Page 12 • The Battalion
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Study casts doubt on anti-cancer benefit of seleniu
□ Harvard scientists
found that ordinary
consumption of the
mineral failed to pro
tect women from
cancer and supple
ment users actually
had a higher risk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A
large study of American nurses
casts doubt on the alleged anti
cancer properties of the mineral
selenium, finding the amount
consumed by most U.S. women
doesn’t lower their risk.
The trace mineral gained wide
attention when scientists found
high doses protected animals
against cancer, and supplements
now often are marketed as an
tioxidant cancer fighters. Re
search in people is mixed and lit
tle has been done on women, so
Harvard scientists decided to
study selenium in women.
They found that ordinary con
sumption of selenium failed to
protect women from cancer, and
that the handful of selenium
supplement users actually had a
slightly higher risk of the dis
ease, although they cautioned
that there was no proof the sele
nium was to blame.
“This is a carefully conducted
study by good investigators, but
we still don’t have a final an
swer,” said Dr. Peter Greenwald
of the National Cancer Institute.
“I don’t think people should
be making the decision to stop
taking selenium or start taking
selenium” based on current
data, said Dr. Larry Clark of the
Arizona Cancer Center. He is
testing selenium supplements
against dummy pills to see if
they protect cancer survivors.
Selenium is found in seafood,
liver and vegetables grown in
selenium-rich soil. Some scien
tists suspect it prevents cancer
because people from areas with
selenium-rich soil have less can
cer and those in selenium-poor
regions have more.
The Harvard study, pub
lished in Wednesday’s Journal
of the National Cancer Insti
tute, measured selenium in the
toenail clippings of 62,641 fe
male nurses in 1982. Dietary
selenium is deposited in nails,
reflecting consumption over the
previous year.
The doctors had already
found that selenium didn’t pro-
Selenium ' consumption
ranged from 60 to 150 micro
grams a day. But higher levels
didn’t protect women, conclud
ed Harvard epidemiologist
tect the nurses against breast Miriam Garland.
"If women still wish to take selenium supple
ments, they should just be cautious as selenium
can be toxic at high doses."
— Miriam Garland,
> Harvard epidemiologist
cancer. This time, they looked
at 503 nurses diagnosed with
other cancers between 1982
and 1986, demographically
matching them with cancer-
free nurses for comparison.
Higher selenium slightly in
creased the risk of colorectal
cancer, melanoma and lung
cancer. The figures weren’t sta
tistically significant, meaning
they don’t indicate selenium is
risky, merely that it i
tective. Garland said.
Also, the 41 women
selenium supplements
times as likely to have c
women who didn’t. That
people to draw conclusi
land emphasized. She K
tell if women took suppi
because they had high
risks and hoped to wardit
“Our data don’t suppo-
tective effect, and if won
wish to take selenium
ments, they should just
tious as selenium can be
high doses,” she concludec
Until the results
Clark advises American
the government’s daily;
mended allowance ofse
55 micrograms for won:
70 for men.
Computer program designed to find
security gaps released free on Internet
□ The SATAN soft
ware creator says it
will make it more dif
ficult to break into
computer systems.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) —
Computer security experts
could be in for a devil of a time
from SATAN when its creator
distributes it free on the Inter
net on Wednesday.
SATAN is a new piece of
software designed to find secu
rity gaps in computer systems
and make them harder to crack,
and Dan Farmer and his part
ner are releasing it despite
fears that hackers will use it to
execute break-ins.
“As far as abuse goes, I think
it will actually decrease be
cause people can make better
decisions about improving their
security,” Farmer said Tuesday.
SATAN, which stands for Se
curity Administrators Tool for
Analyzing Networks, lets peo
ple who run computer systems
directly linked to the Internet
find security holes.
While there have been simi
lar programs, and serious hack
ers already are familiar with
ways of breaking into computer
systems, experts say SATAN is
significant because it is easy
enough for novices to use.
Youngsters could easily
play computer pranks,
on-line vandals could
scramble a hospital’s
medical records and
white-collar criminals
could steal corporate
secrets, said Donn
Parker, a computer se
curity consultant with
SRI International, a
consulting company in
Menlo Park.
