Hospital de Niños physician
links asthma and vitamin lack


A study by the staff of the Hospital Nacional de Niños has linked asthma with deficiencies of vitamin D.

Manuel Soto Quirós, a physician at the hospital, studied 616 youngsters who had asthma and reported that 28 percent had insufficient levels of vitamin D.

Humans obtain Vitamin D from sunlight, but Soto noted that many children are not allowed to play in the open air. He emphasized the need for children to be exposed to the sun as long as protective measures are taken.

In addition to sunlight, children can obtain the vitamin from eating the appropriate food products, he noted. He also pointed out that 31 percent of the children with asthma live in a home with a smoker.

Costa Rica has one of the highest percentages of children with asthma. The hospital noted that some 32 percent of the population between 6 and 7 years could be considered asthmatic.

Some of the food products rich in vitamin D, according to the hospital, are cheese, butter, cream, enriched milk, oily fish like tuna and salmon, oysters, certain cereals, and soy milk.

The hospital also noted that low levels of Vitamin D can cause calcium deposits in vital organs that could cause renal failure in youngsters.


U.S. changes regulations
for foreign student workers


The U.S. State Department has announced what it says are some much-awaited changes to the Summer Work Travel Program, made after a review process stemming from revelations that some international students had been exploited during their participation.

“In recent years, the work component of the Summer Work Travel Program has too often overshadowed the core cultural component,” said the State Department’s announcement of the new rules.  ”In addition, there have been complaints regarding job placements, work conditions, and participant accommodations.”

The new rules are intended to reemphasize the cultural component of the program, and require job placements to “provide opportunities for participants to interact regularly with U.S. citizens and experience U.S. culture.”

The revised rules also prevent students from being placed in jobs that: are primarily overnight shifts, involve body piercing, tattooing or massage, involve gambling or are with traveling fairs, are in warehouses or distribution centers or are considered hazardous to youth.

As of Nov. 1, most factory jobs will be off-limits as well.

Problems with the Summer Work Travel Program came to light in a 2010 Associated Press investigation, which found that some participants were forced to work in strip clubs, and in 2011 when students at a Hershey plant walked out to protest their working conditions.

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