Notebook: Oct. 14, 1996

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WINNERS & LOSERS

AMERICA IN FLIGHT

[WINNERS]

VALUJET Troubled carrier returns to the skies with seven planes and $19 one-way fares

PAN AM Once proud international line is reincarnated with domestic flights--for now

DELTA New low-cost Delta Express division begins service to capture slice of rich leisure market

[& LOSERS]

KIWI INTERNATIONAL Filing for bankruptcy, company cuts service by two-thirds and faces renewed competition

AMERICA WEST Flight recalled and 53 passengers kicked off so that California Angels could be flown home

CHICAGO COMMUTERS Downtown Windy City's convenient Meigs Field closed by mayor to make room for new park

HOW TO POSE IN YOUR UNDERWEAR

It's no longer provocative enough, it seems, for underwear models simply to stand around seminaked, looking thin and winsome. A spate of recent ads and fashion spreads suggests that what marketers believe really moves merchandise is the intimation that the underpants are on their way off. And for these models, unlike the little girl in the pioneering Coppertone ads, tan lines are out.

HEALTH REPORT

THE GOOD NEWS

--Along with protecting against heart disease and osteoporosis, ESTROGEN REPLACEMENT THERAPY may ward off another ill: degenerative arthritis. The risk of osteoarthritis of the hip may be cut by nearly half in women who take estrogen for at least 10 years. Once the therapy is stopped, the benefit vanishes.

--The FDA has okayed Accolate, the first of a new class of drugs for ASTHMA. It blocks the activity of certain molecules in the lungs that cause symptoms.

--Just one dose of clomipramine, a drug for obsessive compulsive disorder, may help men overcome PREMATURE EJACULATION. Taken 12 hours before sex, it delays ejaculatory response from about two minutes after vaginal entry to eight. Until now doctors thought it had to be used on a long-term basis to work.

THE BAD NEWS

--Women who take PROZAC during the third trimester of pregnancy may be more likely to give birth prematurely than those who go off the antidepressant earlier. And their newborns may--for a brief time--be jittery or have breathing difficulties.

--Once thought rare, a mutation in a BREAST CANCER gene turns out to occur in 1% of Ashkenazi Jewish women. These findings, combined with data showing that 1% of that population carry a flaw in a different breast cancer gene, means that 1 in 50 Ashkenazi Jewish women may have inherited a risk for the disease.

--Read the label. Preliminary reports may have identified a POTENTIAL CARCINOGEN: methylchloroisothiazolinone, a preservative found in shampoos, conditioners and lotions.

Sources--GOOD NEWS: Archives of Internal Medicine; Food and Drug Administration; Journal of Urology BAD NEWS: New England Journal of Medicine; Nature Genetics; Environmental and Molecular Mutagenesis

AUTHORITARIAN UPDATE

Once they were the strongmen of Central America and the Caribbean. Now they're in exile, in prison--or on the campaign trail:

DANIEL ORTEGA Nicaragua The Sandinista who seized power in 1979 and left office after losing an election in 1990 has traded fiery rhetoric for slick ads. He is now even-odds to win the Oct. 20 presidential election.