Bone mineral density-fracture risk
A commentary in the British Medical Journal that cites a meta-analysis by Deborah Marshall and colleagues highlights some of the problems with using bone mineral density measurements as the sole determinant for antiresorptive therapy. In the meta-analysis (British Medical Journal, 18 May 1996), the researchers analyzed eleven separate studies, published between 1985 and the end of 1994, which looked at bone mineral density measurements and their ability to predict fractures. The researchers also reviewed case control studies of hip fractures published between 1990 and 1994. After comparing the data, the researchers concluded: “Although bone mineral density measurements can predict fracture risk, they cannot identify individuals who will have a fracture, and a screening programme for osteoporosis cannot be recommended.”
In his BMJ Commentary, Professor Terence J. Wilkin (Plymouth Postgraduate Medical School, UK) questions the rising use of dual energy X-ray absorptiometry machines in the UK when bone density measurements “cannot identify individuals who will have a fracture.” He points out that recommendations for preventive treatment are based on the WHO’s definition of osteopenia that arbitrarily defines it as more than 1 standard deviation below the mean for premenopausal white women. Wilkin asserts that bone turnover, not bone density, should be the focus of antiresorptive treatment (hormone replacement and biphosphonate drugs). He says that the positive effect that these treatments have on preventing fracture cannot be attributed to the small gain in bone density that occurs. Since antiresorptive treatments work equally well in the elderly and the middle-aged, he suggests waiting until fractures are more likely to occur, ages 65-70, instead of starting treatment at menopause. He says that “frequency of impact, which rises exponentially with age, is the main risk factor for fracture.”
In response to Wilkin’s commentary, C. W. McGrother agrees that focusing on elderly people who show a specific risk is a good idea since antiresorptive treatments are expensive and have side effects. McGrother suggests using a fracture risk score based on factors such as bone mineral density, body sway, and muscle strength. Using these factors, T Nguyen and colleagues were able to identify “96% and 93% (sensitivities 88% and 81%) of men and women, respectively, who subsequently developed atraumatic fractures”.
DEVONSHIRE MINERAL COLLECTION of Chatsworth House: AN 18TH CENTURY SURVIVOR AND ITS RESTORATION
Assembled nearly 200 years ago, the mineral collection of one of English Society’s most remarkable woman has recently been reassembled and painstakingly restored to its original order. The collection, including additions made by her son, contains an impressive variety of classic 18th and 19th-century specimens, many of which carry fascinating stories now being revealed through historical research.
n 1992 the Russell Society celebrated its 20th anniversary. Since its creation from the mineralogical night classes of Bob King and Roger Harker, the society, named after that doyen of British mineral collectors Sir Arthur Russell (1878-1964), had risen to become the premier British society for the mineralogical amateur. The original Leicester-based society had spawned several semi-autonomous regional branches, each of which in turn would host the Annual General Meeting and Dinner weekend. On the 20th such occasion it was felt proper that the weekend be sponsored by the original Central Branch, and plans were made to keep the delegates happy. It is traditional for the host branch to arrange field trips to fruitful collecting sites but, these being few and far between in central England, and the majority of local members being well acquainted with those within easy distance, a novelty was sought that would stimulate wider interest. The weekend’s theme being “Collecting Minerals,” a visit to a local collection was in order, and visiting the mineral collection of the Duke of Devonshire at Chatsworth House was suggested by Franz Werner. No committee member had seen it, nor knew of its scope, but rumor had it that the collection was both extensive and historic. Past Dukes of Devonshire were well known as mine owners and supporters of the local mining and lapidary industries, and the present Duke was known to have purchased minerals at Sotheby’s auctions in the 1970’s.
Overtures were made to Chatsworth House and a positive, though guarded, response was quick to return. The author and society members Philip Jackson and Roy Starkey were sent to reconnoiter the collection and discuss the logistics of a mass visit. Phil arrived first; when we joined him he was holding a large prism of Russian aquamarine which he had just removed from a cardboard box of specimens, and he was looking, frankly, rather shell-shocked. We began opening a few more boxes. We were all astonished by what we found: first, another superb old-time Russian aquamarine crystal about 15 cm long, then a series of old Cornish specimens. A suite of superb Derbyshire galenas was to follow, along with many other local and foreign classics among a mass of rocks and ore samples. But our excitement was tempered with regret, as this was far from an organized collection. Specimens were stored in a basement cupboard in piles of cardboard boxes, others were jumbled in two late-18th-century glass-fronted cabinets on the floor above, and hundreds more filled a row of wall cases running the length of a nearby corridor (the “Cavendish Passage”). Decay and dilapidation were everywhere apparent. Dust and dirt and the ravages of pyrite disease had taken their toll; the bottoms of boxes were found-too late-to be home to loose number labels which could no longer be even tentatively assigned to the specimens from which they had fallen. Some pieces had labels held to them with perished rubber bands, notable mostly for their inaccuracy: one water-rolled galena pebble (probably from a Derbyshire cave deposit) was labeled “matlockite.” Specimens crumbled between our fingers, and brittle labels fell away as specimens were lifted from their yellowed newspaper wrapping.
