Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Study: People With High Levels Of BPA Have Higher Risk Of Death
Look into your pantry -- have you packed it with canned foods since the start of the pandemic? Or are you a receipt hoarder -- who keeps all your paper sales receipts for taxes or refunds? Neither of those habits are probably a great idea, experts say, if you want to avoid toxic chemicals linked to a variety of health disorders in children and adults. (LaMotte, 8/17)
Red cabbage grown in Florida may be the source of Cyclospora in a multistate outbreak tied to a bagged salad mix produced by Fresh Express, based on results from a new method developed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for testing agricultural water for the parasite. The outbreak was first reported in the middle of June, though health officials weren't sure which ingredient in the salad mix was contaminated. In an Aug 14 update, the FDA said trace-back investigations suggested the source was either iceberg lettuce grown in California or red cabbage grown in Florida. (8/17)
Less than half of American adolescents are aerobically fit 鈥 about 40 percent, according to a new report from the American Heart Association. These young people have what is known, in medical terms, as good cardiorespiratory fitness, referring to the body鈥檚 ability to supply oxygen to muscles to produce energy during physical activity. (Searing, 8/17)
Two hours after Alison Cate found out she was having a miscarriage at a doctor鈥檚 appointment鈥攁fter she sobbed in the exam room, and came home, and crawled into bed鈥攕he texted her boss to share what had happened. 鈥淔or me it was like, how can I go through this and not tell my colleagues? I鈥檓 a mess,鈥 says the 37-year-old who works as a digital marketing manager in Des Moines, Iowa. 鈥淚 realized how much talking about it was helping me cope.鈥 (Feintzeig, 8/16)
The coronavirus pandemic has pushed Deborah聽Pusatere to聽convert聽all her聽tenants' one-year leases into rolling month-to-month agreements.聽The聽landlord in upstate New York oversees 80 apartment units. When a tenant's lease is set to expire,聽she offers them聽a more聽flexible contract to move out聽at any time with a 30-day notice.聽"A lot of people are still losing their jobs," Pusatere says. "They don't know if their jobs are coming back. So I don't want someone locked into the lease if they need to relocate to another state, or have to move for a job opportunity in a month." (Brown, 8/17)