It’s on.

Today the U.S. Coast Guard gave its approval to BP’s “top kill” plan to finally cap the oil spill, and at 2 p.m. Eastern time, the company got started. BP leaders warned that it may take a couple of days before they know for sure if it worked, but now say they will maintain the live video feed during the top kill attempt.

A successful capping of the leaking well could finally begin to mend the company’s brittle image after weeks of failed efforts, and perhaps limit the damage to wildlife and marine life from reaching catastrophic levels. A failure could mean several months more of leaking oil, devastating economic and environmental impacts across the gulf region, and mounting financial liabilities for the company. BP has already spent an estimated $760 million in fighting the spill, and two relief wells it is drilling as a last resort to seal the well may not be completed until August [The New York Times].

This procedure is no sure bet, because a top kill hasn’t been attempted 5,000 feet down in the sea before. BP’s CEO Tony Hayward estimates the percentage chance of success in the 60s.

The procedure requires an elaborate and precise orchestration among five vessels at the surface, whose duties range from housing pumping equipment to storing a total of 50,000 barrels of drilling mud, and several remote-controlled undersea robots. If all goes as planned, the dense mud will be pumped through a single 6-5/8-inch-diameter drill pipe from one vessel, which will then enter two 3-inch-diameter hoses. Those hoses will deliver the material to the sea floor, where they will intersect with the choke and kill lines of the damaged blowout preventer, which sits atop the well [Christian Science Monitor].

Whether this works may depend on whether the weight of the mud is enough to push the oil back into the well, which isn’t certain. If it fails, the junk shot option—trying to plug up the leak with tires and golf balls and other trash—is still on the table.

Recent posts on the BP oil spill:
80beats: Oil Spill Now on 65 Miles of Shoreline; BP Will Try a “Top Kill” to Stop the Leak
80beats: BP To Switch Dispersants; Will Kevin Costner Save Us All?
80beats: Scientists Say Gulf Spill Is Way Worse Than Estimated. How’d We Get It So Wrong?
80beats: Testimony Highlights 3 Major Failures That Caused Gulf Spill
80beats: 5 Offshore Oil Hotspots Beyond the Gulf That Could Boom—Or Go Boom

Image: BP

Remember the sunscreen speech? The Chicago Tribune column, which became an urban legend and then a bizarre spoken word hit for Baz Luhrmann, began

Wear sunscreen.

If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

But is even this sage advice subject to the “it’ll cause cancer, no wait, it’ll cure cancer” back-and-forth that plagues medical studies? Reading some headlines today, you might think so. Don’t toss out your tube of Banana Boat just yet, though.

The non-profit Environmental Working Group released another of its reports on the sunscreen industry, coming down hard on the chemicals it uses and the claims it makes in its advertising. Some stories about the report drew headlines like “Sunscreen May Hurt, Not Help;” “Your Sunscreen May Give You Cancer: Study;” and “Study: Many Sunscreens May Be Accelerating Cancer.”

EWG’s report claims that a Vitamin A compound called retinyl palmitate, used in some 40 percent of sunscreens, breaks down and causes skin damage under exposure to sunlight. The report cites research done under the Food and Drug Administration. But, according to dermatologist Henry W. Lim of Henry Ford Hospital:

These claims, says Lim, are based on a study in mice, which are far more susceptible to skin cancer than humans. “It’s dangerous to apply a finding in mice to humans, and I’ve spoken with a number of my colleagues about this and we all agree that it’s very premature to even cast doubt about the safety of this chemical.” The EWG also flagged products with oxybenzone, which it calls a “hormone-disrupting” compound. This, too, is based on mice data, says Lim; the animals were fed significantly greater amounts of the chemical than what’s commonly applied in sunscreen. Other research found no significant changes in blood hormone levels in human volunteers who were told to apply sunscreens containing oxybenzone every day for two weeks [U.S. News & World Report].

I called up dermatologist Darrell Rigel at New York University, who argues that since Vitamin A is used in skin cancer treatment, the claim that it’s a cancer-causer is a dubious one. As the old graduation speech notes, the benefits of sunscreen have been shown for the millions of people who’ve used it to protect their skin for the last quarter-century. Rigel’s worry is that cancer fear-mongering would lead people to go without sunscreen this weekend and throughout the summer, subjecting themselves to damaging burns. “That’s what the real danger is,” he says.