Here was a fascinating and historic collection on the verge of extinction. Among Chatsworth’s wonderful heritage overall, a few rocks (no matter how exciting to us) had long been considered to be of little importance. One can hardly regard their lowly treatment as a failure of intent; it’s a matter of priorities. And yet despite the collection’s condition there was a feeling that it was somehow nearly all here, that little had actually been lost. Within the great house of Chatsworth little is ever actually thrown away-items may fade from view or pass from the memory of owners and staff, but somewhere they await eventual rediscovery. In a centuries-old house containing 175 rooms, 21 kitchens, 17 staircases and an infinity of nooks and crannies (see Duchess of Devonshire, 1982; 2002), there is plenty of space for a few rocks to hide.
The original catalogs of the collection, long unseen, had been rediscovered some years previously in an old box in the Estate Office and were produced for our inspection. The author’s name sprang from the title pages of these two volumes and an accompanying manuscript book inscribed Catalogue of the External Characters of Fossils. By White Watson F.L.S. Bakewell, Derbyshire. 1798. Watson was a pioneer of local geology, and a gifted lapidary; he was one of the most interesting figures in late 18th century Derbyshire geology. We were quickly able to match numbered specimens to entries in these 200-year-old handwritten volumes. Our excitement was palpable, and the receptive interest of Chatsworth staff in our enthusiasm was reassuring.
The Silver Vault at Chatsworth is home to two of the most remarkable pieces in the collection. From the outset, one of these two fine native silvers was obviously a fine silver wire from Kongsberg. It is over 25 cm long and curls like a plume of metallic smoke, still lustrous, from a mass of crystallized white calcite. The other is a thin sail-like triangular sheet of tarnished metal 19 cm high clasped at the base by a block of gray rock. This latter specimen, in common with a small group of other pieces we had put together during our initial arrangement, bore a label characteristic of those used by Henry Heuland: large paper squares with an off-center number in a bold hand. At the time we could go no further with this suspicion, but serendipity was to take us in hand. It had been our habit to use a photocopy of the original Watson catalogs on our working trips to Chatsworth House, but one day I neglected to bring them with me. Luckily, as it was a weekday trip, we were able to borrow the originals for the day, and while paging through one of them I discovered slipped in the back of one of them a previously un-noticed envelope entitled “old mineral labels.” Within were the brittle remains of a list written in French in Heuland’s characteristic hand. The list had been cut into strips, and parts had been lost, but enough remained to show it was a numbered description of ten specimens including two Kongsberg silvers, a Greenland tourmaline, a Saxony fluorite, a slab of rose quartz, and a German pyrargyrite. All of these pieces were instantly recognizable as those in the suspected Heuland suite! And all, with the exception of the silver wire, bore the same Heuland numbers as those on the list. The description of a silver wire on one fragment of paper left no doubt that here was the missing label for the second Silver Vault specimen: “Rameaux d’Argent natif d’un volume extraordinaire, supporté par une chaux carbonatée lamellaire; de la mine llsoë à Kongsberg en Norvège”-”A branch of native silver of an extraordinary size, supported by lamellar carbonate of lime . . .” Then deeply involved in writing a biography of Heuland (Cooper 2001), I was so excited by this discovery that I had to sit down to recover. This magnificent suite was dated by Heuland the 6th April 1820, and must have been a most costly purchase (though no prices are noted), but by whom? Presumably the 6th Duke, though we are yet to find confirmation of this. One day perhaps we will discover further evidence to explain both its existence at Chatsworth and the reason the labels were written in French!
As a result of the sale of his collection, some of Crichton’s specimens ended up in the collection of Isaac Walker (1794-1853) (Embrey, 1976; Embrey and Symes, 1987), which was later acquired by dealer James Gregory and sold piecemeal. F. N. A. Fleischmann purchased many of them and presented them to the BM(NH) along with a copy (perhaps Walker’s own) of the Crichton sale catalog. Other buyers included one Diana Maria Dondeswell (as noted in the part of the catalog of her collection in an annotated copy of Mawe’s A New descriptive catalogue of minerals … (1818) in the collection of Nick Carruth) and Sir George Tuthill (1722-1835), a graduate of the Freiberg Mining Academy. Tuthill’s large collection was bought by Francis Chantrey after Tuthill’s death. When Chantrey died a few years later, Heuland bought it from his widow and attempted to sell it entire to Prince Albert, but Queen Victoria intervened and prevented the purchase (Allingham, 1924). Heuland then sold it at auction, netting some 4 times the asking price for the whole collection. As a result, much of the collection then left the country. Many specimens ended up in Gerard Troost’s collection in America (Goldstein, 1984). Others appear to have been offered for sale in New York in 1846 “during the session of the American Naturalists the first week in September.” The specimens had been “purchased by a gentleman in London, long distinguished for his devotion to Mineralogy, by whom they were sent to a friend in this country” (Nick Carruth Collection). A further 250 specimens from the Crichton sale were acquired by the Leeds Literary and Philosophical Society, according to the Society’s Annual Report for 1826-27. One “Tourmaline on quartz with cleavelandite” from Catherineberg, Siberia was singled out for special mention. Some or all of these specimens may survive in Leeds Museum (Hancock et al., 1987), though only the tourmaline has been identified with certainty.
