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Chennai cops bust drug-smuggling attempt at airport

May 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

Chennai, May 14 (ANI): Police in Chennai have busted a drug smuggling attempt after they apprehended an unemployed Indian man trying to smuggle the contraband in an ice-cream vending machine at Chennai airport. He was heading to Malaysia.

The alert Chennai police followed a tip-off that led to his apprehension. They got suspicious after they saw the man heaving a bulky package at the Chennai airport.

Authorities stopped the Malaysia bound man on Wednesday night. During interrogation, he confessed he was carrying narcotics.

It emerged that the package was an ice-cream vending machine in which 14.79 kg of ketamine had been hidden.

“The drug was skillfully concealed in a cavity in the ice cream dispenser which he was carrying, purportedly for sale abroad,” The Star quoted R. Periasamy, Commissioner of Customs (Airport and Air Cargo) as saying.

Customs officials estimated that the contraband, commonly known as a “party drug”, could easily fetch about RM1million in international market.

According to the report, ketamine hydrochloric, often used as animal tranquilliser, is easily available in India and widely trafficked to Southeast Asian cities, where there is a growing demand for the drug, and sold at lucrative prices.

Between 2008 and 2009, around 123kg of ketamine were seized at Chennai airport alone.

Due to stringent checks in the southern city airport and seaport, smugglers are now plying other Indian airports such as Cochin, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, Periasamy said. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: Air Cargo, airport authorities, apprehension, cavity, chennai airport, Cochin, Coimbatore, Cops Bust, customs officials, Drug Smuggling, Hyderabad, Indian Airports, indian man, interrogation, ketamine, narcotics, smugglers, Smuggling Attempt, Southeast Asian Cities, vending machine

Chennai cops bust drug-smuggling attempt at airport

May 14, 2010 By vani Leave a Comment

The alert Chennai police followed a tip-off that led to his apprehension. They got suspicious after they saw the man heaving a bulky package at the Chennai airport.

Authorities stopped the Malaysia bound man on Wednesday night. During interrogation, he confessed he was carrying narcotics.

It emerged that the package was an ice-cream vending machine in which 14.79 kg of ketamine had been hidden.

Customs officials estimated that the contraband, commonly known as a “party drug”, could easily fetch about RM1million in international market.

Between 2008 and 2009, around 123kg of ketamine were seized at Chennai airport alone.

Due to stringent checks in the southern city airport and seaport, smugglers are now plying other Indian airports such as Cochin, Hyderabad and Coimbatore, Periasamy said. (ANI)

Natural hydrogel may boost spinal cord healing

September 19, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 18 (ANI): A jab of biomaterial gel into a spinal cord injury site may significantly improve healing, according to researchers at the Barrow Neurological Institute at St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center.

Dr. Mark Preul and Dr. Alyssa Panitch have found in a study that injection of an engineered hydrogel made up mainly of hyaluronic acid (a naturally-occurring body substance) into the spinal cord injury site decreases scarring, and promotes a realignment of the spinal cord fibres around the injury site.

The hyaluronic acid, which forms a scaffold-like configuration may help to structurally stabilize the spinal cord injury site.

The researchers traced cells in the brain stem after injury, and found much higher levels in the hydrogel treated animals as compared to animals that did not receive the treatment, and approached nearly normal levels.

Treated animals had higher functional scores than their non-treated counterparts.

“Spinal cord injury is devastating to civilian and military populations – especially to the young. There has been little progress toward paradigms of regeneration and few results that show real, sustained functional recovery. We’ve been so pre-occupied with regeneration, but that is a highly complicated and difficult to define goal. This project is a synergy of neurosurgeons and bioengineers that attempts repair of the SCI lesion cavity using a tissue-engineering biomaterials approach,” says Preul.

He added that the team aimed at finding ways to structurally allow the body to better heal itself.

“In this project we did not add anything to the hyaluronic acid. It may be that adding growth factors or cells into the gel matrix may allow even better results,” he said.

Preul said that the results show “we may be on a practical path that can give hope to the many people who suffer this sort of injury.”

The work was presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Association of Neurological Surgeons in San Diego where it won the Synthes Prize for Spine Research. (ANI)

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Need to prevent periodontitis to cut head and neck cancer risk

September 8, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 8 (ANI): Researchers at the University of Buffalo have stressed on the need for increased efforts to prevent and treat chronic periodontitis, a form of gum disease, to reduce the risk for head and neck cancer.

