Broad spectrum protection — Under the FDA’s new labeling rules, the phrase “broad spectrum” means the product protects against both A and B ultraviolet rays, and has a sun protection factor of 15 or higher. Sunscreen that doesn’t protect against both has been shown only to help prevent sunburn, not skin cancer, according to the FDA. Products that fall short will come with a warning label that says “Skin Cancer/Skin Aging Alert: Spending time in the sun increases your risk of skin cancer and early skin aging. This product has been shown only to help prevent sunburn, not skin cancer or early skin aging.”
Water resistance — Gone are the days when sunscreens are allowed to boast about resistance to water or sweat, which FDA says gives consumers a false sense of security. The rules now require makers to tell consumers how long the sunscreen can stand up to swimming and sweating. Labels must also suggest that users reapply sunscreen every 40 or 80 minutes, and are prohibited from making the claim that their product will provide more than two hours of protection without reapplication. Manufacturers are also now prohibited from identifying their products as sunblocks.
The FDA had been considering these changes for decades, and finally announced its new regulations last year, giving manufacturers about a year to comply.
More changes may be coming to correct misperceptions about SPF levels. Some sunscreens come with labels as high as 100 SPF, but most experts say they don’t offer much more protection than SPF levels of 15 to 20. The FDA is considering capping the advertised number to SPF 50. The FDA is also reviewing the effectiveness of spray-on sunscreens.

Melanoma rates soar among young
The new labeling rules come at a time when melanoma rates are soaring among young adults. A study from April 2012 revealed an alarming rise in melanoma among people aged 18 to 39.
Over the past 40 years, rates of this potentially deadly skin cancer grew by 800 percent among young women and 400 percent among young men, according to the Skin Cancer Foundation. Researchers examined data on the 256 young adults in Olmstead County, Minn., who were diagnosed with melanoma between 1970 and 2009. Between 1970 and 1979, just 16 new cases, or 4.8 cases per 100,000 people, were diagnosed. But from 200O to 2010, 129 cases were recorded, or 30.8 cases per 100,000 people, reflects an enormous jump from the 1970s.
Although the lifetime risk of melanoma is about 1.5 times greater in males than in females, among young people this pattern is reversed, as the Mayo Clinic Proceedings study demonstrated. The authors observed that indoor ultraviolet tanning, which is much more popular among young women than young men, may account for the disproportionate increase in incidence among young women.

Common sunscreen myths

Wearing sunscreen can cause vitamin D deficiency.
There is some controversy regarding this issue, but few dermatologists believe (and no studies have shown) that sunscreens cause vitamin D deficiency. Also, vitamin D is available in dietary supplements and foods such as salmon and eggs, as well as enriched milk and orange juice.

If it’s cold or cloudy outside, you don’t need sunscreen.
This is not true. Up to 40 percent of the sun’s ultraviolet radiation reaches the earth on a completely cloudy day. This misperception often leads to the most serious sunburns, because people spend all day outdoors with no protection from the sun.

Eighty percent of your sun exposure comes as a child, so it’s too late to do anything now.
It appears that this universally promoted idea was based largely on a misinterpretation. A recent multi-center study showed that we get less than 25 percent of our total sun exposure by age 18. In fact, it is men over the age of 40 who spend the most time outdoors, and get the highest annual doses of UV rays. And since adult Americans are living longer and spending more leisure time outdoors, preventing ongoing skin damage will continue to be an important part of a healthy lifestyle.
Source: Skin Cancer Foundation

Police have reported a recent rash of chopper robberies on the Eastside, including:
• Saturday, May 8, 11 a.m., 64th Street — Red 2009 Vespa LX 150 with NY plates.
• Tuesday, May 21, 8:15 a.m., Park Avenue between 62nd and 63rd Streets –
2008 Honda CBR 1000 with NY plates.
• Friday, May 24, 10 p.m., First Avenue and 74th Street –
2001 Honda motorcycle with NJ plates.

A can of Bumble Bee wild Alaskan salmon at the Fairway on East 86th Street is priced at $7.19 a can – but the same exact product is only $5.49 at the Upper West Side Fairway on Broadway and 74th Street.

J. Rubin, a local shopper, wrote to Fairway, and to us, to try to get to the bottom of this discrepancy.

We decided to see for ourselves. We sent a reporter to compare prices for a host of products (see chart) at the West Side and East Side locations. Prices were checked on Thursday, May 23, and do not include any sales or specials.

