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By TIMES WIRES
Published August 1, 2007

HEALTH CARE

GET RID OF THOSE SHOES WITH HOLES ... STAT!

Mercy Hospital in Pittsburgh isn't making a fashion statement in deeming Crocs inappropriate for the workplace, it's just saying that they aren't safe. Comfort be darned, those things are just full of holes, and you know what that leads to. "You could drop something like a syringe in one of them. We want to avoid that," said Sharon Krystofiak, the hospital's infection control manager. Nurse Kara Depasquale, who was wearing the shoes with the holes in them, pointed out a hole in the theory. "I can get a needle stuck in my arm or my leg," Depasquale said.

Doctors operate by cell phones' glow

Cell phones can be a real lifesaver. Especially when you are in surgery and doctors are operating on your appendix when the electricity goes out. That happened to a man in Villa Mercedes, Argentina. Reuters reports that a family member of the patient rounded up a bunch of cell phones and doctors used the light from them to finish the surgery. The cell phone lights didn't help when the anesthesia started wearing off, though.

DIGEST ITEMS

It's hard to date when you're irritable

Craig Jex of Shirley, England, has started an Internet dating site called IBS. It stands for Irritated Being Single. But it was inspired by that other IBS, as it is for people otherwise unlucky in love due to irritable bowel syndrome. "It has always been my theory that my IBS wouldn't be as bad if I was dating a girl who had IBS, too, as we would both understand," Jex, 24, told the Local London Web site. And people agree. So far, 70 people have signed up for the site, but he expects it to take off now that he is marketing it.

Burping cows are killing the planet

In the fight against global warming, scientists in the United Kingdom are hard at work to find a way to make cows burp less. Legumes and grass that are easier to digest could lead to greatly reduced emissions. Michael Abberton of the Institute of Grassland and Environmental Research told Reuters that cows can belch up to 200 quarts of methane a day and are responsible for up to 7 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.K. Plus, Abberton was happy to clear up a common misunderstanding about how cows put gas in the atmosphere. "It is actually through belching, rather than the other end."

Compiled from Times wire services and other sources by staff writer Jim Webster, who can be reached at jwebster@sptimes.com.

[Last modified August 1, 2007, 01:32:07]