Safety Alert: PPA in Common Over-the-Counter Products

johnm · #1 11-21-2000, 05:36 PM

Back, many years ago when I studied cosmology and stellar genesis, the theory was that stellar incubators would form on the wave front of an expanding nebula. When a emission nebula forms, it is usually the surface of a giant nova, called a supernova. 
 
A giant star, usually a red giant, as it begins to run out of fuel, creates a layer of helium that surrounds the core, and separates it from the atmosphere. This helium cannot 'burn' into heavier elements (the temp is too low) and acts like a big blanket around the still hot center. Since the energy within the core has no place to go, it builds up, and gets lighter. At the same time, the helium gets denser because it cools off and doesn't absorb the heat of the core. Eventually, kind of like a lake turning over in the winter, the helium heads for the core and the lighter core heads for the atmosphere. Because it is falling downhill and all headed for the center, the helium collides with itself just like in the core of an immense nuclear bomb. The temperature skyrockets within less than a day, and helium fuses to carbon (the last energy liberating fusion reaction). The resulting plasma expands outward at truly cosmic speed (sometimes as much as .5 or .75 light speed). The interaction of the shock wave thus formed causes a truly cosmic wave front of X-ray, gamma wave, and particulate radiation. Also, it is supposed, a major graviton wave. 
 
This shock wave rips off the majority of the atmosphere, and leaves a dense mass of burning helium (a white dwarf) as the core. If the star is big enough, it collapses into a neutron star (pulsar or quasar), of if bigger still, it becomes a black hole. Meanwhile the atmosphere of the star is streaming off at incredible speeds into the not quite so void of space. 
 
As it interacts with the stationary gas of the void, it causes it to glow. The crab nebula is a great example of this. You can see the little hot star that surrounded the tenth century supernova. 
 
Anyway, there are regions, like the famous "incubator" photo from Hubble, where two gas wave fronts collide. It they trap pockets of gas above a certain radius (actually quite small, in an astronomical sense, about 1 1/2 the size of Jupiter), proto star formation can occur. Once a star begins to coalesce, its gravity draws more gas (fuel) into it and it grows until it runs out of material. The richness of the interstellar medium, and its composition, determines how big it is and where on the main sequence it starts its life. 
 
Stars that form in older regions of "dust" and gas form more complex elements in their cores, and when they die, these get sent out to form the new stars, and the planets that surround it. Our star, Sol, being a G2 star is pretty far along on the evolutionary chain, as our planets attest to, since you have to get to number 6 (Jupiter) counting the asteroids as almost a planet, before you get to "gas bags" (gas planets). 
 
BTW, did you know that Jupiter is almost big enough to become a sun on its own? It emits almost more radiation that it absorbs. Think of it as "God's prototype" for the solar system.

Happy Thanksgiving! 
 
John M. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
Reality is fractal. It has a pattern with no discernable pattern. The finer you divide it, the more it remains the same.

Michael · #2 11-25-2000, 09:23 PM

Hi Kim, 
 
Richard Hoagland has some interesting theories 
onthis subject. Even proved the theeory on a prediction of a space craft photo. 
don't have his web site here, 
I do know it is on his video, not sure about on the web. 
 
 
I'll try to look it up. 
 
