So-called lifestyle drugs for baldness, erectile dysfunction or unhappiness are big business for pharmaceutical companies, but some doctors believe they are being coerced into treating a growing number of "non-diseases".

The British Medical Journal (BMJ) said a poll of its readers had identified almost 200 conditions that are not real sicknesses - ranging from allergies to jet lag- as more and more ordinary life conditions are redefined as medical problems.

The findings are controversial, with a number of doctors questioning whether debilitating conditions such as obesity and chronic fatigue syndrome are true illnesses.

British and Australian medics writing in the influential journal said some drug companies were "disease-mongering" by widening the boundaries of treatable diseases in order to boost their markets.

BMJ editor Richard Smith said it was easy to create new diseases out of many of life's normal processes, such as aging and sexuality. The challenge was to get the balance right between the under-treatment of some conditions and the over-treatment of others. "Global pharmaceutical companies have a clear interest in medicalising life's problems, and there is now an ill for every pill,"' he wrote in an edition of the influential journal devoted to the subject.

Pfizer Inc’s Viagra for male impotence is a prime example. But the industry has also pushed back the boundaries by developing anti-depressants for social phobia, promoting treatments for baldness and pushing new disease categories such as attention deficit disorder.

Advances in genetics may aggravate matters, according to David Meltzer and Ron Zimmern of Cambridge University, since genomic science may soon define us all as patients, in need of correction for genetic "defects" which predispose us to certain diseases.

-Reuters

Britain’s pets are set to get their own "bill of rights". Ministers are planning legislation that would guarantee cats, dogs and other pets a minimum quality of life. Under the rules, owners could be prosecuted if they failed to fulfil the needs of pets -from adequate food and water to enough space and companionship.

The legislation would be the biggest change in Britain’s animal welfare rules for almost a century. It could include codes of conduct for owners of cats, dogs, horses, rabbits and birds. The Royal Society for Prevention of cruelty to Animals (RSPCA), which is working with the government on the changes, has already drawn up provisional standards.

Elliot Morley, an environment minister who is drawing up the proposals, says, "We need to modernise the law by setting minimum standards for the animals in our care. We have an obligation to treat animals in the way that a civilised society expects."

The most important change is expected to be the creation of a new offence of treating animals in a way "likely to cause suffering". At present, animal owners can be prosecuted only once an animal is clearly suffering. Under the proposed law, police and the RSPCA could prosecute owners if it were believed they had broken the accepted standards for that species.

Cat owners could be prosecuted for cooping up pets and not giving them the chance to roam in a garden. Budgie owners who confine birds in small cages or keep them on their own, might be prosecuted too.

Frank Widdowson, the RSPCA’s director of legal services, said: "There should be a duty of care so that anyone in charge of an animal has a legal responsibility to meet these standards."

Morley said he accepted the basic principles but the final form of the bill was yet to be decided: "These criteria have been discussed by government advisers. They are widely accepted and easily understood".

-The Sunday Times

Researchers in the US are working on rubber mobile phones that can transmit vibrations in order to allow people to add emphasis and emotion to their calls by squeezing their phones. There are many models on the market that vibrate when there’s an incoming call. But the phones being developed at the MIT Media Lab in Massachusetts promise to go further.

They record the strength of their users’ squeeze and transmit that as a vibration to the recipient. When users grip the phone, they depress tiny speakers and pressure sensors that vibrate against the skin. Squeezing with a certain finger transmits a vibration to the recipient’s corresponding finger.

According to researcher Angela Chang, early trials have already given rise to a new form of expression. She told the New Scientist that ‘vibralanguages’ could one day prove almost as popular as text messaging, because there are times when people want to communicate something without bystanders realising.

Scientists at Kingston University in London have developed software which enables computers and CCTV cameras to prevent crime.

It works by examining images coming in from CCTV cameras and comparing them to behaviour patterns it has already programmed into its memory. The system has been developed by Dr Sergio Velastin of
the university’s Digital Imaging Research Centre to improve public transport. It will hopefully increase efficiency and safety on the London Underground.