Besides, the Vitamin A compound isn’t the whole story. Back to Dr. Lim:

Interestingly, the EWG gave its green or favorable rating only to products that contain zinc oxide or titanium dioxide, two blockers that don’t get absorbed into the skin and are considered pretty innocuous. But Lim says that some dermatologists have expressed concerns about the use of these compounds in people who have inflammatory skin conditions like eczema. Tiny cracks in the skin of people with eczema could allow these compounds to enter the bloodstream [U.S. News & World Report].

So do pay attention to the ingredients if you have skin conditions. And if you’d prefer find a sunscreen without the Vitamin A ingredient anyway, the EWG’s database can give you a hand with that.

Just don’t stop wearing sunscreen, please. In fact, use more: The EWG reinforces some helpful points we already knew, including that high SPF numbers can lead people into a false sense of security so they don’t use enough sunscreen, or don’t reapply it when necessary. In addition, they argue, sunscreens should come with more information about their ability to block UVA radiation, and not just UVB.

This is partially the fault of the FDA, which has promised–and failed to deliver on–regulations for sunscreen. The organization claims that regulations might be issued as soon as next October, but manufacturers will have at least a year to comply [Fast Company].

Finally, the EWG reminds the public that sunscreen shouldn’t be a primary protector—that is, don’t stay out shirtless all day in the blazing heat because you slathered on some SPF 45 in the morning.

Related Content:
DISCOVER: The Biology of Sunscreen
DISCOVER: Outrunning Melanoma
Discoblog: Sunscreen: Healthy Habit for You, Bringer of Death for Coral Reefs
Discoblog: Lather Up: New Sunscreen Could Be Inspired By Hippo Sweat

Image: flickr / Indexorama

They change their clothes frequently. They shower repeatedly, sometimes using a whole bar of soap in one go. Some even swallow perfume.

They think they smell bad, but they don’t.

Olfactory reference syndrome is a rare psychiatric disorder, but it can lead to isolation, depression, and suicide. It’s also a little-noticed, little-studied syndrome. But now a study to appear in Depression and Anxiety has looked at twenty sufferers and reviewed current literature on the disorder to determine its general characteristics.

Psychiatrists have known about the disorder’s symptoms for over a century, but treatment and diagnosis are difficult, in part because the syndrome doesn’t currently have its own classification in Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM)–the handbook of mental health professionals. The manual combines the syndrome with other disorders, such as social phobia, delusional disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The new study gives recommendations for updating the next version of the manual, and suggests adding this disorder to an appendix of conditions that need further research.

As reported by HealthDay News, nineteen of the study’s twenty volunteers exhibited at least one compulsive behavior, like repeated self-sniffing or showering. On average, they spent eight hours a day thinking about their smell. Fearing social interactions, forty percent had been housebound for over a week.

Many patients thought the smell came from their mouth, but they were also concerned with their armpits, genitalia, anus, feet, and skin, according to a MedPage Today article.

Katharine Phillips, a coauthor of the study and a professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University, presented these and other findings on Tuesday at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting. She told Reuters Health:

“I think it’s a very secret and hidden disorder, because these patients tend to be very ashamed of themselves…. I have been so struck by the intense suffering that the patients experience.”

Related content:
Discoblog: Bad Breath? Body Odor? Don’t Bother Applying to China’s Space Program
Discoblog: Doctor, Is My Diabetes Medicine Supposed to Smell Like Gym Socks?
DISCOVER: Finding the Right Word Odor
DISCOVER: The Brain: The First Yardstick for Measuring Smells

Image: flickr / mysza831

Florida Today is reporting that Space X is planning to launch their first Falcon 9 rocket as early as this week, May 27 or 28! [Update: I just found out that the launch has been delayed to Jun 2/3 due to a slip in the schedule of a launch of a Delta IV.]

I am an unabashed fan of Space X, one of many commercial companies building rockets to make access to space easier, more reliable, and less expensive. They have already shown themselves to be capable of putting rockets into space, and being resilient while doing so. The Falcon 9 is the next in their series of rockets; this one capable of getting supplies to the Space Station, sending astronauts into orbit, and eventually, being able to put a 20 ton payload into geosynchronous orbit.

You can keep up-to-date with what’s what on the Space X updates page. I’ll be keeping a close watch on events as well. This is the future of space exploration, quite literally, and I’m very excited about it.

Image credit: Space X.