Sigh. It s another victory for the scaremongers. PepsiCo. is removing brominated vegetable oil from its citrus-flavored Gatorade drinks after hearing rumblings from consumers concerned about the emulsifier.
PepsiCo. spokeswoman Molly Carter told the Associated Press the change was in the works for a year and was not in response to a recent petition on Change.org by a Mississippi teenager that attracted 200,000 signatures.

Contrary to long-standing belief, a new study published in the British Medical Journal found that higher consumption of eggs up to one egg per day is not associated with increased risk of coronary heart disease or stroke. In fact, eggs are an inexpensive and low calorie source of other nutrients including minerals, proteins and unsaturated fatty acids, which could actually lower the risk of cardiovascular disease.

Britain s senior medical advisor is warning about the rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, describing what she calls an "apocalyptic scenario" where, in 20 years time, people going to the hospital for a simple operation die of infections because we have run out of antibiotics.

Were we surprised or even disappointed that the California EPA just ruled that the plastic hardener bisphenol-A (BPA) would be subject to warning labels according to their Prop 65 law, or that the Natural Resources Defense Council would be jumping with joy over it?
Not really given the chemophobia of both of those groups, the surprise is that it took Cal-EPA this long; and that the NRDC is so happy about it is as surprising as the sun rising in the east.

It s a grim, unwelcome milestone for gender equality. Two new studies survey the toll cigarette smoking takes on American lives and it turns out tobacco-related deaths have become as common for women as for men.

Research shows that poor coordination among providers all-too-often leads to patients returning to the hospital within 30 days of being discharged. Readmissions following hospitalizations for heart failure, acute MI (heart attack), and pneumonia are common among Medicare beneficiaries, researchers reported in JAMA .

Mayor Bloomberg s ban on the sale of sugary drinks larger than 16 ounces, scheduled to go into effect in March, will not take hold if the beverage and restaurant industries have their way. They urged a New York City judge to block the ban, calling it an unconstitutional overreach that burdens small businesses and infringes upon personal liberty.

There s another vaccine scare in the news. But is it real? Scientists are linking the Pandemrix H1N1 swine flu vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline in 2009 with 795 cases of narcolepsy in children in Europe, Reuters reports.
There's no doubt in my mind whatsoever that Pandemrix increased the occurrence of narcolepsy onset in children in some countries and probably in most countries, says Emmanuel Mignot, a Stanford University narcolepsy expert.

Last October, we covered a meta-analysis giving all of us who hate those routine physical exams a good excuse to skip it. The analysis, which looked at 16 clinical trials involving 182,880 patients, revealed that patients who had annual general health checkups died at virtually the same rate as those who didn t.

With countless practitioners and other public health officials endorsing mandatory flu vaccines for health care workers, it is hard to believe that there is so much resistance.
Dr. Evan S. Levine writes in the New York Post that Dr. Steven Safyer, the Montefiore Medical Center president and CEO, told his staff in a Jan. 13 letter that that fewer than 50 percent of our associates have been vaccinated. This means the majority of our associates are at risk for illness.
Too many workers are making the wrong choice, at risk to themselves and their patients, he writes.