Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Warns About Eating Pre-Cut Cantaloupe Unless You Know Source
Consumers shouldn鈥檛 eat pre-cut cantaloupe if they don鈥檛 know the source, U.S. health officials said Thursday, as the number of illnesses and recalls tied to a deadly salmonella outbreak grows. At least 117 people in 34 U.S. states have been sickened by contaminated cantaloupe, including 61 who were hospitalized and two who died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 63 illnesses, 17 hospitalizations and one death tied to the same outbreak have been reported in Canada. The illnesses are severe, with more than half of infected people hospitalized, including residents of long-term care centers and children in day care, the CDC said. (Aleccia, 11/30)
On lead contamination and PFAS 鈥
The EPA recently declared that emissions from aircrafts that use leaded fuel pose a danger to public health. The Engineering dean at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University explains. (Blake, 11/29)
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued a warning about children's cups recalled due to high levels of lead. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled PandaEarOpens, LAOION, and Green Sprouts stainless steel bottles and cups because their lead levels exceeded the federal content ban. (Guise, 11/30)
麻豆女优 Health News: 鈥楩orever Chemicals鈥 Found In Freshwater Fish, Yet Most States Don鈥檛 Warn Residents聽
Bill Eisenman has always fished. 鈥淕rowing up, we ate whatever we caught 鈥 catfish, carp, freshwater drum,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat was the only real source of fish in our diet as a family, and we ate a lot of it.鈥 Today, a branch of the Rouge River runs through Eisenman鈥檚 property in a suburb north of Detroit. But in recent years, he has been wary about a group of chemicals known as PFAS, also referred to as 鈥渇orever chemicals,鈥 which don鈥檛 break down quickly in the environment and accumulate in soil, water, fish, and our bodies. (Norman, 12/1)
In other health and wellness news 鈥
Too much sugar isn鈥檛 good for you. There isn鈥檛 a nutritionist anywhere who will say otherwise. Overconsumption of sugar leads to diabetes, obesity, inflammation, a weakened immune system - even wrinkles. But that bad could be turned into a good, when it comes to combating cancer. Sugar as it turns out, is bad for the cells in the body in a lot of ways, and now a group of researchers studying pancreatic cancer at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer has discovered it鈥檚 bad for cancer cells too. (Kroen, 11/30)
For babies born prematurely, early skin-to-skin contact may have significant health benefits, according to a new study. The study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that premature babies who were held close to their mother or father's skin right after birth showed better communication, social skills and more positive interaction with their mothers at 4 months compared to those who were placed in an incubator. (Jhaveri, 11/30)
When Jennifer Case was living in Los Angeles in her early 30s, she was hospitalized 11 times. She had been born with two rare heart abnormalities, Ebstein anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Her parents were told that she probably wouldn鈥檛 live. She did live. But by her 30s, she had also developed heart failure, a condition in which the heart can鈥檛 pump blood throughout the body properly. She had dizziness and swelling in her legs, and at one point during work, she fainted. (Chen, 12/1)
Contrary to popular wisdom among many gym-goers and even some scientists, healthy people in their 60s, 70s and beyond can safely start lifting weights and rapidly build substantial muscle mass, strength and mobility. A new study of resistance exercise and the elderly found that even people in their 80s and 90s 鈥 who hadn鈥檛 weight trained before 鈥 showed significant gains after starting a supervised program of lifting weights three times a week. (Reynolds, 11/29)