Black lung disease detected among miners who work in surface coal mines. The disease, normally associated with underground coal mining, was documented in miners who work above ground in a new report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers found that 46 of 2,257 surface miners tested during 2010-11 had black lung, meaning that roughly 2 percent had the potentially deadly respiratory condition caused by inhaling coal dust. “This is a workforce that has previously been thought to not have the disease or not have much disease,” said a CDC researcher. Black lung was most common among surface miners in Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia, the report found. The Courier-Journal (Louisville, Ky.)
Federal prosecutors say new owner is improving safety at Massey Energy mines. Authorities said Alpha Natural Resources, which bought Massey last year, has cut the former Massey sites’ accident and injury rates since Alpha reached a landmark $210 million settlement with the federal government last December. The pact resolved a criminal investigation against Massey over the 2010 Upper Big Branch mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 workers. Alpha has cut the accident rate by a third and the injury rate by 25 percent at Upper Big Branch and other coal mines that Massey operated. Separately, however, Alpha in May was accused by U.S. officials of more than 200 mine safety violations. The Associated Press, The State Journal (Charleston, W. Va.)
U.S. kids taking more ADHD drugs but fewer antibiotics. Prescriptions for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder among children rose 46 percent from 2002 to 2010, Food and Drug Administration researchers reported. Ritalin was the drug most often prescribed for the condition. While some experts say ADHD drugs are overprescribed, the study’s authors were encouraged by the 14 percent decline in antibiotics prescriptions, regarding it as a sign that efforts to curb overuse of those medicines may be working. The report also found that doctors wrote 358,000 prescriptions in 2010 for the acid reflux drug Prevacid for babies under age one, even though it rarely is appropriate for that age group. Reuters
Trial beginning in a case raising questions about the renewable fuels industry. Federal prosecutors accuse Rodney Hailey of Perry Hall, Md., of selling $8.4 million in renewable fuel credits even though his company, Clean Green Fuel, didn’t produce any renewable fuel. Instead, prosecutors say, he pocketed the money and bought Ferraris and other luxury items. Companies that market petroleum in the U.S. are required to produce renewable fuels, such as biodiesel made from vegetable oils, or purchase credits from producers of those fuels to satisfy clean energy rules. But the Maryland case, and other related fraud cases brought by federal authorities, have spurred calls in Congress to review the biofuels program. The Associated Press, The Baltimore Sun
Study suggests graphic cigarette warning labels coax consumers to consider risks of smoking. The study by University of Pennsylvania researchers tracked 200 smokers who were shown either text-only warning labels, such as those used in the U.S. since 1985, or graphic labels similar to what federal regulators hoped to introduce on cigarette packs this September. Among the smokers who viewed the graphic image, which displayed a hospitalized patient on a ventilator, 83 percent correctly recalled the accompanying written warning on the label. That compared to 50 percent in the other group. Federal plans to introduce graphic cigarette warning labels are on hold pending legal challenges by Big Tobacco. HealthDay News, BBC News, CSPnet.com
Recalls: Truitt Brothers navy beans
Compiled by Stuart Silverstein and Bridget Huber
