Man in New York wearing neck chain is pulled into MRI machine, police say
The man, who is 61, was wearing a 'large metallic chain' around his neck when he entered the room at Nassau Open MRI, according to the Nassau County Police Department, on Long Island. The man, whom the police did not name, did not have authorisation to enter the room, authorities said.
Nassau Open MRI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
MRI machines use magnets and radio frequency currents to produce detailed anatomical images. The magnetic force of an MRI machine is strong enough to fling a wheelchair across a room, according to the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering. Patients are advised to remove jewelry and piercings before entering an MRI machine, and people with some medical implants, particularly those containing iron, should not undergo MRI scans, the institute said.
Injuries and deaths involving MRI machines have occurred in the past. In 2001, a six-year-old boy died when a metal oxygen tank was pulled into a machine while he was undergoing a scan.
A man died in India in 2018 when he entered an MRI room carrying an oxygen tank. In 2023, a nurse in California was crushed and needed surgery after she was pinned between an MRI machine and a hospital bed that was pulled toward the machine by the machine's magnetic force.
Nassau Open MRI offers closed and open MRI scans, according to its website. An open MRI involves a machine that is open at the sides rather than a closed tube. NYTIMES
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
World Trump diagnosed with vein condition causing leg swelling: White House
World Trump was diagnosed with chronic venous insufficiency. What is it?
Singapore 5 foreigners charged over scheme to deliberately get arrested in S'pore to sell sex drugs here
Asia Appointment of Malaysia's new chief justice eases controversy over vacant top judge seats for now
Singapore Driverless bus in Sentosa gets green light to run without safety officer in first for S'pore
Singapore SPCA appoints Walter Leong as new executive director
World US strikes destroyed only one of three Iranian nuclear sites, says new report
Business Granddaughter of late Indonesian tycoon pays $25 million for Singapore bungalow
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
24-07-2025
- Straits Times
Kuala Selangor's air quality hits unhealthy level with API of 137
Find out what's new on ST website and app. An API reading between 101 and 200 is considered unhealthy, while 51 to 100 is considered moderate. PETALING JAYA - The Air Pollutant Index (API) in Kuala Selangor is at an unhealthy level of 137 as of 11.35am on July 24. According to the Department of Environment's Air Pollutant Index Management System (APIMS), out of their 68 stations, 64 have recorded moderate levels while three areas fall under the good category. An API reading between 101 and 200 is considered unhealthy, while 51 to 100 is considered moderate. Currently, Batu Muda in Kuala Lumpur and Shah Alam in Selangor have an API of 92, followed by Johan Setia in Selangor and Nilai, Negri Sembilan with 89. Other areas with slightly higher readings include Petaling Jaya with 85 and Cheras in Kuala Lumpur with 84. In Sarawak, the API readings range from 74 to 59, while in Sabah they range from 78 to 52. The areas with good API readings are Langkawi, at 40 , Kangar, Perlis at 42 , and Balik Pulau, Penang at 50 . THE STAR/ ASIA NEWS NETWORK Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Asia At least 2 Thai civilians killed as Thai and Cambodian militaries clash at disputed border Asia Live: Thai-Cambodia border clash Singapore Boy, 15, charged after being caught with vapes 5 times; ordered to stay 2 years in S'pore Boys' Home Business MOM probing work injury claim flagged by late Sumo Salad boss Jane Lee: MOS Dinesh Business New tie-up offers insurance savings for SMEs committed to workers' health and well-being Singapore What's key to a good life? Most Singapore residents choose emotional and mental well-being Singapore Astronomer executives' Coldplay scandal: Why it went viral and the obsession with public shaming World Trump was told he is in Epstein files, Wall Street Journal reports
Asia News Network
22-07-2025
- Asia News Network
Indonesia seizes US$460 million worth of meth so far in 2025, a six-year record haul
July 22, 2025 JAKARTA – Indonesia is on track to record the largest seizure of drugs by the National Narcotics Agency (BNN) in six years, said the agency's chief, with confiscation of methamphetamine reaching 3.41 tonnes – with a street value of $590 million – so far in 2025. This half-year haul has surpassed the total annual seizure in the previous five years. The latest raid in the waters off Batam in mid-May netted a record 2.1 tonnes of methamphetamine, a synthetic drug also known as meth. The amount can feed eight million addicts, with each gram typically consumed by four people. BNN confiscated less than a tonne for the whole of 2024, and between 2020 and 2023, annually netted between 1.2 tonnes and 2.8 tonnes, according to government data. Government agencies have also, so far in 2025, seized 2.65 tonnes of other drugs, such as marijuana and cocaine, with a street value of at least $95 million. In an interview on July 3, BNN chief Marthinus Hukom shed light on a drug-trafficking maritime route spanning Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan. 