• Insecticides in pet shampoo may trigger autism

    New study shows that children growing up in a household in which pet shampoos containing a class of insecticide called pyrethrins were used, were twice as likely to develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD)

  • Detailed studies of U.S. disaster preparedness offer recommendations

    Critical care panel tackles disaster preparation, surge capacity, and health care rationing; some recommendations require largely greater budgets; other pose profound ethical and moral questions

  • Bush administration asks court to block comprehensive testing for mad cow disease

    A small meatpacking company wants to conduct testing for mad cow disease on all the animals it processes; the Department of Agriculture requires testing of less than 1 percent of slaughtered animals; the Bush administration, goaded by large meatpacking companies, urged a federal appeals court to stop the small company from doing more comprehensive tests

  • Doctors develop a list of those allowed to die in a catastrophe

    Physicians, government agencies draft a grimly specific list of recommendations for which patients would be treated - and which would not — during a pandemic

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  • U.S. hospitals could not handle terror attack

    Inquiry into the disaster preparedness of hospitals in several major U.S. cities conclude that they are — and will be — incapable to handle even a modest terrorist attack in those cities; one reason for for the lack of hospitals’ capacity: the Bush administration’s cuts in Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals overwhelm emergency rooms with patients suffering from routine problems, leaving no capacity to absorb and treat disaster victims

  • China accuses U.S. of hampering probe into tainted heparin

    Chinese scientists say they were refused information about victims of the recent heparin contamination and other specific details related to the case; the FDA says that federal law prevents it from sharing individual patient information with China unless information that would identify the patient is removed

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  • Drug-resistant tuberculosis on the increase in the U.K.

    The incidence of tuberculosis in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland has been on the increase with more than 8,000 cases reported in 2006; the cause: changing population structure and ongoing migration

  • FDA: Heparin contamination may have been deliberate

    Blood-thinner heparin costs manufacturers $900 a pound; a similar chemical, oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, costs $9 a pound; Chinese drug manufacturer uses the latter chemical to produce fake heparin — causing the death of nearly 100 and sickness of thousands around the world; FDA initially said this was a case of “economic fraud,” but now says something more sinister may be afoot

  • Chinese officials accused of covering up killer virus

    Chinese authorities are criticized for covering up an outbreak of a deadly enterovirus 71, which left 20 dead and more than 1,500 ill

  • Researchers find source of lethal heparin

    A common blood-thinning drug heparin, produced in China, was linked to more than 400 illnesses and as many as twenty-one deaths across the United States, and many more around the world; researchers find that the source of contamination was a complex carbohydrate named oversulfated chondroitin sulfate, which has a structure so similar to heparin but which is nearly undetectable

  • DEET found in Chicago drinking water

    Low levels of bug repellent found in Chicago drinking water; the city water authorities say the amounts are too small to worry about, but a Duke University expert says finding raises a red flag

  • Herbicide-tolerant crops can improve water quality

    One of the major sources of water contamination is herbicide pollution; scientists find that using herbicide-tolerant crops — and replacing some of the residual herbicides with the contact herbicides —significantly reduces water pollution

  • AWWA urges scientific approach to pharmaceuticals in drinking water

    The sky may not be falling: Stories about pharmaceutical traces in U.S. drinking water abound, but an expert from Southern Nevada Water Authority testifies before Senate subcommittee that worries about the ill effects of such traces are exaggerated

  • Chicago testing Lake Michigan water for drugs

    Lab tests found traces of pharmaceuticals in the water of Lake Michigan, the source of drinking water for millions in the greater Chicago area; city water authorities launch a thorough water testing campaign

  • Government admits accidents at Plum Island biolab

    The biolab on Plum Island, off the tip of Long Island, is the only lab allowed to do research on the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease; DHS officials admit that since 1978 here have been several accidental releases of the virus into cattle in holding pens