Police in Red Oak report one person was arrested this (Thursday) afternoon, for trespassing on railroad property. 20-year old Kyle Robert Danick, of Red Oak, was taken into custody at around 3:05-p.m. in the vicinity of Marsden Avenue and Coolbaugh Street. He was being held at the Montgomery County Law Enforcement Center in $300 bond.

There are thousands of rare diseases and it can be a frustrating, expensive challenge for people to get the proper diagnosis and treatment, especially in rural states like Iowa. Nicole Boice is the founder of Global Genes, an advocacy group for people with rare illnesses. Boice says their new survey finds many patients are usually sent from one doctor to the next. “It takes, on average, seven years for a patient to actually receive a proper diagnosis,” Boice says. “While they’re on that seven-year journey, they typically see up to eight different physicians and they are misdiagnosed two to three times.” 

She says some Iowans who live in remote areas have to travel long distances to see a specialist to get the tests or the treatment they need. “You’re tested, you’re re-tested, it’s very trying financially for these families,” Boice says. “From this survey, we’ve seen that about 40% of the patients have had to borrow money from family or friends to pay for their health care and over half have had to dip into their savings. There’s a tremendous amount of medical bankruptcy within the rare disease community.” 

Rare diseases affect about one in ten Americans so Boice says it’s likely everyone knows someone suffering from such an illness. Some of the diseases are more well-known, like cystic fibrosis or muscular dystrophy. The report also shows 92-percent of physicians report they find it difficult to address the needs of rare disease patients in a typical office visit. 

More than seven-thousand distinct rare diseases exist and about 80-percent are caused by faulty genes. The National Institutes of Health estimates 50-percent of people affected by rare diseases are children, making rare diseases one of the most deadly and debilitating for children worldwide.

(Radio Iowa)

You’re guilty of drunk driving if your blood alcohol level is point-oh-eight or above today in all 50 states, but there’s a push to get even tougher — and Iowa’s governor isn’t ruling out the idea. Governor Terry Branstad says he’ll carefully review the recommendation from the National Transportation Safety Board. “We were at 0.13 (blood alcohol level) and then we went to 0.10 and now we’ve gone to 0.08,” Branstad says. “We have made significant progress in reducing drunk driving in the state of Iowa.” 

In 1996, more than 26-thousand motorists in Iowa were charged with “operating while intoxicated.” State officials lowered the standard for judging drunken driving ten years ago. After that tougher, point-oh-eight standard went into effect July 1st of 2003, there was a slight increase in drunk driving arrests, but there’s been a decline in drunk driving arrests in each of the past four years. “And there has been a continued reduction in the amount of fatalities related to operating motor vehicles under the influence of alcohol,” Branstad says. 

Twenty years ago, 170 people died in traffic accidents in Iowa that involved an intoxicated driver. Last year there were half that many. In 2012, there were 80 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in Iowa, however that was 25 more drunk driving deaths than in 2011. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, drunk driving is a “national epidemic” and about one-third of traffic deaths are caused by drunken drivers. That’s why the agency is calling for the dramatically low blood alcohol standard of point-oh-five. “Whether this is an appropriate additional step of not, I think we’ll want to get more information and carefully review and study what kind of impact this would have,” Branstad says. 

A blood alcohol test determines the volume of alcohol that is in a person’s blood. According to the American Beverage Institute, a point-oh-five blood alcohol standard would “criminalize perfectly responsible behavior” like having a glass of wine with dinner. Most countries in European and South America have the point-oh-five blood alcohol standard for drunk driving. Last year over 17-thousand people were charged with driving in Iowa when their blood alcohol content was point-oh-eight or above. 

(Radio Iowa)

A temporary offer of free nicotine patches and gum for Iowans who are trying to quit smoking is being extended. The Iowa Department of Public Health had planned to offer the free nicotine replacement therapy only during the month of June. But, Tobacco Use Prevention and Control Division Director Meghan O’Brien says the response was so strong that the free patches and gum will be made available for at least the next year — through June 2014. She credits an increase in the budget for the Quitline Iowa service. The Quitline budget approved by lawmakers and the governor amounts to roughly $1.2 million. 

The free patches and gum offer had previously been part of the Quitline Iowa service from 2008 to 2010. The offer was discontinued in July 2010 as part of a budget cutting move. Iowans can request a four-week supply of the nicotine patches or gum by calling 1-800-QUIT-NOW or by visiting www.quitlineiowa.org. O’Brien notes that this month marks the five-year anniversary of Iowa’s Smokefree Air Act. The legislation banned smoking in almost all public places.

(Radio Iowa)