'The production was in Myanmar while the vessel was built in Thailand,' said Commissioner-General Marthinus, referring to the meth seizure in May. Large-scale production of meth, combined with an ongoing war in Myanmar since 2021, has driven up the supply of the illicit drug in South-east Asia, said a recent report by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Seizures of meth across the region were at record highs in 2024, totalling 236 tonnes – a 24 per cent increase compared with the 2023 haul, said UNODC. Meth, a powerful and fast-acting stimulant, can harm a person's heart, teeth and brain if used regularly. It can also cause paranoia, mood swings and memory loss. While there has been a slight decline in drug prevalence in Indonesia, it is still at a worrying level. Marijuana and meth are the two most-used drugs, followed by Ecstasy, ketamine, cocaine and prescription drug abuse. The number of police cases involving arrests of drug offenders in the first 11 months of 2024 stood at 53,672 – up from 50,291 cases in 2023, and 44,983 in 2022, according to government data. Mr Marthinus revealed that for the large meth seizure in May, the drugs had been loaded onto a trade ship in the Andaman Sea off Myanmar. The vessel, Sea Dragon Tarawa, then sailed south through the Malacca Strait to the waters bordering Indonesia and Singapore. It later turned into the South China Sea, cruising off Kalimantan to drop off the meth packages for the Indonesian market, he said. The ship then headed into Philippine and Taiwan waters to unload more drugs. It later looped back to go back into the Andaman Sea, with the trip made several times. It was during one of those regular trips that the ship was caught near Batam, after leaving the Malacca Strait. Data of the trips made was collected by BNN from the vessel's Automatic Identification System satellites. Noting that drug packages sometimes fall off a vessel during trans-shipment, Mr Marthinus said: 'Small boats pick up merchandise from the passing vessel. In the past, local fishermen have found drug packages floating on the sea off North Kalimantan.' The drugs dropped off near Kalimantan were taken to Java and Sulawesi, among other places. According to BNN's analysis, the drugs normally enter Malaysia via boats from Sarawak's capital Kuching and the Philippines through Tawi-Tawi and Mindanao islands. Singapore was not on the delivery list of the Sea Dragon Tarawa. 'We have cut the trade chain for not only Asean countries, but also Taiwan. We expect the drug rings will change their route,' said Mr Marthinus, a former head of Indonesia's anti-terror police squad Detachment 88. Meth in Indonesia is commonly consumed by labourers, plantation workers, drivers and nightlife workers, while marijuana is typically favoured by youth and students. Another synthetic drug, Ecstasy, is commonly used in nightclubs, said BNN. Mr Maturidi Putra, a former drug addict who has been clean for 10 years, said: 'The cure is as simple as returning to the life we had before we became addicted. Avoid the people and environment that led us there in the first place.' The 51-year-old entrepreneur is among scores of people who have returned to a normal life without going through rehabilitation. Mr Denny Bintang, 39, an anti-drug activist who started a 6,400-member Facebook group promoting rehabilitation and campaigning against illicit drugs, told The Straits Times that many addicts are unaware of government facilities that offer free rehabilitation services. 'Many are also afraid to come forward and use the service, thinking they will be arrested,' said Mr Denny, noting there is low awareness that Indonesian law recognises some users as victims, not criminals. He also noted that privately run rehabilitation centres are expensive and not every addict or the family can afford it. The average retail price of meth in Indonesia in 2024 was about US$135 (S$173) per gram, according to UNODC. Prices vary widely across the region, with the lowest prices reported near Myanmar and rising in places farther away. The per-gram street price is US$6 in Myanmar, US$79 in the Philippines, and US$68 in Hong Kong, the UN agency said in a June 26 report. The May raid on the Sea Dragon Tarawa was the result of a five-month intelligence operation, Mr Marthinus said. The six-member crew – four Indonesians and two Thais – were arrested, and 67 cardboard boxes, wrapped in plastic and camouflaged as green tea packages, were seized as evidence. Inside the boxes were 2,000 smaller packages of meth weighing a total of 2.1 tonnes. Similar to a terror network, drug ring leaders target people from poor economic backgrounds to help them expand operations as they are easy to recruit, said Mr Marthinus. 'In the drug operations, they are the sales agents, couriers… We map out the regions in Indonesia that are prone to be recruitment centres. We do our work from there,' he added. Meanwhile, the total number of drug abusers remains a worry, even though the figure has dipped slightly. Indonesian government data shows drug users in the 15 to 64 age group totalled 3.33 million people in 2023, compared with 3.66 million in 2021. Mr Yogo Tri Hendiarto, a criminologist at the University of Indonesia, told ST: 'Demand dictates supply. The large quantity of drugs confiscated this year suggests that demand remains strong in Indonesia and elsewhere, while the country's low prevalence rate indicates that prevention and rehabilitation efforts have been effective.' But he noted that the lower number of drug abusers could be due to weaknesses in survey methodology.
