The Health News USA March 22 2018
- Menthol and fruit flavors make cigarettes more enticing and more addictive. Now the FDA is taking the first step toward possibly limiting their use in tobacco products. The FDA took its first steps last week to possibly lower the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. Tobacco is the single biggest cause of both heart disease and cancer and kills close to half a million people a year in the U.S. alone. Tobacco companies have been forced to admit and advertise the fact that they colluded to make cigarettes as addictive as possible and concealed their devastating health effects.
- Doctors should start early with skin cancer prevention advice when their patients are light-skinned, suggests new guidelines that bump that starting point back to the age of 6 months. This recommendation, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, updates a 2012 recommendation that advised doctors not begin this education until children reached the age of 10. For adults aged 24 and older, the task force recommends that doctors assess each patient’s risk for skin cancer and provide advice on how to prevent this disease on an individual basis.
- Five death row inmates in Arizona whose executions were put on hold in two thousand fourteen have died since, according to a report in AZ Central. They all died from “natural causes” related to Hepatitis C infections, their relatives and lawyers told the outlet. The most recent case happened to inmate Brian Dann, who died on March 1st. He sued the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections last year alleging he never received antiviral drugs for his infection.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 22nd of March 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/fda-takes-first-steps-limit-flavorings-tobacco-n858191
Menthol and fruit flavors make cigarettes more enticing and more addictive. Now the Food and Drug Administration is taking the first step toward possibly limiting their use in tobacco products.
The FDA took its first steps last week to possibly lower the amount of nicotine in cigarettes. On Tuesday, it started asking for more input on how menthol and other flavorings make cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products more addictive and dangerous and, if so, what it should do about that. The agency’s commissioner, Doctor Scott Gottlieb, said the main goal is to protect children.
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FDA’s action Tuesday is the first step in a lengthy and often complicated process of changing federal rules. The agency is asking for input on the effects of flavors in cigarettes, little cigars, snus and other chewed tobacco products and e-cigarettes. Last week, the FDA asked for similar input as it considers requiring tobacco companies to reduce how much nicotine goes into cigarettes. The FDA does not have the authority to ban tobacco products, but since it was given some powers by Congress in two thousand nine, it has moved gradually to impose some limits on tobacco sales and marketing.
Tobacco is the single biggest cause of both heart disease and cancer and kills close to half a million people a year in the U.S. alone. Tobacco companies have been forced to admit and advertise the fact that they colluded to make cigarettes as addictive as possible and concealed their devastating health effects. Anti-smoking groups have campaigned for years against menthol and other flavorings in cigarettes. The Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids questioned whether the FDA really needs any more input. It said: “The FDA must act promptly to stop the flood of flavored e-cigarettes and cigars that have entered the market in recent years and threaten to addict a new generation of kids.”
Much research backs up the argument that sweet and fruity flavors mask the harsh taste of tobacco, and attract younger new tobacco users. Mister Gottlieb said: “Each day in the United States, more than two thousand three hundred youth under the age of eighteen years smoke their first cigarette, and nearly one thousand nine hundred youth smoke their first cigar.”
Doctors should start early with skin cancer prevention advice when their patients are light-skinned, suggests new guidelines that bump the starting point back to the age of six months. This recommendation, from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, updates a two thousand twelve recommendation that advised doctors not begin this education until children reached the age of ten.
Task force member Doctor John Epling Junior said: “Clinicians should counsel children, their parents and young adults to use sun-protective behaviors. Doing things like using sunscreen, wearing sun-protective clothing, and avoiding indoor tanning can help prevent skin cancer later in life.”
For adults aged twenty four and older, the task force recommends that doctors assess each patient’s risk for skin cancer and provide advice on how to prevent this disease on an individual basis.
Children and teens who are exposed to the sun’s harmful ultraviolet radiation are at greater risk for developing skin cancer in adulthood, the task force explained. This exposure is particularly risky for people with fair skin that burns easily, freckles and light-colored hair and eyes. Those who use tanning beds or have a history of skin cancer or sunburns are also at higher risk for the disease. The new recommendations were published online March twenty in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Five death row inmates in Arizona whose executions were put on hold in two thousand fourteen have died since, according to a report in AZ Central. They all died from “natural causes” related to Hepatitis C infections, their relatives and lawyers told the outlet. The most recent case happened to inmate Brian Dann, who died on March first. He sued the director of the Arizona Department of Corrections last year alleging he never received antiviral drugs for his infection.
The medical director of Eyman Complex, the prison that until last year housed the majority of death row inmates in Arizona, recently testified that up to eighty percent of the inmates there were infected with Hepatitis C. However, the Official Arizona Department of Corrections statistics show the number is lower.
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Dann eventually received treatment but then required surgery to allow blood to flow past his liver. He died on the operating table. Hepatitis C is a viral infection that can lead to serious liver damage. According to the Mayo Clinic, the virus spreads through contaminated blood from sharing needles, infected piercing or tattoo needles, or through sex. It can be treated with oral medications taken every day for two to six months. According to Doctor Rena Fox, a San Francisco-based physician who has studied Hepatitis C in prison populations, if the Hepatitis C is left untreated and it progresses to cirrhosis, it can kill a person, cause liver cancer and kidney failure, and compromise the immune system.
A Yale and Harvard University joint study shows that ten percent of inmates in state prisons across the country have Hepatitis C, and that a twelve-week course of drugs to treat the infection can cost from forty three thousand dollars to ninety four thousand five hundred dollars.
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