Hospital employees — including doctors, nurses and others — who wear their scrubs or gowns outside of work may unknowingly pose a public health threat, Dr. Betsy McCaughey told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review Monday. Founder of the Committee to Reduce Infection Deaths (RID) and Chairperson of ACSH, Dr.

Cellular phones may increase brain activity in regions closest to the antenna, according to a study published in the February 23 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

In a decision providing comfort to anyone hoping to protect children from the ravages of preventable diseases, the United States Supreme Court voted six-to-two yesterday that the special Vaccine Injury Compensation Court must remain the only judicial means through which to settle vaccine lawsuits. In this case, the parents of a girl who developed a seizure disorder after receiving the diptheria-pertussis-tetanus (DPT) vaccine brought a lawsuit against Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

Researchers from Madgeburg, Germany report that a quadruple therapy regimen for those suffering from Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection is more effective than the current three-drug treatment, to which the bacterium is rapidly becoming resistant. Since the appearance of the work of Australian pathologists Robin Warren and Barry Marshall in the early 1980s, it has been known that H. pylori is the main cause of peptic ulcers.

Late last week the American Heart Association (AHA) issued updated guidelines for the prevention of cardiovascular disease in women. The new guidelines are a revision of those most recently endorsed in 2007. While the risk of heart disease among women has fallen on an age-adjusted basis by roughly one-third since 1980, it remains the leading killer of American women. Indeed, the lifetime risk of heart disease for women is still close to 50 percent.

A story in The New York Times about a report to be published in The American Journal of Surgery suggests that far more American women are undergoing invasive surgical biopsies for breast cancer than is warranted. Current guidelines hold that at most ten percent of all breast cancer biopsies should be surgical while the remainder should be performed simply with a needle.

Erin Brockovich is a totemic figure for radical environmentalists.

Unfounded health scares do nothing to protect the public and ultimately cause more harm than good.

Representatives from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) testified yesterday before the subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee alongside representatives of various small businesses and manufacturers regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008. Both congressmen and business owners argue that the regulation is burdensome and stifles job creation.

Roche Holding AG’s cancer drug Avastin has been shown in a new study published in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine to hold great promise for treating retinopathy of prematurity, a devastating condition among some premature babies.