Your Health: Jul. 31, 2000

GOOD NEWS

WIRELESS WORRIES Still wondering what that cell phone is doing to your brain? There's no convincing evidence yet it's doing much of anything, but still the Cellular Telephone Industry Association is requiring manufacturers to disclose how much of a cell phone's radiation may be absorbed by the body. The measurement, called the specific absorption rate, is regulated by the FCC. But whether a lower reading translates into a safer phone is anyone's guess.

SPECIAL DELIVERY Up to 40% of pregnant women harbor a nasty type of strep, which if transmitted to a newborn during childbirth can cause pneumonia, blood poisoning and even meningitis. Screening for the bacteria used to take days. Now doctors have come up with a speedier test, called a rapid PCR. It can determine on the day of delivery--in less than an hour--whether strep is present. If so, the bug can be wiped out with intravenous antibiotics a few hours before the baby is born.

BAD NEWS

DOUBLE WHAMMY Not only do smokers die younger than nonsmokers, but they also spend a lot more of their lives combatting disabilities. You might think that nonsmokers, because they live longer, would spend more of their lives disabled. Not so. On average, smokers have difficulty performing daily activities, like walking, dressing and washing, for two years more than nonsmokers do.

GOING ALL THE WAY Forget shortcuts when it comes to the health of your colon. A sigmoidoscopy, the most commonly recommended screen for colon cancer, misses about half the precancerous polyps spotted by the more costly colonoscopy, which probes the entire colon, not just the lower third. Folks over 50 should seriously consider a colonoscopy and ask their insurers to pick up the extra cost ($1,200 to $1,500 , vs. $200 for a sigmoidoscopy).

--By Janice M. Horowitz

Sources--Good News: Cellular Telephone Industry Association; New England Journal of Medicine (7/20/00). Bad News: Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health (7/00); NEJM (7/19/00).