Drug that sends radiation to tumors up for review

["Sandy Perle" <sandyfl@EARTHLINK.NET>]

Index:



Drug that sends radiation to tumors up for review

Nevadans trash nuclear mountain storage plan

Glow-in-the-dark salmon startles Alaskans

Cellphone health risk needs more research -WHO

ConEd completes N.Y. Indian Pt nuke sale to Entergy

U.S. District Court Grants Brush Wellman Motion for Summary Judgement 

State Appeals Court Reverses Key Portions of Lower Court Ruling 

========================================



Drug that sends radiation to tumors up for review



WASHINGTON, Sept 7 (Reuters) - An intravenous drug that carries 

radiation into the body on a search-and-destroy mission for cancer 

cells faces review from U.S. advisers on Tuesday as a possible 

lymphoma treatment. 



IDEC Pharmaceuticals Corp.'s <IDPH.O> experimental drug, Zevalin, 

could be the first treatment approved to use "radioimmunotherapy" to 

kill tumors. 



The drug looks for certain chemicals on cancer cells. When it finds 

them, it attaches to the cells and delivers a dose of lethal 

radiation. 



If eventually approved by the FDA, Zevalin would offer several 

advantages over radiation now common in cancer treatment, which is 

delivered via an external beam, said IDEC Chairman, Chief Executive 

and President William Rastetter. 



By sending radiation throughout the body intravenously, the treatment 

could seek and kill several tumor sites at once. External radiation, 

which requires focusing on one tumor at a time, can also can damage 

healthy cells. 



Zevalin "will seek out virtually any tumor in the body so it's easier 

to get it where you want," Rastetter told Reuters. 



Another plus, he said, is that patients could take Zevalin in two 

treatments administered over eight days, much shorter than five to 

six months of chemotherapy. 



An FDA advisory panel on Tuesday will consider whether Zevalin's 

benefits outweigh its risks, which include a possible reduction of 

infection-fighting white blood cells. 



The panel is expected to vote on whether Zevalin should be approved 

for treating patients with certain types of non-Hodgkins lymphoma who 

have failed other therapies. The FDA usually follows its panels' 

advice. 



Rastetter said Zevalin could be a "sizable product" for San Diego-

based IDEC, but he would not speculate on the sales potential. The 

company's only other marketed product is cancer drug Rituxan, which 

it co-markets with Genentech Inc. <DNA.N>. 



Also on Tuesday, the FDA panel will consider a new application for 

Guilford Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s <GLFD.O> Gliadel Wafer, which is 

implanted in the brain to dissolve and release chemotherapy, for 

prolonging survival and maintaining function in patients with certain 

brain tumors. 



On Monday, the panel is set to review Matrix Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s 

<MATX.O> Intradose Injectable Gel for treating patients with head and 

neck cancer who are not considered curable with surgery or radiation.



Trading in Matrix stock was halted on Friday. 



The company said the opinion of U.S. Food and Drug Administration 

staff, due to be presented to next week's advisory panel, could be 

made public on Friday. 

-----------------



Nevadans trash nuclear mountain storage plan



LAS VEGAS, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has vowed 

to personally arrest any driver hauling nuclear waste through the 

city to a proposed underground storage site intended to house the 

nation's radioactive spent fuel for the next 10,000 years. 



Goodman told a heated six-hour public meeting on Wednesday on the 

storage project -- already 12 years behind schedule -- that he feared 

a deadly spill would render Las Vegas unlivable and shut down the 

casino city's multibillion-dollar tourist industry. 



Politicians and scores of angry protesters denounced Department of 

Energy (DOE) proposals to use Nevada's Yucca Mountain, 95 miles (153 

km) away from the glittering Las Vegas strip, as an underground dump 

for some 70,000 tons (71,120 tonnes) of waste from the nation's 109 

nuclear power plants. 



The site was selected by Congress in 1987 as the graveyard for the 

nation's spent fuel but the plan has met with strong opposition both 

locally and on Capitol Hill. 



Sen. Harry Reid (D., Nevada), the powerful Democratic majority whip, 

said he would do everything he could to stop the shipments of waste 

to the site. 