Business Times
21-07-2025
- Business Times
A looming dairy drought will stunt the world's growth
IT IS every baby's first food, and we cannot get enough of it. The world produces close to a billion tonnes of milk each year – more than all the wheat or rice we grow. That lead is set to widen over the coming decade, with dairy consumption expected to grow faster than any other agricultural commodity. On a rapidly warming planet, this poses a host of problems. Consider demand. There are more than half a billion people under the age of four in developing countries, and about a third of them suffer from stunting – short stature that is associated with health, educational and economic problems in later life. Most could benefit from the policy first proposed by Scottish nutritionist John Boyd Orr in the 1920s: provision of dairy products to give them a more nutritionally rich diet. That is one of the main pillars of Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto's newly introduced free school meals programme, as my colleague Daniel Moss has written. Similar programmes have been set up in many states in India, as well as South Africa and Kenya. In terms of human welfare, we should be welcoming this trend. Dairy products are relatively expensive, and we consume more of them as we rise above the most basic subsistence levels. If South Asia, South-east Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are likely to see booming consumption over the coming decade, as the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development forecast last week, it is largely a positive symptom of their long-awaited economic development. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up The problem comes when you start looking at supply. Milk is mostly being produced in the wrong places for the young stomachs that need it. More than 90 per cent of children under four are in developing countries – but the same nations produce barely half of the world's milk. Europe alone represents a quarter of global output, and highly perishable dairy products are not much sold across borders. The total worldwide trade in whole milk powder, for instance – after a decade when China's hunger for baby formula upended the global dairy industry – accounts for about 2 per cent of raw milk. Even that limited commerce has been sufficient to upset local supply chains. In New Zealand, often likened to the Saudi Arabia of dairy thanks to its dominance in exports, demand from South-east Asian importers drove whole milk powder prices to a three-year high in May, while butter inflation is running above 50 per cent. With trade providing only limited relief, we are most likely to see shortages, as rising demand from developing countries is met with limited increases in supply. The world's milk deficit will hit 30 million tonnes by 2030, the International Dairy Federation warned in April. The IFCN Dairy Research Network, a separate group, still sees a 10.5 million tonne shortfall by the same date. That dairy drought will push prices beyond the reach of those who most need it. Climate change makes all of this worse. Rising temperatures will mean it is even harder for tropical and subtropical countries to be self-sufficient: Extreme heat can cut milk production by as much as 10 per cent, according to a study in the journal Science Advances earlier this month. Milk is also a major culprit in global warming, as well as a victim of it. Dairy cattle emissions, mostly from methane-dense burps as cows digest grass, amount to 2.1 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, equivalent to what is caused by two-thirds of all cars. The shift to more production in developing nations will make this even worse. Pollution for each kilogram of raw milk in Africa and South Asia is three to four times higher than in developed countries, because the mechanised, intensive dairy farming practised in the rich world has a far lower carbon footprint. What can be done to fix this? Wealthy nations whose appetite for plant-based alternatives appears to be wavering should recommit to their shift away from livestock-based food. Far too much of our limited capacity to sustain dairy production is still being hogged by affluent populations, who have grown so jaded that we now use milk for luxuries like bodybuilding supplements as much as for basic nutrition. Relatively prosperous developing countries like China and Brazil can also up their game by moving to more intensive farming. They could get by with a third of their current dairy herd if they raised yields to developed-world levels. In India, the biggest dairy producer, the benefits could be even greater. Thanks to religious objections to the slaughter of cows after they stop producing, there are more than five million stray cattle roaming the streets, spreading disease, attacking people, getting hit by traffic and fuelling organised crime. A smaller, more intensively raised herd would shrink this bovine epidemic. Greater dairying of buffalo, which already produce about half of India's milk and are not considered sacred, would also help. One thing is certain, though: Exhorting poor countries to give up the nutritional benefits of dairy that their richer peers have enjoyed is repugnant, and bound to fail. If we want to reduce milk's carbon footprint, we are going to need to produce it more efficiently, rather than hoping the problem will just go away. BLOOMBERG
