C M G Buttery

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared a public health emergency in the Montana towns of Libby and Troy on June 17, 2009. An investigation into the alarming rate of asbestos-related illnesses in the town is what prompted the announcement.  Libby is the site of the largest vermiculite deposit in the world and and [...]

The AP reports, “The world’s 65-and-older population will triple by mid-century to 1 in 6 people, leaving the US and other nations struggling to support the elderly.” In fact, the “number of senior citizens has already jumped 23 percent since 2000 to 516 million, according to census estimates released on Tuesday. That’s more than double [...]

The New York Times reports, “Contrary to the popular assumption that the new swine flu pandemic arose on factory farms in Mexico, federal agriculture officials now believe that it most likely emerged in pigs in Asia, but then traveled to North America in a human.” However, “they emphasized that there was no way to prove [...]

New research shows that physicians failed to report clinically significant abnormal test results to patients — or to document that they had informed them — in one out of every 14 cases of abnormal results. In some medical groups, the failure rate is close to zero; in others it is as high as one in [...]

And if you did not think going to college was perilous, just from acquired STDs, now a new study has found substantial reductions in binge drinking since the national drinking age was set at 21 two decades ago, with one exception: college students. The rates of binge drinking in male collegians remain unchanged, but the [...]

A new article “American Healthy Homes Survey: A National Study of Residential Pesticides Measured from Floor Wipes.” Environmental Science & Technology, 2009; 43 (12): 4294 tell us that technology can ,measure past use/abuse of pesticides in homes. Comment: However being able to measure a compound at parts per billion or less tell us nothing about [...]

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration today advised consumers to stop using three products marketed over-the-counter as cold remedies because they are associated with the loss of sense of smell (anosmia). Anosmia may be long-lasting or permanent. The products are: –Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel –Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs –Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs, Kids [...]

The Chicago Tribune (6/18) reports, “Probiotics…have broken out of the dairy case and are colonizing other areas of the supermarket” because they are “thought to aid digestion and support the immune system.” But as more manufacturers fortify their foodstuffs, experts are beginning to “caution that the word ‘probiotic’ is widely misused by the industry and [...]

A new study by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) researchers contradicts the conventional wisdom that living near a fast food outlet increases weight in children and that living near supermarkets, which sell fresh fruit and vegetables as well as so-called junk food, lowers weight. The IUPUI investigators in economics, pediatrics, geography and urban planning compared [...]

University of Louisville neurologist Robert P. Friedland, M.D., questions the safety of eating farmed fish in today’s Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, adding a new worry to concerns about the nation’s food supply. Friedland and his co-authors suggest farmed fish could transmit Creutzfeldt Jakob disease–commonly known as mad cow disease–if they are fed byproducts rendered from [...]