Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals refused to reevaluate an appellate court’s December 2010 decision to not grant the FDA the authority to regulate e-cigarettes as medical devices. The FDA has lost another battle in the effort to require e-cigarette manufacturers to conduct expensive clinical trials to prove their devices are safe. These regulations are required of other smoking cessation products such as nicotine patches.

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom has published a paper today on the largely untold story of how one of the scariest diseases of the 20th century — AIDS — was beaten back by modern pharmaceutical research. Be sure to read the new ACSH publication, Whatever Happened to AIDS? How the Pharmaceutical Industry Tamed HIV.

ACSH scientific advisor and Professor of Community Health Sciences, Boston University School of Public Health, Dr. Michael Siegel points to a troubling misrepresentation by advocates of smoking bans. University of Iowa researchers claimed that a state ban on smoking in public places had lowered rates of heart disease by, as an NBC TV affiliate put it, “staggering numbers.” But Dr.

A business article published yesterday by The New York Times alerts us to a profound worry: FDA over-regulation of the medical device industry is driving companies in this business overseas to countries like China, India and Brazil. The approval process for new medical devices is not only more difficult and time-consuming in the U.S.

Another study in the current issue of the New England Journal of Medicine reports on a surgical marvel. A controlled study of fetuses diagnosed via sonogram in utero with spina bifida — a neural tube defect — showed that their outcomes could be dramatically improved through surgery performed prenatally.

A study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine has led to a great deal of faulty reporting and more than a few questionable claims.

Today’s New York Times contains a Page One story on a strange and disquieting trend: U.S. businesses — especially those involved in health care — are increasingly banning not only smoking by employees, but employees who smoke. Among the first of the leading medical institutions to implement the policy was the Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland, Ohio in 2007.To put the policy into effect, hospitals and clinics have demanded urine tests of workers.

Stroke incidence has increased by 51 percent among men aged 15 to 34, according to the first nationwide study of stroke hospitalizations characterized by age. The findings were presented at the American Stroke Association Conference in Los Angeles. After analyzing eight million hospitalization cases from 41 states, researchers found that stroke rose by 17 percent for women in the same age group, while actually declining by 25 percent among men 65 and older.

In a study published in the Journal of the American College of Surgery, researchers debunked the myth that motorcycle helmets are associated with a higher risk of cervical spine injury. Helmeted motorcycle riders experienced a 22 percent reduction in the odds of this type of injury compared to non-helmeted riders.

Yesterday's The New York Times underscored the risks associated with anal cancer — facts largely unknown to many U.S. adults.