting guns with graffiti in Honduras

Tegucigalpa has become one of the world's deadliest cities and one artist wants to highlight the problem through paint.

'American Gothic' graffiti with the farmer holding a M-16 instead of a pitchfork [Urban Maeztro/Al Jazeera]

Tegucigalpa, Honduras - It's almost sundown and a small sport utility vehicle glides through one of the most dangerous cities in the world which has been overrun by rival gangs and organised crime. During the drive, dozens of Hondurans are seen making their way home, wary of the time to ensure they get there before dark. The SUV crosses a bridge and parks on the sidewalk, just two blocks away from the capital Tegucigalpa's red-light district. It is here where Urban Maeztro, a 27-year-old ad agency employee turned street artist is preparing to send a message about violence in this Central American country. Armed with two boxes of spray paint cans, a notebook, and a Sharpie marker, he plans to take over the six-metre long wall. "Every 87 minutes someone dies in Honduras from a firearm, and there are over 650,000 illegal weapons. This piece will speak to that," Maeztro tells Al Jazeera. Tegucigalpa has become one of the world's deadliest cities with more than 87 homicides per 100,000 people - 10 times the rate considered an epidemic of violence by the World Health Organisation. "This is a country where people and [political] parties plaster propaganda and slogans on walls. This is so cool and I'd rather see this." - Denis Hernandez, delivery driver The figure has increased more than 232 percent since 2005, according to the Autonomous National University of Honduras's Observatory of Violence. "The one and only thing that people know about my country is the violence. It is what paints our reality," says the graffiti artist who began his project a year ago. Maeztro only uses his street name, a pun of "Urban Master", to protect his identity, saying his work is illegal and dangerous. Maeztro says he's been fired at with a weapon from a moving pick-up truck while performing his artwork. "It's a culture of intolerance. I disagree with you and I just kill you," he says. Usually the artist dons a ski mask or a bandana to hide his identity, however, on a recent afternoon he agreed to show his face to during a graffiti assault. New advertising In a matter of seconds, Maeztro slaps on a thick coat of white paint on the wall as primer.  He delineates a grotesque head with a green spray can - an outline reminiscent of Colombian figurative artist Fernando Botero's characters with an exaggerated and disproportionate volume, as well as scathing criticism. He continues spraying on layer after layer. The head is now bright orange with coiffed hair and a moustache. The figure is biting a bullet. "This character represents so many Honduran politicians," Maeztro says, pausing to smoke a cigarette and wait for a layer to dry. Dozens of cars slow down before the traffic light to observe the visual intervention. A deliveryman suddenly pulls up on a motorcycle and asks Maeztro for his phone number; he has friends that are interested in learning how to do street art. Political graffiti in Honduras [Urban Maeztro/Al Jazeera] "This is a country where people and [political] parties plaster propaganda and slogans on walls," says the driver Denis Hernandez, 23. "This is so cool and I'd rather see this." When asked why he decided to make the jump from an advertising agency to graffiti, Maestro says it was actually marketing and working at a company that taught him how streets could be used to send all kinds of messages. "In advertising, I was taught billboards condition human behaviour. So as an artist, I take to the streets to engage, and attempt to generate a social consciousness". Touring other works Many other graffiti displays are scattered all over Tegucigalpa, and not all are political. Maeztro's first series was a set of mixed paintings where he used internationally renowned works such as Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and Grant Wood's "American Gothic" to capture pedestrians' attention. He then contrasts these images with a neon drawing of a weapon; the Mona Lisa holds a 9mm pistol, while in the Gothic piece, the farmer holds a neon magenta M-16 assault rifle instead of the iconic pitchfork. "The 9mm gun is the most used handgun by the country's police," says Maeztro. Like many Hondurans, Maeztro has been a victim of this country's increasingly problematic police force. This country's police and army have come under fire in recent months with allegations that they have carried out and covered up extrajudicial assassinations targeting youths as part of so-called social cleansing campaigns. A recent US State Department report said corruption and impunity continued to be serious problems within the national police, including allegations of violent crime, extortion, kidnappings and illegal detentions committed by officers. At the abandoned street corner emblazoned with Maeztro's Mona Lisa with a gun, Eliezer Cruz, a 23-year-old bodyguard, walks by the painting. Urban Maeztro  When asked what he thinks he pauses. "She is very well known, but in many ways so is that gun." New movement While Maeztro's work began as a solo act, two other urban artists are now tagging and staging graffiti interventions alongside him. Together, they have created the Garawa Collective. Garawa is a type of bird in the Garifuna language, an African-descended ethnic minority in Honduras. Code, 38 and Caraqui, 27, both say they had been working in obscurity and independently until they met Maeztro. "We saw the opportunity to do something together," says Code, who also spoke about Maeztro's work trying to recruit young gang members to keep them out of trouble. Maeztro says urban artists will eventually take back Honduran streets. "The movement is growing. It's about people waking up and demanding something more, something better."

