Horsemeat: EU Public Health Risk?

Given that the European Union horsemeat scandal is already a 16-nation affair are there any real health risks in consuming horsemeat?

By: Ringo Bones

When the “horsemeat scandal” first broke out in the UK during the last week of January 2013 when meat inspectors found out that a London franchise of Burger King was using horsemeat instead of beef, many UK citizens are in an uproar because Brits are very sentimental and reverent about the heroism of horses as draft animals. Not just for their heroism in the trenches of Word War I but throughout the rest of British history for their largely undocumented role in nation building, not to mention there might already be a British horse awarded with the Dickens Medal for bravery during wartime. But are there any real health risks in eating horsemeat? After all, the French had been eating horsemeat as gourmet food for centuries and they seem reasonably healthy.

For want of a horse, a kingdom was lost – doth quote the great English bard Shakespeare and now it seems the recent 16-nation European Union wide horsemeat scandal has been handled by the powers-that-be as the clear and present danger du jour when it comes to threat to public health. A few days ago, the UK’s environment minister Owen Patterson stated that the main health risk of consuming horsemeat is the yet unknown effects of pharmaceuticals used in culled race and draft horses that had been turned into meat on the human physiology. Certain anti-inflammatory veterinary drugs confined to use in farm animals not destined for human consumption have yet hitherto unknown physiological effects on humans. Not to mention the narcotic effects of so called “horse tranquilizers” on those people who eat horsemeat from culled race and draft horses.

After a popular brand of supposedly all-beef boxed grocery lasagne called Findus was found to be using horsemeat instead of beef, the UK food investigation committee later traced the source of the horsemeat to a government run abattoir in Romania. Now the Romanian government is under investigation by EU food watchdogs on why their government abattoirs were allowed to label horsemeat as beef. 

Along with dogs, horses are one of the few animals that are revered here in the West and eating them is largely seen as taboo. Though in this day and age, there are already certain health risks that come with the consumption of “unseemly meats” due to the very fact that these use certain veterinary pharmaceuticals that are banned for use in farm animals destined for meat on the table like chickens, pigs and cows, draft and race horses and sheep herding dogs are NOT intended for human consumption so they are prescribed veterinary drugs that are not normally used in “culinary animals”; Thus making the regular consumption of their meat carry certain long-term and largely unknown health risks. 

Lasik: An Eyeglass Eliminating Miracle Cure?

Ever since the medical procedure became widely available to anyone, does Lasik fulfill the promise of freeing each and every eyeglass-wearers from the tyranny of their own eyeglasses?


By: Ringo Bones


In our contemporary vanity obsessed society, it seems like it was only a matter of time before another everyday necessity was deemed to be as useless as a Victorian-era whalebone corset by the more-money-than-common-sense fashionistas. Their latest consensus-casualty: eyeglasses. Given that the hype behind contact lenses waned faster than everyone’s interest on the Iran-Contra affair of the late 1980s. Medical science has thus been given another impetus with a far greater motivational factor than a multi-million dollar grant in order to divert everyone’s navel gazing about how not everyone of us is born with perfect 20 / 20 vision. Thus making the Lasik surgery the latest elective surgery novelty since Botox treatments.

Lasik or laser-assisted in situ keratomileusis is a type of refractive laser surgery performed by ophthalmologists for correcting the 3 most common forms of eye defects due to a misshapen cornea that necessitates the wearing of eyeglasses to enable the afflicted to see normally in 20 / 20 vision. These eye defects are myopia or near-sightedness, hyperopia or farsightedness, and astigmatism. The first patent for Lasik was granted by the US Patent Office to Dr. Gholam A. Payman, M.D. on June 20, 1989 as US Patent # 4,840,175; “METHOD FOR MODIFYING CORNEAL CURVATURE”. Lasik became the most popular elective procedure in Asia since it was made available. At the Asian Eye Institute in Manila, for instance, about 1,000 people avail of the procedure every year jut to abandon the use of their eyeglasses. And the number of people who had the procedure had been growing at a rate of 20% annually.