Here’s what we found: While a few prices were indeed higher on the East Side (Frosted Flakes and Twinning tea will set you back a couple extra dimes) there were also a few items more expensive on the West Side, like Chips Ahoy and Ghiradelli hot chocolate. Many prices, however, were the exact same.

But what about that glaringly high mark-up on the salmon?

Fairway did not respond to our email, but did respond to Rubin’s email, apologizing for what turns out to be a pricing error, which the store said they have since corrected.

“The retail for the Bumble Bee Wild Salmon should be $6.49 at our 86th Street location, and $5.99 at Broadway, and these retails were corrected,” said a customer service representative in an email. “The difference in these retails is due to promotional pricing we received from our vendor at our Broadway location. We are sincerely sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, and we thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.”

It seems that Fairway is offering a fairly even grocery shopping experience for both the Upper East and West Sides.
Do you have questions about what’s up in your neighborhood?

Email reporter@strausnews.com with “What’s Up With That” in the subject line and we’ll investigate some of the most interesting ones.

Zeckendorf Towers, at Union Square.

While several new condominiums in New York City have prohibited smoking since their opening, Zeckendorf Towers is one of only a handful of condominiums whose unit owners have voted to transition their building to smoke-free status.

The building’s board first began to explore going smoke-free in 2010, following numerous complaints from residents about cigarette smoke. After confirming that they could legally prohibit smoking by amending the building’s bylaws, the board partnered with the New York City Department of Health and Manhattan Smoke-Free Partnership, part of the NYC Coalition for a Smoke-Free City, a health advocacy group that supports the efforts of buildings adopting smoke-free policies.

The vote comes on the heels of a recent Quinnipiac Poll revealing that 59 percent of New Yorkers would prefer to live in a smoke-free building, yet a majority would also prefer that the restriction not be dictated by the city.

This past week, despite concerns from the community, Community Board 8 voted in favor of approving the zoning amendment sought by Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) and the City University of New York (CUNY) needed to build a new cancer and educational center on East 73rd Street between York Avenue and the FDR Drive. The local community has been fiercely debating many aspects of the nascent project, and at the committee level, the board had previously voted against approving the zoning change request, citing concerns over traffic, decreased open space, pollution and noise that some say the massive building would bring to the Upper East Side.

At the public hearing last week during the land use committee meeting, cancer survivors and patients testified, urging the community to support the cancer center. In the previous vote, the MSK-CUNY task force committee, led by chair Nick Viest, had turned down the zoning text amendment, but this vote means full approval from the board. Now the project’s Uniform Land Use Review Process application moves ahead for consideration by the Borough President’s office.

The first resolution approved the sale of the site and the zoning map change which would allow the hospital and school to build the new complex in the middle of a previously-industrial zoned area. The board also approved the special permit needed for an accessory parking garage and allowance of sign modifications. The parking garage, according to Sloan Kettering, would create less traffic on the streets as patients and visitors looked for parking spots. In a close vote, 24 board members voted yes, and 17 voted no.
In the second resolution, the community board came up with an alternative text to the zoning text amendment.

The substitute motion, which passed with a slim margin of 23 yes to 20 no, specified the improvement of the Andrew Haswell Green park near the 59th Street Bridge along the FDR Drive. The community board also approved the bulk modifications of the building, which would allow the MSK building to tower 23 stories, and the Hunter building to rise 16 stories tall, under the stipulation that Andrew Haswell Green Park will be the recipient of the proposed improvements. This is an especially important issue for Upper East Siders, who recently learned that their community has some of the least open space citywide.

The recent approval also means that the project’s Uniform Land Use Review Process application moves ahead for consideration by the Borough President’s office.

