NEWS FROM THE UAE
SOURCE : THE NATIONAL
Hundreds accidentally poisoned each year
ABU DHABI - MAY 10: Hundreds of people, many of them children, are accidentally poisoned every year, often by common household or workplace products, according to doctors at the Poison and Drug Information Centre (PDIC) in the capital.
The centre has responded by launching a study into the labelling and toxicity of household products sold in the country and will keep its poisoning emergency helpline, which received more than 900 calls last year, open round the clock.
“We have products coming in from all over the world,” said Dr Yasser Sharif, the head of the medication and medical product safety section at Health Authority–Abu Dhabi (HAAD). “The labels are sometimes in different languages and do not include all the relevant information. This is something we need to change.”
There are no national labelling standards for these products.
“There is demand in any part of the world for this type of service but I think there is more here,” Dr Sharif said.
The PDIC has already completed a study on over-the-counter cough and cold medications and forwarded its recommendations for changes and improvements to the Ministry of Health. It found that many of the products lacked basic information, such as whether they were unsuitable for children, pregnant women, nursing mothers or patients with pre-existing conditions, and did not carry “keep out of reach of children” warnings.
Dr Sharif said the centre was now conducting a similar study on household products, mainly cleaning agents.
It had collected samples of almost 100 branded and unbranded cleaning products from the shelves of both major supermarkets and smaller shops.
The PDIC will examine the toxicity of key ingredients of each product to create a referral database to help doctors treat cases of ingestion. It will also develop guidelines for packaging, first-aid advice and child safety measures and forward these to all the relevant bodies, including the municipalities and Ministry of Health.
Dr Sharif said many of the calls received by the centre’s helpline were from parents of children who had swallowed a household product.
“A parent may contact us if their child has ingested a household cleaning product,” he said.
“We will ask them questions relating to the child’s weight, age, and of course the substance. This allows us to establish how serious the poisoning is.”
Based on this information the team will guide the parents to their nearest hospital when necessary and alert the hospital. The PDIC will then make follow-up calls until the patient is discharged.
Dr Sharif said that up to 70 per cent of the poisoning cases could be managed over the phone, but that a number of them could be very serious or even fatal.
“There have been cases where somebody has not sought help in time,” he said. “We have dealt with serious, life-threatening cases. An allergic reaction to an insect bite can be deadly, as can a child ingesting cleaning products.”
The helpline, which was set up in 2005 and operates between 7am and 3pm daily, is manned by trained pharmacists and one physician, a clinical toxicologist. It offers advice on treatment of medication overdoses, exposure to chemical spills or industrial chemicals, poisoning by household products, alcohol or drug overdoses, and bites and stings.
It also receives calls from health professionals seeking advice on how to manage accidental overdoses and attempted suicides, as well as chemical poisoning.
As well as dealing with individuals, the hotline takes calls relating to industrial exposure, mainly because of the volume of industry in the UAE.
“We deal with occupational exposure, and part of that is industry and construction,” Dr Sharif explained. “We have refineries, pipelines, dust, glues and a lot of different chemicals. All of the labour community are exposed to these, and so are members of the public who may live near a building site. These are all potential hazards.”
In 2008, the centre’s helpline received 931 phone calls, 351 from members of the public.
PDIC records show that patients managed by the centre’s staff spend less time in hospital, on average, freeing up emergency beds.
Dr Joseph Manna, head of the emergency department at Tawam Hospital in Al Ain, said poisoning cases were common.
“We do see cases of poisonings, all the time,” he said. “The most common is children ingesting cleaning products, or taking medication meant for adults. A lot of medicines are not in childproof bottles so children grab them.”
He said poisoning was also common in adults and recalled a recent case of a man who accidentally overdosed on Panadol to cure a headache. “He kept taking it until he became sick and had to come to the hospital. It is not uncommon. This is why the helpline is so helpful. It is an enormous help to emergency room physicians – not how to treat the patient but to avoid cases coming in which do not need any hospital treatment.”
Dr Abdulla Hassen, manager of the HAAD’s pharmacy medicine department, which the PDIC operates under, said the poisoning hotline was an “asset” to the emirate’s health services.
“It provides a great reassurance to healthcare professionals who may not have the knowledge of how to manage a poisoning,” he said. “But also to members of the public, especially parents, who know there is a dedicated centre to call for help and education.”
