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Senate environment committee Chairwoman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) is now saying she will seek to revise a bipartisan bill introduced by the late Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) to include provisions that Lautenberg precluded from the bill after industry criticized them. Apparently, Sen. Boxer — one of the most aggressively anti-chemical members of the Senate — [...]
The post “Give them an inch” department: Boxer Seeks To Amend TSCA reform bill appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Brooklyn recently welcomed the New Jersey Nets — now the Brooklyn Nets — and has been booming with an influx of artsy types of all stripes. But as of late, Brooklyn has become home to a much more serious outbreak. Cases of measles have been increasing in several Orthodox Jewish communities since early May. At [...]
The post Measles outbreak continues in Brooklyn appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Josh Bloom in Medical Progress Today, Hepatitis C miracles courtesy of me-too drugs

In their 2011 book, Vaccine Safety and Your Child: Separating Fact from Fiction, Dr. Paul A. Offit and Charlotte Moser explained how vaccines are made, how they are tested, and how they work—all while taking into consideration the fact that some parents may be hesitant to have their children vaccinated – although these hesitations are [...]
The post Shout-Out to Dr. Offit appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

As ACSH discusses in its publication, “Counterfeit Drugs: Coming to a Pharmacy Near You,” counterfeit drugs – fake, substandard, adulterated or falsely labeled – are a threat to global health. In fact, last June, 1.4 million counterfeit packets of Coartem, a malaria drug produced by Novartis, were found in a shipment from China to Angola, [...]
The post House passes “track and trace” bill to fight counterfeit drugs appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Anti-wrinkle creams step aside: a new study suggests applying sunscreen daily may work better to keep your skin looking young. Though it’s been widely suggested that sunscreen could delay skin aging, little evidence has been shown until now. In this first large study on sunscreen and skin aging published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, [...]
The post Daily sunscreen may reduce signs of aging appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Getting healthy isn’t always easy. Time restrictions and a lack of motivation often prevent Americans from being as fit as they could be. In fact, according to Arnt Erik Tjonna, from the K.G. Jebsen Center for Exercise in Medicine (JCEM), only about 15 to 30 percent of Americans exercise at the suggested rate of 30 [...]
The post Health hacks – fast and easy exercises that can improve health appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Not satisfied with demonizing soda, the New York City Health Department has announced that even more categories of beverages — sports drinks, energy drinks, sweetened teas, and fruit-flavored drinks — are bad for health because of their sugar content. In its press release, the DOH warns that such drinks may contain more sugar “than a [...]
The post City Department of Health attacks more beverages appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

According to a July 2012 Gallup Poll, five percent of Americans report being vegetarians. Well, for those five percent, a new study published in JAMA Internal Medicine suggests that vegetarians may live longer than their carnivorous counterparts, although results were somewhat inconclusive. The study looked at the eating patterns of about 70,000 Seventh-day Adventists from [...]
The post To be a vegetarian or not to be a vegetarian appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Josh Bloom in The Wall Street Journal, "A Welcome Boost in the Race for New Antibiotics"
The members of the "I hate the pharmaceutical industry" club must be beside themselves. And the anti-big-government folks are probably not terribly happy either.

New cancer drugs have been a dime a dozen in recent years, as the pharmaceutical industry has drastically refocused its efforts in the area. In 2012 alone the FDA approved a record 11 oncology drugs. While on the surface, this may seem to be nothing but good news, in reality the results are mixed at [...]
The post Some real progress against cancer appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Michael Douglas put himself in the spotlight this past weekend, with the claim that his throat cancer was caused by oral sex, and not smoking and drinking as he had speculated previously. On a related note, a new study suggests that throat cancers that result from the human papillomavirus (HPV) do not put domestic partners [...]
The post Risks of HPV-Oral cancer in spouses or partners of those infected appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