Led by Dr. Mine Tezal at Buffalo, periodontitis is an independent risk factor for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

“Prevent periodontitis; if you have it already, get treatment and maintain good oral hygiene,” said Tezal.

Chronic periodontitis is characterized by progressive loss of the bone and soft tissue attachment that surround the teeth.

The researchers assessed the role of chronic periodontitis on head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, as well as the individual roles on three subsites: oral cavity, oropharyngeal and laryngeal.

They used radiographic measurement of bone loss to measure periodontitis among 463 patients, 207 of whom were controls.

The results of the study revealed that chronic periodontitis might represent a clinical high-risk profile for head and neck squamous cell carcinoma.

The strength of the association was greatest in the oral cavity, followed by the oropharynx and larynx, according to Tezal.

When they stratified the relationship by tobacco use, they found that the association persisted in those patients who never used tobacco.

The researchers did not expect the periodontitis-head and neck squamous cell carcinoma association to be weaker in current smokers compared to former and never smokers, according to Tezal.

However, this interaction, although statistically significant, was not very strong.

“Confirmatory studies with more comprehensive assessment of smoking, such as duration, quantity and patterns of use, as well as smokeless tobacco history are needed,” said Tezal.

“Our study also suggests that chronic periodontitis may be associated with poorly differentiated tumor status in the oral cavity. Continuous stimulation of cellular proliferation by chronic inflammation may be responsible for this histological type. However, grading is subjective and we only observed this association in the oral cavity. Therefore, this association may be due to chance and needs further exploration,” she added.

Andrew Olshan, Ph.D., said these results lend further support to the potential importance of poor oral health in this form of cancer.

Olshan said, “Although the study is comparatively small, the researchers were able to also see an association between bone loss and the risk of head and neck cancer.”

The results of the study have been published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. (ANI)

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Antarctica’s plumbing system more dynamic than previously believed

September 2, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 2 (ANI): Scientists, using space-based lasers on a NASA satellite have created the most comprehensive inventory of lakes that actively drain or fill under Antarctica’s ice, which has revealed a continental plumbing system that is more dynamic than previously thought.

“Even though Antarctica’s ice sheet looks static, the more we watch it, the more we see there is activity going on there all the time,” said Benjamin Smith of the University of Washington in Seattle, who led the study.

Unlike most lakes, Antarctic lakes are under pressure from the ice above. That pressure can push melt water from place to place like water in a squeezed balloon.

The water moves under the ice in a broad, thin layer, but also through a linked cavity system. This flow can resupply other lakes near and far.

Understanding this plumbing is important, as it can lubricate glacier flow and send the ice speeding toward the ocean, where it can melt and contribute to sea level change.

But figuring out what’s happening beneath miles of ice is a challenge.

Researchers led by Smith analyzed 4.5 years of ice elevation data from NASA’s Ice, Cloud and land Elevation satellite (ICESat) to create the most complete inventory to date of changes in the Antarctic plumbing system.

The team has mapped the location of 124 active lakes, estimated how fast they drain or fill, and described the implications for lake and ice-sheet dynamics.

Smith, Helen Fricker, a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and colleagues extended their elevation analysis to cover most of the Antarctic continent and 4.5 years of data from ICESat’s Geoscience Laser Altimeter System (GLAS).

By observing how ice sheet elevation changed between the two or three times the satellite flew over a section every year, researchers could determine which lakes were active.

They also used the elevation changes and the properties of water and ice to estimate the volume change.

Only a few of the more than 200 previously identified lakes were confirmed active, implying that lakes in East Antarctica’s high-density “Lakes District” are mostly inactive and do not contribute much to ice sheet changes.

Most of the 124 newly observed active lakes turned up in coastal areas, at the head of large drainage systems, which have the largest potential to contribute to sea level change.

According to Robert Bindschadler, a glaciologist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, “The survey shows that most active subglacial lakes are located where the ice is moving fast, which implies a relationship.” (ANI)

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New stem cell op may prevent thousands from having hip replacements

September 1, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

London, August 31 (ANI): British surgeons at the Spire Hospital in Southampton are using a novel technique that uses stem cells to repair damaged bones.

Media reports on this procedure suggest that it may prevent thousands of people from needing to have an artificial hip fitted.

Mark Venables, 39, is one patient on whom doctors at the Spire Hospital conducted one of their first operations.

