Classic Canadian Tours will fly passengers from Calgary to Fort McMurray to get a first-hand glimpse of what isdriving theprovince’s economy.

Brenda Trockstad, a spokeswoman for the Calgarytravel company,saidcustomers willtour the Oil Sands Discovery Centre, visit Suncor’ssite “to get a close up view of what it takes to extract oil from the tar sands,”and see a park reclaimed from past developments.

Geologists aren’t the only people plunking down more than $500 for the one-day trip, she said.They’ve taken bookings from professors, retirees, farmers, andeven investors who want to see what energy companies are doing.

“We kind of thought of it as being for a man, the equivalent of a woman going to a spa,” she said. “I must say that more than half of our people coming on this tour so far are women.”

A view of the Suncor Energy plant north of Fort McMurray.
(Canadian Press)

Marius Vos, a retired engineer who lives on Vancouver Island, has booked his ticket. He recalls a university professor speaking decades ago about the northern oilsands and he’s just curious to see what’s happening there.

“I would like to see what equipment they have up there and how they work it,” he said. “They’re spending billions of dollars up there, several different companies.It’s mind-boggling, I’m quite sure, butI can’t imagine it from here so I’d like to see it first hand.”

Trockstad says based on the interested calls from customers, the company will be offering more one-day trips in the future.

The new research from Germany adds to mounting evidence linking dark chocolate with health benefits, but it’s the first to suggest that just a tiny amount may suffice.

Volunteers for the study ate just over 6 grams of dark chocolate daily for almost five months Д one square from a German chocolate bar called Ritter Sport, equal to about 1 1/2 Hershey’s Kisses. People who ate that amount ended up with lower blood pressure readings than those who ate white chocolate.

University of Cologne researcher Dr. Dirk Taubert, the study’s lead author, said the blood pressure reductions with dark chocolate were small but still substantial enough to potentially reduce cardiovascular disease risks, although study volunteers weren’t followed long enough to measure that effect.

The research involved just 44 people aged 56 through 73, but the results echo other small studies of cocoa-containing foods. Cocoa contains flavanols, plant-based compounds that also are credited with giving red wine its heart-healthy benefits.

One problem is chocolate bars containing cocoa tend to have lots of calories, so Taubert and his colleagues tested small amounts containing just 30 calories each.

The study appears in Wednesday’s Journal of the American Medical Association. It was funded by University Hospital in Cologne.

The results are interesting but need to be duplicated in larger, more ethnically diverse populations, said Dr. Laura Svetkey, director of Duke University’s Hypertension Center.

She stressed that the study results should not be viewed as license to gorge on chocolate.

“I would be as happy as the next person if I got to eat more chocolate,” she said, but cautioned that weight gain from eating large amounts of dark chocolate would counteract any benefits on blood pressure.

Study participants were otherwise healthy and mostly normal-weight German adults with mild high blood pressure or pre-hypertension, which includes readings between 120 over 80 and 139 over 89.

Average blood pressure at the start was about 147 over 86.

Every day for 18 weeks, the volunteers were instructed to eat one-square portions of a 16-square Ritter Sport bar, or a similar portion of white chocolate. White chocolate doesn’t contain cocoa.

Systolic blood pressure, the top number, fell an average of nearly three points and diastolic dropped almost two points in the dark chocolate group, compared with no change in blood pressure readings in the white chocolate group.

Tests suggested that steady exposure to dark chocolate prompted chemical changes that helped dilate blood vessels and regulate blood pressure, the researchers said.

Participants were told not to eat other cocoa-containing products and to continue regular eating habits and activity levels. They also kept food diaries so researchers could see if other foods might have influenced the results.

But, said Taubert, “It is very unlikely that other factors may explain the blood pressure reduction.”

Dr. Lawrence Appel of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine said the most proven non-drug methods for lowering blood pressure are losing weight and eating less salt. Eating dark chocolate might help if combined with those two, he said.

For most people, “the lower your blood pressure, the better you are. So if you can get it lower from different strategies that’s good for the long term,” Appel said,

Under the guidelines, unveiled Wednesday by the World Health Organization and UNAIDS, healthcare providers everywhere who treat patients at high risk of HIV are advised to suggest testing. But in countries facing a widespread epidemic, they advise doctors to recommend tests for all patients anywhere they seek healthcare.

Organizations fighting AIDS celebrated the guidelines as a step toward identifying the estimated 31 million out of the 39.5 million people living with the disease worldwide who are unaware they are infected. But human rights concerns clouded the announcement.

“We think these new guidelines are extremely important,” said Kevin De Cock, director of HIV and AIDS programs at the WHO.

As we struggle to move toward universal access to testing, treatment and support, HIV diagnosis is an important first step,” he told reporters on a conference call.

