European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 24, 2007, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 12 stars and stripes saturday March 242007 Fra plans changes in drug adv by Shankar Vedanta the Washington Post Washington the food and drug administration said wednesday that it plans to make extensive changes in How it selects medical experts to serve on its advisory panels after years of complaints that Many of them have financial ties to the very companies whose products they Evalu ate the proposal would eliminate Many experts who now serve on the panels despite having such financial conflicts Fra officials said experts with limited conflicts of interest would be allowed to participate in the discussions but not to vote on the recommendations made to the Agency the advisory committees play a Central role in regulating drugs medical devices and diagnostic tests their decisions largely determine what drugs and medical products can be marketed to americans be cause the Agency nearly always follows the panel guidance in recent years concerns about the com position of the panels have reached a Crescendo the Fra and others have argued that Overly strict rules might eliminate Many of the experts with the needed exper Tise on wednesday officials maintained that the Agency procedures have not been biased in favor of Industry but the new guide lines implicitly acknowledge what critics have Long said that it is possible to find enough qualified experts who do not have ties to drug and device manufacturers the new rules come As Congress has be come increasingly vocal about its displeasure with the Way things Are run at Fra and follow a stinging report last year by the Institute of Medicine which called on the Agency to address the concerns Over conflicts of interest this is one of several announcements the Fra has made in re cent months whose timing suggests they Are reactions both to the com report and the Bills moving through Congress said r Alta Charo a University of Wisconsin bioethicist who served on the institutes panel the Fra is intent on getting out ahead of some of its critics As effectively As Possi ble and that is a Good thing she said under the new guidelines any scientist or physician who has or More in financial ties to a company Over the last 12 months including Stock or consulting arrangements would be barred from panels evaluating that company products those who have received less than in the previous year might be Al Lowed to participate in the discussion but could not vote study blames corps for weak la levees by Janet Mcconnaughey the associated press new Orleans decades of mistakes some As Basic As not knowing the Elevation of new or leans led the us army corps of engineers to believe its levees and flood Walls would protect the City from a storm As Strong As Hurricane katrina a report re leased wednesday concludes the corps used obsolete re search to design flood control structures that were built too Low and improperly maintained a group of engineers and storm re searcher called team Louisiana said in its 475page report the re port was commissioned by the state department of transportation and development the system was intended to be Strong enough to handle a category 3 Hurricane like katrina which devastated new Orleans when levees broke two major studies last year looked at the engineering prob lems that caused the 2005 breaches but the new study also closely examines whether the problems could have been foreseen when the flood control system was created the report said the errors Date to the original plans in 1965 which relied on land height measurements from 1929 because the City had sunk Over the years the plans called for levees that were 1 to 2 feet too Low this mistake was locked in for continuing construction by a policy adopted in 1985 even though scientists knew How fast new Orleans was sinking the re port said by the time katrina hit the levees were As much As 5 feet too Low the report also said the corps never used a storm surge Model released in 1979 by the National Hurricane Center if they had they would have realized that their levee system want High enough for a category 3 storm at All said team Leader Ivor Van Heerlen a Louisiana state University professor Deputy director of the leu Hurricane Center additionally he said the corps ignored its own models that suggested that the Mississippi River Gulf outlet a navigation Channel completed in the Early 1960s would funnel storm surge into St Bernard Parish and new Orleans the corps also should have known two canals would fail when water Levels reached 10 feet Van Heerlen said that a  calculation would have alerted Engi neers to a problem with one of the canals and that a soil strength analysis available since the 1950s would have highlighted flaws in the other the corps was preparing a response spokesman John Hall said wednesday Van Heerlen said Al most All the problems could have been avoided if Independent Engi neers had reviewed the corps plans before construction the report recommended an in dependent planning process for Hurricane Protection army corps of water flows into new Orleans through a Breech of the 17th Street canal levee shown in this undated Aerial photo a new report blames the corps for the failure of levees to withstand Hurricane katrina areas hit by katrina slow to repopulate the associated press Washington the Pace of rebuilding after Hurricane katrina has slowed leaving some Gulf coast areas with less than half the people they had before the storm and some of the hardest hit might never regain their population experts say the latest census Bureau Esti mates to be released thursday say that 10 months after the Hurri Cane Orleans Parish in Louisiana had slightly less than half the peo ple it did before the storm nearby St Bernard Parish had less than a fourth of its pre storm population the estimates were for july 1 2006 but experts said few people have moved Back since then were still doing cleanup but not bringing Many housing units on line said Greg Rigamer a demographer in new Orleans other Gulf coast communities meanwhile have grown As Hurri Cane victims fled to nearby cities and americans continued a de cad Slong migration to coastal areas according the new census Bureau estimates Harris county Texas Home to Houston added More than 123000 people from 2005 to 2006 Houston attracted Many katrina refugees panel tests creatine for Parkinson patients govern ment scientists want to know if a dietary supplement thought to boost Muscles might boost the brains of Parkinson patients the National institutes of health began a major study thurs Day to see if creatine might help preserve the nerve cells that die off in Parkinson and thus slow the diseases worsening the study will enrol More than 1700 people with Early stage Parkinson Nasa delays picking new launch Date Cape canaveral Fla Nasa managers wont decide until april when to reschedule a space shuttle Mission that was postponed after Hail damaged the Craft officials said goofball sized Hail left thou Sands of dings on the foam insula Tion on the space shuttle Atlantis fuel tank As it sat on the launch pad last month postponing a Deci Sion on when to reschedule the launch will give technicians More time to assess damage study finds fetus a risk from smoke teenagers exposed to cigarette smoke in the womb Are at risk for attention problems and the deficits Worsen if the teens them selves smoke according to a new study doctors at Yale University school of Medicine in a study that will be published thursday in the journal necropsy Chouhar mycology suggest that tobacco plays a critical role in the develop ing brain from wire services mothers Day is May 13th Send a message for Frk at Stripe com win accept mothers Day messages at Stripe com from March 30 to april 23 messages will be published in the Mideast european and Pacific editions on May 12 greetings will also be online 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