He suffers from a condition where bone in his hip died, weakening his joint and causing pain on movement.

The surgeons at the hospital used his own stem cells to rejuvenate the affected bone.

“I just want to get back to an active life,” Sky News quoted Venables as saying before the operation.

For the operation, the surgeons first purified stem cells from bone marrow that they had extracted from Venables’ pelvis.

The doctors then mixed them with cleaned, ground-up bone from another patient, who had had their own hip replaced.

After removing the dead tissue from the ball of his hip, the doctors filled the cavity with the mixture of stem cells and donated bone.

Surgeon Doug Dunlop said that the bone would have collapsed without the stem cell treatment, and that Venables would have then needed an artificial hip joint.

“If this new procedure works, he won’t need a hip replacement. It will fix his hip for life,” said Dunlop.

To date, six patients have been operated using the new procedure, and only one surgery has failed.

Professor Richard Oreffo, of Southampton University, is now hoping to improve the technique further by replacing the donated bone with an artificial material containing chemicals that help the stem cells grow.(ANI)

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Signalling pathway operational in intra-abdominal fat identified

July 15, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, July 15 (ANI): Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers and Germany-based University of Leipzig experts have announced the identification of a signalling pathway that is operational in intra-abdominal fat, the fat depot that is most strongly tied to obesity-related morbidity.

“Fat tissue in obesity is dysfunctional, yet, the processes that cause fat tissue to malfunction are poorly understood-specifically, it is unknown how fat cells ‘translate’ stresses in obesity into dysfunction,” said Dr. Assaf Rudich, senior lecturer from the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at Ben-Gurion University.

Fat tissue is no longer considered simply a storage place for excess calories, but in fact is an active tissue that secretes multiple compounds, thereby communicating with other tissues, including the liver, muscles, pancreas and the brain.

Normal communication is needed for optimal metabolism and weight regulation, but in obesity, fat (adipose) tissue becomes dysfunctional, and mis-communicates with the other tissues.

According to the researchers, this places fat tissue at a central junction in mechanisms leading to common diseases attributed to obesity, like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases.

The researchers highlight the fact that fat tissue dysfunction is believed to be caused by obesity-induced fat tissue stress: Cells over-grow as they store increasing amounts of fat. They say that this excessive cell growth may cause decreased oxygen delivery into the tissue; individual cells may die (at least in mouse models), and fat tissue inflammation ensues.

Excess nutrients, they add, may also lead to increased metabolic demands, and cause cellular stress.

The BGU and Leipzig teams collected fat tissue samples from people undergoing abdominal surgery, and identified a signalling pathway that is operational in intra-abdominal fat, the fat depot that is most strongly tied to obesity-related morbidity.

They say that the degree of activation of a signalling pathway from these individuals was compared with those of leaner people, those with obesity predominantly characterized by accumulation of “peripheral” fat, and those with obesity with predominant accumulation of fat within the abdominal cavity.

They found that the signalling pathway was more active depending on the amount of fat accumulation in the abdomen, and that it correlated with multiple biochemical markers for increased cardio-metabolic risk.

In their study report, they have revealed that the expression of one of the upstream signaling components, a protein called ASK1, predicts whole-body insulin resistance (an endocrine abnormality that is strongly tied to diabetes and cardiovascular disease), independent of other traditional risk factors.

The researchers have also shown that although non-fat cells within adipose tissue express most of this protein in lean persons, the adipocytes themselves increase its expression by more than four-fold in abdominally-obese persons.

“The importance of this study is not only in contributing to the understanding of adipose tissue dysfunction in obesity, but as a consequence, may provide important leads for novel ways to prevent the dangerous consequences, such as type 2 diabetes, of intra-abdominal fat accumulation,” states Dr. Iris Shai, a BGU researcher at the S. Daniel Abraham International Center for Health and Nutrition and Soroka University Medical Center in Beer-Sheva, Israel.

The study has been published in the Endocrine Society’s the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism. (ANI)

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Road caves in at Saat Rasta, again

April 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Leaking sewers main culprit; civic body plans survey

Six months after a road caved in near Mahalaxmi, killing three, another cavity appeared on the same road on Wednesday, making it the third such incident in the Saat Rasta area and the sixth in South Mumbai in the past two years.

A leak in the main sewerage lines led to the incident. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation is now planning a survey of roads across the older parts of Mumbai.

