Japan is attempting to curb its smoking rate — one of the highest in the industrialized world — by imposing a major tax hike on cigarettes. The new tax went into effect October 1. Even though smoking rates have declined in Japan, 37 percent of men and 9 percent of women still continue to smoke — a habit which causes 130,000 smoking-related deaths each year.

Full-term newborns with jaundice are at a higher risk for psychological disorders, including the autism spectrum disorder known as pervasive developmental disorder, according to a very large Danish study published in yesterday’s Pediatrics.

BPA is in the news, yet again. WPFO-TV (Fox 23) reports that Maine s Board of Environmental Protection has postponed plans to ban BPA from baby products until studies prove that the alternatives are safe.

The first stem cell therapeutic trial has begun in the U.S., Bloomberg News reports. Geron Corp. is using an embryonic stem cell-based therapy for the first time to treat a patient suffering from paralysis caused by a spinal-cord injury. Geron is one of just three U.S.

As the diet pill Meridia leaves the market, a new study published in The Journal of the American Medical Association finds that weight loss programs utilizing calorie restriction and exercise can actually cut the fat.

Abbott Laboratories announced Friday that it will withdraw its weight-loss drug Meridia from the Canadian and U.S.

Fish provides essential nutrients for babies’ brain development — but many pregnant mothers are avoiding tuna because of unfounded fears of mercury poisoning, ACSH’s Dr. Gilbert Ross argues in today’s Daily Caller.

It’s a problem that’s bad and getting worse: The CDC reported yesterday that more than 22 percent of Americans have arthritis, and a million new cases are diagnosed every year.

An international team of Alzheimer’s disease experts have proposed a new framework for diagnosing the disease earlier in its course that doesn’t require the patient to suffer from full-blown dementia. Instead, the patients must suffer “episodic memory impairment” and have at least one positive biomarker — either found in the cerebrospinal fluid, or on special radiological tests — for the disease.

Genetically modified crops benefit both farmers (by reducing the need for purchasing expensive pesticides) and consumers (by providing crops that studies have shown are safer and healthier than conventional food, as well as cheaper, given the economic benefits to farmers).