Miscellaneous News

RSS

Smoking and tobacco-cessation campaign to be launched by Texas and Mexico institutions

The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, the National Institute of Cancer of the United Mexican States, and the Commission of National Institutes and High Specialty Hospitals joined forces today in Mexico City, signing an agreement to develop prevention and control programs to reduce tobacco use in the United States and Mexico, with a focus on Mexican and Mexican-American youth.

30 Nov 2012

Financial Times examines demographic, economic, policy changes affecting global food security

The Financial Times examines "a complex cocktail of demographic, economic, and policy changes that can be blamed for increased pressure on the food supply."

27 Nov 2012

Many microorganisms have ability to combat nitrous oxide

The environment has a more formidable opponent than carbon dioxide. Another greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide, is 300 times more potent and also destroys the ozone layer each time it is released into the atmosphere through agricultural practices, sewage treatment and fossil fuel combustion.

22 Nov 2012

IPS reports on World Toilet Day, observed November 19

Inter Press Service reports on World Toilet Day, observed on November 19, noting, "Currently, over 800 million people have no access to safe drinking water and over 2.5 billion people are living without adequate sanitation."

17 Nov 2012

U.S. announces additional $30M for food aid to Syrians

"The United States announced an extra $30 million in aid to those affected by the war in Syria on Wednesday and called the formation of a new opposition coalition an important step that would help Washington better target its help," Reuters reports.

17 Nov 2012

Lab research can explain how city pollution ends up in Arctic

Pollution from fossil fuel burning and forest fires reaches all the way to the Arctic, even though it should decay long before it travels that far. Now, lab research can explain how pollution makes its lofty journey: rather than ride on the surface of airborne particles, pollutants snuggle inside, protected from the elements on the way. The results will help scientists improve atmospheric air-quality and pollution transport models.

16 Nov 2012

EU Tobacco Products Directive: an interview with Professor John Britton

The EU Products Directive is intended to regulate tobacco products to protect consumers and reduce harms to health that come from using tobacco.

14 Nov 2012

Frist, Richardson emphasize importance of foreign aid in moderated discussion

The Global Washington blog summarizes a discussion about the role of U.S. foreign aid that took place last week in Columbus, Ohio, between former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) and former Gov. Bill Richardson (D-N.M.).

3 Nov 2012

Red Cross provides aid and comfort to thousands affected by Sandy's wrath

The American Red Cross has a massive response to Superstorm Sandy underway to help people across multiple states.

3 Nov 2012

Hurricane Sandy’s impact on home care: an interview with Joanne Cunningham

Home care agencies, like all health providers, have only a matter of days to prepare for a specific weather event like Hurricane Sandy. However, disaster preparedness planning is a core function of home care service providers.

2 Nov 2012

EU Tobacco Products Directive further delayed

The EU’s revised Tobacco Products Directive – which was set to place substantial new restrictions on tobacco companies’ promotion of cigarettes and smokeless tobacco, including banning “e-cigarettes” – is dangerously close to stalling, and “further delay will raise serious questions about whose interest the EU Commission is promoting”, according to the authors of a Comment, published in The Lancet.

26 Oct 2012

U.N. SG Ban says hunger fight needs political will, innovation at World Food Prize ceremony

"Innovative approaches and technologies as well as a strong political will from countries are essential to combat hunger," according to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who spoke Thursday night in Des Moines, Iowa, at an event to recognize the winner of the World Food Prize, the U.N. News Centre reports.

20 Oct 2012

Concordia-France research collaboration appeals to emotions to heal the world

Einstein said that we can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking used when we created them. Wise words, except few people heed them when it comes to sustainable solutions for our ailing planet.

20 Oct 2012

Multi-system exposure related illness (MERI)

The Global Health Network has released a new paper titled “Common Toxins in our Homes, Schools and Workplaces.” According to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) spokesman, indoor air pollution causes 50% of illnesses globally. This statistic should catch the attention of every physician, every lawmaker and every layperson reading this paper. That’s more than all the cancers and all the heart disease combined. It is time we started to pay more attention to the indoor air we breathe. It is staggering to comprehend the enormous impact on our global society as literally millions of individuals and families are harmed by contaminants inside our homes, schools and workplaces.

16 Oct 2012

Worldwide improvements in survival rates after general anesthetic

Survival after a general anaesthetic and within 48 hours of surgery has greatly improved worldwide over the past 50 years, according to the second Article in The Lancet surgery-themed issue.

21 Sep 2012

Death rates after surgery found to be too optimistic

National estimates of death following general surgery have been too optimistic, suggests the first large-scale study to explore surgical outcomes across Europe published in the first Article in a special Lancet theme issue on surgery.

21 Sep 2012

Friendly bacteria: do we really need to eat probiotic yogurts?

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) probiotics are “live microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host”.

19 Sep 2012

Tranexamic acid: an interview with Prof Ian Roberts

Tranexamic acid is a medicine that reduces blood clot breakdown. In this way it helps in patients with bleeding.

19 Sep 2012

Mental illness campaign launched by Australia’s private hospitals sector

Australia’s private hospitals sector is set to test just how much Australians really know about some of the nation’s most prevalent mental disorders with the launch of its large-scale campaign, ‘What do you know…. about mental illness?’

19 Sep 2012

Self-harmers are three times as likely to die prematurely

People who have a history of self-harm are more than three times as likely to die prematurely as the general population, and not just from the obvious causes, with deaths due to natural causes at least two times greater than anticipated and the risk also much higher for individuals living in socially deprived areas, according to a UK study published Online First in The Lancet.

18 Sep 2012