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US health watchdog cracks down on antibacterial soaps

Scientists warn antibacterial products may create resistance to antibiotics in humans (file photo)

The US health regulator has warned that antibacterial chemicals in soaps and body washes may pose health risks.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) called for a safety review of such products.
It proposed a rule requiring manufacturers to prove such soaps are safe and more effective against infection than plain soap and water.
Recent studies indicate an ingredient in such products could scramble hormone levels and boost drug-proof bacteria.
The proposal rule does not apply to alcohol-based hand sanitizers and products used in healthcare settings.
Manufacturers have until the end of 2014 to submit the results of clinical trials on their products, the FDA said. The new regulations would be finalised in 2016.
'Unanticipated hormonal effects' "New data suggest that the risks associated with long-term, daily use of antibacterial soaps may outweigh the benefits," Colleen Rogers, an FDA microbiologist,
Certain ingredients in such products - such as triclosan in liquid soaps and triclocarban in bar soaps - may contribute to bacterial resistance to antibiotics, the agency added.
Such products may also have "unanticipated hormonal effects that are of concern", according to the statement.
Recent studies of such chemicals on animals have shown they may alter hormones, the FDA said, but such results have not yet been proven in humans.
"Because so many consumers use them, FDA believes that there should be clearly demonstrated benefits to balance any potential risks," the statement added.
If the FDA's proposed rule is finalised, companies would be required to provide data to support their product's health claims.
If they cannot, the products would be reformulated or relabelled in order to remain on the market.
In March, a federal appeals court approved a lawsuit by the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council, aimed at forcing the FDA to review the health impacts of triclosan.

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Ciancia to make initial appearance Wednesday from Rancho Cucamonga jail

RANCHO CUCAMONGA >> Accused Los Angeles International Airport shooter Paul Anthony Ciancia will make his initial court appearance Wednesday morning from a room at West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga, federal prosecutors announced Mo..

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Cyber Monday setting shipping records this year

 

William Hart, a worker at FedEx’s massive regional hub at Los Angeles International Airport, was catching a box from a co-worker and loading it onto a conveyor belt about every three seconds on Cyber Monday, expected to be the busiest day ever for most of the nation’s shipping companies.“It’s hard work,” said Hart, around 4 a.m. after giving a fist-bump to his manager between loads. “TVs. Videos. We got it all. We even get animals. It (does)..

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OBAMA ARGUES NO NEW IRAN SANCTIONS

Obama urges no new Iran sanctions

President Barack Obama urges US senators to hold off from proposing more sanctions against Iran to allow time for world powers to complete a deal on Tehran's nuclear programme.

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Consenting Muslims in America

The scholar recounts his brief detention and interrogation at JFK airport. Last updated: 19 Nov 2013 05:25

Hamid Dabashi Hamid Dabashi is Hagop Kevorkian Professor of Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. RSS Columbia University Books

Getting through US borders has become more difficult for American Muslims [Getty Images]

