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EU seeks its identity even after 100 days of operation of the Treaty of Lisbon
BRUSSELS (AFP) – One hundred days after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the new institutions that were supposed to make more effective European Union (EU), with a president and responsible for their diplomacy, they fail to resonate more and better Europe’s voice in the world.
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“The Lisbon treaty has long been sold as ‘the’ solution to the problems of the European Union. In fact, only a piece of paper up to the political realities of Europe, which have not changed,” said Hugo Brady, the Center for European Reform, a think tank in London.
The appointment of persons of low-profile Belgian chairman Herman Van Rompuy as stable and Britain’s Catherine Ashton as head of the diplomacy reflected the will of States to “maintain control over foreign affairs,” says Jean-Dominique Giuliani, president of the Robert Schuman Foundation.
And since it was excluded in December of last minute negotiations in Copenhagen climate-United States preferred to deal directly with China, India and Brazil, the EU comprises 27 countries, fails to provide an image of unity in the international arena.
The creation of a stable EU presidency did not disappear with the principle of the country six-month presidencies. Spain, which currently assumes, was even chairing meetings between EU and third countries, “the pretext of transition, as if the Lisbon treaty does not exist,” rather than accept a real “rupture” with the past, Giuliani stresses .
This persistent confusion at the top of the EU partly explains the decision of U.S. President Barack Obama to renounce a planned summit with the Europeans in May.
Catherine Ashton, meanwhile, was widely criticized for not attending some international meetings or for not being very visible in assisting earthquake victims in Haiti.
“But he has been given (Ashton) many responsibilities, foreign affairs, defense policy and humanitarian action, which is overloaded” work supports Hugo Brady.
Herman Van Rompuy, who prefers discreet negotiations, seems in turn come off well in his first months in office, but “has not done much,” says Michael Emerson, a researcher at the Center for European Policy Studies. And in regard to the “visibility”, Van Rompuy lacks democratic legitimacy to speak directly to European citizens, said a senior EU official.
For Brady “is still too early” to take stock of the Lisbon Treaty, which the EU is obliged to adapt.
But the current battle between institutions requires it emerges that “a clear hierarchy,” says the researcher.
However, “the world can not wait”, opined recently the French Secretary for European Affairs, Pierre Lellouche. The risk involved is to attend a “loss of status in Europe,” warned.
Children direct air traffic in New York, driver suspended
NEW YORK (AP) – An air traffic controller at the airport John F. New York Kennedy let his son read messages to the aircraft, including an airline, and the next day brought another child to the control tower, so it was suspended on Wednesday along with a supervisor.
Although the drivers had fun, the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA) did not seem good the joke. Authorities suspended the controller and the supervisor after a recording of the child’s communication with the aircraft was published on the internet and reproduced by a television station in Boston.
“This trial error not only violated the policies of the FAA, but the standards of common sense about the conduct of a professional. This type of distraction is totally unacceptable,” said Randy Babbitt said in a statement, FAA Administrator. “This type of behavior does not reflect the ability of our workforce.”
In one of the boy recordings authorized an Aeromexico plane to take off and says in Spanish: “Farewell, friend.”
The Mexican airline pilot replies: “Contact takeoff. Aeromexico 403. Goodbye.
In another recording a child says “JetBlue takeoff contact 171. Then the voice of a man from the tower adds: “That’s what happens, boys, when children do not have to go to school.”
On the tape, which lasts approximately one minute, one child seems to repeat the instructions he gives his father. At no time did the child tell the drivers how to maneuver or where to go.
Communications between the child and the planes that were taking off from one of the busiest airports in the United States seemed to amuse the pilots.
“I also like to bring my son to work,” sighed one.
But the Federal Aviation Agency (FAA, for its acronym in English) banned unofficial visits friends or relatives to their areas of operation of air traffic while reviewing their policies.
The conversations between air traffic controllers and pilots are often broadcast live on the internet. A user of a popular Web site devoted to conversations between drivers, LiveATC.net, released a recording of communications of the boy, shortly after Feb. 16, when carried out.
At that time, most schools in New York was on winter break.
The child participated in five transmissions to pilots who were preparing to take off, according to the recording. One pilot laughs, like a child.
Based on the above flights numbers during communications, the episode seems to have happened in the early hours of the night, when there are usually many international flights at John F. Kennedy.
The FAA gave few details about their investigation and did not disclose the name of the driver or supervisor. Control towers are usually restricted areas, although the agency sometimes gives employees permission to take their children for a visit.
