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A surprising ingredient — infant gas relief drops — may be contributing to the contamination of medical scopes nationwide and putting more patients at risk of infection, according to a small but provocative study. Researchers in Minnesota unexpectedly found cloudy, white fluid inside several colonoscopes and gastroscopes after they had been disinfected and deemed ready for use on the next patient. (Terhune, 8/25)

During emergency-room visits, children on public health insurance are less likely than children on private insurance to be admitted to the hospital. This is not because poorer children visit different kinds of hospitals or because poorer children are less sick when they visit the emergency room. As Princeton economists Diane Alexander and Janet Currie show in a recent paper released by the National Bureau of Economic Research, hospitals just seem to prefer children with private insurance. (Guo, 8/24)

Everyone knows staying home from work when you have the flu helps protect your co-workers from getting sick. Unfortunately, not everyone does it. A new National Bureau of Economic Research paper argues that one reason for that is access to paid sick leave. The paper by Stefan Pichler and Nicolas R. Ziebarth argues that the general flu rate “decreases significantly” when employees have access to paid time off due to illness. It also found that more people play hooky, or stay home when they aren’t actually contagious. (Raice, 8/24)

Homeless advocates and public health officials are squaring off over a controversial Obama administration proposal to ban smoking in government-assisted housing projects. The smoking ban has drawn praise from health officials who say it would spare non-smokers from the dangerous effects of secondhand smoke. But homeless advocates are enraged by the proposal, which they fear could force low-income residents who can’t kick the habit out of their homes. (Devaney, 8/25)