An apple a day used to keep the doctor away, at least according to folk wisdom. But not any more - unless it's organically grown. Apples top the list of foods contaminated with pesticides, says the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an environmental health research and advocacy organization, in its annual report called "The Dirty Dozen™."

The listing of foods that may have toxic levels of pesticides is part of the group's Shopper's Guide to Pesticide in Produce, which draws its data from tests conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Even after washing, more than two thirds of the tens of thousands of food samples tested by the agencies showed pesticide residues. The most contaminated fruits were apples, strawberries, grapes, peaches and imported nectarines. Among vegetables, the most contaminated were celery, spinach, sweet bell peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, cherry tomatoes and hot peppers.

The contamination levels varied significantly between different foods. Potatoes had a higher total weight of pesticides than any other food crop. A single grape tested for 15 different pesticides. So did sweet bell peppers.

ExxonMobil's pipeline spilled thousands of barrels tar sands crude, Arkansas Attorney General warns of nauseating conditions in area - , staff writer

Five weeks after ExxonMobil's Pegasus pipeline ruptured and spewed thousands of barrels of tar sands oil in Mayflower, Arkansas, residents are stuck "on their own" as they suffer from health problems following noxious black cloak that enveloped their neighborhood.

"Both the subdivision and the cove look more like construction sites than neighborhoods," Arkansas Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said at a press conference on Tuesday of the cove area of Lake Conway. "There's heavy equipment everywhere, much of it contaminated with oil as it goes down roads and through people's yards."

The number of babies dying in their first day of life remains significantly higher in the United States than 33 other leading industrialized nations combined, an annual report compiled by Save the Children reveals.

The London-based charity's "State of the World's Mothers" compiled a list of birth-day death rates for 176 countries, as well as information on maternal health, education and women's income and political status.

While only one percent of the world's more than one-million first-day deaths occur in the developed world, the US far outpaces its industrialized peers in newborn deaths.

The report determines that an estimated 11,300 babies die each year in the United States on the day they are born, "50 percent more first-day deaths than all other industrialized combined."

"When first-day deaths in the United State are compared to those in the 27 countries making up the European Union, the findings show that European Union countries, taken together, have 1 million more births each year (4.3 million vs. 5.3 million, respectively) but only about half as many first-day deaths as the United States (11,300 in the US vs. 5,800 in EU member countries)," the report claims.

Over 5000 children's products contain toxic chemicals linked to cancer, hormone disruption and reproductive problems, including the toxic metals, cadmium, mercury and antimony, as well as phthalates and solvents. A new report by the Washington Toxics Coalition and Safer States reveals the results of manufacturer reporting to the Washington State Department of Ecology.

Makers of kids' products reported using 41 of the 66 chemicals identified by WA Ecology as a concern for children's health. Major manufacturers who reported using the chemicals in their products include Walmart, Gap, Gymboree, Hallmark, H & M and others. They use these chemicals in an array of kids' products, including clothing, footwear, toys, games, jewelry, accessories, baby products, furniture, bedding, arts and crafts supplies and personal care products. Besides exposing kids in the products themselves, some of these chemicals, for example toxic flame retardants, build up in the environment and in the food we eat.

Lipsticks and glosses may contain potentially troubling levels of metals, according to a preliminary new study.

Prior research has raised some concerns over the presence of lead in lipstick, but the new study is the first to suggest that many popular lip products also contain cadmium, chromium, aluminum and other metals -- some at levels that may be harmful.

"We looked at nine heavy metals and found that all of them were present in most of the lipsticks, but not necessarily at really high levels," study author Katharine Hammond, a professor of environmental health sciences with the University of California Berkeley's School of Public Health told The Huffington Post. "Low levels of metals may not create a risk, but as the exposure increases, the damage can increase." The results were published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives Thursday.

The US government has declared that H7N9 bird flu "poses a significant potential for a public health emergency", and has given "emergency use authorisation" for diagnostic kits for the virus. This means tests can be used that haven't gone through the usual lengthy approval process by the US Food and Drug Administration.

They are right to be concerned. H7N9 could be a tough adversary: New Scientist has learned that it provokes a weaker immune response than most flu, making vaccines hard to produce.