The Duke attended the Crichton sale, choosing the lots himself on the 4th and 7th of May (6th Duke’s diary for 1827, Chatsworth Archives). His choice may have been influenced by a fondness for things Russian, though it was not confined to Russian specimens. A manuscript list of the purchased lots survives at Chatsworth (see below). To identify them, the entries in the sale catalog were carefully cut out and pasted onto the specimens. Two weeks after the sale, on the 19th of May, Hart records a visit to Heuland, though no mention is made of further purchases.
By the mid-19th century the Devonshire mineral collections seem to have been long neglected. As early as 1844 the Duke comments in his Handbook: “All these minerals [i.e. his mother’s and his own] are in a disgraceful state of neglect and want of classification. Those collected by my Mother ought to be replaced in their former order, as they were in the days of White Watson of Bakewell, who in vain endeavored to hammer mineralogy into our youthful heads.” The present Dowager Duchess relates: “The cases of Georgiana’s minerals were [in the Mineral Room] when I first knew the house, and had to be passed when calling on Mr Thompson [the curator] in his lair. It was on one of these visits that Mr Thompson showed my sister Nancy the ‘diseased’ stones which had destroyed the paper they rested on and were beginning to eat into the wooden shelf. She was so struck by the idea of ill stones that she described them in one of her books.”
His passion for collecting was quick to surface, as was the almost genetic tendency for extending and refurbishing his remarkable portfolio of real estate: Chatsworth and the semi-derelict Lismore attracted much of this attention. Immediately after his succession he spent £50,000 on coins and medals, but soon tired of them, finding them insufficiently rewarding as collectibles. In 1844 he sold them at a huge loss for £7,056 to finance maintenance on his properties. He did, however, remain true to his love of books, though claiming that a lack of learning made him unworthy of his own collection. This too was a family trait: his father had been a great bibliophile and reader, Georgiana delighted in books, and her brother the 2nd Earl Spencer has been described as “the greatest collector of incunabula and early printed books who has ever lived” (Lees-Milne, 1991). Hart bought expansively at many of the greatest book sales of the 19th century. When he brought his books together at Chatsworth he found the existing library too small to accommodate them and had the 1st Duke’s Long Gallery gutted to take bookshelves, incidentally weakening the structure of the house through the injudicious modifications. This architectural disaster aside, the present library is a fine space and makes a lasting impression on today’s visitor, being opulent and grand, yet still attractively domestic. The Chatsworth Library now contains over 50,000 volumes.
In London in 1816 Hart met the Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia, destined to become the Tsar of All the Russias. The two young men struck up an immediate, deep and lasting friendship. The Duke invited Nicholas to Chatsworth and the invitation was immediately accepted. For a few days they toured, shot, and talked together into the night, enjoying a care-free relationship that was often to be recalled but never to be repeated as the constraints of state and status tightened around them both with the passing of the years. Nicholas returned to London, and the Duke followed his new friend in early 1817. They did the social round and dined together frequently. When Nicholas left England to return home to his bride-to-be, he invited Hart along. The two traveled separately, but met up often en route. Hart stayed for several weeks in St. Petersburg and was much struck by the beauty of the city. He dined with the Emperor Alexander I and was feted by the Russian nobility. After the royal wedding he traveled back to England via Italy and France and thence to Chatsworth. In 1818 he was setting to at Chatsworth with great determination. The architect Jeffry Wyatt (later Sir Jeffry Wyatville), fresh from his successes at Longleat, was called in, and together they planned a formidable extension to the house to accommodate Hart’s collections and his intentions for grand entertainments. Wyatt also compensated for the architectural failings of the library.
News from the Keweenaw: part 2: recent mineral finds in Michigan’s Copper Country: seventh in a series of articles on the mines and minerals of Michigan’s Copper Country
As the first article stated, the future looked bright for additional specimen recovery, and it has been. Four big finds were made in the Keweenaw, along with numerous smaller ones. The four most exciting were the discovery of (1) arborescent copper crystal groups cached at the Central mine town site, (2) copper crystals recovered from Lake Superior at the Gull Rock fissure vein, (3) hundreds of copper crystals from the Indiana mine, and (4) more than two hundred specimens of analcime/calcite crystal groups from the Rhode Island mine. This article describes these and other finds made from 1998 through the 2002 collecting season. The localities are arranged geographically, starting with Keweenaw Point and continuing in a southwestern direction to the White Pine mine at the southern end of the district.
he waters off Keweenaw Point have drawn much attention since the publication of the first “News from the Keweenaw” article that described the occurrence of yellow datolite at the bottom of Lake Superior. Many mineral-collectors-turned-scuba-divers, or vice versa, have worked the icy waters with mixed success. On a boat trip to the area in August 2000, I observed telltale air bubbles rising to the surface from the air tanks of at least five divers who were scouring the bottom of the lake for datolite nodules and agates–it resembled a frogmen scene in a World War II movie.
