U of M News Wire: September 20, 2007

 

 
Farm work is hard and dangerous, but the University of Minnesota’s John Shutske is helping reduce the hazards
 
By Deane Morrison
U of M News Wire

It's autumn, and soon a bright harvest moon will light fields for farmers working to put food on our tables. But behind this romantic image lies the cold hard fact that farmers risk life and limb to do it.
 
Farming ranks among the most dangerous occupations in the nation, with 600 or 700 adults and 100 children killed each year, plus many more maimed, says University of Minnesota farm safety expert John Shutske.
 
"Agriculture has the highest fatality rate among major industry categories, with a rate seven to eight times greater than the average U.S. rate for all industries combined," says Shutske, a professor of bioproducts and biosystems engineering.
 
Shutske works both to design safer farm machinery and to raise awareness of dangers so farm workers can better protect themselves and their children. He recently received a national award for a research paper describing his design of a sensor to detect when people get too close to a power take-off --a rotating shaft that uses the power of a tractor to run a mower, auger or other farm machine -- and shut off the tractor.
 
The issue of farm safety hit home in the early 1990s, when two wrenching stories shook the public.
 
"John Thompson, a North Dakota teenager, lost both arms to a rotating grain auger," Shutske recalls. "Several weeks after that, a little boy from Wisconsin lost an arm in a piece of irrigation equipment."
 
Safety has improved recently, as shown by statistics over the 23 years Shutske has working in the area. When he started out, there were more than 60 deaths per 100,000 people in farming; in 2006, the number was "in the high 20s." In Minnesota, children under 16 used to account for 20 percent of deaths, but in 2006 the number was two out of 26, or 7.7 percent.
 
One obstacle to further improvements is the equipment found on most farms. New equipment often has safety features like sensors, but many farm machines are old and unsafe, Shutske says.

"With new grain combines, if you get out of the seat, some parts will shut off," he says. "But how do we get people to remember that when they're on an old machine, there's no safety device? That phenomenon can be really hard to work around, and it's something machinery companies and others are very aware of."
 
In general, the human tendency to take risks and push the limits of safety devices is a problem. It's the same on our roads, says Shutske; some people will drive faster because they have ABS or airbags. Other human factors stem from youth.
 
"Children can't understand what it's like to be seriously injured," says Shutske. "And adolescents may think they can step over a piece of rotating machinery or drive too fast around a curve with a heavily loaded tractor or truck."
 
But while child fatalities drop, more farmers over 65 are being injured or killed. Again, the analogy to driving cars applies: Sight, hearing, and reaction times are often impaired in the elderly. Also, says Shutske, the "average" principal farm operator is about 10 years older than the average person working in an urban area.
 
To counter these factors, Shutske works hard to educate farmers and engineers on safety. In his department, students must take a three-credit course on safety in order to graduate.
 
"It gives students an advantage in the workplace," says Shutske. They integrate safety in design and development. That's the direction the industry would like to go. Safety shouldn't be an afterthought. In Minnesota, we're becoming known for safety engineering."
 
Shutske and departmental colleague Jonathan Chaplin work together to teach safety courses. Shutske heads a course in agricultural engineering safety, taught in the department of bioproducts and biosystems engineering, and Chaplin heads an industrial engineering safety course, taught in the mechanical engineering department.
 
Through the University of Minnesota Extension Service, Shutske keeps a brisk schedule speaking to the Minnesota Farm Bureau and other groups to keep safety consciousness high in people's minds and to encourage the use of technology to reduce risk.
 
Shutske also enlists powerful advocates with ties to farm families: doctors and nurses. Because they enjoy a high level of trust, they are effective at raising awareness of the potential for injury or death.
 
"I tell physicians and nurses they need not be afraid to challenge the status quo," says Shutske. "We need to work together to change that situation. Everybody knows a neighbor or somebody who's been killed. People have to ask if that's acceptable."
 
 
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U of M study refutes common belief that black patients have more aggressive prostate cancer than white patients
 
By Deane Morrison
U of M News Wire

A University of Minnesota study of prostate cancer tumors from Caucasian and African-American men has shown no evidence that the cancer is more aggressive in black men. Lead investigator Akhouri Sinha, a U of M professor of genetics, cell biology, and development and research scientist at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center, said the belief that black men's tumors are more aggressive is based on studies that failed to match patients properly and used only indirect means to measure tumor aggressiveness. The work is being published in Anticancer Research Sept. 21 (vol. 27, issue 5A, pp. 3135-3142).
 
In previous studies of prostate tumors, those in black patients tended to be larger and at a more advanced stage, and black men had higher blood levels of prostate specific antigen (PSA), a substance produced by the prostate that, at high levels, points to the possibility of prostate cancer. But all these criteria are interrelated and could be the result of delayed diagnosis or medical care, Sinha said.
 
