Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
CDC Warns About Eating Pre-Cut Cantaloupe Unless You Know Source
AP: Don’t Eat Pre-Cut Cantaloupe If Source Is Unknown, CDC Says
Consumers shouldn’t eat pre-cut cantaloupe if they don’t know the source, U.S. health officials said Thursday, as the number of illnesses and recalls tied to a deadly salmonella outbreak grows. At least 117 people in 34 U.S. states have been sickened by contaminated cantaloupe, including 61 who were hospitalized and two who died, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Another 63 illnesses, 17 hospitalizations and one death tied to the same outbreak have been reported in Canada. The illnesses are severe, with more than half of infected people hospitalized, including residents of long-term care centers and children in day care, the CDC said. (Aleccia, 11/30)
On lead contamination and PFAS —
WMFE: Small Planes Using Leaded Fuel Pose A Health Danger. What's Being Done To Help?
The EPA recently declared that emissions from aircrafts that use leaded fuel pose a danger to public health. The Engineering dean at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University explains. (Blake, 11/29)
CBS News: Pennsylvania Department Of Health Issues Warning About Children's Cups Recalled Due To High Lead Levels
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued a warning about children's cups recalled due to high levels of lead. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled PandaEarOpens, LAOION, and Green Sprouts stainless steel bottles and cups because their lead levels exceeded the federal content ban. (Guise, 11/30)
KFF Health News: ‘Forever Chemicals’ Found In Freshwater Fish, Yet Most States Don’t Warn Residents
Bill Eisenman has always fished. “Growing up, we ate whatever we caught — catfish, carp, freshwater drum,” he said. “That was the only real source of fish in our diet as a family, and we ate a lot of it.” Today, a branch of the Rouge River runs through Eisenman’s property in a suburb north of Detroit. But in recent years, he has been wary about a group of chemicals known as PFAS, also referred to as “forever chemicals,” which don’t break down quickly in the environment and accumulate in soil, water, fish, and our bodies. (Norman, 12/1)
In other health and wellness news —
The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer: Sweet Solution: UH Researchers Find The Key To Killing Cancer Cells May Be Sugar
Too much sugar isn’t good for you. There isn’t a nutritionist anywhere who will say otherwise. Overconsumption of sugar leads to diabetes, obesity, inflammation, a weakened immune system - even wrinkles. But that bad could be turned into a good, when it comes to combating cancer. Sugar as it turns out, is bad for the cells in the body in a lot of ways, and now a group of researchers studying pancreatic cancer at University Hospitals Seidman Cancer has discovered it’s bad for cancer cells too. (Kroen, 11/30)
Good Morning America: New Study Reinforces Skin-To-Skin Contact Is Critical For Premature Babies
For babies born prematurely, early skin-to-skin contact may have significant health benefits, according to a new study. The study, published Thursday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that premature babies who were held close to their mother or father's skin right after birth showed better communication, social skills and more positive interaction with their mothers at 4 months compared to those who were placed in an incubator. (Jhaveri, 11/30)
Stat: Congenital Heart Disease Patients Face New Threat Of Heart Failure
When Jennifer Case was living in Los Angeles in her early 30s, she was hospitalized 11 times. She had been born with two rare heart abnormalities, Ebstein anomaly and Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Her parents were told that she probably wouldn’t live. She did live. But by her 30s, she had also developed heart failure, a condition in which the heart can’t pump blood throughout the body properly. She had dizziness and swelling in her legs, and at one point during work, she fainted. (Chen, 12/1)
The Washington Post: It’s Never Too Late To Lift Weights: Older Bodies Can Still Build Muscle
Contrary to popular wisdom among many gym-goers and even some scientists, healthy people in their 60s, 70s and beyond can safely start lifting weights and rapidly build substantial muscle mass, strength and mobility. A new study of resistance exercise and the elderly found that even people in their 80s and 90s — who hadn’t weight trained before — showed significant gains after starting a supervised program of lifting weights three times a week. (Reynolds, 11/29)
