FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN = 7A
Coffee consumption linked to stilbirth
The Associated Press
LONDON—Pregnant women who drink eight or more cups of coffee a day could double their risk of stillbirth compared with pregnant women who do not drink coffee, new research suggests.
However, experts cautioned that the findings, published this week in the British Medical Journal, were tenuous and several factors other than coffee could explain the results.
Previous studies have linked the consumption of more than three or four cups of coffee a day with miscarriage and low birth weight.
"Women should not be worried because this study has serious limitations," said Lisa Signorello, an epidemiologist at the International Epidemiology Institute in Rockville, Md., and an assistant professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn.
Stillbirths are rare, occurring in
less than 1 percent of pregnancies. The findings in this Danish study are based on 11 stillbirths among 950 women drinking eight or more cups of coffee a day, and scientists do not like to draw firm conclusions from numbers that low.
The study, conducted by scientists at Aarhus University, involved 18,478 pregnant women attending the obstetrics department at the university hospital between 1989 and 1996.
One in 250 pregnancies ended in stillbirth among women who drank no coffee during their pregnancy.
But three in 250 pregnancies ended in stillbirth among the 950 women who drank more than eight cups daily. That is a tripling of the risk.
However, that risk dropped to double when researchers accounted for the women's smoking and drinking habits, age, and other factors known to influence pregnancy success.
There was no increased chance
of stillbirth among the pregnant women drinking less than eight cups of coffee a day.
"Women who have such a high intake of coffee also come with a set of other characteristics — like they are more likely to smoke, they have a higher intake of alcohol, they are older, they've had more pregnancies, they've had fewer years of education," Signorello said.
"All of these things have been shown to be risk factors for pregnancy problems."
The study's authors acknowledge their results may not prove a real coffee effect and say further research is needed.
Another caveat is that coffee intake was measured only once at 16 weeks of pregnancy and coffee consumption is known to change during pregnancy.
Alan Leviton, a professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Children's Hospital in Boston, said there could be another explanation — something called the pregnancy signal theory.
It seems they become averse to the smell.
"All the recent studies show that women tend to reduce their coffee consumption about four to six weeks into pregnancy, even if they weren't planning to. All of a sudden, they don't want as much coffee." Leviton said.
"This is associated with elevated hormones, or signals, that the placenta is making. The inference is that the healthier the placenta, the stronger the pregnancy signal." Leviton said.
"The woman who does not have a good implantation of her placenta doesn't make as many hormones, which puts her at risk of pregnancy problems such as stillbirth."
The pregnancy signal theory would contend that the ability to consume as much coffee as before pregnancy is an indication that the pregnancy already is not going well.
Crews search for crash survivors in Iran
The Associated Press
TEHRAN, Iran — Strong wind, fog and rain forced authorities to call off efforts late yesterday to recover the remains of 302 elite troops killed in Iran's deadliest plane crash.
The soldiers were on their way from Zahedan, on the Pakistani border, to Kerman, about 500 miles southeast of Tehran, when their military transport plane crashed Wednesday in the Sirach Mountains.
The crash took place amid bad weather about 20 miles from the plane's destination. The Russian-
made Ilyushin failed to clear the top of a peak by about 330 feet, said Ali Jafari, an officer in charge of recovery operations.
Rescue workers have ruled out any survivors.
All aboard —18 crew members and 284 passengers —were members of the Revolutionary Guards, an elite group under the direct control of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The guards protect Iran's borders and defend ruling hard-liners in this ultra-conservative society.
A senior official in Zahedan told The Associated Press that several of the victims were senior officers. Another official said the forces had gone to Zahedan to prepare for the visit of Khamenei, who was scheduled to tour the city today. It was not clear whether that visit would take place.
Revolutionary Guards have encircled the crash site, preventing people from approaching and restricting journalists.
Jafari told AP that bulldozers have cleared roads to the scene and more than 600 people were searching for remains. Earlier yesterday, recovery teams located some mutilated bodies but were unable to get to them because of fog, rain and strong wind.
Two helicopters that tried to reach the crash site flew back to Kerman because of bad weather, said Jafari, a local Revolutionary Guard commander.
The weather also was slowing down crews on the ground, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Still, it said, search teams managed to find parts of the plane, including a wing.
Air traffic controllers said the pilot had radioed about bad weather and strong winds before losing contact. Tehran television reported. There was heavy snow in many parts of Iran on Wednesday.
Iraq allows flight by American plane
The Associated Press
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq allowed another flight by an American U-2 spy plane yesterday as President Saddam Hussein's government sought to convince the world that it is cooperating with U.N. weapons inspectors.
In New York, a U.N. spokesman said Baghdad had also submitted a list of people reportedly involved in the destruction of banned weapons - fulfilling a key demand by chief weapons inspector Hans Blix.
