A round-up of other stories in brief
WEIGHING ON NHS:Fighting the epidemic of obesity could bankrupt Britain's National Health Service (NHS), it was claimed yesterday.
National Obesity Forum (NOF) chairman Dr Colin Waine said the British government might have to confront the food industry to tackle the problem.
He said that, despite warnings to successive governments in the last three decades, there has been no really effective joined-up action.
Foresight research, commissioned in 2005 to help Government ministers understand the scale of the problem, has warned that half the population will be obese within 25 years if trends continue.
Speaking at the NOF's fifth annual conference in London, he said the financial cost would have "huge implications".
PLEASE TALK RELAUNCH:UCD is relaunching its Please Talk campaign this evening. It was launched originally by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín on February 21st and was set up in response to the death by suicide of five students between December 2006 and January 2007. A website (www.please talk.ie) that provides information about all the important student services available at UCD was started.
The college says it is re-launching the campaign at a time when the term is settled. As part of the launch it has invited Eddie Lenihan, a storyteller and seanchaí, to a storytelling evening. This will take place at UCD this evening at 6pm.
STEM CELL CONTROVERSY:Couples offered the chance to store stem cells from spare IVF embryos are being exploited, Britain's leading fertility expert warned yesterday.
Lord Winston condemned a US scheme to "bank" the valuable cells as an insurance against future disease.
A California-based firm is offering couples the chance to store cells from leftover IVF embryos in case their child develops an illness like Parkinson's or Alzheimer's.
Some scientists believe embryonic stem cells could offer a cure for such diseases in the future.
The latest technique involves harvesting stem cell lines from the core of embryos which have previously been frozen. Such a move is controversial because embryos represent the beginning of life.
Lord Winston said there was no scientific backing for the scheme, which he argued played on people's fears.
INFERTILITY LINKED TO STD:Britain's most common sexually transmitted infection affects a man's fertility by damaging sperm, experts said yesterday.
Chlamydia, which is often known as the silent disease because it has few symptoms, reduces a man's ability to produce children, they found.
The disease is more well known for making women infertile if left untreated.
But now researchers, led by Dr Jose Fernandez from Canalejo University Hospital in La Coruna, Spain, have found how chlamydia affects men.
They looked at the damaged sperm of 143 men from infertile couples and compared it with sperm from 50 fertile men.
The infertile men had chlamydia and another common urinary tract infection called Mycoplasma.
The level of damage - or DNA fragmentation - in the infertile men's sperm was more than three times higher than in healthy men.
ASPERGER CONFERENCE:The Asperger Syndrome Association of Ireland will be hosting its European Conference on Saturday in St Patrick's College, Drumcondra, Dublin.
Asperger Syndrome (AS) is a form of high-functioning autism and people with this syndrome can experience great difficulties with commun- ication, social interaction and flexible thinking. The conference aims to provide training, avenues and ideas as to how best ensure positive outcomes for people with this syndrome. For details contact Shane O'Halloran. E-mail: development@ aspire-irl.org, tel: 01-878 0029 or log onto www.aspire-irl.org.
PREVENT OSTEOPOROSIS:In advance of World Osteo- porosis Day on Saturday, Prof Maura O'Brien, president of the Irish Osteoporosis Society, will give a talk on prevention and treatment of osteoporosis on Thursday at 7.30pm in the Tara Towers Hotel, Booters- town, Co Dublin. Admission €€5. For further information, tel: 01-6774267.