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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

New statistical model retrospectively estimates air pollution exposure for previous time periods

In a study that analyzed relationships between air quality and unemployment levels, a Tufts University researcher has developed a new statistical model that retrospectively estimates air pollution exposure for previous time periods where such information is not available.

13 Sep 2012

Women, girls must be at center of water, food security efforts

Noting "World Water Week recently concluded in Stockholm with a special emphasis on the linkages between water and food security," Lakshmi Puri, assistant secretary-general and deputy executive director of U.N. Women, writes in this Inter Press Service opinion piece, "Creating a water- and food-secure world requires putting women and girls at the center of water- and food-related policies, actions and financing."

13 Sep 2012

Public health symposium targets smokers most in need

Australia has one of the lowest smoking rates in the world at 15 per cent of the population but there remains a need to further cut rates in prisons, among the mentally ill and ethnic communities, researchers will argue at a public health symposium in Sydney.

13 Sep 2012

World experts shed light on the extent of dangers of night-time artificial lighting

"The most important thing for us is to raise awareness of the dangers of artificial light at night and we have already come a long way now that the American Medical Association (AMA) recently announced its new policy recognizing adverse health effects of exposure to light at night and encouraging further research into the matter," said Prof. Abraham Haim, a leading authority on light pollution, who coordinated the 21st International Congress of Zoology (ICZ) that was held last week at the University of Haifa, Israel.

12 Sep 2012

Comic created to help busy medical staff on the benefits of tranexamic acid

Researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine have created a comic influenced by the Japanese manga style to help busy medical staff who treat patients suffering from bleeding.

12 Sep 2012

Employees behaving badly in the workplace

Over 86% of Australia’s professional workers have deliberately ignored or snubbed a colleague at work at least once, according to the findings of a new study by SACS Consulting into counter-productive workplace behaviours (CWBs) announced today.

10 Sep 2012

Health inequalities in Europe need action

Health inequality in Europe is resulting in huge social and economic costs to the region, and progress towards reducing health inequalities should be one of the main criteria by which the effectiveness of health systems and governments as a whole are assessed, according to a Review published in The Lancet.

10 Sep 2012

FAO launches water management framework at World Water Week opening ceremony in Sweden

At the opening ceremony of World Water Week in Stockholm, Sweden, on Monday, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) "launched a framework that will help combat food insecurity by providing methods to better manage water resources in agriculture and reduce waste," the U.N. News Centre reports.

29 Aug 2012

Drought, food security fears boost small-scale irrigation use in South Asia, Africa, study finds

"Farmers in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly taking up small-scale irrigation schemes as drought threatens the security of food supplies, a report by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) said," Reuters reports.

26 Aug 2012

U.N. calls on countries to develop national drought, climate policies

"The world urgently needs to adopt drought-management policies as farmers from Africa to India struggle with lack of rainfall and the United States endures the worst drought it has experienced in decades, top officials with the U.N. weather agency said Tuesday," the Associated Press reports.

23 Aug 2012

Climate change poses risks to food supply, may lead to price spike, experts warn

"Downpours and heat waves caused by climate change could disrupt food supplies from the fields to the supermarkets, raising the risk of more price spikes such as this year's leap triggered by drought in the United States," Reuters reports.

18 Aug 2012

Mullite can reduce pollution produced by diesel vehicles

Engineers at a company co-founded by a University of Texas at Dallas professor have identified a material that can reduce the pollution produced by vehicles that run on diesel fuel.

17 Aug 2012

Tobacco use epidemic estimates show urgent need to redouble control efforts

New estimates illustrate the epidemic of tobacco use for over half of the world’s population (representing more than 3 billion adults living in the UK, USA, and 14 developing countries), with around 852 million tobacco consumers (661 million smokers and 247 million smokeless tobacco users).

17 Aug 2012

U.S. DOE’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory develops new carbon cycling model

A new carbon cycling model developed at the U.S. Department of Energy's (DOE) Oak Ridge National Laboratory better accounts for the carbon dioxide-releasing activity of microbes in the ground, improving scientists' understanding of the role soil will play in future climate change.

17 Aug 2012

Medical ethics: an interview with Anita Silvers

Medical ethics assists healthcare professionals to make decisions respectful of persons who happen to be their patients.

13 Aug 2012

China must bring together different agencies to address water shortages, policy paper says

In a policy paper published in Science on Thursday, researchers praised China's January 2011 plan to address water shortages and conservation in the nation, but "the researchers said this commitment won't be enough unless disparate agencies learn to communicate and coordinate with each other," Reuters reports.

12 Aug 2012

Organ donation: an interview with David Shaw

Most donors die in intensive care units, frequently after car accidents. Once it is clear that recovery is out of the question, families will be told that further treatment is futile and the issue of donation can be sensitively raised.

9 Aug 2012