3B
LIFE/^e Charlotte
Thursday, August 3, 2006
Risks of childhood asthma
Continued from page 1B
and seek or provide appropri
ate medical treatment.'
What can you do to help?
Children with mild asthma
should use relief medication
as needed. These inhaled
medications are used only
when the child is having an
asthma attack. Children with
more severe asthma need to
take medicine on a daily basis
to PREVENT asthma
attadcs. If your child has a
severe asthma attack, it is
crucial to obtain a prompt
medical evaluation. A severe
asthma attack ,may require
hospitalization, oxygen thera
py , and intravenous medica
tions to reverse. Making sure
that your child sees a pedia
trician regularly is important
in decreasing the need for
emergency care.
Families play a vital role in
the control of asthma by help
ing get rid of the indoor trig
gers that may prompt
attacks. The single most
important thing a family can
do to help a child with asthma
is to eliminate tobacco smoke
from the home. J. Persons
PHOTO/WAKE FORREST UNIVERSITY
who smoke outside of the
home can even bring in resid
ual smoke on their clothes
and in their hair.
Maintaining low levels of
humidity in the home can
reduce growth of organisms
such as molds. Exposure to
household pests ' can be
reduced by maintaining a
clean home environment and
bedding can be covered with
“allergy proof’ (hypoaller
genic) casings to reduce expo
sure to dust mites. Using
imscented detergents and
cleaning agents may also
reduce the risk of asthma
exacerbations-
\fruses, like colds and the
flu, are a very common asth-
.ma triggers. If your child has
asthma, MA!
Remember: Knowledge is
power, but it’s what you do
with it that makes all the dif-
ference.
Contribution by Shark Barking,
MD. .
For more information about the
Maya Angelo Research Center on
Minority Health, visit our website
at www.wJubmc.edu/mmority-
health. Or, for health information
call(336)7}3-7578.
New Orleans is now seeking tourists
Continued from page 2B
American Library
Association brought 18,000
delegates to town and gar
nered rave reviews fix)m par
ticipants. However, the next
big meeting is not slated imtil
thefaU-
Frommer’s recently pub
lished what it claims is the
first comprehensive guide to
the city since Katrina. Mary
Herczog, author of “Portable
New Orleans,” said that for
the av^age tourist interested
in areas such as the French
Quarter, Central Business
District and Garden District,
little has changed as a result
of Katrina.
In the book, she also recom
mends Christmas as an ideal
but ov^looked time to visit
the city noting the mild
weather; holiday displays like
“Celebration in the Oaks,”
when lights flluminate Qty
Park; and a grand New Year’s
Eve party that includes a
countdown in Jackson
Square.
Prom havmted house tours
and vampire balls to the
Voodoo music festival (Oct.
28-29), even Halloween is a
draw for tourists to this dty
and its historic cemeteries. In
southern Louisiana, October
is also one of the driest
months of the year with mod
erate temperatures.
“The message I’m getting
from businesses over and over
is we need the tourists,” said
Herczog, a Cahfomia resident
who keeps a home in New
Orleans. "They want to feed
them, they want to sell them
stuff, they want to tell them
stories. The future of the dty
hinges on that more than any
thing else.”
Currraitly tiie New Orleans
metropolitan market has just
under 28,000 hotel rooms —
10,000 shy of the pre-Katrina
total- About 1,150 are expect
ed to return in the fall with
the opening of a hotel at the
downtown casino and the
reopenir^ of the Ritz Carlton
and Iberville Suites hotels.
Gray said.
“We’re poised and ready to
go,” Gray said "We just need
to show people we can accom
modate all kinds and sizes of
groups.”
Although many restaurants
have not reopened, virtually
aU the “name” eateries that
tourists flock to in the French
Quarter and Garden District
are up and running, said Tbm
Weatherly of the Loiiisiana
Restaurant Assodation. They
indude Amaud’s, Antoine’s,
Brennan’s and Bayona.
The business of hosting
major sporting events—a key
to future tourism—has been
redeveloped quickly
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Charlotte
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Book steers kids away
from fast-food eating
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
“Chew on This: Everything You
Don’t Want To Know About Fast
Food." By Eric Schlosser and
Charles Wilson. Houghton
Mifflin. 304 Pages. $16.
Did you know that the meat
in one hamburger might have
come finm hundreds or even
thousands of cows?
That one can of Coke con
tains more than 10 teaspoons
of sugar?
Or that Chicken
McNi^gets have more fat per
oimce than a hambiuger?
These and other interesting
— and disturbing — facts are
revealed in “Chew on This,”
The book by investigative
journalist Eric Schlosser is
similar to his heat-selling and
eye-opening “Fast Food
Nation” (2001) but is aimed
at readers 11 and older.
He and co-author Charles
Wilson provide an overview of
the history, development and
' state of fast food today
Readers learn about the
industry’s effect on our com
munities, our health and the
environment, and it’s not
pretty
“Chew on This” is a power
ful and fascinating expose of
the industry that explores the
rising obesity rates and
health problems associated
with fast food, as well as the
unsanitary environmentally
damaging and cruel practices
used in its production.
The book will appeal to chil
dren’s natural curiosity (and
their fondness for being
grossed-out) by taking them
through the raising and
slau^toing of animals des
tined to become fast food.
Kids also learn, about the
potential health conse
quences of eating the stuff
through a pictorial tour of the
human body that shows the
damaging effects a high-fat,
high-sugar diet has on the
brain, heart, kidneys, hver
and spine.
With their innate sense of
justice and fair play stiU
intact, kids should be out
raged to learn about the
treatment of workers in fast-
food restaurants, the buUying
tactics used on. farmers and
ranchers, the horrifying con
ditions endured by slaughter
house workers and the sense
lessly cruel treatment of ani-
mals-
“Chew on This” is interest
ing, informative and even
galvanizing, but it’s also very
saddenir^. By learning how
the fast-food industry works,
we get a glimpse of what we
have lost — family farms and
randies, natural food and a
connection to the food we eat.
The fast-food industry has
almost done away with the
family farm and ranch. As
Schosser tells it, con^omer-
ates control almost every
aspect of the raising and pric
ing of cattle and chickens to
the detriment of the environ
ment and our health, as well
as to the hveHhood of farmers
and ranchers.
He makes the strai^tfor-
ward case that fast food has
contributed to the homoge
nization of our communities-
Ray Kroc, the genius behind
McDonald’s, was obsessed
with making sure that every
fi'oidi fry and every ham
burger was the same from
one McDonald’s to another.
. This sameness has now
migrated to our towns, where
highways fix>m coast to coast
are repetitive stretches
adorned by the same familiar
group of fast-food logos.
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