On the evening of November 13, I flew back from Gwangju, South Korea - where I was invited to participate in Gwangju Biennale - to JFK airport in New York. Upon exiting the airplane I was met by two CBP (US Customs and Border Protection) agents who collected my passport and escorted me to their headquarters at the airport.  I was then asked to empty all my pockets, and my small handbag was thoroughly searched. The agent in charge then picked a number of items in my possession - including my credit card receipts, driver's license, Columbia University ID, iPhone, iPad, and a handbook in which I write my various notes. "Have you ever been with us," one of the two officers asked me at the airplane door. No sir, I said. They had come all the way to the very door of the plane, and were looking at people’s passports until they reached me and the instant they had me, they let the others pass unhindered. They were obviously looking for me. This was no random search. This was a deliberate and targeted search for me.  I was made to sit down while the CBP officers filled out forms for which they asked me detailed questions including my parents’ names, my height, weight, the colour of my hair and eyes, my home address, etc. Then photocopies of the items the officers had taken from me were made - including a full photocopy of my notebook in which I write anything from the daily chores I need to do, to the outline of a lecture I have to give to my class, the outline of my columns for Al Jazeera or other venues, and the outlines of arguments for more extended essays or even books. It is the closest thing a writer has to a Catholic confessional box - I pray, I play, and I think in the notebook.  He was a federal officer, standing over my tired bones and heavily jetlagged body with a gun and a handcuff and the full authority to do with me what he pleased. I was homo sacer incarnate, reduced to my zoë, full of fear and loathing - how could I grant or deny him "consent?" After almost three hours, I was given back these items, was escorted to the exit, and was told by the accompanying officer that this was perhaps a case of mistaken identity. He also gave me a Homeland Security brochure which informed me as to how I might request a redress of the procedure to which I had just been subjected.  Travelling while Muslim I make a note of this event because I am not the only Muslim being thus harassed when travelling from and to the US - a country I have called "home" for more decades than the entire lifetime of the officers who were interrogating me - as I told them so, and they did, in fact, acknowledge. "Getting through United States airports and border crossings," according to a recent New York Times, report, "has grown more difficult for everyone since the terrorist attacks of September 11. But Muslim Americans say they are having a harder time than most, sometimes facing an intimidating maze of barriers, if not outright discrimination. Advocacy groups have taken to labelling their predicament 'travelling while Muslim', and accuse the government of ignoring a serious erosion of civil rights." Against these discriminatory behaviours, Muslims are taking collective action through various civil liberty venues. But I believe public awareness is the single most important course of action for us - and sharing the moral and psychological damages we and our families have to endure every time we face such ordeals.   Public awareness is our only haven  As soon as I came home I sent out an email informing a number of my friends, family, and colleagues of this incident - Kafkaesque incarnate - and the following day, I posted a note on my Facebook page and shared the incident with the wider world.    I have no idea what might have triggered this incident. Over the last almost 40 years that I have lived in the US, nothing like this has happened to me. I have no reason to believe or disbelieve the officer’s assertion that this might be a case of mistaken identity. The officer who was copying my notebook and who happened to be Muslim, asked me if I were critical of Israel - for, he said, he had seen "this happening before".  Perhaps a warning of what was about to happen, or perhaps not, was when I received my boarding pass from Korea Air at JFK, I was given a "SSSS" designation, which I understand stands for "Secondary Security Screening Selection", and meant an intrusive and far tighter screening by the security officers before I entered the gate areas. The same thing happened to me on my way back from Seoul to JFK. Initially, I thought that this was perhaps a random designation by the airline's computer, but for sure, the agents at the airplane door could not have been from the airline.  Perhaps the most memorable moment of the entire incident was when the officer who had escorted me from the airplane informed me, with an air of indifference, that he needed my "consent" to photocopy the items he had collected from me. I just looked at him in incredulity. "Consent?" How could I give or deny him consent? He was a federal officer, standing over my tired bones and heavily jetlagged body with a gun and a handcuff and the full authority to do with me what he pleased. I was homo sacer incarnate, reduced to my zoë, full of fear and loathing - how could I grant or deny him "consent"?  Apothecary box of my mind  When I came home I looked at the notebook they had copied. It is typical of all my notebooks - of which I have many.  On one page there was my colourful drawings of flowers for my little children; on the next, a line of Rumi’s ghazals to practise my Persian calligraphy. On the next page, a rant in Persian, against former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, as to why he dismissed Shirin Ebadi’s Nobel Peace Prize as irrelevant and insignificant. On the following page, I had the outline of a lecture I gave to my class on Malcolm X, James Baldwin, and linked it to the "liberation theology" of Bartolomé de las Casas in A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies.  On the page after that I thought through an argument as to why US President Barack Obama initially thought to attack Syria and then changed his mind. Turning to the next page, there is a comparison of Kurasawa, Lean, and Ford’s epic cinema - before coming upon pages in which, after reading sections of Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution, I had written extensively on her strength and blind spots. What would a Homeland Security bureaucrat make of all these pages, will he or she think me mad, insane, or will she think these were the coded content of some grand conspiracy?  Nothing, not my laptop, my iPhone, my iPad, etc, is as innate to me and to my thinking and who and what I am, as these notebooks, they are my inner sanctums - where I fear, where I tremble, where I think, where I hope, where I dream and dread.  Only a few days ago I wrote on my Facebook page: "I have always thought of myself as a potter - and what I do (writing) as pottery - and of publishing just putting on my window one of the pots I have made and think it ready for display - when a pot is done and dried and on display, I scarcely look at or think about it - my heart, hand and soul are always in the clay I am moulding now." These notebooks open and read like my crowded workshop, where I write and reason myself through the earth and water of my thinking. They are the varied corners of my pottery shop. At one point, the officer who was copying it, turned to his colleague and not knowing I was watching, said, "I have to copy this whole shit." "Sir", I inadvertently shouted, "those are my thoughts please don’t call them shit!" He apologised. I was not in a position to accept or reject his apology.     It is the anonymity of your accusers and the total power "it" or "they" have over your being that is the most frightful part of this entire ordeal. Nobody tells you what you have done or not have done. "Someone has spotted you," the first officer who picked me up from the airplane told me, "and I must do certain things," he added, almost apologetically but dutifully. "Why, I don’t know," he added. And he kept saying he was tired and wanted to go home. Soon, after he was done with me, he did leave the office without saying goodbye to me, or even looking at me, and left me in the hands of another officer who finished copying all he had from me and then let me go.  Why, by what authority, and for what reasons? I have no clue. I am reading Kafka’s Before the Law and it scares me even more.