The incident came a month as a driver at an airport in Teterboro, New Jersey was suspended for his behavior just before a deadly collision between a small plane and a helicopter on the Hudson River. The accident killed nine people including five Italians.
The driver was taped joking on the phone with his girlfriend while instructing the aircraft was destroyed. He ended the call when he realized the plane had stopped having contact a few seconds before the collision.
Two dead the wave hit on Mediterranean cruise
Two people were killed and six injured when a wave hit a cruise in the Mediterranean and the room broke the glass of the vessel, said Wednesday the office of Spain marine rescues.
The cruiser was headed to Genoa and off Cape Bagur had very rough seas. A wave has broken the glass in the lounge area and entered the water. There are two dead and six wounded, “said a spokesman of Marine Rescue.
The captain of the cruiser ‘Louis Majesty’ decided to head to Barcelona to attend to the wounded, the spokesman added.
The dead would be a German and an Italian, while the number of injured rose to a fortnight, they told media after the cruise dock in the port of Barcelona.
Nobody in the offices of the port of Barcelona was available for confirmation.
Chilean earthquake could have reduced the length of Earth days
The strong earthquake of 8.8 degrees on the Richter Scale that struck Chile might have changed the rotation of the entire planet and shortened the length of the days on Earth, announced on Monday a NASA scientist.
The earthquake, the seventh most intense in recorded history, struck Chile on Saturday and should have shortened the duration of one day land in 1.26 milliseconds, according to research scientist Richard Gross of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena , California.
“What is perhaps more impressive is how much the earthquake shook the axis of the Earth,” NASA officials said on Monday in the update.
The computer model that Gross and his colleagues used to determine the effects of the earthquake in Chile also found that the claim should have moved the Earth’s axis approximately 8 inches, or 2.7 millarsegundos.
The axis of figure of the Earth is not the same as its north-south axis, around which rotates once daily at a rate of approximately 1.604 kilometers per hour.
Strong earthquakes have altered the length of Earth days and its axis of the planet in the past. The earthquake of 9.1 degrees occurred in Sumatra in 2004, which triggered a deadly tsunami, an estimated terrestrial day shortened by 6.8 microseconds, and changed the position of its axis nearly 7 inches or 2.32 millarsegundos.
A terrestrial day lasts about 24 hours. In the course of a year, the length of a day usually change gradually, in a millisecond. In the winter when the earth rotates more slowly, lengthening and shortening in the summer, according to previous explanations of Gross.
The earthquake in Chile was far less strong than that of Sumatra, but its effects on the planet are more intense due to its location. Its epicenter was located in the middle latitudes of the Earth instead of some of Ecuador, like that of Sumatra.
The geological fault responsible for the Chilean earthquake in 2010 also recorded a steeper angle than the fault that caused the earthquake in Sumatra, NASA scientists said.
“This geological fault makes it more efficient Chilean land masses move vertically and therefore more effective to move the figure axis of the Earth, NASA officials said.
Gross said his findings are based on the first Chilean earthquake data were available. As you have more information about its characteristics, it is likely that its effects change forecasts.
The earthquake that rocked Chile has killed over 700 people and caused widespread devastation in the South American country.
Several major telescopes in the Atacama Desert in Chile, were not damaged, according to the European Southern Observatory, who is in charge of administration.
A NASA satellite instrument to measure salt, which is scheduled to be installed in an Argentine satellite, also was damaged by the earthquake, officials of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The Aquarius instrument was in the city of Bariloche Argentina, where it is installed on the Scientific Applications Satellite (SAC-D). The satellite integration center is approximately 588 kilometers from the epicenter of the quake in Chile.
The Aquarius instrument is designed to provide monthly planetary maps of salt concentration in the ocean, in order to keep track of your current movement and its role in climate change.
Chile reduces dead figure increases confusion after quake
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – The latest in a series of confusing events after the powerful earthquake of the weekend, the Chilean government dropped a stroke on Thursday the death toll to third without explanation.
Twenty-four hours after reporting 802 dead, Deputy Interior Minister Patrick Rosende, appeared on television Thursday to read, one by one, the names of 279 deceased identified.
Rosende not explain the reasons for the review. But, according to an Interior Ministry source in the morgue there are still hundreds of unidentified bodies.
It was the latest bizarre twist surrounding the earthquake and tsunamis on Saturday that demolished whole towns and villages wiped off the map.
