Toxic cleanups get aboost.
Researchers have developed and field--tested a new technique that identifies specific soil microbes that can break down environmental pollutants. The bacteria could be used to clean up toxic-waste sites. Eugene Madsen of Cornell University and his colleagues tested their technique at a coal tar waste site associated...

Roofing needs to be covered throughout a hotel's life. (Hotel operations: exterior maintenance).
Although many people think one roof is as good as another, there are a number of types of roofs and issues that hotel owners must consider before construction begins. Having a roof that constantly needs to be repaired or absorbs too much heat into the hotel won't make guests...

The Hidden Perils of Personal Care Products.
"... The universal adage remains that no chemical is absolutely safe. Even if an ingredient is `known' to be safe, there is no certainty that it won't have undesirable side effects in a new combination." COMMON SOAP and shampoo ingredients were linked to cancer in laboratory mice...

Mixed news on hair dyes and cancer risk.
In this era of cancer scares at every turn, a new study offers women mostly reassuring news about the cancer risk of hair dyes. The large study finds that most women who use permanent hair coloring do not face an increased risk of fatal cancers. The research...

Mauve: How One Man Invented a Color that Changed the World.
MAUVE: HOW ONE MAN INVENTED A COLOR THAT CHANGED THE WORLD Simon Garfield W.W. Norton & Company, $23.95. IN 1856 WILLIAM PERKIN, AN 18-year-old British chemist, tried to synthesize the antimalarial quinine from coal tar, a by-product of gas manufacture. Instead, his experiment yielded an inky dark...

Nanosponges: plastic particles pick up pollutants.
Ground contamination from crude oil and tar is notoriously difficult to clean up because these substances cling tenaciously to the soil. Remediation of such pollution at some of the hundreds of hazardous-waste sites around the United States has proved inefficient and costly. This could be one place...

Psoriasis.
Byline: Gary S Sy, MD AS your skin is worn away, new cells are produced beneath the surface and replace it. In psoriasis, the normal rate of cell production is speeded up in some areas, and skin cells pile up faster than they can be shed. It...

"Congo" Red.
Out of Africa? More than 100 years after its discovery, the Congo red histologic stain is still of fundamental importance in the laboratory. "Congophilic" staining of fixed tissue and the detection of apple-green birefringence when viewed under polarized light remain essential for the diagnosis of amyloidosis.[1,2] Few...

Clobetasol propionate shampoo 0.05%: a new option to treat patients with moderate to severe scalp psoriasis.
Abstract Psoriasis is a chronic, papulosquamous condition that affects up to 2% of the U.S. population. Approximately 50% of patients with psoriasis have involvement of the scalp. This was a multicentre, randomized, vehicle-controlled, double-masked and parallel-group study. The aim was to evaluate the efficacy and...

Biologics the rage, but don't Shun PUVA, UVB: consider costs.
NEW YORK -- The biologics "Brat Pack" may be hogging the spotlight in psoriasis therapy lately, but there's still room on stage for an experienced performer like phototherapy, insisted Dr. John Koo at the Ninth International Psoriasis Symposium. The truth of the matter is, not one of...