Volume 8 Number 6 May 2011 Stay safe. Stay healthy. Stay current. Lead Story Inside this month’s issue of Comfort Zone: Sun damage not glamourous (Click on the page numbers to go directly to the section) Blame it on Coco. Coco Chanel, that is. Making Headlines n the 1920s, this famous fashion Pages 2-3 designer turned suntanned skin New therapy for MS into a fashion statement. I Babies burdened by rotovirus Sunbathing became a ritual, and people flocked to the beaches to Symptoms of glaucoma "catch some rays." This ritual What’s causing my headache continues today. Tanned skin is still seen as fashionable, healthy, and Tips For Supervisors luxurious. In 1962, SPF rated sunscreen was Pages 4-5 introduced. In 1971, Mattel Restless nights, restless days introduced Malibu Barbie, which had Solidify your soft skills tanned skin, sunglasses, and her very Safety starts on day one own bottle of sun tanning lotion. In Swallowing disorders 1978, tanning beds appeared. In the US, the tanning business is now a five-billion dollar industry. There are Health & Safety Round up an estimated 50,000 outlets for before the age of 20. Most UVB rays Page 6 tanning. However, although tanned are absorbed by the ozone layer, but Vehicle ejections kill skin is still a status symbol, awareness enough of these rays pass through to Communication disorders of what the sun’s rays can do to our cause serious damage. skin is very important. UVC rays are the most dangerous, Seminars Sunlight contains three types of but fortunately, these rays are blocked ultraviolet rays: UVA, UVB, and by the ozone layer and don't reach the Health and Safety Minute UVC. earth. To protect itself from the sun's UVA rays cause skin aging and effects, skin will increase its Pages 7-8 wrinkling and can contribute to skin production of melanocytes. These cells Stay safe in the sun cancer, such as melanoma. Because produce the dark brown pigment Protect your child’s hearing UVA rays pass effortlessly through the called melanin. The extra melanin Pet safety ozone layer, they make up the makes your skin look darker or Healthy kids inside and out majority of our sun exposure. Tanning suntanned. In some cases, the sun beds use UVA rays as well as UVB causes an uneven increase in melanin Brace your motorcycle for the rays. production or in the number of road UVB rays can also be dangerous, melanocytes, which produces irregular Sunglasses protect your eyes causing sunburns, cataracts (clouding colouring or pigmentation of the skin. of the eye lens), and effects on the The sun can also cause a permanent Safety Meeting immune system. They can also stretching (dilation) of small blood contribute to skin cancer. Melanoma, vessels, giving your skin a mottled, Pages 9-11 the most dangerous form of skin reddish appearance. This month: cancer, is thought to be associated Be safe around water with severe UVB sunburns that occur Please turn to page 3 www.skilven.com page 2 Making Headlines First oral treatment for MS approved in Canada (NC)-For Himani Ediriweera, a 39 “The approval of this drug is a Canadians. Though no one knows what year old from Toronto, Health Canada's significant milestone for the Canadian causes it, some research points to a approval of the first oral capsule to MS community,” says Dr. Daniel complex interplay of environmental treat her multiple sclerosis (MS) is Selchen, a neurologist from Toronto, and possibly genetic risk factors. Many good news. Ontario. “Oral therapies have been people living with MS deal with “I feel like I have my life back greatly anticipated by both patients and limited mobility, vision problems, again,” says Ediriweera, who was physicians who are eager for bladder and bowel issues. diagnosed with MS over six years ago. alternatives to injection and infusion “I have a fear of needles and taking a Up until now, all therapies available therapies. daily pill to treat my MS is a great to treat MS required daily or regular With its excellent clinical trial alternative. I have gone from having injections or infusions with deep efficacy data, along with convenience, five to six relapses per year to one or needles. this drug is welcome news for those two since I started this drug - MS no Fingolimod is the first disease seeking a new option to manage their longer has control over my life,” says modifying oral therapy developed for disease.” Ediriweera. the relapsing-remitting form of MS - Like all medications, Fingolimod has “I am not limited by the treatment the most common type of the disease potential side effects, including that I’m taking - I can be spontaneous in adults. headache, flu, diarrhea, back pain, again, I can travel, I can be the person This new treatment option offers elevated liver enzyme levels, decreased that I was before I was diagnosed.” simple