The Chilean Navy acknowledged Wednesday that he hesitated and did not report clearly to President Michelle Bachelet of the danger of tsunami after the quake of magnitude 8.8, one of the most violent on record.
When she finally sounded alarms tsunami, defused without explanation before the giant waves back to wipe out many coastal villages.
President Michelle Bachelet on Saturday took hours to fly to the disaster area to assess damage, because apparently failed to find the pilot of a helicopter because he had the cell phone off.
The Chilean government has also been heavily criticized for the slow delivery of humanitarian aid.
Five days after the disaster, residents of some villages have not yet been devastated food.
Al Qaeda threatens to kill Iraqis who participate in the elections
Al Qaeda on Friday threatened to kill Iraqis who participate in Sunday’s legislative elections and declared a “curfew” to prevent the elections taking place, judged crucial for the country.
The Islamic state declares that it leaves your home to participate in this day, defying the law of God and its clear warnings, set out his anger and unfortunately all arms of the Mujahedeen,” says The Iraqi branch of Al Qaeda in a statement posted on Islamist websites, according to the monitoring center SITE Islamist sites.
“The Islamic state declared a curfew for the election day from six in the morning until six in the afternoon, across Iraq and especially in Sunni areas,” he said.
Al Qaeda and Ansar al-Sunna militant group had threatened to torpedo a few days ago with the election.
On Wednesday and Thursday a series of attacks, mostly suicide bombings with the hallmarks of Al Qaeda, killed about 50 people in Baghdad and Baquba.
On Friday, a day of prayer for Muslims, the minarets of mosques and imams in their sermons urge Iraqis to vote, even in Sunni regions that had largely boycotted the 2005 elections.
The Sunni turnout is crucial to this election, expected to mark the return of that community to the political scene.
In Baquba, Sunni-majority city located 60 km north of Baghdad, the loudspeakers of the minarets rang to ask the people who came to the polling stations.
“You must go to the polls and cast your ballot in the box because of that our future depends,” he told the faithful, Sheik Abdel Rahman Al swear, Sunni mosque in the city center.
In Ramadi, capital of Al Anbar, which was a bastion of the Sunni insurgency after the invasion of Iraq by the U.S. Army in 2003, the imams also urged participation.
“You must be the agents of change. It’s your chance to build the future of Iraq,” said Khaled Suleiman, imam of the mosque al-Dawla al-Kabir from the center of Ramadi.
In the holy city of Karbala Shia imams also urged the faithful before they will vote.
“The high religious authorities stress the importance of voting in elections,” said Ahmed al-Safi, representative of Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani in Karbala, calling the elections “vital issue.”
Meanwhile, in the semi-autonomous region of Kurdistan (north) on Halajba clashes between supporters of the dissident list Goran (Change) and the rival Kurdish Alliance. Five people were injured by the security services.
The Kurdish leader Massoud Barzani played down the differences between lists and summoned voters to vote in mass for the Kurds to obtain all possible seats in Parliament.
On Sunday, some 19 million Iraqis must go to the polls in all 18 provinces to participate in the second legislative elections since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003 by a US-led coalition.
Fearing attacks elections are under strict surveillance. In Baghdad alone, some 200,000 policemen and soldiers will be deployed on Sunday and vehicle traffic is prohibited in the cities.
Unlike the 2005 legislative where U.S. troops guarding the polls alongside Iraqi forces, U.S. soldiers will not participate in security operations during the elections.
Obese woman gives birth in Romania
BUCHAREST (AP) – A 25 year old woman who weighs 240 kilos (528 pounds) gave birth to her first child, a girl, Thursday in a hospital specialized in treating obese people.
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“The baby is the fruit of love between my husband and I, who is thinner, and weighs just 70 kilos (154 pounds),” Victoria said Lacatus.
“I wanted this baby with all my heart, whatever the sacrifice,” said the young newspaper Adevarul.
The girl, who was born by caesarean section, weighed 2.9 kilos (6.4 pounds), said Bogdan Popescu, a hospital spokesman at the University of Bucharest.
Lacatus was admitted to the hospital because the center of their village in southern Romania did not have beds that could support their weight, officials said. In Bucharest, three teams of firefighters and emergency personnel transported her to hospital.
Popescu said Lacatus constantly being monitored because he suffers a thyroid problem and doctors said it could suffer post-natal complications due to morbid obesity.
Lacatus said he soon will marry her fiance, 36, Costica Lacatus.
Costandache Florin, who helped conduct the operation, said: “It was a challenge because anesthesia needed four times that need a normal person.”