A survey of general practitioners in the UK and Sweden revealed that a sizable fraction of them wrongly believed that it’s the nicotine in cigarette smoke that harms health. The online survey was undertaken by UK tobacco giant BAT, and they got responses from 100 British and 120 Swedish physicians. (The study itself is not [...]
The post What doctors don’t know about nicotine can hurt…you! appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Obviously, bariatric surgery can help the obese lose large amounts of weight, thus improving their health and often their self-image. New research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and covered by USA Today indicates that when a woman undergoes such surgery and loses weight, children she has later may benefit as [...]
The post Mom’s surgery could help kids too appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

A new report out of the vast Cochrane Library database reveals that several of the commonly used products to help smokers quit actually do work! Or do they? These results are derived from a huge meta-analysis of 267 trials involving 101,000 study subjects who were given one or more nicotine-replacement treatments (NRTs) and/or drugs such [...]
The post Big (no) news: Cessation products work better than nothing! appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

ACSH’s Dr. Josh Bloom has had an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, where he considers whether the U.S. government’s unprecedented move to give $200 million over 5 years to GlaxoSmithKline to aid in their antibiotic develop effort is a good idea. In an ideal world, this would be unnecessary, but thanks to misguided and [...]
The post Should the government be subsidizing drug companies? In this case, yes. appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

It looks like the food and beverage industry is finally getting some acknowledgement for the positive role they are playing in the fight against obesity. Three years ago, sixteen of the major players in this industry including Coca-Cola, General Mills, Nestle, Kraft and ConAgra, partnered with Michelle Obama’s Partnership for a Healthier America as the [...]
The post A nod to the food and beverage industry in the fight against obesity appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

So we’ve come to another World No Tobacco Day, under the auspices of the WHO. The ostensible goal of this annual campaign is to reduce the consumption of tobacco products, thereby reducing the deadly toll of tobacco. Unfortunately, outside of the U.S., little progress against the ravages of tobacco have been detected; indeed, smoking rates [...]
The post World “No Tobacco” Day: Avoiding the real problem appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Today’s New York Times has an editorial which future generations will read and discuss as evidence of the former “paper of record’s” descent into its own fantasy-land. Entitled An Opening to Strengthen Chemical Regulations, the disconnect between reality and the solipsism of the Times’ editorial board is put into high relief by their thesis: Now [...]
The post New York Times: Livin’ the Dream, a chemical-free world appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (there’s a mouthful for you, but let’s call them NSAIDs or “n-saids” for short) are the most commonly used class of drugs in the world. They act as anti-inflammatory agents, but in the real world they are used as pain relievers for people with a variety of conditions, ranging from active inflammatory [...]
The post Common pain-relievers linked to heart risk appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

It is certainly no secret that we are becoming progressively more vulnerable to bacterial infections because of the explosion of antibiotic resistant bacteria, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) being the best-known example. In the absence of new antibiotic development, it becomes increasingly important to take measures to prevent infections, since treating them can be very difficult. [...]
The post Taking proactive measures to prevent MRSA infections in ICU appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

When given the choice of when to have an elective surgery, you may be better off choosing a time earlier in the week, especially as opposed to over the weekend. According to a new study published online in BMJ, opting for surgery on a Friday or over a weekend results in increased rates of 30-day [...]
The post Beware of the “weekend effect” appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

While it will take some time to see if the new bike share system in NYC will be a bust, or a game-changer for transportation in Manhattan (and parts of Brooklyn), ACSH wants to remind everyone to stay safe while cycling through the city — even though the program has worked well in other cities. [...]
The post Bring Your Own Helmet appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

New recommendations and draft guidelines are being considered in two important areas related to blood sugar (glucose) control. The first relates to stringent (“tight”) glucose control in the intensive care unit and the second relates to screening recommendations for gestational diabetes in pregnant women. According to a scientific statement released by the American College of [...]
The post Blood sugar control: In the ICU and for moms-to-be appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.

Last week, the California Senate passed a proposed bill, SB648, by a 21-10 vote, banning the use of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) anywhere that smoking (of regular tobacco cigarettes) is banned. In essence, if the Assembly joins in and the measure becomes law, in our largest state e-cigs would be treated as equivalent to cigarettes for [...]
The post Cali lawmakers cannot tell smoke from vapor appeared first on Health & Science Dispatch.