Category: Quality Control (Page 68 of 74)

Mexican Papayas Source of Salmonella Poisoning

August 29, 2011 / Staff

Papayas blocked at the boarder because of salmonella.

As many as 100 people were made ill because of the Mexican papayas.

The Food and Drug Administration said on Thursday the outbreak, which spread to 23 U.S. states, was linked to fresh papayas from nearly all the major papaya-growing regions in Mexico.

Salmonella infection commonly causes diarrhea, fever and abdominal cramps in the first few days after eating a contaminated product.
The infection is the most common U.S. foodborne illness and continues to strike the country as often as it did 15 years ago, linked to contaminated meats, produce and processed foods. Last year it caused nearly 2,300 hospitalizations and 29 deaths. One outbreak led to a recall of nearly half a billion eggs.

Quality Control

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Obesity Hurts Everyone

August 29, 2011 / Staff

If you think that being overweight effects only the obese then think again.

Obesity is fast replacing tobacco as the single most important preventable cause of chronic non-communicable diseases, and will add an extra 7.8 million cases of diabetes, 6.8 million cases of heart disease and stroke, and 539,000 cases of cancer in the United States by 2030.
Some 32 percent of men and 35 percent of women are now obese in the United States, according to a research team led by Claire Wang at the Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University in New York. They published their findings in a special series of four papers on obesity in The Lancet.

Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Nutrition, Quality Control, Resources, Wellness

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Conflict of Interest Guidelines Revised at the National Institute of Health

August 24, 2011 / Staff

The amount of money considered to constitute a conflict of interest has been lowered at the National Institute of Health.

The 16 year old conflict of interest rules for medical researchers has been revised, expanding the required disclosures.

Concern about the integrity of research in the United States has grown since 2008, when Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley criticized prominent Harvard University psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Biederman and others for failing to fully disclose payments from drug companies.
In a more recent example, medical device maker Medtronic Inc came under fire over accusations that doctors paid by the company had failed to disclose major side effects from a bone growth drug in clinical trials.

Private sector funds have no place in policy governing the health of the nation.

Quality Control

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Circumcision Debate Goes On

August 23, 2011 / Staff

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend routine neonatal circumcision the debate wages on with little definitive information from either side.

Parents can feel coerced into making a quick decision with little information.

With changes in health care policy it may become a matter of cost for a medically unnecessary procedure which can cost $400; quite a lot of money for many families.

More and more parents are starting to think seriously about whether to circumcise their newborn boys. And many of them are finding that it’s a question without easy answers, not least because guidance from many leading medical organizations has been equivocal. Although rates have declined in recent years, well over half of all boys born in American hospitals undergo the procedure.

Hospitals, Medicaid, Quality Control, Wellness

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Flavored Milks Will Have Less Sugar and Calories

August 22, 2011 / Staff

Kids who drink flavored milk will be ingesting fewer calories and less sugar this year.

As the school is about to start moms can rest a little easier knowing that their children wont be subject to mind bending amounts of sugar.

Excess sugar has been linked to childhood obesity, type 2 diabetes and a host behavioral problems in kids.

This is a small step in the right direction especially for kids who rely on school lunches as their primary source of nutrition.

Cartons of flavored milk will carry just 31 more calories than white milk as the result of a five-year process of industry reformulations aiming to “provide nutritious new products with the same great taste kids love,” said MilkPEP.
The healthy trend among milk processors will reduce added sugar in fat-free and low-fat chocolate milk by 38 percent.
“There are a lot of kids that don’t want to drink plain white milk; they really love drinking flavored milk and that’s very important for the essential nutrients in milk,” said MilkPEP CEO Vivien Godfrey. “It’s a happy balance between some added sugars but making sure that the kids actually drink the milk as opposed to taking the white milk on the lunch line and not in fact drinking it.”

Nutrition, Quality Control, Wellness

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