The stretch on Keshavrao Khade Marg (Saat Rasta) caved in, exposing an eight-feet deep and five-feet wide cavity, early on Wednesday morning. Residents said a part of the cavity appeared last night.

The stretch had collapsed twice last year, once along the Sane Guruji Marg and the other along the Keshavrao Khade Marg. Deputy municipal commissioner Prakash Patil said the cavity appeared on the same stretch, but on the opposite side. “The sewer lines are old and dilapidated and leakages have resulted in the soil washing out, weakening the ground base,” he said.

The old pipelines are being replaced at the spot. Only on Monday evening, the BMC was forced to halt the work of replacing the old sewer lines below Peddar Road, following opposition to the traffic diversions. The BMC has already warned that a portion of Peddar Road could be weak owing to the leaking sewers, whose replacement has already been delayed by 12 years.

Meanwhile, the civic administration has ordered an inquiry into the Saat Rasta incident. Officials said the roads in South Mumbai’s oldest quarters, plagued by dilapidated and rusty sewer and storm water lines below the surface, will be surveyed. “We are planning to carry out the survey in association with VJTI College. The survey will help us know whether there are similar leakages elsewhere,” a senior official said.

They are not ruling out the possibility of more such incidents in future. “There is nothing one can do except replace the old pipelines. The utilities laid during the British rule have collapsed and are leaking, loosening the soil and sucking in the top soil. This makes the road surface fragile and prone to cavities,” the officer said.

Deputy Municipal Commissioner (water supply projects) P Charankar said the civic administration is in the process of procuring the ground penetrating radar equipment.

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High-dosage brachytherapy shows promising results in head and neck tumours’ treatment

March 29, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 29 (ANI): Researchers at the University of Navarra Hospital say that high-dosage perioperative brachytherapy can prove very useful in the treatment of head and neck tumours, and for reducing the period of radiation.

Brachytherapy is a radiotherapy treatment involving the placing of radioactive sources within the tumour or nearby.

The scientists say that their work describes the application of this new radiotherapy technique to 40 patients between 2000 and 2006.

A research article on the study suggests that it was the greatest number of patients treated with high-dosage brachytherapy for head and neck tumours in world medical literature.

The results suggest that after a seven-year follow-up, the illness was controlled in 86 per cent of the cases, and that the percentage of survival was 52 per cent.

The researchers revealed that their study concentrated on the treatment of tumours in the oral cavity, those affecting the tongue and the floor of the mouth, and those in the oropharyngeal region, such as tumours of the tonsils.

Doctor Rafael Martínez-Monge, Director of the Radiotherapy Department, revealed that the team analysed the application of brachytherapy as complementary post-surgery treatment.

Some cases of head and neck tumours require the application of radiotherapy after the surgical operation.

The researchers say that using this technique, they could intensify the radiation dosage with the goal of reducing relapse rates.

According to them, brachytherapy provides better end-result possibilities than conventional radiotherapy, as it enables the administration of doses that would not be easily achieved using other techniques due to toxic effects.

Given that the use in brachytherapy of high dosages involves a series of benefits for the patient as regards the overall treatment, Doctor Martínez-Monge points out that the great advantage is the reduction of total time.

While conventional radiotherapy treatment lasted seven weeks, administering part of the radiation through brachytherapy can take two weeks less.

The researchers say that this technique also manages to reduce the time of radiation compared to treatment with low dosage brachytherapy, thanks to the existence of new sources of radiation that help release the treatment in a matter of minutes.

The University of Navarra Hospital says that there are a number of studies under way on its use in gynaecological tumours and sarcomas, amongst others.

The current study has been published in Brachytherapy, official journal of the American Society of Brachytherapy. (ANI)

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Scientists successfully use stem cells to replace stroke-damaged tissue in rats

March 9, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, March 9 (ANI): Scientists have achieved a significant success in using stem cells to replace stroke-damaged tissue in rats.

Led by Dr Mike Modo of King’s College London, the research project was funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC).

The study conducted at the Institute of Psychiatry and University of Nottingham has shown that by inserting tiny scaffolding with stem cells attached, it is possible to fill a hole left by stroke damage with brand new brain tissue within seven days.

Previous experiments, where stem cells have been injected into the void left by stroke damage, have had some success in improving outcomes in rats.

The problem is that in the damaged area, there is no structural support for the stem cells, and thus they tend to migrate into the surrounding healthy tissues instead of filling up the hole left by the stroke.