Toyota President declared before the U.S. Congress
TOKYO (AP) – Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, criticized by the withdrawal of units, reported at a U.S. congressional hearing next week, at the request of U.S. lawmakers and offended by understanding customers as the company manages their security problems.
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Japanese officials supported the decision of Toyoda, grandson of the founder of the company to accept a formal invitation to explain the returns and make plans by the largest automaker in the world to improve safety and address the concerns of buyers Car worried.
“I am pleased to go.’ll Speak in all sincerity,” Toyoda told reporters Friday in Nagoya, Japan, near the headquarters of the company.
“I hope you understand our commitment to America and our customers,” Toyoda said.
Toyoda said it would cooperate with U.S. regulators in the analysis of returns of more than eight million vehicles worldwide, including best-selling models as the Corolla, Camry and the hybrid Prius.
Earlier this week, Toyoda said he did not attend the hearings referred to unless it was invited. That decision gave rise to heated criticism in the U.S.. On Thursday, he accepted a request to assist from the president of the General Committee and Government Reform U.S. House, Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from New York.
“The decision was not only me,” Toyoda told reporters in televised comments.
The decision earned praise from the Japanese authorities.
The transport minister of Japan, Seiji Maehara, said he welcomed the decision of Toyoda. Toyota Maehara urged to heed the concerns of its customers and said it was important for the company to explain the episodes of security.
It is crucial to prevent vehicles withdrawals exacerbate political friction, said the foreign minister of Japan, Katsuya Okada.
“I hope that Toyota will soon regain the trust of customers around the world,” Okada told reporters on Friday.
The pilot of the plane crashed in Texas left a suicide note
Washington, .- Joseph Andrew Stack, the pilot of a plane that crashed into a building of federal government offices in Austin (Texas), apparently left a suicide note in which he proclaims his anger against the Board (IRS, for its acronym in English).
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The website “EmbeddedArt.com” has a note signed by Joseph Stack, which reads: “I once read that the definition of insanity is repeating the same process over and over and expecting that the result is, of Suddenly different. ”
“I’m finally ready to end this madness,” the note added. “Okay, Big Brother, IRS, let’s try something different: take my half kilo of meat and sleep well.”
Stack Authorities believe that today was the pilot crashed a small plane into a building of offices in Austin, which employs some 190 employees of the IRS.
Before taking the plane, which some media said was stolen, but later confirmed that it belonged to the alleged suicide Stack-home fire.
CNN television said the plane was a Cirrus SR22 single-engine plane.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security ruled out, told media that the incident is connected with a terrorist attack.
In Washington, national security adviser in the White House, John Brennan, informed President Barack Obama on the incident shortly after noon.
Shortly after the incident, two F-16 flying over the area of the Pentagon.
In parallel, mid-morning a bomb threat forced the diversion of a United Airlines plane traveling from Denver to San Francisco and landed in Salt Lake City.
In Austin, local television images of the building were he crashed, and where a fire broke out.
Witnesses say the plane was flying at an extremely low altitude, and at no time the pilot alerted the authorities that he had flight problems.
A fire department spokesman, Harry Evans, told the television that there are two injured who have been taken to hospital. One of the employees of the building is missing.
Sarah Palin reads cheat notes on her hand – video
The fact that was criticized by many politicians and analysts today, Palin notes shows how his left hand several times, the time to answer some questions.
Palin was answering questions ultraconservative militants during a meeting Saturday in Nashville, a city located south of the country.
The former vice presidential candidate of the United States, Sarah Palin, used his hand as a makeshift aid memory, as can be seen in a new video released today.
According to some photos taken at the hand of Palin, who publishes the blog huffingtonpost.com, you can see the words “Energy”, “Tax and exacerbate the spirits,” while the phrase “budget cuts” appears with the word “budget” crossed out.
Explosion at power plant in the U.S. may have left 50 dead
NEW YORK (AFP) – A huge explosion occurred Sunday at a power plant under construction in the state of Connecticut (the U.S.) and could have left 50 dead, authorities said.
The explosion at the plant to gas action in the town of Middletown, where 40,000 people live on the Connecticut River, fired flares and clouds of black smoke into the sky and shook homes several miles around, witnesses said.
As helicopters, ambulances and fire trucks rushed to the scene and began rescue operations, authorities were reluctant to say how many people have died in the incident, but was feared by a large number of victims.