Bob Barron, an accomplished scuba diver and mineral collector, has had good success in locating and recovering datolite from the lake bottom. To date, he has discovered two areas between Keweenaw Point and Manitou Island where datolite occurs in fissure veins. The first is in 30 feet of water about 1,000 feet offshore from Keweenaw Point. Here, a narrow datolite vein in vesicular basalt, which has a strike of N. 45[degrees] W., split into several smaller veins and formed a zone about 18 inches wide and 10 feet long. Datolite nodules to 8 cm in diameter were recovered from this zone; they have a whitish-brown chalky rind, making them easy to spot in the water. Most of the nodules are fracture free and range in color from translucent mustard-yellow to olive-yellow. The other predominate color is a reddish-brown to orange-red. About seventy datolites of varying sizes have been found at this spot.
Closer to shore, and in only 10 feet of water, datolite nodules were discovered in August 2001 in a fissure vein that trends S. 75[degrees] E. and consists of quartz, calcite, and laumontite. The productive zone along the vein was 20-180 yards out into the lake. The color of most of the datolite from this vein is a dark red to maroon-brown, quite different from that in the zone previously described. Most of the datolites show a certain amount of fracturing, but this only enhances their overall beauty. The action of the lake water over thousands of years has formed a white altered zone around their rims and adjacent to both sides of the fractures. About thirty superb datolite nodules have been recovered from the vein so far.
Point prospect, located about 6 miles southeast of Copper Harbor, has produced some of the largest copper crystals found in the Copper Country (Rosemeyer and Carlson 2000). In summer and fall 2001 the locality was reworked by local collectors, and a number of coarsely crystalline copper specimens weighing up to 40 pounds were recovered from the south end of the trench on the fissure vein. A few of the copper pieces had vugs to 1 cm in diameter that contained beautiful reticulated groups of elongated microcrystals of dark red cuprite. Rumor has it that another vein in the general vicinity was discovered in summer 2001 and may have produced crystals similar to those found in the Point prospect vein.
Yes, there are thunder eggs in the Copper Country. The first mention of them was in 1955, when Cornwall, in his description of the bedrock geology of the Fort Wilkins quadrangle, noted the presence of lithophysae and spherulites in intrusive rhyolites in the Fish Cove area. He further stated that the lithophysae are lined with orthoclase and quartz, and the cavities are partially filled with calcite, quartz, and chlorite.
A more recent discovery of these thunder eggs was made by Ken and Jim Flood in June 1998 while exploring the south side of the Keweenaw Peninsula by boat. The thunder eggs were found at the east end of Fish Cove in shallow water along the shoreline where the intrusive rhyolite crops out. Collecting the thunder eggs–about one hundred in all–was done by scuba diving off the rhyolite outcrop. They range in size from 4 to 14 cm in diameter. Most all are water worn, distorted, and flattened, but a few are nearly round, and their surfaces show distinctive raised ribs that form polygons. Their interiors are filled with crystallized clear, smoky, and amethystine quartz and calcite. Only a small number of the thunder eggs show concentric agate banding.
In Memoriam - Jean Petermann Kemp Zimmerman, mineralogical museum curator, mineral collector Carl Krotki and gemologist Richard T. Liddicoat - Obituary
Jean Petermann Kemp Zimmer, the fourth curator of Michigan Technological University’s A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum, passed away on 29 December 2001. She was eighty-four years old. Much of the success and growth that the museum enjoys today is based on the strong foundation that Jean laid.
Jean was born on 24 December 1917 to Philip E. and Myrna (Moss) Petermann. Her family figures prominently in the history of Michigan’s Lake Superior copper district. Her grand-father, Col. John P. Petermann, served in the Spanish-American War and became a successful merchant, opening stores in Allouez, Gay, Kearsarge, Mohawk, and Phoenix. Her great uncle, Albert E. Petermann, was an attorney with, and later president of, the district’s largest mining company, the Calumet and Hecla. He served on the Michigan College of Mining and Technology’s (MCMT) Board of Control from 1927 to 1944.
Jean enrolled in MCMT in 1935 as one of a handful of female students in an approximately eight-hundred-man student body. She studied mineralogy and geology under Prof. Wyllys A. Seaman (son of museum founder A. E. Seaman) and Prof. Kiril Spiroff. She graduated with honors in 1939, with a bachelor of science degree in geology, and was awarded the Geology Key, the top departmental academic award. In 1940, she received her master’s degree in geology from the University of Michigan. She taught mineralogy in the MCMT Department of Geology from 1940 to 1943 but, more importantly for her career, assisted Spiroff in curating the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum collection. Jean then left the area, returning in 1967 to serve as Spiroff’s assistant and succeeding him as curator in 1975.
Jean’s curatorial style favored collection protection, preservation, and management. Although not a collection builder in the style of a Paul Desautels, she was the right person at the right time for the A. E. Seaman Mineral Museum. Almost single-handedly, she protected the museum collection during a vulnerable period in its history, ensuring that there would be a collection and museum to serve a future audience.
In 1972 Jean was confronted with the impending demolition of the museum’s existing home in the 1930s-vintage Hotchkiss Hall and the packing, storing, and reinstalling of a more than forty-thousand-specimen mineral collection in a more contemporary facility. Whenever an institutional mineral collection is taken off display and put into storage, it is most susceptible to intrusion and even elimination–”out of sight, out of mind.” Jean understood this and zealously kept the collection and its relevance in front of Michigan Tech administrators and planners.
