February 20, 2012

Red Cross first aid app downloaded 322,000 times, applied 1,500 times

Filed under: Health,Technology by Branko Collin @ 10:50 am

The Dutch Red Cross reports that its smart phone first aid app EHBO Op Zak (‘first aid in the pocket’) has been downloaded 322,000 times.

A survey among 6,400 users also indicated that the app has been used to help give first aid 1,500 times.

The app is free and is available for the IOS, Android and Mango platforms. It contains instructions on what to do for 54 types of emergencies. The app was launched in the Summer of 2011 in the Netherlands, and a similar app was launched in December 2011 in the UK.

For those without a smart phone there is a PDF with 7 scenarios.

(iPhone screenshot: iTunes / rodekruis.nl)

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February 11, 2012

83-year-old woman gets 3D-printed titanium jaw implant

Filed under: Health,Technology by Branko Collin @ 12:35 pm

BBC News writes:

A lower jaw created by a 3D printer has been fitted to an 83-year-old woman’s face in what doctors say is the first operation of its kind.

The transplant was carried out in June in the Netherlands, but is only now being publicised. The implant was made out of titanium powder – heated and fused together by a laser, one layer at a time.

The operation was performed in a hospital in Sittard-Geleen in Limburg. The jaw was made by a company called Layerwise from Leuven, Belgium, which published this video of the process:

According to De Pers, the woman got to go home after just 4 days in the hospital. She will receive matching teeth ‘soon’.

(Video: Youtube / Layerwise)

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February 5, 2012

Dutch TV cannibals won’t be prosecuted

Filed under: Health,Weird by Branko Collin @ 2:39 pm

The public prosecutor won’t take legal action against two TV show hosts who had each eaten flesh that had been surgically removed from their bodies.

In December Dennis Storm ate a bit his left buttock, Today.com reported back then, and Valerio Zeno a piece of his abdomen. The meat was served with some green asparagus.

The website quoted a Dutch lawyer who said cannibalism in the Netherlands is only illegal “when it involves maltreatment or when it violates common decency.”

Nevertheless, the Christian Democratic Appeal (conservative party) had asked questions in parliament, and Minister of Education Marja van Bijsterveld told the venerable body on behalf of her justice colleague that prosecution was not in the cards.

(Link: De Pers. Logo and video: BNN.)

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January 28, 2012

‘Do not revive’ tattoo for 88-year-old woman

Filed under: Dutch first,Health by Branko Collin @ 1:09 pm

Tattoos that should help first responders and physicians realize that a person does not wish to be resuscitated seem to be getting popular with the 80-something set. In September last year an 81-year-old from Norfolk in England had ‘Do not resuscitate’ tattooed to her chest, and now an 88-year-old from the Netherlands followed suit.

According to today’s Volkskrant, which has a photo of the tattoo, the woman opted to have the text “niet reanimeren” put on her chest because she was dissatisfied with the other ways to convey her wish. She fears that the codicil in her wallet may be overlooked, and she dislikes carrying a ‘do not resuscitate’ coin around her neck.

According to the paper, the idea started ‘just for laughs’, but then became more serious.

Opinions on the legal status of the tattoo differ. “You cannot be much clearer”, professor in medical law Johan Legemaate of the University of Amsterdam said.

Martijn Maas of the Nederlandse Reanimatie Raad (Dutch Resuscitation Council) points out that on the other hand a codicil needs to be signed and dated, and that this tattoo is not.

The woman wishes to remain nameless.

See also: ‘Do Not Resuscitate’ tattooed on Norfolk pensioner

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November 23, 2011

A child and a cat as carbon monoxide detectors

Filed under: Animals,General,Health by Orangemaster @ 2:19 pm

A family in Edam (yes, where the cheese comes from) and a couple in Heerhugowaard have recently escaped death by carbon monoxide poisoning, according to Radio + TV Noord Holland who can sometimes be hard up for hard news.

Last week, the family in Edam was woken up in the middle of the night by their little boy who wanted to pee and in waking up the parents, he also saved them from dying, although the story offers little detail. They assume their house needs to be renovated, while the housing corporation denies it, but will check it out.

The couple in Heerhugowaard had noticed that their cat was acting very weird when in fact he was presenting with the early symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. Thanks to the cat acting as a carbon monoxide detector, they discovered a straight leak of gas into their house from the upstairs neighbours, and in turn saved a few neighbours from death.

(My old cat Pussyminou couldn’t monitor anything but her own sleep)

(Links: rtvnh.nl, www.rtvnh.nl)

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November 20, 2011

Cancer research charity Pink Ribbon donates zero percent to cancer research

Filed under: Health by Branko Collin @ 5:33 pm

Sometimes it is best to shut up. When news show Nieuwsuur reported that Pinkribbon.nl spent only 1.8 % of the donations it received on cancer, the charity threw a hissy fit. The findings of the show were far from the truth, they claimed, and the makers of the programme obviously prejudiced.

This led writer and breast cancer survivor Karin Spaink to do her own research. Last Saturday she dove into the annual reports of Pink Ribbon, and discovered that the numbers Nieuwsuur had dug up were indeed incorrect — the real numbers were worse!

According to Spaink, Pink Ribbon Netherlands has spent exactly 0.0 percent of the money it received through donations on cancer research. The foundation has collected approximately 18 million euro between 2007 and 2010. In that period it has built up a reserve of 7 million euro, and spent 3 million euro on the costs of running its organisation. About 6 million euro has gone to ‘psych-social care’, and 1.5 million euro to education.