By Angela Barbuti

Continuing an annual tradition on the Upper West Side, forty women will unite onstage at the Fourth Universalist Society on Thursday, March 22nd and Friday, March 23rd, to perform a benefit performance of The Vagina Monologues.
This is the fifth year that the church, located on 76th and Columbus, is playing host to this famously powerful production. With over 40 performances of The Vagina Monologues in New York City each year, the one at Fourth Universalist is unique in that it is the only one housed in a church. The ladies use the altar as their stage, which adds an element of spirituality.
“This play is so much more than a play,” said Erin Bigelow, a co-director. “When you can make people in the audience roll on the floor laughing and keel over crying, there’s nothing more intense.”
Written by Eve Ensler, the play consists of monologues based on interviews with real women who have suffered abuse. Contrary to what theatergoers may think, the cast members are not all professional actresses. Organizer Deborah Roth said that is the way Ensler envisions the play to be carried out.
“Eve said, ‘It’s not about acting, it’s about activism,’” said Roth, who is also a parishioner at 4th U. “We don’t say ‘no’ to anyone who auditions,” said Ege Maltepe, also a co director. In the cast there are only 10 professional actresses – the rest range from students to therapists to entrepreneurs.
The cast is open to all ages and is comprised of 20-somethings to 70-somethings.
“It’s such a multigenerational experience,” said Roth. The diversity of the women is also what makes it such a unique experience for the audience. Certain years had mother-daughter teams performing, and in others, there have been deaf and transgender women. Some of the cast has also experienced abuse in their own lives.
“While many of the women have, it isn’t the whole room,” said Roth. “That’s been a real learning curve for us also, to realize the impact we have on our actresses. It’s life changing for them.”
Bigelow continued, “This has been important to me personally because I know so many people with a history of violence and the headlines are just screaming it. Today more than ever, we need women’s voices united and as in your face as possible because there’s clearly no other way this is going to get done.”
“Six months of the year is devoted to The Vagina Monologues,” said Bigelow. The women start preparing in September, and wait for Ensler to release the script in October. Even though they do not publicize their casting calls, they have 40 women auditioning at the beginning of January. Only one third of the cast are actually members of the parish.
At the end of the each performance, Roth, taking a cue from what Ensler has done at her productions, asks the audience and cast members to stand if they had ever been beaten, violated, or raped in their lifetime. The house lights are turned on, and people stand up. Next, they are asked if they know of anyone who has been violated, and more people stand. Everyone in the church rises when asked if they want the violence to end.
Bigelow said, “Every year we think there’s no way we can top it, and then the next year women come out from everywhere. Surprisingly there are women after 15 years who have not seen The Vagina Monologues.”
This year’s performance at 4th U benefits Haitian Women for Haitian Refugees, which provides assistance to Haitian refugees and immigrants who arrive in the U.S. after fleeing persecution. Another organization that is benefiting from this event is Restore NYC, which works to end sex trafficking in the city. The third beneficiary is Safe Horizons, which aids survivors of crime.

To learn more and purchase tickets, please visit www.4thu.org

By Mike Stobbe

About 1 in 9 younger women have used the morning-after pill after sex, according to the first government report to focus on emergency contraception since its approval 15 years ago.

The results come from a survey of females ages 15 to 44. Eleven percent of those who’d had sex reported using a morning-after pill. That’s up from 4 percent in 2002, only a few years after the pills went on the market and adults still needed a prescription.

The increased popularity is probably because it is easier to get now and because of media coverage of controversial efforts to lift the age limit for over-the-counter sales, experts said. A prescription is still required for those younger than 17 so it is still sold from behind pharmacy counters.

Educated, white women use it more.

In the study, half the women who used the pills said they did it because they’d had unprotected sex. Most of the rest cited a broken condom or worries that the birth control method they used had failed.

White women and more educated women use it the most, the research showed. That’s not surprising, said James Trussell, a Princeton University researcher who’s studied the subject.

“I don’t think you can go to college in the United States and not know about emergency contraception,” said Trussell, who has promoted its use and started a hot line.

One Pennsylvania college even has a vending machine dispensing the pills.

The morning-after pill is basically a high-dose version of birth control pills. It prevents ovulation and needs to be taken within a few days after sex. The morning-after pill is different from the so-called abortion pill, which is designed to terminate a pregnancy.

At least five versions of the morning-after pills are sold in the United States. They cost around $35 to $60 a dose at a pharmacy, depending on the brand.

Since it is sold over-the-counter, insurers generally only pay for it with a doctor’s prescription. The new Affordable Care Act promises to cover morning-after pills, meaning no co-pays, but again only with a prescription.

The results of the study were released in December by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s based on in-person interviews of more than 12,000 women in 2006 through 2010. It was the agency’s first in-depth report on that issue, said Kimberly Daniels, the study’s lead author.

A woman who uses emergency contraception multiple times “needs to be thinking about a more regular form” of birth control, noted Lawrence Finer, director of domestic research for the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit group that does research on reproductive health. Also in December, the CDC released a report on overall contraception use. Among its many findings, 99 percent of women who’ve had sex used some sort of birth control. That includes 82 percent who used birth control pills and 93 percent whose partner had used a condom.

Online:
CDC report: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs
Emergency contraception info: http://ec.princeton.edu/index.html