She quickly organized and supervised a select team of student aides to pack the collection. Included were Marc L. Wilson, now head of the Section of Minerals of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and Dr. Theodore J. Bornhorst, Michigan Tech’s current chairman of the Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences. It is my understanding that few–if any–specimens were damaged during the packing process. The collection was stored in a basement room of the Michigan Tech Library from 1973 to 1976, and during that period Jean hand-catalogued well over twenty-five-thousand specimens, writing entries into bound ledgers with a triple-zero Rapidograph drafting pen.
As a break from cataloguing, Jean carved out time to design much of the planned museum facility, slated for the fifth floor of the “new” Electrical Energy Resources Center. She picked the interior colors, designed new exhibit cases that optimized specimen viewing and display, planned the display case arrangement and the exhibits that the cases would contain, and personally installed at least 50 percent of those displays. She made the first serious attempt in the museum’s history to create aesthetically pleasing displays, lightening the specimen density and grouping specimens to highlight color and texture.
Her natural preservation and collection management abilities didn’t impede Jean from acquiring specimens for the museum’s collection. Like most curators, she was thrilled to purchase fine specimens whenever funds were available, and she tried to keep up with what was current on the specimen market. I recall with nostalgia her excitement at acquiring in the 1970s one of the “new” Tsumeb dioptases from Prosper Williams at the Greater Detroit Gem and Mineral Show.
Jean thoroughly enjoyed attending the Detroit and Tucson Shows and basked in the camaraderie afforded by the mineralogical community. Some of her fondest career memories included participating in the first Mineral Museums Advisory Council meetings. She relished the company of mineral museum curators and was quite proud to be one. She took special delight in the panel discussions that included such luminaries as Paul Desautels, Clifford Frondel, Peter Embrey, and Joseph Mandarino.
Jean took a personal interest in the museum’s donors. She was a close friend of Hazel E. Robbe, who donated the George B. Robbe collection in the 1960s, and Joyce Burchenal, who purchased an assortment of fine specimens for the museum’s collection in the late 1970s and early 1980s. She cultivated museum visitors such as Prof. E. W. Heinrich and Donald C. Gabriel, and it was her courtesy and kindness that laid the groundwork for their major gifts to the museum.
Carl Krotki was born in Salt Lake City in 1914. Carl’s uncle, Max Krotki, owner of the Krotki Iron Mines, sparked the young Carl’s interest in minerals with pyrite crystals. Following the death of my grandfather in 1923, the family moved to New York City, where Carl attended James Monroe High School and met the great love of his life, my mother, Shirley, to whom he was married for sixty-one years until her death in September 2000. After earning a degree in accounting from the City College of New York and becoming a CPA, Carl served in the Navy during World War II. After the war, he earned a doctorate in jurisprudence from the Brooklyn Law School. In the late 1960s my father’s major client induced him to sell his accounting practice and become controller for Permag Corporation, a major manufacturer of permanent magnets that grew to have nine branches around the country. The strategic placement of Permag facilities made it possible for my father to be within striking distance of almost any mineral meeting in the country.
In the late 1950s, my brother Saul brought home rocks from a nearby highway dig and asked my father to identify them. That led to trips to the American Museum of Natural History, to the purchase of some field guides, to a lifelong hobby. In 1958 Carl joined the New York Mineralogical Club and was elected its treasurer, an office he held for more than fifteen years. He was also the president of the New York Gem and Lapidary Society.
Eventually, my father’s interest in minerals took a new turn: He became interested in antique books on minerals and gems, especially those with colored plates, in this field his mentor was his, beloved friend Neal Yedlin. My father was an eager pupil–he read about books, spent hours in the New York Public Library and in Neal’s library, and studied auction catalogs from all over Europe and the Americas, taking meticulous notes. It became commonplace for him to come home dirty, not with the mud of a quarry but with the dust of an old book barn. In bookstores around New York he was known as Mr. Mineral. By the mid-1970s my father’s library was acclaimed one of the four or five most complete assemblages in the country. Interested in sharing historical mineralogical data, he developed several slide shows on mineralogical literature and gave talks at federation shows and at local club meetings along the eastern seaboard from Boston to Washington. A great storyteller with a ready smile and a wonderful sense of humor, Dad was a real audience pleaser. The Carl Krotki Library of Gemology and Minerology, consisting of more than fifteen hundred volumes, was auctioned at the Swann Galleries in New York on 8 December 1994. It was the largest private mineral library ever to come up for sale, attracting bidders from around the world.
My father passed away on 17 July 2002 in his apartment in New York City. I am struck now remembering the good times the mineral collectors had whenever they got together. United by a common love, they explored and continuously found new aspects of the mineral world to keep them fascinated. Their passion transcended religion, politics, and the economy. The world of mineralogy enriched my father’s life in many ways but most especially in giving him the two most important friendships of his life: those of Neal Yedlin and Edge Goldstein, men he loved more than brothers, and, in closing this remembrance of my father, I remember them too.
Asbestos - From Miracle Mineral To Mesothelioma Menace
During World War II Asbestos was hailed by many as a miracle mineral. Almost anything could be built or manufactured from this mineral. The building and construction industries used it as an additive to strengthen cement and plastics. Asbestos fibers can be separated into thin threads which do not conduct electricity and are not affected by heat or chemicals.
