• U.S. to lose a generation of young medical, biology researchers

    Five consecutive years of flat funding the budget of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is deterring promising young researchers and threatening the future of U.S. health, a group of seven preeminent academic research institutions warn

  • Pandemic flu may be well mitigated until vaccine is available

    New study shows that high levels of compliance, ascertainment, and social distancing would make it possible to mitigate a flu pandemic until a vaccine is available

  • Toxic newts lose war against immune-enhanced garter snakes

    A newt is armed with a poison so deadly that a single animal can kill a dozen people; garter snakes, the newt’s main predator, have developed resistance to the poison; researchers say this does not bode well for humans: Our bodies may develop resistance which would make medications ineffective

  • Boeing shows biological detection UAV

    UAVs have been performing more and more military and homeland security missions; Boeing demonstrates the use of its ScanEagle UAV in detecting, intercepting, and flying through simulated biological plumes or clouds to collect airborne agents

  • U.S. water supply contaminated by pharmaceuticals

    There are 302 million people in the United States, but over the past five years, the number of U.S. prescriptions rose 12 percent to a record 3.7 billion, while nonprescription drug purchases reached 3.3 billion; ingredients of these medications find their way to, and contaminate, the U.S. water supply; federal, state, and local governments do not regulate medical discharges into drinking water

  • Study of U.K. nuclear power plants employees reveals radiation risks

    More than 65,000 individuals were employed between 1946 and 2002 at nuclear power plants operated by British Nuclear Fuels plc and its predecessors; a team of researchers studied the health histories of these individuals, and found evidence for an association between mortality from noncancer causes of death, particularly circulatory system disease, and external exposure to ionizing radiation

  • Taming food poisoning and bioterrorism toxins

    Rutgers researchers offer new insights into how plant toxin ricin kills cells; insights could help scientists develop drugs to counteract poisonings, reducing the threat of ricin as a bioterror weapon

  • U.S. smallpox preparedness improves, even if not quite according to plan

    The number of people vaccinated is vastly lower than President Bush projected, but public health experts say that there are enough healthcare workers inoculated to respond to an outbreak and enough vaccine on hand to get more protected, along with anyone else exposed to the disease

  • New sensor detects airborne pathogens

    MIT lab develops an advanced sensor for airborne pathogen; current sensors take at least twenty minutes to detect harmful bacteria or viruses in the air, but the PANTHER sensors can perform detection and identification in less than three minutes

  • Killing bugs dead

    A new device, based on the old-fashioned mechanical air-pump technology, destroys airborne pathogens by rapidly heating contaminated air under pressure and mechanically compressing it

  • FSIS exemplifies growing inadequacy of U.S. food inspection regime

    Decline and fall: In FY 1981, FSIS spent $13.22 per thousand pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; by FY 2007, the figure had fallen to $8.26 per thousand pounds; in FY 1981 FSIS employed about 190 workers per billion pounds of meat and poultry inspected and passed; by FY 2007, FSIS employed fewer than 88 workers per billion pounds

  • HSDW conversation with Marion Nestle

    Professor Nestle on food safety in a globalized economy, the threat of bioterrorism, government regulation of the industry, and genetic modification

  • Color-coded map identifies cities at risk from bioterrorism

    Vulnerability to bioterrorism involves three dimensions of risk — social aspects, natural hazards, and construction of the city and its infrastructure’ new map captures these variables as they apply to U.S. cities

  • FDA needs to move with the times

    The FDA tasks and responsibilities grow as its budget and resources are cut; FDA commissioner says agency needs to adapt to changing safety concerns and technological advances in both industries

  • Avalanche of drugs, scarcely any oversight, II

    About $72 billion in drugs and active ingredients were imported into the U.S. in 2006; the FDA that year spent a mere $12.75 million inspecting foreign production plants; between 3,250 and 6,800 non-U.S. plants export drugs and drug ingredients to the U.S.(the FDA’s two main databases each gives a different figure), and are thus subject to FDA inspection; in the last five years the agency has conducted only 1,445 foreign inspections; main reason: In the face of growing drug and food imports, the Bush administration steadily cut the agency’s budget and resources since 2001