Word: tampon
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...relief early last month by heading for the area's public beaches. What many found, to their horror and dismay, was an assault on the eyes, the nose and the stomach. From northern New Jersey to Long Island, incoming tides washed up a nauseating array of waste, including plastic tampon applicators and balls of sewage 2 in. thick. Even more alarming was the drug paraphernalia and medical debris that began to litter the beaches: crack vials, needles and syringes, prescription bottles, stained bandages and containers of surgical sutures. There were also dozens of vials of blood, three of which tested...
...caused by a toxin-producing strain of the common bacterium, Staphylococcus aureus, carried benignly in the respiratory and genital tracts of perhaps one out of three people. Under certain conditions -- a wound, some infections, the presence of a tampon or contraceptive sponge -- the bacteria multiply. If the toxin-producing strain is present, such proliferation can lead to TSS. The symptoms are dramatic and develop quickly: high fever, a sunburn-like rash, severe vomiting and diarrhea, culminating in shock, in which blood pressure plummets and circulation deteriorates. Doctors usually try to head off this life-threatening condition by administering intravenous fluids...
...tons. Boaters and beachgoers add to the marine litter with six-pack yokes, picnic utensils, sandwich bags and Styrofoam cups. Cities and industries discharging waste directly into the water or dumping it at sea are also to blame. On some East Coast beaches near sewage outlets, so many plastic tampon inserters have washed ashore that residents refer to them as "beach whistles...
...speed, progressing in a matter of hours from fever and dizziness to a strange, sunburn-like rash and a drop in blood pressure so severe that the victim might go into shock. For about 4% of patients, TSS proved fatal. Scientists quickly linked the disease to the use of tampons, particularly the "superabsorbent" variety, but the reasons for the tampon connection remained obscure. Last week a team of Harvard scientists finally offered an explanation...
...caused by a toxin produced by a common and usually harmless bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus. In laboratory studies, the Harvard team, led by Infectious Disease Specialist Edward Kass, found that the bacterium produces up to 20 times as much toxin as usual in the presence of certain tampon fibers. Kass's group discovered that the fibers -- polyester foam and polyacrylate rayon -- soak up large amounts of magnesium, which is normally present in vaginal tissue and fluid. When the magnesium is removed from the bacterium's environment, the bug responds by churning out great quantities of the deadly toxin...