After more than a year of delays, a long-awaited measure designed to give the Food and Drug Administration and the Agriculture Department more authority to enforce preventive measures against foodborne illness today passed a procedural vote in the Senate. By voting 74-25 for cloture, the Senate must now bring the Food Safety Modernization Act to a floor vote in 60 days.

Two weeks ago, we covered a meta-analysis of 50 studies indicating that doubling the alcohol tax would reduce alcohol-related mortality by 35 percent. At Monday’s Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, the very same publication was referenced by Alexander C. Wagenaar, Ph.D., in support of a tax increase to boost public health.

A zap to the kidneys might safely reduce hypertension in patients whose high blood pressure is resistant to three or more medications. The new treatment works by deactivating nerves in the kidney (renal denervation) using a catheter that sends a burst of radio frequency energy directly to kidney nerves.

Tara Parker-Pope writes in The New York Times that a study showing CT scans can reduce lung cancer deaths in heavy smokers is already being used in advertisements for a screening center in Atlanta — advertisements seemingly aimed at a broad group, including women who had never smoked.

A study of first-time heart attack patients at a Minneapolis hospital found that only 10 percent of them had been receiving preventive treatments such as drugs to lower cholesterol, reduce blood pressure or prevent clots. The University of Minnesota researchers studied 815 patients at Abbot Northern Hospital between 2007 and 2010 andpresented their research at the American Heart Association meeting in Chicago.

Interesting juxtaposition in the pages of Yale Public Health. Page 6 of the fall 2010 issue reports on a study by Yale’s Jason M. Fletcher, Ph.D., that found increased taxes on soda and restricting sugary drinks from school vending machines are having a “negligible effect” on childhood obesity. Kids just find substitutes or buy soft drinks elsewhere, thestudy found.

DDT was banned in the United States since 1972 as part of a worldwide campaign against the pesticide a crusade that has perversely (and we presume unintentionally) been responsible for the loss of millions of African children from preventable malaria deaths. But the excellent powder is now being blamed for thinning condor eggs in California well, one or two eggs, anyway.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has vetoed a ban on Happy Meals that made the Bay Area even more of a laughingstock than usual. The Board of Supervisors passed the measure by a veto-proof margin of 8-3, so we suspect the veto will be overridden, but kudos to Newsom for trying.

The measure will prohibit restaurants from giving away toys with meals unless they meet strict nutritional standards and include fruits and vegetables. Newsom said this wasn’t the way to combat childhood obesity.

Following a probe last week by the Tampa Tribune that found some reusable grocery bags manufactured in China contained “concerning” levels of lead, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is requesting further federal investigation of the bag’s lead content.

After halting recruitment into its EMPHASIS-HF trial last May due to early beneficial results from an interim analysis, Pfizer has announced that compared to a placebo, its drug Inspra significantly reduces the risk of cardiovascular (CV) death or heart failure (HF) hospitalization in patients with chronic HF experiencing mild symptoms. For the randomized trial, 2,737 patients were followed for 21.2 months.