Since the Nieuwsuur report, Pink Ribbon Netherlands has been trying to twist the meaning of the phrase ‘cancer research’ to fit its expenditures. Money that Pink Ribbon received from fellow cancer charities KWF and A Sister’s Hope and that was earmarked for research, is now suddenly supposed to count towards to its own goals.

Spaink has been critical of Pink Ribbon Netherlands before. In 2006 she lambasted the foundation for not publishing its annual reports, which it has since done. Earlier this week she criticized the whole pink ribbon phenomenon as a form of consumer indulgence.

Earlier this year activists the world over criticized the practice of ‘pinkwashing‘, where companies whose products and services increase the risk of cancer pretend to be supportive of cancer victims by donating money to Pink Ribbon.

(Photo by Clyde Robinson, some rights reserved)

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October 7, 2011

Dutch trains to hand out bags to pee in

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 6:41 pm

The new current Sprinters, trains for short distances, don’t have any toilets, and that’s a problem for many people. Knowing that these trains jam up in the winter (half of them froze up last year during a storm), going to the bathroom is a real issue.

So what have the Dutch railways come up with? Weeing bags, or ‘plaszakken’ (‘pee bags’), which is a trending topic in the Dutch Twittersphere, if not, it’s just plain trendy. The pee bags are the kind you would buy at an outdoors equipment shop. Oh, and you have to ask the train conductor for one, so you have to find him or her first.

The idea is to take a pee bag and wee in the empty train conductor’s office. They could put a bathroom in there, but no.

Train passenger organisation Rover calls the pee bag “better than nothing” and “an emergency solution.” I say it’s crisis time, and I hope nobody ever needs to do a Number 2 in the train.

UPDATE: When any new Sprinters will be in use, they will have to have toilets. Stay tuned.

(Link: nos.nl)

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October 6, 2011

‘The Dutch still have poor eating habits’

Filed under: Food & Drink,Health by Orangemaster @ 1:58 pm
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According to the NRC newspaper, the government’s public health institute has been evaluating the eating habits of 4,000 people between 2007 and 2010, and have concluded that people in the Netherlands still eat crap (noun and incorrect adverb).

“People of all ages are consuming 100 to 120 grams of vegetables a day, when it should be 200 grams. Just 10% of children and 33% of the elderly manage to eat fish twice a week.”

Fish is more expensive than red and white meat (assuming that’s the competition), so that’s one easy explanation. The ordinary supermarket has a lot of junk food fish (fried, drenched in cream, battered) and not much fresh fish.

As for the veggies, many foreigners (nutritionists and ordinary people) are literally freaked out by how few vegetables are recommended (see explanation with fruit below).

“Children eat less than one piece of fruit a week and adults not quite one and a half. The recommended amount is two pieces. And the consumption of fibres is about 66% of what it should be.”

The recommended amount of fruit in Canada is like 3-4 servings a day and even 5 in the US. Harvard goes as far as to recommend “5 to 13 servings” and “potatoes don’t count, as they are just starch”.

A quick tour around the web says that France recommends 400 g of fruit and veg a day, twice what the Dutch recommend. They also say that lesser developed countries recommend 100 g and fervent Western European countries up to 450 g.

“The good news is that people are eating fewer trans-fats, mainly because producers of margarines, cooking oils and snacks have lowered the amount of trans-fats in their products.”

In other words, they got lucky and don’t think about what they eat. That’s not good news, that’s a warning.

(Link: www.dutchnews.nl)

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September 29, 2011

Four of the 10 dirtiest hotels in Europe are in Amsterdam

Filed under: General,Health by Orangemaster @ 4:37 pm

Amsterdam has four hotels on the 2011 Dirtiest Hotels list on Tripadvisor.

First and second place are in Turkey, 3rd, 4th and 5th are in London, 6th and 7th are in Amsterdam, 8th is in London, and 9th and 10th are in Amsterdam. Recap: Turkey = 2, London = 5 and Amsterdam = 4.

Last year’s list is mostly shameful for the UK with 8, Italy with 1 and the Netherlands (Amsterdam) with 1.

“Free mice with every room!” and “All the sheets were spotted with hundreds of red dots.” sound quite disgusting to me.

(Link: welingelichtekringen.nl, Photo is of a reputable, bicycle friendly hotel away from the nasty downtown hotels)

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August 10, 2011

Health minister pulls funding on successful breast cancer drug

Filed under: Health by Orangemaster @ 1:40 pm

Dutch Health Minister Edith Schippers has decided to pull the plug on a breast cancer drug which can extend the lives of women who have an advanced form of the disease. Bottom line: the minister believes it’s expensive and has no added value, which is pretty much code for ‘they’ll die anyway, just later on’. Most people who get cancer do die of it, sadly, so the logic is elusive at best.

Although this pill-based chemotherapy treatment (read the data) prolongs life, stops the spread of cancer to the brain, is approved in nearly all EU countries and is registered with the European pharmaceutical authority EMA, the Minister is going ahead with her plans, and doctors are livid.

The Netherlands has the fourth highest rate of breast cancer in the world. By cutting this funding, it also shows it isn’t interested in a cure, just budget cuts.

The Netherlands is also terribly depressed, is the infant mortality leader in the EU and has questionable women’s health care practices, including lack of gynaecologists on weekends in hospitals, no routine check-ups, pap smears or echograms (still widely considered ‘for fun’), a preference for not using any pain killers during childbirth and other things that expats and international find very difficult to wrap their brains around.

You’ll still rather get sick here than in countries where health care costs are unaffordable for most people, although I’d retort by preferring to get sick in the UK, Canada and Australia.

(Link: www.dutchnews.nl, Photo of Bras by Jill Motts, some rights reserved)

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