Regards, 
Michael 
 
On 11/21/00 11:16:30 AM, Kimberly Snow wrote: 
>Here's a fascinating article 
>(to me anyway) from Spaceviews 
>about baby stars. Just where 
>does that magnetic energy come 
>from, anyway? Could the 
>magnetic energy and heat that 
>comes out of no where in these 
>embryonic stars be the same 
>energy or "spirit" if you 
>will, that jump starts us in 
>the womb? 
> 
>Kimberly 
> 
> 
>Hot Flares Found on Cold 
>Stellar Embryos 
> 
>By Robert Roy Britt 
>Senior Science Writer 
>SPACE.com 
> 
>Taking their closest look ever 
>inside the womb where a star 
>is 
>born, astronomers found 
>surprisingly hot flares coming 
>from otherwise 
>cold stellar embryos. 
> 
>These stars-to-be -- also 
>called protostars, and 
>sometimes 
>just considered baby stars -- 
>are less than 100,000 years 
>old and 
>still gathering themselves 
>together. They will use their 
>gravity to 
>accumulate more material from 
>a surrounding womb of gas and 
>dust. And 
>eventually they will be 
>massive enough to contract, 
>become more dense 
>and jump-start thermonuclear 
>fusion. 
> 
>Then they will have an 
>internal furnace like the one 
>that 
>drives our Sun, a more mature 
>star. 
> 
>But these bambinos probably 
>aren't even in diapers yet. 
>And 
>without an interior furnace, 
>they are cold -- as much as 
>minus 240 
>degrees Celsius (minus 400 
>degrees Fahrenheit). 
> 
>So researchers were surprised 
>to catch them emitting 
>powerful 
>flares of energy that were 10 
>times hotter and up to 100,000 
>times 
>brighter than flares on our 
>Sun. Temperatures in the 
>flares reached 
>100 million degrees Celsius 
>(180 million degrees 
>Fahrenheit). 
> 
>"We peered at newborn stars 
>deeply embedded in their 
>cradle 
>and found that their crying is 
>much more tumultuous than we 
>expected," 
>said Yohko Tsuboi of the 
>Pennsylvania State University, 
>lead 
>researcher in the study. 
> 
> 
>Out of hiding 
> 
>A stellar embryo lives in an 
>envelope of gas and dust, a 
>womb 
>that is consumed to feed the 
>fledgling star. Our own Sun 
>was born in 
>such a "molecular cloud," as 
>were the nine planets. 
> 
>These clouds block 
>astronomers' views of what's 
>going on 
>inside. But the powerful 
>orbiting Chandra X-ray 
>Observatory peered 
>straight through the clouds 
>and measured energy in the 
>X-ray spectrum, 
>which is not visible in normal 
>telescopes, or to the eye. 
> 
> 
>Why the hot temper? 
> 
>"The X-ray flares from 
>protostars occur most likely 
>due to the 
>same mechanisms as those on 
>the Sun," Tsuboi told 
>SPACE.com. 
> 
>The process involves large 
>loops of magnetic energy that 
>reach 
>out into space and, somewhat 
>mysteriously, snap back. 
>Scientists are 
>just beginning to understand 
>how this works on the Sun. In 
>the newly 
>observed stellar embryos, 
>these loops were enormous: up 
>to 10 times 
>the radius of our Sun. 
> 
>"How such huge magnetic loops 
>are formed and how the 
>reconnections occur might be 
>deeply linked with how a star 
>contracts," 
>Tsuboi said. 
> 
>Scientists say our own infant 
>Sun was prone to similar 
>tantrums 5 billion years ago, 
>when it was just a protostar. 
>After a 
>few million years, however, 
>fusion took over and the Sun's 
>emissions 
>became more stable -- one of 
>the preconditions for life as 
>we know it. 
> 
> 
>Where the stars are 
> 
>Tsuboi and her collaborators 
>at Kyoto University in Japan 
>looked at the two youngest 
>types of protostars: Class 0 
>(zero) 
>protostars, about 10,000 years 
>old; and Class 1 protostars, 
>about 100, 
>000 years old. 
> 
>They detected X-rays from 17 
>Class 1 protostars in the rho- 
>Ophiuchi molecular cloud, 500 
>light-years from Earth in the 
>constellation Ophiuchi. The 
>astronomers saw nearly a dozen 
>X-ray 
>flares over a 27-hour period. 
> 
>"Virtually all the Class 1 
>protostars in the rho-Ophiuchi 
>molecular cloud may emit 
>X-rays with extremely violent 
>and frequent 
>flare activity," said Kensuke 
>Imanishi of Kyoto University. 
> 
>In a different star-formation 
>region, 1,400 light years from 
>Earth in constellation Orion, 
>the researchers observed for 
>the first 
>time activity from the 
>youngest protostars, the Class 
>0 variety. 
> 
>The findings were presented at 
>the recent meeting of the 
>High- 
>Energy Astrophysics Division 
>of the American Astronomical 
>Society in 
>Honolulu. 
>

snow · #3 11-28-2000, 09:13 AM

I think John M. is actually one of those brains that was kept in a jar of fluid in that old Star Trek episode. 
 
Kimberly

snow · #4 11-28-2000, 12:28 PM

John is the one on left: 
 
 
<img src="http://www.geocities.com/binkydeal48/Gamesters.jpg">

greatscott · #5 11-29-2000, 05:49 AM

Greeting`s 
 
 
A recent study by the Yale University School of Medicine has found that 
PPA increases the risk of hemorrhagic stroke. The US Food and Drug 
Administration has issued a public health advisory and has asked all 
U.S. drug companies to discontinue marketing products that contain 
Phenylpropanolamine (PPA). If your location has a first aid kit, check 
all medications and dispose of any with PPA listed in the ingredients. 
You should also check your medicine cabinets at home. PPA has been a 
common ingredient in over-the-counter and prescription cold medicines 
and appetite suppressants. 
 
Some common over-the-counter products that contain PPA include, but are 
not limited to the following: 
 
* Contact 12-hour cold capsules 
* Comtrex Flu Therapy 
* Naldecon 
* Alka-Seltzer Plus 
* Coricidin 
* Travist-D 
* Triaminic 
* Dexatrim 
* Dimetapp 
 
For more information, check the following websites: 
 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/11/07/drug.warning.ap/index.html>"><http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/11/07/drug.warning.ap/index.html></a> 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/11/07/drug.warning.ap/index.html>"><http://www.cnn.com/2000/HEALTH/11/07/drug.warning.ap/index.html></a> 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS01051.html>"><http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS01051.html></a> 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS01051.html>"><http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/ANSWERS/ANS01051.html></a> 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.nejm.org/content/kernan/1.asp>"><http://www.nejm.org/content/kernan/1.asp></a> 
<a target=_new href="<http://www.nejm.org/content/kernan/1.asp>"><http://www.nejm.org/content/kernan/1.asp></a> 
 
Cheer`s

johnm · #6 12-04-2000, 06:31 PM

Don't you remember me from the Steve Martin Movie, "The man with Two Brains" (Actually I was on Young Frankenstein, I was Abby, Abby Normal.)

John M. 
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 
Reality is fractal. It has a pattern with no discernable pattern. The finer you divide it, the more it remains the same.

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