“Reports vary from a few, several, possibly even 50 people,” he told AFP Brian Albert, Middlesex Hospital, who took care to address some of the injured in the blast.
“It is in the process of search and rescue,” said Albert, adding that the Middlesex Hospital was treating six patients while the other wounded had been transferred to nearby Hartford Hospital.
The explosion occurred at 11h25 (16h25 GMT) was heard about 15-km radius and at first the witnesses thought it was an earthquake, said the Hartford Courant newspaper. Television footage showed thick black smoke coming out of the facility.
“There was a loud explosion, there are many wounded and possibly dead,” police officer Gerge Yepes, of Middletown. The American press spoke of “mass casualty” in the power plant.
Under fire, explosion occurred in Kleen Energy, a gas power plant due to come into service in a few weeks.
Local police told AFP stated that people who were there at the time of the explosion “tests performed” for the launch of this service.
One witness told the Hartford Courant that “there are bodies everywhere,” while others suggested that many victims might still be buried in the rubble. The newspaper also reported that 20 ambulances were on the scene and helicopters were transporting victims to the nearest hopital.
Another Middelesex Hospital spokesman told AFP that he was establishing an emergency command for the incident. “So far we know what we have,” he said, referring to the condition of the wounded.
Kleen Energy plant, 620 megawatts, was recently acquired by 80% by a firm called Energy Investors Fund.
Toyota will recall 437,000 hybrids worldwide
TOKYO (AP) – Toyota on Tuesday called on the owners than 437,000 Prius cars and other models of hybrid engine being returned to the agencies to fix problems with the brakes, the latest in a series of security breaches that have embarrassed the largest automaker in the world.
“I do not consider Toyota a company that never makes mistakes foolproof,” President Akio Toyoda said in a press conference in Tokyo. “We face the facts and correct the problem, putting safety first and comfort of customers,” he added.
The announcement of failures brings total Prius Toyota vehicles with potential security flaws at 8.5 million, including those mats that can jam the gas pedal and other pedals that are slow to return to the neutral position. The Prius 2010 model had not been included in previous workshop called for revision.
So far about 200 complaints were filed in Japan and the U.S. on a delay of the Prius to stop when it’s cold or irregular paths. The delay does not mean that there is a brake failure.
The company says the problem can be fixed in 40 minutes with a new computer program that handles the controls of the ABS.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said in a statement Tuesday that the automaker’s executives assured him that are taken for safety concerns “very seriously”. He promised to keep in constant communication with the company to fulfill its promise to resolve the faults.
In addition, State Farm, the largest auto insurer in the U.S., said he had informed the authorities in late 2007 of an increase in complaints about Toyota vehicles unexpectedly accelerated. Congressional investigators find out whether the government missed warning signs about the failures.
On Tuesday, executives from the company were the Ministry of Transportation to notify the government formally they would seek the return of gas-electric Prius in 2010, the world’s best selling hybrid.
The automaker also extended the call for two hybrids: HS250h Lexus sedan, which sells in Japan and the United States and the Sai, sold exclusively in China.
The 223,000 cars in Japan called Tuesday include 200,000 Prius sold since April last year until Monday, according to documents filed with the ministry. The Prius is the best-selling car in Japan.
Cars with return request are 133,000 Lexus Prius and 14,500 in the U.S. and nearly 53,000 Prius cars in Europe. The company suspended production and Sai HS250h in Japan until I have the update for these models.
Toyota and the Japanese ministry said that if drivers feel a late stop, should continue stepping on the pedal.
Prius repairs start on Wednesday in Japan. The American owners will receive letters about it next week.
Toyoda President has been criticized for not being in public during the first two weeks of the crisis, since the company announced on January 21 call for problems with accelerators in the U.S., Europe and China.
After a press conference that he had trouble speaking English last week, on Tuesday read a statement in Japanese and English.
“Let me assure you that we will redouble our commitment to quality as the main priority of our company,” he said.
A powerful snowstorm affects U.S. east coast – video and news
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A powerful storm approached on Friday the U.S. east coast, threatening to record levels of snow in a region heavily dependent on supplies of oil and natural gas to keep operating the heating in homes.
Predictions are that fall between 50 and 76 inches of snow and blizzard conditions are expected from Virginia to southern New Jersey, which led to government offices in Washington to close its doors four hours earlier.
President Barack Obama, who previously made fun of reactions in Washington to drop small amounts of snow, now is not taking the storm lightly.
“I think even a person who moved from Hawaii to Chicago has enough respect for a prognosis of two feet (61 centimeters) of snow,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs.