The toll-free hotline number is 800424.
Bollywood box-office row benefits US blockbusters
DUBAI - MAY 10: American blockbusters profited at the weekend from the dispute between Indian film producers and cinema chains that has kept new Bollywood releases off UAE screens for more than a month.
A meeting between producers and the association of multiplex owners in Mumbai last week failed to resolve their disagreement over their share of box office takings.
The producers are demanding 50 per cent, while the multiplex owners insist the share should depend on the performance of the film.
Under existing arrangements, the multiplexes take 52 to 55 per cent of the share in the first week of a film’s release, rising to as much as 60 per cent in the following weeks. Leading actors including Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have stepped in to support the producers but without success.
With no new releases, the once-flourishing multiplexes in India as well as big international markets such as the UAE are feeling the effect. Experts say that the industry and those associated with it stand to lose “huge” sums. The last Bollywood film release in the UAE was 8x10 Tasveer on April 2.
Hollywood is the winner in all this, with the row swelling the audiences for several new blockbuster releases, including Star Trek, the 11th film in the cult science fiction series, the Nicolas Cage vehicle Knowing and Woody Allen’s Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine, released at the end of April, has also picked up frustrated Bollywood fans.
Indian film has a major presence in the UAE, given the country’s large expatriate Asian presence, but the movies are popular with Arabs and other communities too, and most open to packed houses.
Several have had grand premières in Dubai even before their releases in India, among the most recent being Jodha Akbar and Delhi-6. Last year Yash Raj Films, a leading filmmaker, entered into an agreement with Dubai Infinity Holding to build an entertainment district in the city themed around films made by the production house.
Mohammed Hanif Khatri, general manager of Al Mansoor Video, a film distributor in the UAE who works with several leading cinemas, said: “We hear that the meeting of the two parties has not been successful. The future course is uncertain and no one knows how this will be resolved. However, there have been no releases and nothing is expected over the next few weeks.”
He added that the sole expected release for the month, a comedy called 99, now looked unlikely to be shown. Among big-budget titles awaiting release are Kamkbakth Ishq, which marks the Hollywood star Sylvester Stallone’s debut in Indian cinema, and the Yash Johar production New York.
Theatres showing only Hindi cinema have been the worst hit and their attempts to rerun earlier releases have failed. Shah Rukh Khan’s box-office success Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi was shown in several cinemas in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but drew very small audiences despite the “Khan factor”.
“It was a good movie but it is impossible to see it the second time. I would not dare walk into that theatre again,” joked Anandita Das at Lamcy Cinema in Dubai.
Another Khan film, Don, which was released last year, also surfaced in cinemas in Abu Dhabi. Old films of other leading actors, such as Aamir Khan’s Ghajini and Farhan Akhtar’s Rock On, were also screened, most in largely empty houses.
Bollywood producers are now talking about releasing films in single-screen theatres across India and ignoring the multiplexes.
BBC brings Top Gear to Abu Dhabi
ABU DHABI - MAY 10: One of the well-known stars of the British television motoring show Top Gear dropped into the capital at the weekend to film part of an episode for the BBC1 series.
Richard Hammond spent three days touring the emirate behind the wheel of some of the world’s most spectacular cars.
The cast and crew filmed a Mercedes McLaren SLR 722 and an orange Lamborghini Murcielago SV along the Abu Dhabi Corniche and on closed roads near the Liwa Oasis and Al Ain.
The Lamborghini test driver Peter Muller said the UAE was the ideal test area for the cars because of the extreme climate.
“It’s so hot here, if the car has no problems in this heat it means the car is OK,” he said after filming in Al Ain yesterday.
The Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority helped coordinate the filming. Matthew Boucher, ADTA project manager for product development, said the wide distribution of the Top Gear show made it an ideal platform to promote the emirate.
“This is a great opportunity for Abu Dhabi; we are happy to host the BBC,” he said. He said the cooperation of the Abu Dhabi police meant the roads were closed, allowing the crew to film safely.
Police closed the Corniche between 5am and 11am on Friday, allowing the drivers to reach high speeds.
Around 20 early-morning joggers and dog walkers witnessed a dozen production crew filming sequences for the programme, which is scheduled to be broadcast in July.
A helicopter with a television camera followed the drivers along the carriageway, which had been cleared of loose grit beforehand.