once daily oral dosing in a heart rate and cough. For more information about MS and capsule, providing an efficacious and An unpredictable, often disabling the latest treatment option, please visit convenient treatment method for a disease of the central nervous system, www.mssociety.ca or speak to your complex and lifelong illness. MS affects between 55,000 and 75,000 doctor. New babies burdened by common illness in Canada (NC)-The immense responsibility of significant burden on the health care “New parents need to be aware of keeping a child safe and healthy can be system. For children with rotavirus, it’s rotavirus and the importance of daunting for parents. So when a young estimated that one in seven will seek immunization, but all children can benefit child gets sick or requires hospitalization, health care advice, one in 20 will visit an if provincial governments strongly it can be very traumatic and affect the emergency department, and one in 62 consider including these vaccines in whole family. Although many Canadian will be hospitalized. Also, since rotavirus publically funded programs,” says Dr. parents aren’t aware of it by name, one is highly contagious it is often spread to Hirotaka Yamashiro, president of the infection most babies and new parents other young patients within a hospital Pediatricians Alliance of Ontario. face is, “rotavirus.” In fact, nearly every setting and premature babies are The United States instituted a rotavirus Canadian child will be infected with particularly susceptible to infection. As vaccination program in 2006 and has rotavirus by age five. such, when rotavirus season hits in since seen a substantial decline in Rotavirus is a serious illness that Canada, usually between February and rotavirus rates in the country. As a result, usually affects children between the ages May, it consumes a significant amount of the 2007/2008 season saw a greater than of six months and two years. Its health care resources. 50 per cent decrease in rotavirus activity symptoms include severe fever, vomiting, The good news is that rotavirus can be compared with the 1991 to 2006 seasons. and diarrhea that generally last 3 to 8 prevented through an oral vaccine. It is And, there was such a reduction in days. The more serious cases of vomiting available in a two dose form, can be rotavirus activity nationally in 2009-2010 and diarrhea can result in dehydration started after six weeks of age and must be that the country never even saw the start and may require hospitalization and/or completed before eight months of age. of the rotavirus outbreak season. treatment with intravenous fluids. Unfortunately, rotavirus vaccinations are For more information on rotavirus and Not only can rotavirus be extremely not currently paid for by provincial immunization, speak with your hard on Canadian families, it also poses a universal mass vaccination programs. pediatrician or family physician. The information presented in Comfort Zone has right to make periodic changes, additions,and President & CEO: Chris Skilton been compiled from sources believed to be deletions to these publications, and the products Sales: Art Hamilton • Alan Haycroft • reliable. However, it cannot be assumed that all and programs described in these publications Lisa Garowey • Liz Slobodin • acceptable measures are contained in this article without notice. Carol Wilkinson • Dave Grimmer nor that additional measures may not be required Comfort Zone is published monthly by Skilven Editor: Kate Peeren under particular or exceptional circumstances, or Publications Ltd. www.skilven.com. All rights Contributing Writer: Bryden Winsby your own company procedures, or by federal, reserved. © 2011. No part of this publication is to TOLL FREE: 1-888-655-4800 • Fax: 1-250-487-2104 state/provincial and local law. Local, be copied without permission from the publisher Mailing Address: 101-196 Wade Ave W state/provincial and federal regulations take with exception to the safety meeting contained Penticton, British Columbia V2A 1T6 precedence over this material. We reserve the herein. www.skilven.com • [email protected] page 3 www.skilven.com Making Headlines Sun damage not glamourous Oh my aching head Continued from page one To protect you and your family’s (NC)-Headaches affect most of us at one Sun damage of the skin, also skin from sun damage: point or another in our lives. But did you know known as photo damage can be Seek shade when the sun is at that there is no normal headache? They are either acute, such as a sunburn, or its highest overhead and therefore all a sign of something being not quite right with our bodies. more commonly, chronic. This is strongest (usually 10 a.m. until 4 So what are the common types of gradual changes in the skin caused p.m.