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Published: 04/9/11

End to Japan Nuclear Crisis Is Years, a Fortune Away

By  not in system - AOL News
End to Japan Nuclear Crisis Is Years, a Fortune Away

TOKYO -- Once Japan's leaky nuclear complex stops spewing radiation and its reactors cool down, making the site safe and removing the ruined equipment is going to be a messy ordeal that could take decades and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Radiation has covered the area around the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant and blanketed parts of the complex, making the job of "decommissioning" the plant - rendering it safe so it doesn't threaten public health and the environment - a bigger task than usual. Toshiba Corp., which supplied four of Fukushima's six reactors, including two on which General ...

Published: 03/29/11

9 Dead After IV Infections at 6 Ala. Hospitals

By  not in system - AOL News
9 Dead After IV Infections at 6 Ala. Hospitals

MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- Nine Alabama hospital patients who were treated with intravenous feeding bags contaminated with bacteria have died and the maker has pulled the product off the market, state health officials said Tuesday. Ten others who got the nutrient treatments that are delivered directly from the plastic bags into the bloodstream through IV tubes also were sickened by the outbreak of serratia marcescens bacteria, health officials said. All the patients were critically ill before receiving the IVs and officials have not definitively tied the deaths to the outbreak at six hospitals, ...

Published: 03/20/11

Despite Radiation Discoveries, Some Progress Seen in Japan's Nuclear Crisis

By  not in system - AOL News
Despite Radiation Discoveries, Some Progress Seen in Japan's Nuclear Crisis

FUKUSHIMA, Japan -- Japanese officials reported progress Sunday in their battle to gain control over a leaking, tsunami-stricken nuclear complex, though the crisis was far from over, with the discovery of more radiation-tainted vegetables and tap water adding to public fears about contaminated food and drink. The announcement by Japan's Health Ministry late Sunday that tests had detected excess amounts of radioactive elements on canola and chrysanthemum greens marked a low moment in a day that had been peppered with bits of positive news: First, a teenager and his grandmother were found alive ...

Published: 03/4/11

Five Budget Cuts That Could Be Harmful to Your Health

By  Andrew Schneider - AOL News
Five Budget Cuts That Could Be Harmful to Your Health

Hard-fought-for laws and regulations to save lives and the environment will be gutted or eliminated in budget cuts passed by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives or ordered by President Barack Obama's team, experts say. Public health and environmental experts say it's indisputable that lives will be lost if these cuts are made: 1) The Consumer Product Safety Commission. The commission is scheduled next week to roll out its long-awaited public database on the safety of consumer products. For the first time, it will allow shoppers to quickly determine whether products they ...

Published: 02/27/11

Horrific US Medical Experiments Come to Light

By  not in system - AOL News
Horrific US Medical Experiments Come to Light

ATLANTA -- Shocking as it may seem, U.S. government doctors once thought it was fine to experiment on disabled people and prison inmates. Such experiments included giving hepatitis to mental patients in Connecticut, squirting a pandemic flu virus up the noses of prisoners in Maryland, and injecting cancer cells into chronically ill people at a New York hospital. Much of this horrific history is 40 to 80 years old, but it is the backdrop for a meeting in Washington this week by a presidential bioethics commission. The meeting was triggered by the government's apology last fall for federal ...

Published: 02/27/11

Traveler May Have Spread Measles in 5 US Airports

By  Lauren Frayer - AOL News
Traveler May Have Spread Measles in 5 US Airports

Public health officials are scrambling to reach airline passengers and staff who may have had contact with a woman infected with measles who passed through as many as five U.S. airports last week. The New Mexico woman was on a transatlantic flight from London to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 20. Over the next few days, she's believed to have passed through airports in Baltimore, Denver, Albuquerque and San Diego. New Mexico authorities refused to identify the woman, but described her as a 27-year-old who had never been vaccinated for measles as a child. Her ...

Published: 02/17/11

Will Canada Export Death by Rejuvenating Its Last Asbestos Mine?

By  Andrew Schneider - AOL News
Will Canada Export Death by Rejuvenating Its Last Asbestos Mine?

ASBESTOS, Quebec -- A plan to increase production from Canada's last asbestos mine near this town named for the deadly mineral has enraged physicians and public health workers around the globe. They say the fibers from chrysotile ore, also called white asbestos, are to blame for a worldwide death count in the millions. Many experts are especially upset that the plan calls for the carcinogenic mineral to be shipped to countries where it encounters little, if any, protective restrictions on its use. Politicians, entrepreneurs and bureaucrats in Quebec insist that the chrysotile ore being mined ...

Published: 02/15/11

China Limits Smoking in Films, TV Shows

By  not in system - AOL News
China Limits Smoking in Films, TV Shows

BEIJING -- China is ordering makers of films and TV shows to limit the amount of smoking depicted on-screen, the latest effort to curb rampant tobacco use in the country with the largest number of smokers in the world. The order from the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television viewed Tuesday on its website orders producers to minimize plot lines and scenes involving tobacco and show smoking only when necessary for artistic purposes or character development. Minors under age 18 cannot be shown smoking or buying cigarettes, and characters may not smoke in public buildings or other ...

Published: 02/14/11

Playboy Mansion Party Guests Sickened; 5 Facts About Legionellosis

By  Greg Robillard - AOL News
Playboy Mansion Party Guests Sickened; 5 Facts About Legionellosis

It's not the disease you'd expect to pick up at the Playboy Mansion. According to the Los Angeles Department of Health, the mysterious illness that sickened at least 170 people who attended a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion on Feb. 3 is legionellosis. The Health Department has yet to confirm that the Playboy Mansion is the locus of the outbreak, however, as all the attendees who have fallen ill were also together at a conference in Santa Monica, Calif. Still, some guests of the event say they suspected that fumes from a smoke machine used at Hugh Hefner's famous pad made them ill. With ...

Published: 02/13/11

Health Officials Probe Reports of Mass Illness After Playboy Mansion Event

By  not in system - AOL News
Health Officials Probe Reports of Mass Illness After Playboy Mansion Event

LOS ANGELES - Health officials on Saturday were investigating complaints of respiratory illnesses that a media report said affected dozens of people after a fundraiser at the Playboy Mansion in Los Angeles that was part of a larger conference. The Department of Public Health issued a statement Saturday saying only that it was investigating a suspected respiratory infection outbreak among attendees of a conference on the west side of Los Angeles County. The Los Angeles Times said there were reports that dozens of people were sickened after the event at the L.A. mansion, but neither the ...

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