Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bakersfield, CA, September 9, 2006

BAD AIR IS CAUSING OBESITY, by Richard E Sall MD

There is an epidemic of obesity world wide that is attributable to overeating and lack of exercise. I have no quarrel with that. But why are people performing in this way?

My theory is that people are getting fat because it is a biological preservation response to environmental pollution.

Exposure to environmental toxins appears to be the root cause of the epidemic of obesity we are witnessing worldwide. It is the body's attempt to reduce the impact of these poisons on our physiological processes by becoming larger.

Ramazzini, the father of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, determined in 1700 that the poison is in the dose. Meaning - any substance can be a toxin to the body if the dose is large enough. A dose refers to the amount of concentration in the body. The dose is dependent on body size. If the body size is increased the dose is diminished by dilution because the concentration of a substance is dependent on the size of the medium it is in. This gives the body time to detoxify the substance by the liver and kidneys. With toxins that cannot be removed like lead and mercury, the dilution effect may be the last protective barrier for the body to maintain homeostasis.

TOP 25 FATTEST CITIES:

1. Chicago

2. Las Vegas

3. Los Angeles

4. Dallas

5. Houston

6. Memphis, Tenn.

7. Long Beach, Calif.

8. El Paso, Texas

9. Kansas City, Mo.

10. Mesa, Ariz.

11. Indianapolis

12. San Antonio

13. Fort Worth, Texas

14. Miami

15. Detroit

16. Columbus, Ohio

17. Oklahoma City

18. Cleveland

19. Wichita, Kan.

20. Charlotte, N.C.

21. San Diego

22. Fresno, Calif.

23. Philadelphia

24. San Jose, Calif.

25. New York

TOP 25 FITTEST CITIES:

1. Baltimore

2. Honolulu

3. Virginia Beach, Va.

4. Tucson, Ariz.

5. Milwaukee

6. Colorado Springs, Colo.

7. San Francisco

8. Seattle

9. Louisville-Jefferson, Ky.

10. Boston

11. Sacramento, Calif.

12. Nashville-Davidson, Tenn.

13. Albuquerque

14. Tulsa, Okla.

15. Phoenix

16. Atlanta

17. Portland, Ore.

18. Washington

19. Oakland, Calif.

20. Denver

21. Minneapolis

22. Arlington, Texas

23. Austin, Texas

24. Jacksonville, Fla.

25. Omaha, Neb.

U.S. METROPOLITAN AREAS MOST POLLUTED BY YEAR-ROUND PARTICLES:

1. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Riverside, California

2. Bakersfield, California

3. Pittsburgh-New Castle, Pennsylvania

4. Visalia-Porterville, California

5. Fresno-Madera, California

6. Detroit-Warren-Flint, Michigan

7. Hanford-Corcoran, California

8. Cleveland-Akron-Elyria, Ohio

9. Birmingham-Hoover-Cullman, Alabama

9. Atlanta-Sandy Springs-Gainesville, Georgia -Alabama

11. Chicago-Naperville-Michigan City, Illinois - Indiana -Wisconsin

12. Weirton-Steubenville, West Virginia -Ohio

13. York-Hanover-Gettysburg, Pennsylvania

14 St. Louis-St. Charles-Farmington, Missouri - Illinois

15 Cincinnati -Middletown -Wilmington, Ohio - Kentucky - Indiana

16. New York-Newark-Bridgeport, N.Y.-N.J.-Conn.

17 Lancaster, Pa.

18. Merced, Calif.

19 Canton-Massillon, Ohio

20. Charleston, W.Va.

21. Washington-Baltimore-Northern Virginia, D.C.-Md.-Va.-W.Va.

22. Reading, Pa.

23 Hagerstown-Martinsburg, Md.-W.Va.

24. Indianapolis-Anderson-Columbus, Ind.

25. Louisville-Elizabethtown-Scottsburg, Ky.-Ind.

US CITIES WITH THE CLEANEST AIR:

1. Santa Fe, New Mexico

2. Honolulu, Hawaii

3. Cheyenne, Wyoming

4. Great Falls, Montana

5. Farmington, New Mexico

THE LEAST SMOGGY METROPOLITAN AREAS:

1. Ames, Iowa

2. Bellingham, Washington

3. Brownsville, Texas

4. Colorado Springs, Colorado

5. Duluth, Minnesota

A REPORT FROM THE AMERICAN LUNG ASSOCIATION STATES THAT:

- 55 per cent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone or particle pollution.