The four main types of asbestos are: Amosite with brown fibers, Anthophyllite with gray fibers, white Christie, and blue Crocidolite. Chrysotile has curly fibers while the other three have rod like fibers. These fibers break into dust quite easily and drift in the air. They can stick on skin, clothing, and can easily be swallowed or inhaled.
Use of asbestos skyrocketed during World War II. Shipbuilding used asbestos extensively in freighters and support vessels to insulate boilers, steam pipes and hot water pipes. Asbestos became the miracle construction material as it was easily obtained, processed, and transported.
After WWII cars used asbestos in break shoes and clutch pads. Asbestos found its way into residential and industrial building materials, water supply, sewage materials, ceiling and floor tiles, and vermiculite garden materials to name a few products.
In the 1970’s the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission banned the use of asbestos in several products that could release asbestos fibers into the environment during use, following the discoveries of the health dangers of asbestos dust inhalation. Regulations governing the use of asbestos and concern of public opinion since 1970 have created a significant drop in the use of asbestos in the United States.
In 1989 all new uses of asbestos were banned by the Environmental Protection Agency while any old uses before that year were still permitted. The EPA suggested that schools inspect for damaged asbestos and eliminate any exposure or enclose it in protective barriers. Vermiculite, widely used in horticulture, became a concern of the EPA that recommended outdoor use, limiting the amount of dust used, and keeping vermiculite damp.
Asbestos may create serious health hazards such as coughing, lung damage, shortness of breath, and lung cancer. Most people do not become sick in the early stages of development, but usually need continued exposure, often on jobs such as mining, milling, manufacturing asbestos products, and building construction. Firemen, demolition workers, drywall removers, and any other workers in trades that involve destruction of buildings, ships, and automobiles are also exposed to the hazards and risks of asbestos.
Over a period of years continual exposure to asbestos can cause very serious health problems, such as mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare type of carcinoma of the membrane that lines numerous cavities of the body, including the lungs, abdomen and heart, and has been associated with exposure to asbestos dust. In mesothelioma, the cells of the mesothelioma metastasize and damage adjacent organs and tissues.
Risk of developing mesothelioma takes a long period of time, often as long as twenty-five or thirty-five years before full blown symptoms appear. Not all workers who have been exposed will develop diseases caused by asbestos, but workers who have been exposed to it may bring fibers on their clothing, hair, shoes, and skin home to their families. To circumvent this risk, most industries require workers to bathe and change their clothing before they leave work.
Many studies have been conducted involving the risks of diseases caused by exposure to asbestos. The results of one such study involving the risks of smoking and exposure to asbestos proved extremely hazardous.
Sulfur - Acne Treatment and Beauty Mineral
Sulfur is a mineral often found near hot springs and volcanic craters. The rotten egg smell of sulfur is due to sulfur dioxide gas escaping into the air. A form of sulfur can be found in a variety of high protein foods such as meats, poultry, fish and eggs as well as garlic, onions, brussels sprouts, kale wheat germ, and asparagus.
Roughly 0.25 percent of our body contains sulfur. It is most prevalent in keratin which fortifies your nails, skin and hair. It is necessary in the body’s production of collagen which gives your skin elasticity and a youthful glow. Because is plays such a significant role in our appearance it is considered a “beauty mineral”.
The virtues of sulfur have been touted for thousands of years. The Romans enjoyed the benefits of sulfuric waters and soaked in them to provide pain relief, and anti-aging benefits. Today, sulfur is used as a primary ingredient in many topical skin ointments to treat a variety of conditions including psoriasis, eczema, folliculitis and acne.
Acne occurs when the body begins to over produce both oil and cells located within the sebaceous follicles. Overproduction leads to clogging, and clogging encourages bacteria growth which then creates inflammation. Sulfur is a keratolytic agent. This simply means that sulfur encourages the shedding of dead skin cells. In doing so, the sulfur based treatment lessens the acne symptoms. It is also believed that the compounds found within sulfur retard the growth of bacteria by reducing the production of acid they require in order to flourish.
There are a variety of sulfur based acne products such a topical ointments and sulfur soaps which can be used to treat acne. Dead Sea salts are also very high in sulfur and therefore are an excellent option when treating body acne. In addition, a soak in Dead Sea salts can provide the substantial benefit of sulfur as well as 21 other essential minerals, without the potent smell of sulfur. And because sulfur is an effective treatment of numerous skin conditions, as well as being an anti-aging mineral, those who use it come to find its effects to be exponential.
Garnet Mineral Information
The history of Garnet dates back to the Bronze Age (more than 5000 years ago), when it was a very popular gemstone. Garnet is a family of minerals having similar physical and crystalline properties. Garnet is found in a wide variety of metamorphic rocks and in some igneous rocks. Garnet is one of the most common nesosilicates but it has a complex structure. The formula for garnet is (Mg, Fe, Ca or Mn) with Al2Si3O12. Garnet is a very commonly found in gneiss and mica slate. Garnet is a very abundant gem and can easily be found in many places around the world. The garnet crystallizes in rhombic dodecahedrons and trapezohedrons. Garnet is a natural abrasive that is still commonly used in woodworking. The name garnet is derived from the Greek word “granatum” or pomegranate seed. One of the oldest gemstones in history, garnet is the birthstone of January.