“And being from Alabama, I’m happy to report that I will be off the road and observe all trying to drive,” Gibbs joked with reporters.
The national museums and the zoo will be closed on Saturday in Washington.
The news of the storm led to the closure of schools and created long lines at supermarkets as residents stocked up on food and other products ahead of the traditional weekend of the Superbowl.
Virginia, Maryland and the District of Columbia declared snow emergencies. The declarations allow states to turn to the bodies of emergency, such as the National Guard to prepare for winter front and deal with its results.
The huge wrap frontal system to the cities of Baltimore, Washington DC and Philadelphia in an intense blizzard with snow, while rainfall will lead to parts of the Southeast, including North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia.
Cold weather helped boost the natural gas market in New York to its highest levels of the season, where prices reached about $ 11.50 per million British thermal units, more than $ 4 price on Thursday.
Low temperatures were set in the wake of the storm over the northwestern United States, the biggest heating oil market in the world and the Midwest, a huge shopping in natural gas demand.
The airlines began to cancel their flights planned for Friday evening to Saturday’s three major air terminals of the Washington-Baltimore area.
Report: 40% of all cancers are preventable
LONDON (AP) – 40% of cancers could be avoided if people stop smoking and overeating, limiting alcohol consumption, exercise regularly and make the vaccination against cancer-causing diseases, experts said.
To mark Thursday’s World Cancer Day, the directors of the International Union Against Cancer, released a report focusing on measures that governments and the public can take to avoid illness
According to the World Health Organization, cancer accounts for one in eight deaths worldwide _ more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined. It also warned that without major changes, global deaths from cancer will increase from 7.6 million this year to 17 million by 2030.
The report of the International Union Against Cancer, the researchers said that 21% of all cancers are due to infections such as human papillomavirus, or HPV, which causes cervical cancer, and liver infections, which cause cancers of the stomach and liver.
Although Western countries have vaccines against these cancers, are almost nonexistent in the developing world. Almost 80% of HPV cancers occur in poor countries, according to the agency.
“Politicians around the world have the opportunity and obligation to use their vaccines to save lives and educate their communities to reduce the risk of getting cancer,” he said in a statement Gary Adams, director general of the International Union Against Cancer.
In Western nations, experts argue that many of the most common cancers _ including lung, breast and colon _ could be avoided if people change their habits. To reduce the risk, the agency recommended that people stop smoking, limit alcohol, avoid excess sun and maintain proper weight through diet and exercise.
U.S. experts find new clue to sudden infant death
CHICAGO (Reuters) – Babies who die from the syndrome of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS by its initials in English) generate small amounts of the brain chemical serotonin, which is essential for regulating sleep, breathing and heart rate, U.S. researchers said.
The results of the study, published in Journal of the American Medical Association, could help identify babies at risk for SIDS, which each year kills more than 2,300 infants before their first birthday.
The team said they have abnormal levels of serotonin may interfere with the breathing of babies, especially in difficult situations, and inspire too much carbon dioxide as they sleep upside down.
“We have known for years that babies sleep on your back is the most effective way to reduce the risk of SIDS,” said Dr. Alan Guttmacher, director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, which funded the study.
“The current findings provide important clues to the biological basis of SIDS and could ultimately allow to identify infants at risk, as are additional strategies to reduce the risk of SIDS in all children,” Guttmacher said in a statement.
In the study, to Dr. Hannah Kinney of Harvard Medical School and Children’s Hospital Boston, examined brain tissue of babies who died of SIDS and other causes.
The tissue came from the bone, a region at the base of the brain that regulates basic functions such as body temperature, respiration, blood pressure and heart rate.
Kinney’s team found that serotonin levels were 26 percent lower in the tissue of babies who died of SIDS than those who died of other causes.
They also found low amounts of the enzyme tryptophan hydroxylase, which is needed to make serotonin.
The results suggest that some babies have an underlying vulnerability to SIDS, which can be fatal if combined with an external disturbance such as sleeping face down, especially during the first year of life.
“Our research suggests that sleep triggers the brain defect,” Kinney said in a statement.
“When a baby is breathing on his stomach, could not be receiving enough oxygen. A baby with a normal brainstem flip over his head and wake up. But a child with an intrinsic abnormality may not respond to that stressor,” he added.
The team hopes its study will lead to the creation of a test to measure serotonin levels of infants, allowing to identify children at greatest risk of SIDS.