Although H7N9 is not, so far, transmissible between humans, it does cause severe disease in people, is easier to catch than other bird flu strains, and may need only a few mutations to go pandemic. The UK has already given doctors instructions on when to test people for H7N9, and how to manage any with the virus.

Induction and augmentation of labor with the hormone oxytocin may not be as safe for full-term newborns as previously believed, according to research presented today at the Annual Clinical Meeting of The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. Researchers say this is the first study of its kind to present data on the adverse effects of Pitocin use on newborns.

Given intravenously, Pitocin (a brand of oxytocin), is often used to start labor when a pregnant woman is overdue. It is also used to keep a lagging labor going by increasing the frequency, duration, and intensity of uterine contractions.

Swedish researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, report that a simple habit may give significant protection against allergy development, namely, the parental sucking on the baby's pacifier.

Allergies are very common in industrialized countries. It has been suggested that exposure to harmless bacteria during infancy may be protective against the development of allergy. However, it has been difficult to pinpoint which bacteria a baby should be exposed to, and at what time and by which route this exposure should ideally occur.

Swedish researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, now report that a simple habit may give significant protection against allergy development, namely, the parental sucking on the baby's pacifier.

In a group of 184 children, who were followed from birth, the researchers registered how many infants used a pacifier in the first 6 months of life and how the parents cleaned the pacifier. Most parents rinsed the pacifier in tap water before giving it to the baby, e.g., after it had fallen on the floor. However, some parents also boiled the pacifier to clean it. Yet other parents had the habit of putting the baby's pacifier into their mouth and cleaning it by sucking, before returning it to the baby.

Creative art pursuits provide older adults with multiple benefits, not the least of which is enhanced cognitive function.

Throughout history, artists have known that art provides benefits for both the creator and viewer. Current studies in the fields of art therapy, music therapy, and other creative modalities confirm that art can affect individuals in positive ways by inducing both psychological and physiological healing. We know that, in general, exercising our creative selves enhances quality of life and nurtures overall well-being. We all are creative - not just a select few.

Less well known is the effectiveness of incorporating expressive arts into programs for older adults and patients who are diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and other chronic degenerative diseases. Recent clinical research validates what some professionals and others who work with older adults have known for years - that making art is an essential, vital component of activities that offer a wide range of health benefits. Several studies show that art can reduce the depression and anxiety that are often symptomatic of chronic diseases. Other research demonstrates that the imagination and creativity of older adults can flourish in later life, helping them to realize unique, unlived potentials, even when suffering from Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease.

Erik Erickson's eighth and last stage of psychological development culminates in an integration of the individual's past, present, and future to confront the conflict between integrity and despair. The result can be either despair or wisdom. When older adults pursue activities that are based in meaning, purpose, and honesty, they can attain the wisdom and integrity about which Erickson writes rather than experiencing longing and despair. Therapeutic art experiences can supply meaning and purpose to the lives of older adults in supportive, nonthreatening ways.

It's illegal for children to vote. It's illegal for children to choose to drink alcohol. It's illegal for children to drive. It's illegal for children to give consent for medical procedures. Yet, New York is planning to let children give consent for vaccinations, a potentially life-changing or destroying procedure, without parental consent?

On Monday, May 6, a new bill is to be brought to the New York State Assembly floor which will allow licensed physicians to administer preventative medical care for sexually transmitted diseases, including vaccines to minors without their parent's permission.

This will include the vaccinations for hepatitis B and HPV.

The reasoning behind the bill is that section 2305 of the public health law currently permits a licensed physician or a staff physician to diagnose and treat a person under the age of 21 infected or exposed to a sexually transmissible disease without the consent or knowledge of the parents or guardians.

The bill states that the current law does not allow young people the same access to care as adults to prevent sexually transmissible diseases.

The bill states:

Teens should not be limited to access to care on a confidential basis after the fact, or after infection or contraction of a sexually transmissible disease. Teens should have access to confidential care before infection or contracting the sexually transmissible disease, to prevent disease or life-threatening illness such as cervical cancer and liver cancer.^[1]

When a bill of this nature becomes law, minors can be vaccinated without their parent's permission, and vaccines for sexually transmitted diseases could also be able to be given to newborns without parental consent.