Miscellaneous News

RSS

Tobacco industry is continuing its targeted marketing to teens via candy-flavored cigarettes

Advertising and promotion for these products uses hip-hop imagery, attractive women, and other imagery to appeal to youth in similar ways that Joe Camel did a decade ago.

2 Aug 2005

Australian Medical Association backs mandatory use of ethanol in petrol on health grounds

Australian Medical Association (AMA) President, Dr Mukesh Haikerwal, has written to the Australian Government's Biofuels Taskforce detailing the AMA's support for the mandatory use of ethanol in petrol in the interests of protecting and improving human health.

2 Aug 2005

Elderly need to make sure they get enough vitamin B12

These days, most health warnings about vitamins focus on the danger of overdose. For vitamin B12, though, it's more likely that people are getting too little. In fact, B12 deficiency is the most common nutritional deficiency in the developing world and possibly in the United States as well, reports the August issue of the Harvard Health Letter.

2 Aug 2005

Respected medical journal worried at lack of international cooperation in investigating scientific fraud

In a rather worrying development this week, prestige medical publication the British Medical Journal (BMJ) has expressed concern about the validity of a paper it published in 1992 written by Dr Ram B Singh of Moradabad, India.

1 Aug 2005

U.S. beaches getting dirtier and some are disappearing

The National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has said this week that more and more U.S. beaches are being closed due to contamination, partly because there is more pollution and partly because of better monitoring.

31 Jul 2005

British High Court overturns earlier "right-to-food" ruling

The General Medical Council in the UK has won its appeal in the High Court against a ruling which earlier gave a seriously-ill patient the right to stop doctors withdrawing food and drink.

28 Jul 2005

Cancer dye Sudan 1 found in curry powders

The UK's Food Standards Agency (FSA) said today that batches of curry powder have been withdrawn from sale after they were found to contain the banned dye Sudan 1.

28 Jul 2005

Effects of ostracism are a health concern

Ostracism is more powerful now than ever because people have fewer strong family and friend support systems to fall back on when faced with exclusion in relationships, the workplace or even Internet chat rooms, says a Purdue University social psychologist.

28 Jul 2005

Participants in the gene therapy market discover new ways to improve clinical efficiency and generate revenue

The gene therapy market has had limited success with products during the clinical development process. Due to toxicological complications and poor therapy efficacy, healthcare authorities have suspended several gene therapy trials worldwide.

28 Jul 2005

Methamphetamine users show symptoms similar to brain injury patients

Because today's methamphetamine is stronger, more potent and wreaks greater havoc on the brain, chronic users exhibit symptoms similar to patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI), according to the Brain Injury Association of Arizona (BIAAZ).

26 Jul 2005

Niger needs long term assistance to avoid chronic food insecurity

According to recent nutrition surveys by the United Nations and some non-governmental agencies, acute malnutrition rates have risen to 13.4 percent in southern Niger's Maradi and Zinder Regions. A food shortage is impacting some 3.3 million people - including 800,000 children under age five - in some 3,815 villages.

26 Jul 2005

Fat-dissolving fads: Too good to be true?

The search for a non-surgical method to get rid of unwanted fat is not new - and neither is 'mesotherapy', a technique which claims to dissolve fat by injections of medications or vitamins, minerals and herbs.

26 Jul 2005

Appeal court in UK overturns "shaken baby" convictions

London's Court of Appeal has cleared two people who were jailed over so-called "shaken baby" cases.

25 Jul 2005

British scientist who discovered link with smoking and cancer, dies at 92

The British scientist Sir Richard Doll, who was the first scientist to expose the link between smoking and lung cancer, has died in hospital, after a short illness; he was 92.

25 Jul 2005

Survey shows lead, tobacco exposure may be down in U.S., but blood and urine samples, awash with chemicals

According to the latest U.S. government survey on chemical exposures, levels of lead have dropped dramatically, exposure to second-hand smoke is down and most women are not carrying unsafe levels of mercury.

23 Jul 2005

Arsenic caused the madness of King George III

According to a newly released study, high concentrations of arsenic have been found in a sample of King George III's hair, and this, say the authors, may have contributed to his unusually severe and prolonged bouts of madness.

23 Jul 2005

Deaths from substance abuse on the increase in Northern Ireland

The UK Health Promotion Agency (HPA) says that in Northern Ireland, the number of people dying from solvent abuse has increased against trends in the rest of the UK.

23 Jul 2005

Judgment against leading UK paediatrician Sir Roy Meadow, could damage child protection services

Sir Roy Meadow, one of the country's leading paediatricians, has been struck off, over evidence he gave at the trial of Sally Clark.

23 Jul 2005

Doctors in the U.S. hope brain-dead woman will give birth

According to her family, a brain-dead, pregnant, American woman on life life-support, has reached the stage of pregnancy where her baby could survive outside the womb.

23 Jul 2005

Arsenic in King George III's hair contributed to bouts of madness

A study revealing high concentrations of arsenic in a sample of King George III’s hair is published in this week’s issue of The Lancet. The authors believe the presence of arsenic in the King’s hair contributed to his unusually severe and prolonged bouts of madness.

21 Jul 2005