People who do not know they have HIV do not receive life-prolonging treatment and counseling to prevent them from spreading the disease to others, De Cock said. When doctors recommend testing, patients are more likely to find out their status.

The catch is that in some countries there have been reports of mandatory testing, breaches of confidentiality and discrimination. If friends and neighbors are informed a patient has HIV, the person could be shunned. If an employer is given that information, the person could be fired.

In those countries, De Cock said, the guidelines call for strong monitoring and enforcement to make sure testing helps people instead of hurting them.

Some human rights organizations, however, are concerned that a wide-scale rollout of testing programs will not take discrimination into account.

“The guidelines are helpful in the sense that countries around the world have been looking to the WHO for guidance,” Joe Amon, director of the HIV/AIDS program at Human Rights Watch, told United Press International. But “we already know in some countries HIV testing is done without good protections.” Violations “happening today are real concerns.”

Human Rights Watch reports document human rights violations involving testing in countries in Asia, Europe and Africa.

Because of the definition of epidemic, the guidelines tell about 50 countries to recommend testing to all patients, Amon said. Those countries will need to be committed to protecting the rights of HIV patients.

Existing resources need to be mobilized to carefully watch testing, and major campaigns should be launched to persuade the public to help people with HIV, instead of hurting them with discrimination, he said.

“More people have to know their status, but just knowing isn’t enough.”

But other advocates say the critical need for testing outweighs other concerns.

“The worst discrimination people with HIV and AIDS face is premature death because of lack of treatment,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a U.S.-based group that provides treatment for the disease domestically and around the world.

One billion people per year need testing, and that will never be possible unless it is incorporated into the general healthcare system, he told UPI. The group practices routine testing at centers in the United States, Uganda and other countries, and that has dramatically increased the testing rate.

“If we knew every infected person today and counseled them not to infect their partners, we would achieve global AIDS control relatively quickly, Weinstein said.

“A majority of people with HIV and AIDS in the world don’t know. You cannot combat AIDS on a global basis without early detection.”

Numerous countries have stopped imports of Chinese-made toothpaste in recent months for containing diethylene glycol, or DEG, which is also used as a low-cost Д and sometimes deadly Д substitute for glycerin, a sweetener in many drugs.

A set of “strict certification and evaluation procedures” are being drawn up by China’s Health Ministry and the China Certification and Accreditation Administration, the China News Service said, citing an announcement made during a national symposium. No other details were given.

Last month, the Health Ministry’s spokesman, Mao Qun’an, said at least two new regulations were being considered focusing on certification and inspection standards.

The administration’s website said the new rules would “improve the quality, safety and hygiene of oral health care products.”

A spokeswoman from the administration, which overseas certification of Chinese products, confirmed the regulations were being drawn up and said the administration had asked for public opinions last year. Like many Chinese bureaucrats, she declined to give her name and asked that additional questions be faxed.

Worries over the safety of Chinese exports began earlier this year when the deaths of dogs and cats in North America were linked to pet food containing Chinese wheat gluten tainted with the chemical melamine.

Since then, U.S. authorities have also banned or turned away a long list of Chinese products, including toxic fish, juice containing unsafe color additives and popular toy trains decorated with lead paint. Those actions have awakened fears that China’s chronic domestic product safety problems were now becoming a global scourge.

Countries in North and South America, as well as Asia, have banned Chinese-made toothpaste because of its DEG content, although there have been no reports of health problems stemming from the product.

Chinese officials have said tests carried out in 2000 by Chinese experts proved that toothpaste containing less than 15.6% DEG was harmless.

Other major buyers such as Japan and the European Union have pushed Beijing to improve inspections as its goods make their way through global markets.

Chinese authorities have vowed stronger safety measures while highlighting problems with imports from other countries.

China’s food safety watchdog said Tuesday that 19.1% Д about one-fifth Д of products made for domestic consumption were found to be substandard in the first half of 2007. Canned and preserved fruit and dried fish were the most problematic, primarily because of excessive bacteria and additives, the agency said.

Though the survey covered many different products, it focused on food, common consumer goods, farming machinery and fertilizers.

The state-run China Daily newspaper, however, said Wednesday that Chinese food exports were at times rejected merely because China’s standards were lower than those of importing countries.

“This is not because the food itself was of low quality but because the standards we use may be lower,” the paper said in an editorial. “It is becoming increasingly urgent to raise the food safety standards to international levels.”

A top quality official also defended the safety of exported food.

“Ninety-nine percent of food exported to the United States was up to safety standards over the past two years, which is a very high percentage,” Li Yuanping, who is in charge of imported and exported food safety, was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.