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US-Israel rift over Iran nukes now in the open

Israel: Bad Iran deal 'will lead to war'

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• President Obama meets Tuesday with Senate leaders to discuss Iran talks, sanctions
• Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu calls a possible Iran deal "exceedingly bad"
• U.S. Secretary of State Kerry says an interim deal with Iran won't put Israel at risk
• International talks on Iran resume later this week in Geneva

Washington (CNN) -- What had been speculated before is now very public -- the United States and Israel differ on how to deal with Iran's nuclear ambitions.

While both governments reject any possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran, they are clearly at odds over a possible agreement as soon as this week that would loosen economic sanctions against Tehran in exchange for a suspension of part of its nuclear program.

"It's a bad deal -- an exceedingly bad deal," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told CNN on Sunday of the agreement sought by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at international talks in Geneva.

White House spokesman Jay Carney argued Monday that the negotiations offered a diplomatic solution, telling reporters that "rejecting negotiations means choosing" the use of force to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.

White House: Iran relief would be modest

Fareed's Take: Hurdles to Iran nuke deal

In a sign of the level of disconnect, the two countries were unable to agree on when Kerry would next travel to Israel for talks with Netanyahu on the Iranian issue.

Netanyahu said Sunday that Kerry would meet with him on Friday, but Kerry told reporters Monday he would be unable to make the trip so soon.

The split involves international diplomacy and domestic political issues in both countries, and comes as Kerry and U.S. President Barack Obama also push Netanyahu to work with Palestinian officials on forging a Middle East peace agreement.

While Netanyahu and Obama have long acknowledged that close friends can disagree on issues, the direct language on both sides about their differences over a possible agreement with Iran showed the volatility of an issue with major regional and global implications.

Iran insists it only seeks to use nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but the international community led by Israel, the United States, France and others demands that Tehran dismantle its ability to enrich uranium and other technology needed to develop nuclear weapons.

In an interview Sunday on CNN, Netanyahu made clear he opposed lifting some sanctions now -- as called for under the agreement being negotiated -- without getting further concessions to ensure Iran would be unable to continue with uranium enrichment and other steps.