Even though the procedure is far from risk-free, Lasik is nevertheless somewhat ingenious in its simplicity. The procedure starts by opening the anaesthetized eye, then the surgeon marks the cornea with soluble ink as a guide in cutting and repositioning of the flap. A suction ring provides an increased pressure in the eye so that it becomes firm thus making it easier to cut cleanly. Next, a motorized blade slices the cornea. The surgeon then lifts the flap, exposing the inner surface of the cornea that will reshaped by a cool laser. Then the patient’s corneas are reshaped depending on the kind of eye defect the patient has. Those with near-sightedness are corrected by flattening the center of the cornea. Those with farsightedness are usually fixed by removing a ring of tissue around the center of the cornea, thus making the cornea steeper. While those with astigmatism, the misshapen oblong-shaped cornea is reshaped to make it more spherical.

Even though Lasik has a high-rate of success in comparison to other procedures, it is not for everyone and you could be designated a poor candidate once your ophthalmologists checks your eyes. Especially if you have severe vision problems, have glaucoma, cataracts or retinal problems, is still under 18 years of age, is currently pregnant, or your corneas aren’t thick enough for safe Lasik surgery. Also, Lasik is no panacea against age-related macular degeneration or those vision problems that come with old age.

Even though ophthalmologic surgeons are highly regulated by law – even as far back as ancient Babylon circa 1,000 BC. Where the fees of eye surgeons were rigidly fixed by law and were quite generous. At the time when the state of the art in eye surgery was the ultra-sharp obsidian scalpel – instead of today’s femto-second pulse laser for eye surgery – a successful operation on a rich freeman costs 10 shekels of silver, as much as a chariot mechanic makes in a year. The same operation on a slave was priced at 2 shekels. However, the life of the surgeon – though financially rewarding – was not without it’s own hazards. If the wealthy freeman lost the sight of his eye in the operation, the surgeon’s hand was cut off; if the slave was blinded, he or she has had to be replaced by the doctor.

However in our contemporary society, for an industry that promises clarity and transparency, many eye centers – especially those in Asia where the Lasik is relatively new - have kept their patients in the dark about the risks and realities. Governments are more than likely of no help either because there are still no restrictions on who can buy medical instruments and equipment. But most government and private hospitals insist that doctors have some form of medical accreditation before they are allowed to perform eye surgery. Though there are still no high-profile medical malpractice or wrongful death lawsuits involving Lasik, it is still seen by the “Old Guard” in the medical community as a “Wild West” in terms of costs versus benefits.

Good as the procedure really is, many patients find the post-operative consequences of Lasik a little bit hard to live with before they vanish over time. Like light sensitivity and night-vision problems. Which could spell bad news for astronomers and working military and law-enforcement snipers. Plus additional surgery has to be done as follow-ups / touch-ups when the results fall below expectations. And the jury is still out over the long-term effects on patients who had undergone Lasik surgery. If you can live with these caveats and you had recently grown to hate yourself wearing eyeglasses, then Lasik might be for you.

Headphones and Heart Pacemakers: Lethal Bedfellows?

Given that AARP baby-boomers who were there for the birth of rock n’ roll have bought the i-Pod craze hook line and sinker, will this be an accident waiting to happen?


By: Ringo Bones


Yep, it’s true. During the 1970’s and 1980’s it was microwave ovens, now the magnetic headphones of i-Pods might be endangering users with implanted heart pace makers. And given that this Holiday Season where baby-boomers who had recently become AARP members might be getting / receiving their first or umpteenth i-Pod players should be careful about using magnetic headphones of their i-Pods.

Cardiologists across America had recently warned that the fairly powerful magnets of the headphones used in personal stereos / Walkman / i-Pods can interfere with proper heart pacemaker function and also that of defibrillator-type implants. This is especially true when fairly powerful magnets are placed squarely on the pacemaker. Given that the inductive coils of implanted pacemakers that deliver live-saving jolts of electricity to the heart are very susceptible to external magnetic fields, placing a magnet of sufficient power squarely on a pacemaker could interfere with the device’s intended function. Either the voltage level delivered by the pacemaker could go dangerously too high or too low. Though cardiologists had warned of microwave oven radiation of heart pacemaker recipients during the 1980’s, they seem to overlook the dangers of hand-held police radar which operate at the K-Band - i.e. microwave oven frequencies.

Though the normal placement of headphones for normal listening – on the ears – is quite far enough from the usual pacemaker location, keeping magnets away from one’s pacemaker could be more than just a “mere” precautionary measure. Doctors have not yet warned patients with pacemakers who reposition their loudspeakers, given that those have more powerful magnets touching squarely at their chest area. To be safe, people with pacemakers should avoid devices with strong magnetic fields when possible. This prudent practice could make our aging baby-boomers rocking for the foreseeable future.