It was the second flight this week by a U-2 in support of the U.N. inspection program. The Iraqi Foreign Ministry said the plane spent six hours and 20 minutes over Iraq's territory, searching for evidence of banned weapons.
Iraq allowed the first U-2 flight Monday after resisting such flights since the inspection program resumed in November. Iraq had insisted that U.S. and British planes suspend patrols in the "no-fly" zones during U-2 missions but relented as pressure mounted on Baghdad to display more cooperation with the inspection program.
The United States and Britain have disputed Iraq's claims that it no longer holds weapons of mass destruction or longrange missiles, which were banned under a U.N. resolution approved after Baghdad's defeat in the 1991 Gulf War.
President Bush has threatened military action to disarm the Iraqis. The United States
and Britain have massed nearly 200,000 troops in the region to reinforce that warning, despite widespread international opposition to war.
The United States and Britain plan to offer a new Iraq-war resolution to the Security Council next week, a senior Bush administration official said. But they currently lack the nine votes for approval.
With pressure mounting, Iraq has complied with a longstanding U.N. demand and turned over the names of people who took part in the destruction of banned material from its biological and missile programs, a U.N. spokesman said yesterday.
Iraq had already submitted a list of 83 people who it said took part in the destruction of banned chemical weapons and materials.
"Since then, the Iraqis have provided lists of individuals involved in unilateral destruction of biological and missile items in the early 1990s."
Iraq has claimed to have destroyed chemical and biological weapons as well as long-range missiles but lacks documents to prove it. Blix had said that if the documents are unavailable, the inspectors want to talk to people who carried out the destruction.
With the threat of war hanging over the country, President Saddam Hussein met yesterday with top aides and military commanders to discuss the preparations of armed forces and of the Iraqi people to confront the U.S. threats of aggression, the Iraqi News Agency reported.
Roommates stuck to the couch?
Kansan Classifieds
· Find them a job. · Find new roommates. · Sell the couch.
February 24 - 28, 2003
Monday: Union Ballroom 11 am - 5 pm and Allen Field House 11 am - 5 pm
Tuesday: Union Ballroom 11 am - 5 pm and GSP 12 pm - 7 pm
Wednesday: Union Ballroom 11 am - 5 pm and McCollum 12 pm - 7 pm
Thursday: Allen Field House 11 am - 5 pm and McCollum 12 pm - 7 pm
Friday: Allen Field House 11 am - 5 pm and Oliver Hall 12 pm - 7 pm
All registered donors will get a goodie bag including a KU T-shirt and random prizes
The Sorority, Fraternity, Residence Hall Hour and Scholarship Hall with the highest percentage of participation will EACH get a party from Chipotle.
will EACH get a party from Chipper
Event Sponsored by:
IFC, AURH, ASHC, Panhellenic and KUAC
*Z 95.7 * Standard Beverage Corporation
*McDonald's of Lawrence * Backyard Burgers * Checkers
* Molly McGee's * Kinko's * Taco Casa * Wendy's
* Carlos O'Kelly's * Salty Iguana * FA Sports
*Old Chicago * Mr. Goodcents * Dairy Queen
*Sheridan's Frozen Custard * Chipotle Grill
*University Book Shop * Yello Sub * Coca-Cola
For more information call us at 843-5383 or 1-800-Give Life.
BY THE WAY, THE FIRST FIVE 8.5 X11" ONE-SIDED COPIES ON 24# PAPER
HEY BABY. MY NAME IS XEROX 2060. COME CHECK ME OUT. WE'D MAKE A BEAUTIFUL TEAM.
TIRED OF WASTING YOUR TIME AND INK WAITING FOR YOUR COLOR COPIES TO PRINT? GIVE THE PRINTING SERVICES A TRY USING THEIR NEW XEROX 2060 COLOR PRINTER
65¢ PER COPY AFTER THAT. EXP 2/28
PLUS THE EXTRA GOODIES WE OFFER:
SUPPORTED SOFTWARE
- Adobe Acrobat 5.0 (Mac & PC) • Adobe InDesign 2.0 (Mac & PC)
- Adobe Illustrator 10.0 (Mac & PC) • Adobe Pagemaker 7.0 (Mac & PC)
- Adobe Photoshop 7.0 (Mac & PC) • Macromedia Freehand 8.0 (Mac)
- Microsoft Office 2001 (Mac) • Microsoft Office 2000 (PC)
- Quark 5.0 (Mac & PC) • Stufft Expander (Mac) • WinZip 2000 (PC)
- Be sure to include fonts and images when gathering files for print.
FOR QUICKER RETURN ON YOUR COPIES
THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS PUBLICATION CENTER
2425 WEST 15TH ST. OPEN 8 AM - 5 PM
PS WESCOE PUBLICATION CENTER
1520 WESCOE OPEN 7 AM-10 PM