"The people of Nevada have had enough," Reid told the meeting, the 

first of three final DOE hearings. 



Reid said one of the biggest problems was transporting the waste 

"past schools and bedroom windows across America. The DOE won't even 

tell us where the route is." 



He suggested the DOE leave the potentially deadly waste where it is 

and store it in dry cask containers where it is generated. 



Nevada's Republican Senator John Ensign said the state was 

"threatened by one of the deadliest substances on the planet today." 



"The cost for the project is $58 billion. It's the most expensive 

construction project in the history of the world. We ought to put all 

our efforts and money into looking at recycling technologies instead 

of burying it," Ensign said. 



A handful of people who spoke in support of the Yucca Mountain 

Project were heckled and booed by the 450 people who attended the 

meeting. 

------------------



Glow-in-the-dark salmon startles Alaskans

  

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Reuters) - An eerie glow from salmon drying in a 

smokehouse startled some residents of Holy Cross, a Yupik Eskimo 

village of about 300 on the lower Yukon River in Alaska. 



Sandra Dementieff found that some of the salmon in her smokehouse was 

glowing in the dark, something she had never seen before, according 

to a report by the Tundra Drums, the region's newspaper. Some 

villagers wondered if nuclear contamination in the Bering Sea was to 

blame. 



But officials from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and U.S. 

Fish and Wildlife Service determined that the glow was from 

phosphorescent marine bacteria that had spread over the fish. 



Ted Meyers, chief fish pathologist for the Department of Fish and 

Game, said he found the luminescent bacteria when he studied a piece 

of the glowing salmon sent to his Juneau office from Holy Cross. 



He said studies of the bacteria show that it is spread when fish are 

stored in unusually moist conditions. 



Fish racks in rural Alaska probably hold many more salmon with 

luminescent bacteria than people realize, because the glow is hidden 

by the lack of nighttime darkness during the summer, Meyers said. 



"A lot of times, I think, it just goes unobserved," he said. 



Whether the glowing salmon is safe to eat remains debatable, Meyers 

said. 



"The sample I got wasn't something I'd want to eat. It didn't pass my 

smell test," he said. 

------------------



Cellphone health risk needs more research -WHO



HELSINKI, Sept 7 (Reuters) - A link between mobile phone usage and 

cancer can not be dismissed without further research, an official at 

a World Health Organisation (WHO) agency said on Friday. 



"More research is needed," Elisabeth Cardis, Chief of Radiation and 

Cancer at the WHO's International Agency for Research in Cancer, told 

a conference in Helsinki. 



The explosive growth in mobile phone usage, particularly in Europe 

and the United States, has increased the public debate over possible 

health risks linked to mobile phones. 



While a few studies claim there is a connection, most authoritative 

studies have not been able to conclude that regular mobile phone 

usage could damage a person's brain. 



"Based on current epidemiological evidence, there is no evidence of a 

strong association between RF (radio frequency) exposure and cancer," 

said Cardis, referring to radio waves emitted from devices like 

mobile phones. 



"One can't rule out that there is a risk, but if there is a risk to 

mobile phone users it would be very small." 



Mobile phones are tiny radio stations that send and receive. 



Last year, a UK government-sponsored scientific inquiry, chaired by 

Sir William Steward, concluded that while there was no evidence of 

danger to health, it would be wise to discourage children from using 

mobile phones excessively. 



It concluded that the radio frequency signals emitted by phones 

generated heat in the brain, but said it was not clear whether this 

could have other biological effects, such as triggering cancer. 



European and U.S. authorities have now asked mobile phone 

manufacturers, such as Nokia <NOK1V.HE>, Motorola <MOT.N> and 

Ericsson <LMEb.ST>, to label their phones with the level of 

radiation, or Specific Absorption Rate (SAR), they emit -- the best 

way of measuring radiation -- partly in response to consumer demands. 



The SAR safety limit agreed in Europe is 2.0, while most phones on 

the market are now showing values between 0.5 and 1.0 



There are currently over 800 million mobile phone users worldwide, 

and about 400 million handsets are expected to be sold this year. By 

early next year as many as one billion people are expected to own a 

handset. 