- 47 per cent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy levels of ozone.

- 28 per cent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy short-term levels of particle pollution.

- 23 per cent of Americans live in areas with unhealthy year-round levels of particle pollution.

- 16 per cent of Americans live in areas where there are unhealthy levels of ozone and short-term and year-round particle pollution.

ASIA:

According to studies by the World Health Organization, five of the seven cities with the worst air pollution are in Asia:

1. Beijing

2. Calcutta

3. Jakarta

4. New Delhi

5. Shenyang

TWO OF THE CITIES WITH THE BEST AIR QUALITY ARE ALSO IN ASIA:

1. Tokyo

2. Singapore

In India, home to half of all undernourished people in the world, 55% of women between 20 and 69 years old are overweight, according to a recent study. A survey released by China's Ministry of Health found that the number of obese Chinese had doubled to 60 million between 1992 and 2002, while some 200 million are at least overweight; among children, the obesity rate has reached 8.1%.

Altogether, the International Obesity Task Force that studies the spread of the epidemic estimates that 1.7 billion people - one out of every five worldwide - are overweight or obese.

COUNTRIES WHERE 25% OF CHILDREN ARE OBESE:

1. Britain

2. Chile

3. China

4. France

5. Germany

6. Hungary

7. Hong Kong

8. Japan

9. Mexico

10. Morocco

11. Peru

12. Singapore

13. USA

14. Zambia

What this information shows is that there is an association between Obesity and Environmental Pollution. If the contention that the root cause of this epidemic of obesity is Environmental Pollution - we will not be successful in controlling obesity unless Environmental Pollution is controlled and reduced.

Maybe Osama Bin Ladin has the right idea. Live in a cave in a remote village away from pollution and you can keep your weight down.

* Data for this article was obtained from The American Lung Association, World Health Organization, International Obesity Task Force, WebMD, The Associated Press, The Earth Policy Institute, The International Herald Tribune, and PBS.

For more information please contact the author at resallmd@hotmail.com

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Bakersfield, CA, August 12, 2006

Doctor writes about what he knows

A Medical Dirty Harry

Reviews

Doctor writes about what he knows

BY EMILY HAGEDORN, Californian staff writer
e-mail: ehagedorn@bakersfield.com | Saturday, Aug 12 2006 8:30 PM

Last Updated: Saturday, Aug 12 2006 8:34 PM

Don't let sterile, sparsely decorated doctors' offices fool you. They are ripe with inspiration.

Dr. Richard Sall

For Dr. Richard Sall, big ideas live in interesting diagnoses, cost-conscious administrators, bold physicians and in doctors of the past.

"I like strong heroes, like Dirty Harry, that buck the system," said Sall, an occupational medicine doctor and medical director of Business Health Network in Bakersfield.

The 59-year-old physician/author has written three books, fiction and nonfiction, all having to do with health care.

And along with finding inspiration at his day job, Sall also found an illustrator to do his two most recent books' covers: Eric "Ray" Oros, 17, the son of one of the women who works in his office.

"Each person with their medical problems is like their own little story that needs a solution," Sall said.

An unlikely start

If college is an indicator of someone's future career choices, Sall should detest writing.

Attending Wayne State University in Detroit, Sall got a D on a freshman English paper. After Sall rewrote the paper over and over, trying to bring it up to par, the professor accused him of plagiarism. Since the charge couldn't be proved, the professor said Sall's grade on the final exam would be his grade for the class.

Reading the exam's essay question -- "It had to do with existentialism; I didn't even know what existentialism meant" -- Sall packed up all his things and left the final, giving up.

He got as far as the first stop light before he turned around and came back to try his best.

Sall passed with a C.

An accidental passion

Stall stumbled on to writing almost by accident.

He started by collecting and cataloging information on workers' compensation to help him at work.

At some point, though, he realized he had amassed enough information for a book, so his stacks of papers and computer files became "Strategies in Workers' Compensation," published in June 2004.