Most recently, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it would detain Chinese catfish, basa and dace, as well as shrimp and eel after repeated testing turned up contamination with drugs that have not been approved in America for use in farmed seafood.

In response, China’s quality administration issued a number of new measures designed to ensure the quality of exported farmed seafood, telling its local bureaus to “fully understand the side effects and major loss of the U.S. decision to the Chinese seafood industry.”

In addition to stepped-up inspections and quarantine, the agency said it would post on its website the names of companies that violate regulations and ban them from export activities for two years.

Cases of a deadly hospital superbug which thrives in filthy conditions have soared to record levels.

In the past year, almost 56,000 vulnerable and elderly patients have caught Clostridium difficile - a stomach bug that can be halted with simple soap and water.

Between January and March alone, 15,592 people were infected with the bug - a staggering 22 per cent rise on the previous three months.

The true toll is likely to be even higher, as the figures cover only the over-65s who account for 80 per cent of infections.

The figures from the Health Protection Agency highlight the failure of numerous Government drives to halt the rise of a bug which is spread by dirty hands and bedding.

In the early 1990s, just over 1,000 patients a year fell victim to C.diff. Today, more than 1,000 are infected each week.

A bigger killer than the MRSA superbug, C.diff claimed 2,247 lives in 2005 - a 69 per cent rise on the previous year. The latest figures do not record the number of deaths.

The HPA, which also released figures showing a slight drop in MRSA cases, admitted “there is still a lot of work to be done”.

But experts in infection, patients’ representatives and politicians said the Government was guilty of a “spectacular failure” to halt the rise of C.diff and described hospital hygiene as “sorely defective”. The criticism comes a week after England’s most senior doctor attacked hospitals for “unacceptably low levels” of hygiene.

Chief medical officer Sir Liam Donaldson said the failure of doctors and nurses to wash their hands was a key factor behind the superbug crisis.

A Healthcare Commission report to be released today blames pressure to meet treatment targets and cut waiting lists for lapses in infection control in many hospitals.

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb urged hospitals to clamp down on staff who break hygiene rules.

He said: “The Government’s strategy to deal with superbugs has spectacularly failed to halt the rise of Clostridium difficile, with deadly consequences.

“Hospital staff should treat failure to comply with hygiene standards as a very serious issue, akin to gross misconduct.

“Disciplinary action may be required to ensure that standards are met and lives are saved.”

Joyce Robins, of Patient Concern, said high bed occupancy rates left staff unable to clean wards thoroughly between admissions.

She added: “We have let this get completely out of control. People shouldn’t be dying of something they didn’t go into hospital for in the first place.”

Professor Hugh Pennington, a leading microbiologist and president of MRSA Action UK, described hospital hygiene as “sorely defective”.

He said that while cases of MRSA had fallen by 10 per cent, with 6,378 between April 2006 and March 2007, much remained to be done.

“The drop is quite a small one and the problem remains,” he said. “The target to be aiming for is a 90 per cent drop and we are not going to be there any time soon.”

Kate Jopling, of Help the Aged, said: “It is a relief that levels of MRSA are starting to decrease but it will be cold comfort to grieving families who have lost loved ones to avoidable hospital infections.”

Clostridium difficile exists naturally in the stomachs of many healthy adults, where it is kept under control by “friendly” bacteria. The problems start if the balance of bacteria is disturbed, perhaps as a result of taking antibiotics for another infection.

Once the “friendly” bacteria are killed off, the C.diff is able to multiply and produce the toxins which cause diarrhoea and, in the worst cases, a potentially fatal infection of the abdomen.

The spread of the bacterium, via hardy spores, is swift.

But it can be combated using simply soap and water, while powerful disinfectants can keep hospital floors bug-free.

The National Audit Office estimates there are 300,000 cases a year of hospital-acquired infections, including C.diff and MRSA, and at least 5,000 deaths.

This equates to a patient being infected every two minutes - and one dying every two hours.

The Health Protection Agency said the 22 per cent rise in Clostridium difficile figures at the start of this year echoed a similar increase at the start of 2006.

It could be attributed to more frail and elderly people being admitted to hospital during the winter

Dr Christine McCartney, an HPA microbiologist, said: “There is still a lot of work to be done if we are to continue to achieve reductions in both MRSA and Clostridium difficile.

“Many of these infections are preventable, if hygiene and antibiotic-prescribing guidelines are strictly followed by hospital trusts.”

Three weeks ago, the Government pledged to put an extra 50million in to improving infection control.

Health Minister Ann Keen said: “The hard work of NHS staff has been vital in reducing MRSA infections.

“We now need to redouble our efforts to tackle Clostridium difficile and continue this progress.”

The MRSA figures show the biggest falls have been in London and acute teaching trusts. Share this article: «www.dailymail.co.uk»

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