Two years later - and this is the best advice they can give you? Earlier this summer, New York City published its "Household Preparedness Guide" to help make sure city residents are equipped to handle disasters, extremes of weather, and possible terrorist acts or other acts of war. In it, you'll find such cutting-edge advice as "get out as quickly as possible" or "get under a desk or table" in the event of a building collapse or explosion. Well, DUH! What is this, a reprint of the Cold War survival guides of the 50s and 60s? Tell us something we DON'T know! How about these pearls on avoiding radiation: "If you are outside, get inside," and "The greater the distance between you and the source of the radiation the better." Hmmm. And here I thought to run TOWARD the mushroom cloud. Oh, and that state-of-the-art Potassium Iodide they're going to hand out in the event of radiation exposure? We've only known about that news flash for around 50 years or so. Also, here's a little-known gem: "If you smell gas, do not smoke or light matches..." I must've gotten the manual for low-IQ residents, or something. As for terrorism, they devote an ENTIRE PAGE to the subject, which tells us (among other kernels of obviousness) that a letter may be considered suspicious if covered with a "powdery substance on the outside." Where is the information about what scenarios and times of day are most likely for a biological or chemical attack? What about descriptions of the telltale smells that give away the presence of chemical agents most likely to be used in an attack? Why doesn't the booklet mention the symptoms of chemical or biological agents, so readers would know what to look for before they flock to the hospital to rub elbows with INFECTED people? Other than listings of emergency numbers and help centers, this booklet isn't suitable for anything except as toilet paper in the event of one of the disasters it describes. If you really want some solid, actionable information and advice on what to do when the you-know-what hits the fan, read my special report on bio-terrorism. You can find out how to get it in one of the blurbs below. ***************************** The most vilified leaf gets a new lease on life
In this day and age, tobacco is so vilified in the mainstream that it's a wonder they haven't started making toilet paper out of it. Yet this scourge of the "vices" is far from being universally evil. In fact, some new tobacco-based research is yielding lifesaving dividends. As is turns out, the tobacco plant is an ideal source (after some high-tech genetic manipulations, of course) of antibodies for the animal-borne rabies virus. Now I know rabies isn't nearly as prominent on the health-hazard "radar" as it was a century ago, but that doesn't mean it isn't still a deadly disease we all have to be aware of - especially if you live in areas with a high raccoon, skunk, or bat population (basically everywhere in the U.S.). What's really encouraging about the new tobacco-based vaccine is that if adopted on a large-scale basis, it would be significantly cheaper, more plentiful, and carry fewer side effects (if any at all) than current treatments based on serum from horses or rabies-infected humans. Early research shows the tobacco-based antibodies to be every bit as effective as the traditional treatments at blocking the virus in laboratory animals. So it looks like the good ol' tobacco plant is good for something the mainstream can embrace after all - and this is in addition to another promising nicotine-based treatment for growing new blood vessels in the heart that I told you about in an earlier Daily Dose ("Not just blowing smoke, 11/2/02). Guess we shouldn't let the "smoke police" plow under all the tobacco crops just yet. Smoking out the junk medicine,
William Campbell Douglass II, MD | 