“It’s like any other powerful
tool: It can be used for great good
and great harm,” Parker said.
Farmer, who lives in San
Francisco, developed SATAN
with Wietse Venema, a security
expert at the University of Eind
hoven in the Netherlands. They
first planned to release the pro
gram on the Internet on April 1.
Parker said Farmer should
have sold SATAN only to experts
guarding computer systems, and
he disputed the argument that
SATAN will help protect against
electronic intrusion.
Experts agree that the aver
age home computer user won’t
be affected, and the military’s
computers holding classified in
formation are isolated and also
are not at risk.
Computer security experts at
Lawrence Livermore National
Laboratory near San Francisco
have developed a program that
alerts computer operators to
SATAN attacks.
The program sounds an
alarm and identifies the com
puter where the intrusion origi
nated. It also is available free
on the Internet.
"It's like any other powerful
tool: It can be used for great
good and great harm."
— Donn Parker,
computer security consultant
Secondhand smoke promotes heart
disease in nonsmokers, study sugge
□ Researchers found
that secondhand smoke
damages the lining of
arteries and helps
"bad" cholesterol bind
to artery walls.
CHICAGO (AP) — Nonsmok
ers are much more sensitive to
heart damage from secondhand
smoke than smokers are because
their bodies haven’t built up de
fenses against the onslaught of
tobacco poisons, researchers say.
“The cardiovascular system
adapts to insults,” said Stanton
A. Glantz, a professor of medi
cine at the University of Califor
nia at San Francisco and an an
tismoking activist.
The conclusion is not new but
was drawn from the most com
plete review to date of studies on
how secondhand smoke affects
the heart and blood vessels.
It also heightens the debate
over secondhand smoke, indi
cating that even small amounts
can endanger nonsmokers. The
tobacco industry claims that
the link between secondhand
smoke and heart disease is un
proven and that, in any case,
nonsmokers breathe in very lit
tle cigarette smoke.
Glantz and Dr. William W.
Parmley, chief of cardiology at
UCSF, pulled together data
from more than 80 previous
studies. Their review is pub
lished in Wednesday’s issue of
The Journal of the American
Medical Association.
About 47,000 people a year
die from heart disease caused by
secondhand smoke, and 150,000
others suffer nonfatal heart at
tacks, according to an analysis
prepared last year for the Occu
pational Safety and Health Ad
ministration. An estimated
3,000 people die of lung cancer
annually because of secondhand
smoke, OSHA said.
“The tobacco companies are
claiming that levels of second
hand smoke in workplaces are
very, very low, that you have to
sit at a smoky bar for a thousand
years to inhale the equivalent of
one cigarette,” Glantz a:
paper shows that tryingii
passive smoking witt
smoking is just meaninfa
The researchers saioi
hand smoke reducesfe
carrying ability ofbloodi
heart’s ability to usefe
it receives, forcingtheli
pump harder and maiq
cise more exhausting.
Also, secondhand si.
vates blood cells called;s
promoting clots that a:
heart attacks. In addir
vated platelets candsi
lining of arteries andsp
development of fatty ds
a major component ofk
ease, studies haveskr.
Aside from that, cos;
in secondhand smoketo
so-called “bad” cholesi?
help it bind to artery
where it further contr:
fatty deposits, studies si |
The nicotine in seT
smoke interferes wii*
that neutralize the help
tive and destructivecR-.
known as free radical; 1
thors said.
Prescriptions
sr wm j'
for an Ailing Society
Dr. Louis
Sullivan
Former U.S. Sec. of
Health and Human
Services 1989-93
Dr. Joycelyn
Elders
Former U.S. Surgeon
General 1993-94
Friday, April 7, 1995
7:00 p.m. Rudder Auditorium
Free tickets available at the MSC Box Office (845-1234)
Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your special needs. We request
notification 3 working days prior to the event to enable us to assist you to the best of our
abilities. The views expressed in this program do no necessarily represent those of the MSC.
MARTIN LAWRENCE WILL SMII
ISounriirack On WORKl
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