Garnet is a beautiful stone that comes in quite the range of colors. One popular garnet is chrome pyrope, whose color rivals ruby. Pyrope garnet is the familiar deep red garnet. Garnet is also found in colors ranging from green to orange to brown and black. Almandine garnet is the traditional Indian garnet, which is very dark purplish red. Andradite garnet is usually black and of no interest to the gem trade, but one variety called “Demantoid” is a lively green. The yellowish-green color or the Val Malenco garnet is typical of Fe3+. One of the most sought after varieties of gem garnet are the fine green grossular garnet from Kenya and Tanzania called tsavorite. Mozambique rhodolite garnet is an elite garnet that cuts a bright red with fiery flashes. Hessonite Garnet is a genuine garnet, but with the brown-red or orange color. Malaya Garnet is usually found between Kenya and Tanzania, especially around the Umba valley region that is well known for its buried treasures. Mandarin Garnet is an extreme rarity of the spessartine family.
Almandine is the most common garnet, and the most widely used garnet gem. Almandine, Fe3Al2(SiO4)3 (Iron Aluminum Silicate), is a mineral from the garnet family of tetrahedral silicates. Almandine garnet is a smooth, transparent, rich red stone that owes its color to the presence of iron. Connecticut is one of the finest sources in the world of the almandine garnet, named the state mineral by the 1977 General Assembly. While Almandine Garnets (also known as “Almandite”) are the most common variety of Garnets, those displaying the star are not at all common. Most almandine garnets are mined in India and Brazil. Iron-rich almandine is widespread in metamorphic rocks such as schists and gneisses and in granitic igneous rocks.
Pyrope is the only garnet that is always a shade of red. Pure pyrope is extremely rare and would be colorless (it is allochromatic); most red gem garnet called pyrope contains an appreciable almandine component. This pyrope is one of the so- called “indicator minerals” prized when prospecting for diamonds. Pyrope is commonly purplish red, orange red, crimson, or dark red; and almandine is deep red, brownish red, brownish black or violet-red. It was the Pyrope Garnet that figured in the ancient Talmudic legend, which held that the only light in Noah’s Ark was supplied by an enormous red garnet. The Czech Republic is one of the few places where the Pyrope variety of garnet is found.
We Are Facing A Real Vitamin And Mineral Shortage
The shortage of vitamins and minerals is a real health crisis that is growing at an alarming rate. People on low carb diets especially and other weight loss diets are at a particularly high risk.
As a result of this vitamin and mineral shortage nutritionally driven chronic diseases have reached epidemic proportions. It is estimated that about 95% of people over 40 will suffer from one or more chronic diseases by retirement age. A few of these diseases are cancer, heart disease, diabetes, and dementia and vision loss.
It has been for many, many years the medical community did not believe there is a real vitamin and mineral shortage. They called those who did believe “nutrition fanatics.” These so-called “nutrition fanatics” believe the importance of vitamins and minerals are the basics for vital health.
Much to the surprise of many, in the June 19, 2002 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association it was announced: “suboptimal intake of vitamins should be seen as a risk factor for chronic disease.” This was said to be especially true for the elderly.
This statement reveals to us that today our food contains much less nutrition while our needs for vitamins and minerals are much greater than ever before in human history.
• Plants are the sole source of all vitamins and minerals for every living creature.
• Plants create body-ready vitamins and minerals from nutrients in the soil. Rich soil is the foundation for packing plants with vitamins and minerals. Vegetables grown in poor soil will have far lower levels of vitamins and minerals.
• Soil is becoming sand – depleting at a very rapid rate. Commercial farming started to expand as the ability to transport the produce to new markets increased with the use of trains and trucks. This was great progress for the consumer. Now consumers did not have to grow their own vegetables. They could enjoy fresh produce out of season or fresh produce they could not grow in their own area. However, as commercial growers keep using the same fields year after year, the soils keep losing their rich nutrients. As soils deplete, vitamins and mineral content of the vegetables grown also deplete. Chemical companies now provide chemicals that will force the plants to grow in poor soil.
• The chemicals cause a couple of problems. The vegetables look great but contain far less vitamins and minerals than when grown in the poor soil. They also absorb some of these chemicals. Now our bodies need more vitamins to deactivate these toxins.
Genetic engineers have created vegetables that are more disease resistant, that grow faster, are more visually attractive, and are easier to harvest. A new tomato was developed for growers primarily to take a 5-mile-per-hour impact from the faster picking machines. Nothing is being done to increase the nutrient levels of the plants or to enrich the soil.
Some vegetables and most fruits you buy in the store are picked before they are ripe. They are often chemically treated so they ripen on the way to the grocery shelf. This gives the produce a lot longer shelf life and less waste. Produce picked at its ripe peak contains maximum nutrients, but spoil quickly. Vine ripened, fresh produce can be quite unprofitable for the grower and grocer.
In addition, consider the higher levels of air and water pollution, lower oxygen levels in the air we breath, and our fast paced, fast food societies of today. You can easily see our bodies need more protection than ever before.
What can we do about this?