NEW FOUR-YEAR STUDY TO GIVE ANSWERS 



Cardis, in Helsinki attending an international conference on the 

biological effects of exposure to electromagnetic radiation said 

research by the INTERPHONE study group would focus on a link between 

cancer and phones. 



She said this would be more thorough than previous studies, such as 

the Cohort study into cellular phone users in the United States, 

because it would span a period of three years and would go into more 

detail, such as research into lower frequency electromagnetic fields 

to and from phones. 



Cardis said one reason previous studies, particularly on the link 

between brain tumours and phones, had proved inconclusive was because 

brain tumour cases often had not used phones much. 



Widespread mobile phone usage is relatively new. 



The INTERPHONE study should be ready in 2004. 



"At present, possible effects on cancer initiation cannot be studied 

due to the short follow-up times," concluded a recent Finnish study 

into phone use and the risk of brain cancer. 



Nokia, the world's largest mobile phone maker, addresses the issue of 

mobile phone safety on its website. 



"Scientific research conducted all over the world over many years 

demonstrates that radio signals within established safety levels 

emitted from mobile telephones and their base stations present no 

adverse effects to human health," Nokia said. 



U.S. neurologist Christopher Newman last year filed a lawsuit against 

leading U.S. phone companies, including Motorola, saying that the use 

of his mobile phone had caused a malignant brain tumour. 

-----------------



ConEd completes N.Y. Indian Pt nuke sale to Entergy

  

NEW YORK, Sept 6 (Reuters) - Consolidated Edison Inc <ED.N> said 

Thursday it had completed the sale of the Indian Point nuclear power 

station in New York to Entergy Corp <ETR.N>. 



Entergy paid Con Edison $502 million for the facility's two nuclear 

units, three gas turbines, and other assets, Con Edison and Entergy 

said in a joint statement. 



Entergy also paid book value of about $100 million for nuclear fuel, 

the companies added. 



ConEd and Entergy also said they entered into a power purchase 

agreement for Entergy to sell the output of the 965-megawatt Indian 

Point unit 2 to Con Edison through the end of 2004. 



Also, the two companies reached a capacity purchase agreement for 

Entergy to sell the installed capacity of Indian Point 2 to Con 

Edison through April 2005, with options for capacity purchases for 

another six years. 



Indian Point 2 is Entergy's ninth operating nuclear unit, and the 

fourth in the Northeast. 



Indian Point unit 1 has been shut since the early 1970s. 



The two reactors are located in Buchanan, New York, about 35 miles 

north of New York City on the Hudson River. 



The sale places the two operating units at the Indian Point site 

under a single owner for the first time in their 25-year operating 

history, the companies said. 



Entergy bought the 970-megawatt Indian Point nuclear unit 3 from the 

New York Power Authority last November. 

----------------



U.S. District Court Grants Brush Wellman Motion for Summary Judgement 

in Oak Ridge Case

  

CLEVELAND--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2001--Brush Wellman Inc. 

announced today that the United States District Court for the Eastern 

District of Tennessee has granted the company's motion for summary 

judgment in Troy Murphy Morgan, et ux. v. Brush Wellman Inc., et al. 



The motion effectively ends the lawsuit which had been scheduled for 

trial August 6 in Knoxville. 



The suit was filed in district court in 1994 by four plaintiffs and 

their spouses. The plaintiffs alleged they had become ill from 

handling beryllium or beryllium-containing products while working for 

Union Carbide Corporation or Martin Marietta Energy Systems, 

contractors at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge 

facility. Cabot Corporation and NGK Metals Corporation were also 

named as defendants. 



In a statement, Brush Wellman said, "We are extremely pleased that 

the district court granted this motion. The court can be commended 

for being thorough and reasoned in evaluating Brush Wellman's 

position that it was not responsible for the health and safety of 

another company's employees. 



"While we had every confidence in the strength of this case and 

believe strongly that we would have, once again, been vindicated by a 

jury, we are gratified not to have had to devote substantial and 

unnecessary time and resources to defend our position in a lengthy 

and complicated trial." 