"When you see something the first time in print, you're really surprised," he said. "Then that wears off, accompanied by frustration because it's so hard to have a title recognized."

Next came "Straightjacket," a novel, in April.

In that book, naive and talented surgeon Joe Grady butts heads with a hospital administrator and must complete 10 major cases in the next 30 days or find somewhere else to hang his stethoscope. At the same time, Grady is falling in love with a nurse who has a "dangerously demented" mother.

Sall hadn't meant to go into fiction writing. He just wanted to highlight the goings-on at a hospital.

"Most people don't know what's in a doctor's mind," he said.

A friend suggested putting his vignettes into story form since people seem drawn to narratives.

"I thought about it, and just started doing it," he said of pulling the pieces into fiction. "I wasn't sure if I was going to be successful or not. I just worked at it month after month."

An unlikely partnership

The next problem arose when Book Surge, a self-publishing company, sent artwork of three belts and two knives crisscrossing the the cover.

It didn't really fit the book, Sall said.

Monica Miranda Oros, an authorization clerk in Sall's office, suggested that Sall work with her then-16-year-old son. He had just finished a class in Photoshop at the Southwest Educational Center at the New Life Apostolic Church, on Hughes Lane.

"I thought she was just being a proud mother," Sall said. "I didn't think it would work out."

But he gave the boy a chance.

Two to three days later, Oros produced an image of a person in a straightjacket in front of an old hospital.

Still not right. Too scary, Sall said.

Working through the night, Oros finally came up with an image of a man looking into the distance from the top corner of the cover. Another man is walking off the cover in the lower corner. In the background rises a stretched artists' rendering of the building Sall works in, at 9500 Stockdale Highway.

"I like the way your mind works when you're working (on a design)," Oros said. "A lot of ideas start coming to me."

Sall's latest book is "Behind the Union Curtain: The Battle Between Union Workers and Company Doctors," which came out in June.

"I always wondered about unions," he said.

Growing up in Detroit, Sall saw how unions operated in a working-class town. His new book looks at company physicians and their relationship with union workers.

He called upon Oros again to do the cover. Reading about history inspired Oros.

"It gave me an idea to look up old pictures," he said.

Set against a maroon background, old sepia-tone photos of pickets and workers jut out from the bottom left corner.

After three books in two years, Sall hasn't decided on his next project, maybe a sequel to "Straightjacket." But for now he's taking a break.

"I thought writing was something a person just did as a side venture. You see a lot of celebrities come out with a book, something they just put together in their spare time," Sall said, with a laugh. "It's really not like that. Writing is like an occupation in and of itself."

There are lots of regular "Joes" and "Janes" out there doing perfectly extraordinary things with their lives but never make the headlines. Know of anyone like that? Think they'd make a great story? Call us at 395-7384 or e-mail us at local@bakersfield.com and say you have a submission for a Real People story.

A Medical Dirty Harry

Acclaimed Surgeon, Richard Sall, publishes his first novel – a fast-paced, medical suspense adventure, titled Straightjacket

BAKERSFIELD , CALIFORNIA –

Plenty of sarcastic one-liners.

A man who refuses to knuckle under to bean counter bureaucrats.

Calm.

Cool.

In control.

Keeps his promises.

The story of a young surgery resident at the end of his rope when he discovers that he has not performed enough surgery to meet the requirements for certification. His world is crumbling around him as he falls in love with a nurse who has a demented mother.

The mother sees him as a rival to her affection and is intent at eliminating the competition by using her gang affiliations. Love and romance supersedes the dangers.

For more information, or for a free review copy, please contact the author at resallmd@hotmail.com . Straightjacket is available for sale online at Amazon.com, Borders.com, BookSurge.com, and through additional wholesale and retail channels worldwide.

About the Author

Richard E. Sall, MD, is a general surgeon who went on to become Board Certified in both Medicine and Surgery after completing his surgical residency. He lives with wife in Central California and currently is Medical Director of Business Health Network in Bakersfield , California . Dr. Sall began writing in 2001 and published in 2004 his first work, Strategies in Workers' Compensation , which focused on management problems and solutions of injured workers. Straightjacket is his first novel.