1. Make fresh, whole fruits, vegetables, and grains a larger part of your daily diet. These are the best quality vitamins and minerals you can buy. Eat them raw, uncooked as much as possible. If you do cook them, cook slowly at low heat to keep the nutrients at the highest possible levels. The less processing the better. Most people do not eat the minimum recommended amounts, yet we all need much more than ever before. 2. Look for organically grown produce at your grocery or health food store. Generally organic produce will contain much higher levels of nutrients without the chemicals. 3. Grow some of your own produce in a yard garden, patio pots or inside your home in window pots. It is very easy, can be decorative and puts oxygen in the air. The taste and nutrition is tons better than what you can buy in the store. 4. No matter how perfect we try to eat, we still need to invest in a good vitamin supplement daily. Even nutrition experts who know exactly how to eat an “ideal” diet, take vitamin supplements. 5. You can find good quality vitamin supplements at most reputable vitamin or health food stores. Buy online for the best price and selection of high quality vitamin supplements.
By following these few simple tips we may be able to retain good health right on into retirement age. If we don’t have good health at retirement, nothing else matters a whole lot. At the very least, everyone should invest in a high quality daily supplement. In spite of the “real” vitamin and mineral shortage those who choose to do something about it personally can survive.
Are Vitamin And Mineral Supplements Necessary For Your Pregnant Dog?
Are vitamin and mineral supplements that necessary for your pregnant dog? Yes. Besides a balanced and healthy diet, pregnant dogs that are into their fourth week of pregnancy need more vitamins and minerals in their system. Also, a balanced di-calcium phosphate may be needed to be added into their diet as well.
“Where should I purchase these dog supplements?”
Di-calcium phosphate tablets and vitamin/mineral supplements can be obtained from most veterinarians or animal hospitals, and even some grocery stores. Health food stores are common to carry these types of animal supplements as well, so you should not have too many problems trying to locate some for your dog.
“What forms do these prenatal supplements come in?”
Just like what is supplied for humans, vitamins and minerals for prenatal dogs are sold in both powder and tablet forms. A lot of dog owners get bothered over choosing the right kind of supplements for their dogs, but it is an individual choice for you and your dog. Regardless if its form, the quality of both types of supplements is the same.
“How do I know what dosage of supplement to administer to my pregnant dog?”
You will find the correct supplement for your dog by looking at the labels of the supplements. The correct supplement for your pregnant dog will be stated clearly, and there are supplements for matrons as well as puppies. It is very important that you realize that prenatal dog supplements have gone through lab testing before they are approved to be marketed and sold in stores. There will also be specific instructions on the labels on how to give the supplements to your dog regarding the dosages or stages of pregnancy.
Your dog may not be used to swallowing tablets, or the tablet may be too big for a dog its size. What you can do is crush the tablet up into powder form and then putting it into your dog’s food for it to consume. If your dog has no problems with swallowing tablets, like my Chihuahua for instance, who swallows tablets easily when I place it at the back of his throat, you may want to choose that. But powder form supplements is also a good choice if that is what your dog is better at ingesting. See below for more
Calcium - The Essential Mineral
Calcium is absolutely essential to everyday health. Not only is it important in bone strength, but it plays an important role in blood pressure control, nerve function, and blood clotting. The problem is however, most of us do not get enough of it. An average adult women needs twelve to fifteen hundred milligrams of calcium a day. The average man only needs twelve hundred.
The best sources of calcium are and always have been dairy products - everything from milk and yogurt to cheese. Smaller amounts of calcium can be found in foods like broccoli, oranges, and salmon. There is a such thing as too much calcium though. If you take in too much calcium in a day it can interfere with the absorption of iron and zinc. These are two things that are of short supply in the American diet already.
By monitoring your diet, you can determine how much calcium you may need to supplement. Two basic calcium supplements are calcium citrate and calcium carbonate. Calcium carbonate is the most popular supplemental form, it is the cheapest, and you don’t have to take as much of it to get the same amount as you would calcium citrate. If you choose to use a supplement however, it is important that it contains vitamin D as calcium needs vitamin D to be absorbed into the body.
Calcium is now being said to be the key ingredient to losing weight according to recent research. It not only helps with hypertension, it also supports healthy physiology in a way that helps lose excess body fat. There is a major misconception because some feel that if calcium helps lose weight then drinking more cows’ milk and eating cheese pizza is the way to go. That approach to getting your calcium is just horrible thinking. Cows’ milk is associated with all sorts of medical disorders such as asthma and constipation. And just like cheese, it is filled with all kinds of fat. There are far better sources of calcium to help with weight loss. This comes in the form of nutritional supplements. Coral calcium supplements are very good for getting your daily calcium intake without all the fat. Plants like broccoli are filled with the exact form of calcium the body desires. Quinoa is a grain and also contains the calcium needed as well as protein.
Even if you’re not trying to lose weight however, you need calcium. Please don’t fall into that misleading custom and think calcium means milk because that is the last place you want to look. It is actually a marketing myth promoted by the dairy industry. Calcium supplements are far better for you, and plant based calcium such as broccoli is even better. You should work to get calcium from whole foods, vegetables and grains. To keep this calcium you have worked so hard to take in, you should never ever drink soft drinks as they have been proven to strip the calcium right off of the bones in the body.