The piece weighs pathogens in food against the antibiotics used in farming, citing the 2009 PAMTA bill's claims that 70 percent of U.S. antibiotics go to farm animals and 48 percent of national streams carry antibiotic traces. It lists FDA letters to farmers over drug residues in cows sold for food.
Food Consumer
Legal Actions
Lawsuit claims hot dogs linked to cancer
The Cancer Project sued hot dog processors including Kraft, Sara Lee and Hebrew National in New Jersey, seeking labels warning consumers of a link between processed meat and colon cancer. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says other studies contradict that link.
Government
FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes (PR)
An FDA laboratory analysis of electronic cigarette samples found carcinogens and toxic chemicals including diethylene glycol, an antifreeze ingredient. Public health experts warned the flavoured, warning-free devices are marketed to young people and could deepen nicotine addiction.
Sci-Tech
Water Hardness Plays a Role in Removing Bacteria from Chicken Skin
USDA Agricultural Research Service scientists in Athens, Georgia compared very hard, moderately hard and soft water for rinsing broiler chicken skin. After five rinses, soft water removed up to 37 percent more bacteria, including Campylobacter and Staphylococcus, than the harder waters.
Legal Actions
Advocacy Group Wants Warning Labels on Hot Dogs
The Cancer Project sued hot dog processors including Kraft, Sara Lee and Hebrew National in New Jersey, seeking labels warning that processed meat is linked to colon cancer. The National Hot Dog and Sausage Council says other studies contradict the link.
Miscellaneous
Virginia Tech Shooter's Files Found
Virginia's governor said Seung Hui Cho's counseling records were found at the home of Robert C. Miller, the university counseling center's former director, who left a year before the 2007 shootings. Lawyers for two families suing over alleged gross negligence traced the file.
Drug
Let the testing begin
The NIH designated eight medical centers to test two candidate H1N1 vaccines from Sanofi Pasteur and CSL Biotherapies, starting with adults 18 to 64 and people 65 and over at varying doses. Trials in children aged 6 months to 17 years would follow if the vaccines look safe.
Miscellaneous
Parental Stress Raises Kids' Risk of Asthma
A new study links a parent's stress level to whether their young children develop asthma, a disease up 160 percent since 1980. Stress engages the body's inflammatory response, and earlier research tied a mother's stress to schizophrenia risk in her child later in life.
Miscellaneous
Depressed? Hopeless? Stop Looking at the Help Wanted Ads
A satirical column on help-wanted ads a decade after the dot-com crash, translating the stock phrases — “self-starter,” “growing team,” “tremendous income potential” — and noting that stock options have given way to postings with no salary at all.
Drug
Novartis says new version of Tekturna approved
Novartis says the FDA approved Tekturna HCT, pairing its blood pressure drug aliskiren with the diuretic hydrochlorothiazide. The article sets it in a trend of combining already-approved drugs -- Advair, Vytorin, Contrave -- which clears FDA review faster than developing one from scratch.
Miscellaneous
Embryonic-like cells repair damaged mouse hearts
A Mayo Clinic study injected induced pluripotent stem cells, made by reprogramming adult skin cells, into mice whose hearts were damaged by cardiac arrest. Two weeks on, the animals had grown muscle, blood vessels and vessel-lining cells, and heart function improved.
Miscellaneous
New Weight Loss Drug Helps Craving Control
Orexigen Therapeutics' Contrave combines the antidepressant bupropion with naltrexone, used against alcohol and opiate addiction. In trials more than half of participants lost an average of 8 percent of body weight, exceeding the FDA standard of a third losing at least 5 percent.
Disease
Sexually transmitted diseases in Americans aged 10 to 24
CDC's July 17 report counts 2,194 AIDS diagnoses among Americans aged 10 to 24 in 2006 and 5,396 HIV/AIDS diagnoses across 38 reporting areas. Most went to 20-to-24-year-olds and to males, but among 10-to-14-year-olds the majority were female.
Lifestyle
Sexual behavior among Americans aged 15 to 24
CDC survey data for 2002 show 30.0 percent of girls and 31.6 percent of boys aged 15 to 17 had ever had sex, against 70.6 and 64.7 percent at 18 to 19. Among sexually active never-married teens, 75.2 percent of females and 82.3 percent of males used contraception at first intercourse.
Watch-List
Antibiotics to Avoid Like the Plague Due to FDA's Oversight Failure
Jay S. Cohen, M.D., writes to Congressman Holt about severe and often disabling reactions he links to fluoroquinolone antibiotics such as Cipro and Levaquin, saying more than 100 people have contacted him since his 2001 study and that doctors usually dismiss their complaints.
Miscellaneous
Pregnant women urged to get both vaccines against swine flu
Britain now tells pregnant women to avoid large crowds, and Canada reported three pregnant women in intensive care with H1N1. The CDC's Anne Schuchat urged pregnant women with fever or respiratory symptoms to seek care promptly and to get both the H1N1 and seasonal flu vaccines.
Miscellaneous
Sexual and Reproductive Health of Persons Aged 10--24 Years --- United States, 2002--2007
A CDC compilation of 2002-2007 data on the sexual and reproductive health of Americans aged 10 to 24, drawn from vital statistics and several surveys and surveillance systems and assembled as one reference for policy makers, researchers and program providers.
Miscellaneous
Health Officials Sued for Not Protecting Actors and Actresses Against Spread of AIDS
With help from the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, a porn performer who tested HIV positive sued in Superior Court, alleging the government failed to protect performers by not requiring condoms. County officials have found 18 AIDS cases in the industry since 2004.
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