Dr. Modo said: “We would expect to see a much better improvement in the outcome after a stroke if we can fully replace the lost brain tissue, and that is what we have been able to do with our technique.”

The researcher used individual particles of a biodegradable polymer called PLGA, which had been loaded with neural stem cells, and filled stroke cavities with stem cells on a ready-made support structure.

“This works really well because the stem cell-loaded PLGA particles can be injected through a very fine needle and then adopt the precise shape of the cavity. In this process the cells fill the cavity and can make connections with other cells, which helps to establish the tissue,” Dr. Modo said.

“Over a few days we can see cells migrating along the scaffold particles and forming a primitive brain tissue that interacts with the host brain. Gradually the particles biodegrade leaving more gaps and conduits for tissue, fibres and blood vessels to move into,” the researcher added.

In the current study, the researchers used an MRI scanner to pinpoint precisely the right place to inject the scaffold-cell structure.

They say that the next stage of the research will be to include a factor called VEGF with the particles, which will encourage blood vessels to enter the new tissue. (ANI)

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Meet the cat that survived 27 bullet shots!

March 3, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Mar 2 (ANI): A pet cat named Possum miraculously survived 27 bullet shots at point-blank range in the head and neck.

The relentless torture on Possum has enraged animal welfare authorities, who have raised their voices against the inhuman cruelty.

The two-year-old male domestic cat was trapped in a cage about 9pm on February 27, and an air rifle was shoved in its face and mouth with two direct shots penetrating his tongue and lodging in his nasal cavity.

Police are investigating the violent attack on the cat, which has to get the 15 remaining pellets removed in a surgery.

Owner Jodi Mulley pulled out five of the pellets herself, while seven other pellets that punctured the skin were not found.

According to reports, the animal was caught in a cat trap somewhere at Portsmith, and repeatedly shot with the slug gun.

One of the lead pellets narrowly missed the cat’s jugular vein.

After being turned down by four veterinarians, Greencross Veterinarians principal surgeon Max Fargher agreed to treat Possum.

He said that in his 18 years of experience as a vet, he had never seen such a disturbing attack on an animal.

“In general, this is the worst episode of animal cruelty I’ve ever seen,” Cairns.com.au quoted him as saying. (ANI)

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Even a little alcohol ‘raises cancer risk in women’

February 25, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, Feb 25 (ANI): Drinking alcohol – even low amounts – raises the risk of certain cancers in women, according to a new study.

As per a report in the February 24 online issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, low to moderate alcohol consumption among women is associated with a statistically significant increase in cancer risk and may account for nearly 13 percent of the cancers of the breast, liver, rectum, and upper aero-digestive tract combined.

To reach the conclusion, Naomi Allen, D.Phil., of the University of Oxford, U.K., and colleagues examined the association of alcohol consumption and cancer incidence in the Million Women Study, which included 1,280,296 middle-aged women in the United Kingdom.

Participants were recruited to the study between 1996 and 2001. Researchers identified cancer cases through the National Health Service Central Registries.

Women in the study who drank alcohol consumed, on average, one drink per day. Very few drank three or more drinks per day. With an average follow-up time of more than 7 years, 68,775 women were diagnosed with cancer.

The risk of any type of cancer increased with increasing alcohol consumption, as did the risk of some specific types of cancer, including cancer of the breast, rectum, and liver. Women who also smoked had an increased risk of cancers of the oral cavity and pharynx, esophagus, and larynx.

The type of alcohol consumed – wine versus spirits or other types – did not alter the association between alcohol consumption and cancer risk.

Each additional alcoholic drink regularly consumed per day was associated with 11 additional breast cancers per 1000 women up to age 75; one additional cancer of the oral cavity and pharynx; one additional cancer of the rectum; and an increase of 0.7 each for esophageal, laryngeal, and liver cancers.

“Although the magnitude of the excess absolute risk associated with one additional drink per day may appear small for some cancer sites, the high prevalence of moderate alcohol drinking among women in many populations means that the proportion of cancers attributable to alcohol is an important public health issue,” the authors write. (ANI)

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Blue colour makes us think creatively, and red notice detail

February 7, 2009 By admin Leave a Comment

Washington, February 6 (ANI): Blue colour boosts the brain’s ability to think creatively, and red to notice detail.

Well, these are the findings of a new University of British Columbia study, which was aimed at determining which of the two colours most improves the brain’s performance and receptivity to advertising.

