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(11/15/05 5:15am)
WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration warned users of the popular Ortho Evra birth control patch that they are being exposed to more hormones, and are therefore at higher risk of blood clots and other serious side effects than previously disclosed.\nUntil now, regulators and patch-maker Ortho McNeil, a Johnson and Johnson subsidiary, had maintained the patch was expected to be associated with similar risks as the pill. But a strongly worded warning was added to the patch label Thursday that says women using the patch will be exposed to about 60 percent more estrogen than those using typical birth control pills.\nAlthough most pills and the patch contain the same amount of estrogen, hormones from patches go directly into the bloodstream while pills are swallowed and digested first. The result is that women using the patch have much higher levels of estrogen in their bodies.\nThursday's warning comes four months after The Associated Press reported that patch users die and suffer blood clots at a rate three times higher than women taking the pill.\nCiting federal death and injury reports, the AP also found that about a dozen women, most in their late teens and early 20s, died in 2004 from blood clots believed to be related to the birth-control patch, and dozens more survived strokes and other clot-related problems.\nOrtho McNeil spokeswoman Bonnie Jacobs said the warning speaks for itself and the company has been cooperating with the FDA, which distributed the new warning to health care providers. \nMore than 4 million women have used the patch since it went on sale in 2002. Several lawsuits have been filed by families of women who died or suffered from blood clots while using the patch, and lawyers said more are planned.\nHormone levels in women on the pill are highest one or two hours after taking it, Miller said. Twelve hours later, estrogen levels are quite low, meaning the body is not exposed to high levels of estrogen 24 hours a day.\nBut the patch causes higher estrogen levels because delivery of medication continues all day. Those elevated levels may be high enough to increase some women's risk of blood clots, Miller said.
(04/08/03 4:28am)
OAKLAND, Calif. -- Police opened fire Monday morning with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.\nPolice were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in the line of fire.\nSix longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the protesters were injured.\n"I was standing as far back as I could," said longshoreman Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."\nLast week, a San Francisco-based peace group, Direct Action to Stop the War, had announced that it would stage a series of protests Monday involving new acts of civil disobedience.\nThe Port of Oakland was among the targets, organizers had said, because at least one shipping company is handling war supplies.\nTrent Willis, a business agent for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said angrily that dockworkers were leaving the docks after the incident.\n"They shot my guys. We're not going to work today," Willis said. "The cops had no reason to open up on them."\nPolice used non-lethal bullets, sandbags and concussion grenades to try to break up about 500 protesters, who split into groups in front of different terminals.\nOakland Police officer James Carroll said police set up a "skirmish line" and ordered the protesters to disperse.\n"It escalated pretty quick," he said. "Usually you go to these protests and you wait around for three to four hours. Today, all of a sudden, people were being taken into custody." He could not confirm that anyone was hit by the bullets.
(10/18/02 4:58am)
SAN FRANCISCO -- Cartoonist Larry Gonick knew he might be asking for trouble when he set out to draw a comic-strip version about the birth of Islam. \nHe had no idea that the third volume in his "Cartoon History of the Universe" series, now in bookstores, would arrive at such a contentious time. \nAs tensions reach a breaking point in the Middle East, Gonick hopes to give readers a lively history lesson in his From the Rise of Arabia to the Renaissance. \nGarry Trudeau, creator of "Doonesbury," said Gonick's "unexpectedly timely" volume may help people understand the current tensions. "Will reading an erudite, if flat-out hilarious account of Middle East history help us make sense of our current clash of cultures? Let's put it this way: Ignorance hasn't worked," Trudeau said. \nStill, the 300-pages of cartoon panels are sure to offend some conservative Muslims and Islamic scholars who may take offense at the author's humorous take on their history. \nGonick, who spent almost four years researching, writing and drawing the volume, said he tried to be fair and accurate, but he also wanted to have some fun. \nHe is an equal-opportunity offender, using references to actual historical events he digs out of his research to draw cartoons of such nuggets as these: pre-Islamic Meccans defecating in a Yemenite cathedral to protest the Christian presence in Arabia; ninth-century Hindus expressing their belief that sex ruled the universe. \n"I don't want to be blasphemous," Gonick said. "I just want to be irreverent." \nBut some critics say Gonick goes too far, that he takes too many liberties with historical fact and that his cartoon history book perpetrates the notion that "Muslims have always disliked Jews." \nGonick, 56, has tackled a variety of complex topics, producing cartoon guides on everything from sex to statistics. The first "Cartoon History of the Universe," published in 1990, began with The Big Bang and traveled through 3 billion years, from cells to hominids.