In a similar case concluded in late June in Jefferson County, 

Colorado, jurors unanimously decided for Brush Wellman. In that three-

week trial, jurors agreed with Brush Wellman's argument that Brush 

adequately warned the DOE's Rocky Flats contractors of the need to 

properly protect workers from known unsafe levels of beryllium 

particulate. The case also exonerated Brush Wellman of the false and 

totally unsupported "conspiracy theory" advanced by the plaintiffs. 

Yesterday, the same Colorado court denied a motion by the plaintiffs 

for a new trial. 



"Even though we have enormous sympathy for any individual whose life 

has been affected by chronic beryllium disease (CBD), Brush Wellman 

has maintained that it is not at fault in these cases. That position 

has been affirmed by independent arbiters who have consistently ruled 

in the company's favor," Brush Wellman added. 



The company noted that The Energy Employees Occupational Illness 

Compensation Program Act (EEOICPA) provides a more expedient and 

certain benefit for eligible employees affected by CBD and other 

illnesses such as silicosis and radiation-induced cancer. In July, 

the EEOICPA began making tax-free $150,000 compensation payments to 

qualifying workers affected by CBD while working for the DOE, certain 

vendors or subcontractors throughout the nuclear weapons program. 



Brush Wellman continues to work to end CBD and to minimize the risk 

to its workers and customers. The company remains steadfastly 

committed to this objective while ensuring that the substantial 

benefits from using beryllium products remain available to society. 



Brush Wellman Inc. is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Brush Engineered 

Materials Inc. (NYSE:BW). Brush Engineered Materials Inc. is 

headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The Company, through its wholly-

owned subsidiaries, supplies worldwide markets with beryllium 

products, alloy products, electronic products, precious metal 

products, and engineered material systems. 

-----------------



State Appeals Court Reverses Key Portions of Lower Court Ruling On 

American Ecology's Ward Valley Project; Damages Case Remanded For 

Trial

  

BOISE, Idaho--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 6, 2001--Jack K. Lemley, 

Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of American Ecology 

Corporation (Nasdaq:ECOL), today announced that the California Court 

of Appeal has reversed key portions of a lower court ruling in 

litigation filed by subsidiary US Ecology, Inc. to recover damages 

from the State of California for abandoning its duties in 

establishing a low-level radioactive waste ("LLRW") disposal 

facility. 



The case is now remanded for trial. 



The ruling, issued on September 5, 2001 by the California Court of 

Appeal, Fourth Appellate District, held that the State clearly had 

the authority to make contracts regarding establishment of the 

proposed Ward Valley LLRW disposal facility in the eastern Mojave 

Desert. The court further held that US Ecology adequately alleged 

that California had induced it to spend money based on promises that 

were later broken, writing, "In this case, Ecology alleged facts that 

fit within the classic model of a promissory estoppel claim." 



"This ruling is a clear victory for US Ecology," Lemley stated, 

adding, "We are confident of our ability to prove these allegations 

and establish damages at trial." US Ecology's complaint seeks in 

excess of $162 million for recovery of site development expenses, 

interest, and lost profits. 



The three-judge panel also vacated the lower court's order permitting 

intervention in the case by several Ward Valley opposition groups and 

directed the trial court to reconsider the matter. 



"US Ecology intends to vigorously pursue successful conclusion of 

this litigation to protect the interests of our shareholders," Lemley 

concluded. 



American Ecology Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a 

variety of radioactive, PCB, hazardous and non-hazardous waste 

services to commercial and government customers throughout the United 

States, such as nuclear power plants, medical and academic 

institutions, steel mills and petro-chemical facilities. The company 

provides scientific solutions that protect people and the 

environment. Headquartered in Boise, Idaho, the Company is the oldest 

radioactive and hazardous waste services company in the United 

States.



------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sandy Perle					Tel:(714) 545-0100 / (800) 548-5100   				    	

Director, Technical				Extension 2306 				     	

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Service		Fax:(714) 668-3149 	                   		    

ICN Pharmaceuticals, Inc.			E-Mail: sandyfl@earthlink.net 				                           

ICN Plaza, 3300 Hyland Avenue  		E-Mail: sperle@icnpharm.com          	          

Costa Mesa, CA 92626                    



Personal Website: http://www.geocities.com/scperle

ICN Worldwide Dosimetry Website: http://www.dosimetry.com



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