The study showed that both colours could improve the brain’s performance and receptivity to ads, depending upon the nature of the task or message.

Those behind the study say that advertisers and interior designers may find their findings interesting.

“Previous research linked blue and red to enhanced cognitive performance, but disagreed on which provides the greatest boost. It really depends on the nature of the task,” says Juliet Zhu of UBC’s Sauder School of Business, author of the study which will appear in the journal Science Express.

For their study, the researchers tracked over 600 participants’ performance on six cognitive tasks between 2007 and 2008, which required either detail-orientation or creativity.

The team revealed that most of the experiments were conducted on computers, with a screen that was red, blue or white.

The researchers noted that red colour boosted the participants’ performance on detail-oriented tasks, such as memory retrieval and proofreading, by as much as 31 per cent compared to blue.

Conversely, according to them, for creative tasks such as brainstorming, blue environmental cues prompted participants to produce twice as many creative outputs as when under the red colour condition.

Zhu says that the variances were caused by different unconscious motivations that red and blue activate, noting that colour influences cognition and behaviour through learned associations.

The researcher revealed that a series of fictional ads and product packages were used to during the study, with a view to exploring how colour impacts receptivity to consumer packaging and advertising.

The study showed that when the background colour was red, people formed more favourable evaluations of products when its ad featured specific product details as opposed to evocative, creative messaging.

However, when the background was blue, the opposite pattern of results emerged.

Similarly, people were more receptive to a new, fictional brand of toothpaste that focused on negative messages such as “cavity prevention” when the background colour was red, whereas people were more receptive to aspirational messages such as “tooth whitening” when the background colour was rendered in blue. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: ability, advertising, ANI, aspirational, author, background, behaviour, blue, boost, brain, brand, British Columbia, business, cavity, cent, cognition, colour, condition, Consumer, creativity, detail, Express, February, journal, Juliet Zhu, memory, message, Nature, notice, packaging, pattern, performance, prevention, product, receptivity, Research, researcher, retrieval, Sauder, school, Science, screen, series, study, task, team, tooth, toothpaste, ubc, University, view, Washington, Zhu

Top-selling mouthwash brands linked to oral cancer

January 11, 2009 By Rajesh Leave a Comment

Melbourne, Jan 11 (ANI): Australian health experts have warned that top-selling mouthwashes can cause oral cancer and should be pulled from supermarket shelves immediately.

The experts issued the warning after investigating latest scientific evidence linking alcohol-containing mouthwashes to the deadly disease.

The investigation concludes that there is now ‘sufficient evidence’ that “alcohol-containing mouthwashes contribute to the increased risk of development of oral cancer”.

The mouthwash contains ethanol, which is believed to allow cancer-causing substances to permeate the lining of the mouth more easily and cause harm.

Acetaldehyde, a toxic by-product of alcohol that may accumulate in the oral cavity when swished around the mouth, is also believed to be carcinogenic.

Listerine, the nation’s biggest-selling mouthwash and a brand endorsed by the Australian Dental Association (ADA), contains as much as 26 per cent alcohol.

Lead review author Professor Michael McCullough said that alcohol-containing mouthwash should be reclassified as prescription-only and carry written health warnings.

Prof McCullough, chair of the ADA’s therapeutics committee and associate professor of oral medicine at the University of Melbourne, is calling on the ADA to urgently re-assess its seal of approval on mouthwashes containing alcohol.

“We see people with oral cancer who have no other risk factors than the use of alcohol-containing mouthwash, so what we’ve done in this study is review all the evidence that’s out there,” News.com.au quoted him, as saying.

“Since this article came out, further evidence has come out too. We believe there should be warnings.

“If it was a facial cream that had the effect of reducing acne but had a four- to five-fold increased risk of skin cancer, no one would be recommending it,” he added.

The review is published in the Dental Journal of Australia. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News, International News Tagged With: Acetaldehyde, acne, ADA, alcohol, ANI, approval, Article, association, Australia, australian, author, brand, cancer, cavity, cent, chair, com, committee, cream, dental, Development, disease, effect, ethanol, evidence, four, harm, Health, investigation, jan, journal, lining, Listerine, mccullough, medicine, Melbourne, mouth, mouthwash, nation, NEWS, permeate, prof, professor, Professor Michael McCullough, review, risk, seal, skin, study, supermarket, Top-selling, University, use, warning

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