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Lisa Lillien explains why you can't always trust low-fat labels on food. The FDA's own manual on nutritional labeling, linked below, explains that it is the manufacturers, not the FDA, who are responsible for assuring the validity of a product label's nutrient values -- and even then, the FDA recommends that the values be calculated using the highly inaccurate basis of product composition (that is to say, a recipe), rather than any test of the product itself.
The kid spoke unsteadily: "I was sitting on a hill outside the school eating lunch with my best friend when Eric Harris came over and started shooting me. I was shot between seven and 13 times. No one really knows the exact number because there were so many bullet tracks. Most of the bullets just went right through me. After I was shot I just lay there, playing dead, and could see others being shot."
These are the recollections of 19-year-old Mark Taylor, who spent nearly two months in the hospital and has endured three years of follow-up operations for the gunshot wounds he received during the murderous 1999 rampage of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
Taylor slowly is recovering from his wounds and, in an effort to bring attention to what he believes was the cause of Harris' deadly rage, has filed a lawsuit against Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., the manufacturer of Luvox (Fluvoxamine), the antidepressant that Harris had been prescribed and was taking at the time of the shooting spree. Despite the deadly assault against him, Taylor's perception of the young men who nearly killed him is surprising.
These are the recollections of 19-year-old Mark Taylor, who spent nearly two months in the hospital and has endured three years of follow-up operations for the gunshot wounds he received during the murderous 1999 rampage of Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
Taylor slowly is recovering from his wounds and, in an effort to bring attention to what he believes was the cause of Harris' deadly rage, has filed a lawsuit against Solvay Pharmaceuticals Inc., the manufacturer of Luvox (Fluvoxamine), the antidepressant that Harris had been prescribed and was taking at the time of the shooting spree. Despite the deadly assault against him, Taylor's perception of the young men who nearly killed him is surprising.
© UPI
Laughter follows an evolutionary trail that could date back as far as 16 million years, said Marina Davila Ross, who led the study at the University of Portsmouth.
Laughter likely began as the "grunt-like" noises heard when gorillas, chimpanzees and orangutans are tickled and evolved into the higher-pitched laughter heard in humans, Ross' team reported in the journal of Current Biology.
Moscow - Russia's chief doctor Gennady Onishchenko said on Tuesday that swine flu is not aggressive enough to cause a worldwide pandemic.
He said that the death rate of people confirmed to have the À/H1N1 virus is 1.6% in Mexico and only 0.1% in the United States.
"So far it is unclear if we need to use vaccines against the flu because the virus that is now circulating throughout Europe and North America does not have a pandemic nature," Onishchenko said at a press conference in Moscow.
He said that if necessary, a vaccine could be produced in a short time and some 50 million people would be vaccinated against the virus. He added, however, that preparing a vaccine now would be considered "practice," since the world would soon need a new vaccine against a new virus.
"What's 16,000 sick people? During any flu season, some 10,000 a day become ill in Moscow alone," he said.
He said that the death rate of people confirmed to have the À/H1N1 virus is 1.6% in Mexico and only 0.1% in the United States.
"So far it is unclear if we need to use vaccines against the flu because the virus that is now circulating throughout Europe and North America does not have a pandemic nature," Onishchenko said at a press conference in Moscow.
He said that if necessary, a vaccine could be produced in a short time and some 50 million people would be vaccinated against the virus. He added, however, that preparing a vaccine now would be considered "practice," since the world would soon need a new vaccine against a new virus.
"What's 16,000 sick people? During any flu season, some 10,000 a day become ill in Moscow alone," he said.
© Baltimore Sun/Elizabeth MalbyHaving already warned about eating rockfish caught in the Chesapeake Bay, the state now urges limited consumption of Atlantic rockfish, as they contain high levels of PCBs.
State officials warned Wednesday that people should restrict consumption of Atlantic striped bass - the state fish and one of the most popular with recreational anglers on Ocean City's beaches and charter boats, as well as with area restaurant diners.
The AP-Ipsos poll, conducted May 30 to June 1, found some interesting insights that may shed some light on why two-thirds of Americans are overweight.
The number of mental health patients forced to undergo electroconvulsive therapy in NSW has doubled in the past decade, and a lack of legal representation is leaving some of the state's most vulnerable patients without a say over their own treatment.
The case of one 84-year-old pensioner who did summon legal help to avoid ECT has highlighted a situation that leaves involuntary patients - and their families - powerless to challenge psychiatrists.
In NSW, involuntary ECT requires the approval of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. All mental health patients are entitled to a lawyer, but only one in 10 patients is represented in the tribunal's hearings.
The case of one 84-year-old pensioner who did summon legal help to avoid ECT has highlighted a situation that leaves involuntary patients - and their families - powerless to challenge psychiatrists.
In NSW, involuntary ECT requires the approval of the Mental Health Review Tribunal. All mental health patients are entitled to a lawyer, but only one in 10 patients is represented in the tribunal's hearings.
For years, the Environmental Protection Agency has endorsed the recycling of ground-up tires -- the material used for the Obama family's new White House playground -- to cushion the surfaces of children's playgrounds and sports fields.
Now, the agency is having second thoughts.
EPA scientists are worried that they don't have enough information about potential health risks from chemicals in the rubber, which is popular because it decreases playground injuries and is low maintenance and weatherproof.
The concerns are disclosed in internal agency documents about a study the EPA is conducting of air and surface samples at four fields and playgrounds that use recycled tires. The study was prompted by other research suggesting potential hazards from repeated exposure to bits of shredded tire that can contain carcinogens and other chemicals, according to the documents.
Now, the agency is having second thoughts.
EPA scientists are worried that they don't have enough information about potential health risks from chemicals in the rubber, which is popular because it decreases playground injuries and is low maintenance and weatherproof.
The concerns are disclosed in internal agency documents about a study the EPA is conducting of air and surface samples at four fields and playgrounds that use recycled tires. The study was prompted by other research suggesting potential hazards from repeated exposure to bits of shredded tire that can contain carcinogens and other chemicals, according to the documents.
Like it or not, there is an unrelenting debate about whether vaccines have poisoned the minds of some children. That vaccines may do so is acknowledged (by, among others, autism expert Professor Sir Michael Rutter ) and is not actually the debate at hand; the real questions are, which children and how many? The base of the tsunami that is the autism epidemic - one sustained hitherto, by competing arguments for the rising number of diagnoses and those invested in non-environmental causes - is no longer able to support its top. In accordance with simple wave mechanics, the tsunami's slope is too great and breaking is inevitable. Breaking, for the purpose of this metaphor, extends to the shoreline's horizon, from the child to the family, to schools, to the state budget, to public confidence in healthcare infrastructure, and beyond.
Is it better to maintain a tense and troublesome marriage to help your teenage children develop a decent adolescence? A new study says no.
The study published as a report from the California Center for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles reveals that teenagers living with both biological parents tend to do better from their peers living with one parent only if they enjoy a stable and conflict-free environment.
According to the study parental conflicts have some serious side effects on teenagers and may drive them to the brink of dropping out of school, having poor grades, smoking, and binge drinking, using marijuana, having a child at early adolescence or breaking up a relationship very quickly.
The study published as a report from the California Center for Population Research at the University of California-Los Angeles reveals that teenagers living with both biological parents tend to do better from their peers living with one parent only if they enjoy a stable and conflict-free environment.
According to the study parental conflicts have some serious side effects on teenagers and may drive them to the brink of dropping out of school, having poor grades, smoking, and binge drinking, using marijuana, having a child at early adolescence or breaking up a relationship very quickly.