"Previous studies showing differences in prostate cancers among races require re-evaluation because inconsistent criteria were used in selection of patients," he said. "Our data shows that for patients receiving similar treatment, African-American patients are not following up with their doctors as opposed to Caucasians, and this difference is highly significant. Also, Caucasian patients are four times as likely to receive additional treatment after prostatectomy. Cancer does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, national origin, or caste system, like people do. Invasiveness of prostate cancer is not race-dependent."
 
According to Sinha, what is needed is a comparison of the innate aggressiveness of tumors that have been matched by criteria relevant to a diagnosis of cancer as well as treatment after prostatectomy.
 
Drawing on the resources of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Sinha selected preserved slices of tumors from 130 surgery patients. From these he was able to match 25 black and 25 white patients according to age, Gleason grade (a pathologist's measure of how advanced a prostate tumor is), clinical stage of the tumors and PSA levels before prostatectomy.
 
To determine how aggressive the tumors were, Sinha measured the levels of an enzyme that is essential for destroying membranes that keep cells in place. Called cathepsin B, the enzyme, if unchecked, carves out an "escape route" by which cancer cells can spread. He also measured the levels of a substance, known as stefin A, that inhibits cathepsin B. The ratio of the two substances in slices of prostate tumors gives a measure of how invasive, or aggressive, the tumors are. The most aggressive ones are characterized by a high ratio of cathepsin B to stefin A.
 
Results showed that the ratios were not significantly different in tumors of black and white men, all of whom had Gleason score 6 or 7 tumors, indicating moderate risk. The average ratios were 1.78 in black men and 1.59 in white men for Gleason score 6 tumors, and 1.49 in black men and 1.35 in white men of Gleason score 7 tumors. All these ratios were higher than the average ratio in control tissue taken from men with benign prostatic hyperplasia, a common, noncancerous enlargement of the gland.
 
Sinha said that previous studies had found differences between black men compared to white men and men of other races in terms of prostate cancer incidence, death rate, tumor volume, age, Gleason score and PSA levels. But other factors, such as level of medical care, economic status, access to medical care and nutrition undoubtedly contributed to those differences.
 
"Our selection of patients, who received equal medical care at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center, minimized differences in prostate cancer of African-American and Caucasian patients," he said. "Furthermore, previous studies did not include [enzymes like cathepsin B] as a factor to distinguish between African-American and Caucasian men, and, therefore, did not provide clues as to the biological basis of invasiveness and progression of prostate cancer."
 
Sinha stressed that his results must be confirmed by more expansive studies. The work was supported by the Department of Defense, the National Cancer Institute and the Research Service of the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
 
 
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Growing Concerns
A parenting question-and-answer column with Dr. Martha Erickson of the University of Minnesota

Question: My husband and I are expecting our second child. We have been trying to prepare our 2-year-old son, but he is not interested at all when we try to bring up the subject of the new baby. Do you have any suggestions on how we can prepare our son or at least get him interested in talking about his new sibling?
  
Answer: You’re wise to be thinking ahead about helping your son get ready for this big change in his life and yours. But it’s not unusual for a 2-year-old to lack interest in something that isn’t in the here-and-now. By nature, children this age are focused on what they can see and touch right this minute. Nonetheless, there are ways you might tap into your son’s imagination by using play and stories to help him begin to anticipate the baby’s arrival and develop some of the behaviors he will need with the new baby.
 
•  Buy or borrow a baby doll if you don’t already own one and engage your son in pretend play, practicing together how to handle a new baby. Show him how you will feed, rock, change and bathe the baby -- and how your son can stay close to you while you do those things. Have him practice holding the baby, touching the baby softly, or offering the baby a soft toy. Tell him how proud you are of how gentle he is with the baby doll and remind him that pretty soon there will be a real baby for him to help with.
  
•  Show your son pictures of himself as a baby and tell him stories about the things you did with him back then. Communicate how much you loved him then and still love him now that he’s about to become a brother to a new baby.
 
•  Ask the children’s librarian at your public library to suggest some age-appropriate books about becoming a big brother. Since 2-year-olds often like the idea of being a “big boy,” emphasize your son’s transition to “big brother,” forecasting some of the things he’ll be able to do that a new baby can’t (for example, play outside or eat big-boy food).
 
•  As your due date approaches, tell your son clearly and simply what will happen when the new baby arrives.  Tell him who will take care of him when you go into labor, who will bring him to the hospital to see his new brother or sister and where the baby will sleep when you come home.
 
Know that no matter how much you try to prepare your son, there are bound to be moments of jealousy and, perhaps, a little regression to go along with it. It’s not unusual for toddlers to slip back to behaviors from when they were younger – wanting to drink from a bottle or be rocked to sleep, for example. And it’s fine to let big brother be a baby sometimes. But with lots of assurance that you have room in your heart for two, your son and you should adjust well to this new family constellation.
 
Dr. Erickson is a senior fellow and director of the Harris Programs in the Center for Early Childhood Education at the University of Minnesota
 
Want to hear more parenting advice?
Dr. Erickson and her daughter can be heard every Sunday, from 2 - 4 pm, on “Good Enough Moms,” on FM107.1 radio in the Twin Cities or via Webcast at www.FM1071.com