Men stricken with prostate cancer before the age of 65 often might be better off undergoing surgery to remove the prostate gland rather than waiting to see how the disease develops. As the Associated Press reports, a study led by Swedish researchers has found that the so-called "watchful waiting" approach [...]
The frequency of heart bypass surgery has plummeted in recent years, a product of Americans leading healthier lifestyles and doctors adopting other treatments for blocked arteries. As HealthDay News reports, a study to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the number of heart patients [...]
A coal mine explosion in northern Mexico has killed five workers, and another another nine are trapped and feared dead. As the Associated Press reports, Mexican authorities had hoped to fly in Chilean experts who worked on the rescue of 33 trapped miners last year. But after rescuers discovered the [...]
Five years after BP pipelines dumped more than 5,000 barrels of crude over Alaska's North Slope, the company has agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties. As the Associated Press reports, the fine is the largest per barrel civil penalty ever issued for an oil spill. Still, it stands [...]
Florida has long been known as a retiree haven, with a thriving assisted living industry. But, as the Miami Herald reports, because of cruel managers and regulatory failures, what goes on inside some of the state's assisted living facilities serving the elderly, as well as the mentally ill, can be [...]
The crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has heightened fears about the effects of radiation around the world, but experts say the worries are mostly unfounded. As The New York Times reports, concerns about radiation emissions have spurred a worldwide spike in the sales of radiation detectors and potassium [...]
At an age when an infant still might not be able to say more than a few words or walk without help, he or she already could know how to unbuckle a seatbelt. As Reuters reports, a study from the Yale University School of Medicine has found that children as [...]
California can continue to impose tighter controls on auto emissions than the rest of the country to clear up the state's smoggy skies. As the Los Angeles Times reports, a bid by industry groups to block the state's authority to supersede federal auto emissions standards has failed. A U.S. Court of [...]
A New York City plan to ban the purchase of soft drinks with food stamps has sparked fierce opposition from the food and beverage industries, and both sides in the debate have taken the fight to Washington. As The New York Times reports, Mayor Michael Bloomberg sees the food-stamp ban, [...]
When is a food gluten-free? That may seem like an obvious question but, as The Washington Post reports, the Food and Drug Administration has struggled to answer it for seven years. In 2004, Congress ordered the FDA to come up with a threshhold by 2008 dictating when a food can [...]
A federal jury in Virginia has awarded $212 million to a 67-year-old man who sued the maker of the drug Botox, claiming the medication caused brain damage and left him totally disabled. As the Richmond Times-Dispatch reports, Douglas Ray of Fredericksburg, Va., was given Botox to treat a hand tremor [...]
As the U.S. struggles to address a childhood obesity epidemic, federal officials are seeking to rein in the ways unhealthy foods are marketed to minors. Proposed guidelines presented Thursday by the Interagency Working Group on Food Marketed to Children, which was established by Congress in 2009, would address a wide range [...]
Malaria, tuberculous and other contagious diseases often are thought of as the leading global health threats, but the biggest killers worldwide actually are chronic afflictions -- including diabetes, cancer and heart disease -- often associated with the more prosperous countries. According to a new report from the World Health Organization, [...]
The majority of U.S. leprosy cases are the result of travel to far-away locales, but scientists also have identified a homegrown transmitter: the armadillo. Nearly one-third of the 150 to 250 annual U.S. cases of leprosy appear to be the result of contact with armadillos, the bumpy-looking creatures found in [...]
As nuclear experts and industry watchdogs seek explanations for the institutional breakdown in Japan's Fukushima Daiichi disaster, many are pointing to a culture of cozy relationships among companies, regulators and politicians that produced a blase attitude toward safety. As The New York Times reports, in 2000, Kei Sugaoka, a Japanese-American [...]