"I think you should not only keep up the pressure; I think you should increase the pressure, because it's finally working," Netanyahu said, labeling Iran's economy as close to paralysis. "If you give it up now, when you have that pressure, and Iran doesn't even take apart, dismantle one centrifuge, what leverage will you have when you've eased the pressure?"

At the same time, he repeated his insistence that Israel "always reserves the right to defend itself against any threat," which is diplomatic speak for a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities to stop development of a weapon.

In Congress, some legislators including conservative Republicans and liberal Democrats share the concerns of Netanyahu and the powerful pro-Israel lobby in Washington.

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez of New Jersey and GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina both question the merits of the Iran deal under discussion and instead call for tougher sanctions.

"Iran has the right to a civilian, peaceful nuclear program, but they have no right under international law to enrich" uranium needed to develop nuclear weapons, Menendez told MSNBC last week.

However, Carney said Monday that the interim agreement under discussion in Geneva offered only "modest and eminently reversible" sanctions relief to Iran, rather than a fundamental shift in the sanctions architecture.

He described it as the first part of a two-phase process intended to reach a more comprehensive deal in which Iranian leaders would have to show in a "verifiable, transparent way that they have forsaken nuclear weapons ambitions."

"The end goal here is shared by everyone," Carney said of preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons. "There's no daylight here between the United States and Israel."

Kerry told reporters Monday that Netanyahu had "every right in the world" to state his position and defend his interests.

At the same time, the former U.S. senator noted that he had been a consistent supporter of "our friends in Israel" throughout his political career, and added that "I can assure those friends and everybody watching this that nothing that we are doing here, in my judgment, will put Israel at any additional risk."

The Geneva talks involve Iran and the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Great Britain and France -- as well as Germany in what is known as the P5+1 in diplomatic shorthand.

According to a senior U.S. administration official, the talks are "getting close" to an interim deal with Iran that would prevent its nuclear program "from advancing, and roll it back" in key areas. The last round of negotiations broke up without a deal earlier this month, with each side blaming the other's reluctance.

Carney said Monday that Obama would meet on Tuesday with Senate leaders as well as the top Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Banking, Foreign Relations, Armed Services and Intelligence committee to provide an update on the P5+1 negotiations heading into the next round later this week.

Last week, Kerry told a Senate panel that new sanctions on Iran now by Congress "could be viewed as bad faith" in the negotiations.

"It could destroy the ability to be able to get agreement," he added, "and it could actually wind up setting us back in dialogue that's taken 30 years to achieve."

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was elected earlier this year, has made lifting tough economic sanctions against his country a priority.

During a visit to the U.N. General Assembly in September, Rouhani's moderate diplomatic approach raised hopes in the West of a thaw in relations with Tehran and progress in negotiations on its nuclear program.

Rouhani's visit culminated in a phone call with Obama and a meeting between Kerry and his Iranian counterpart. It was the first such high-level contact between the two enemies since Iran's 1979 revolution.

Iran recently signed a deal with the International Atomic Energy Agency that agrees to give the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency access to long-unseen nuclear sites, including a heavy-water reactor in Arak.

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Watch this video US aircraft carrier boosts relief effort

US aircraft carrier boosts relief effort

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• U.S. Navy says two amphibious ships are to arrive Wednesday in the Philippines
• 900 Marines are on board to help with relief
• Navy spokesman says aircraft carrier USS George Washington is likely to leave the Philippines

(CNN) -- The USS George Washington is expected to leave the Philippines once two amphibious ships arrive there Wednesday, Navy officials say.

The USS Ashland and the USS Germantown can get closer to the storm-ravaged areas than the massive aircraft carrier, and they have a variety of helicopters, small boats, trucks, equipment to produce potable water and other supplies needed in the relief effort.

"They are the Swiss army knife of the U.S. military," Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Paul Kennedy, who is in charge of the U.S. military relief efforts, told CNN last week after he requested the ships from the Pentagon.

The two ships picked up 900 Marines in Okinawa to aid in the relief efforts. A third ship, the USS Freedom, is also carrying supplies from Singapore, the Navy said.

The George Washington was one of the first in the U.S. fleet to bring large-scale help to Filipinos after Typhoon Haiyan left death, destruction and hundreds of thousands of survivors without food and water.

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