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| Distracted driving bigger problem for novice drivers Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 02:28 PM PST  By Gene Emery NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - If you're a novice driver, dialing a phone is more dangerous than retrieving text messages, and reaching for an object while driving is more likely to produce an accident than eating behind the wheel. Even experienced drivers face a dangerously-high risk of getting into an accident while manipulating a cell phone. The most controversial element of the study is expected to be another finding: The act of just talking on a cell phone didn't increase the risk of a crash, regardless of a driver's experience. And those hazards were even greater than the risk posed by texting or using the Internet while driving. Full Story | Top |
| Trebling tobacco tax 'could prevent 200 million early deaths' Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 02:02 PM PST  By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Trebling tobacco tax globally would cut smoking by a third and prevent 200 million premature deaths this century from lung cancer and other diseases, researchers said on Wednesday. In a review in the New England Journal of Medicine, scientists from the charity Cancer Research UK (CRUK) said hiking taxes by a large amount per cigarette would encourage people to quit smoking altogether rather than switch to cheaper brands, and help stop young people from taking up the habit. Tobacco kills around 6 million people a year now, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and that toll is expected to rise above 8 million a year by 2030 if nothing is done to curb smoking rates. Richard Peto, an epidemiologist at CRUK who led the study, said aggressively increasing tobacco taxes would be especially effective in poorer and middle-income countries where the cheapest cigarettes are relatively affordable. Full Story | Top |
| Doctors, hospitals expect some confusion as Obamacare plans start Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 01:28 PM PST Hospitals and medical practices across the United States braced for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama's healthcare law took effect on Wednesday. More than 2 million people enrolled in private plans offered under the Affordable Care Act, popularly known as Obamacare, during the initial sign-up period for health benefits. A spokeswoman for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, or CMS, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said there were no hiccups to report in the first day the plans were in effect. Over time, the law - which requires most Americans to buy insurance, offers subsidies to help low-income people get covered and sets minimum standards for coverage - aims to dramatically reduce the number of Americans who lack health insurance, which the U.S. government has estimated at more than 45 million. Full Story | Top |
| Former first lady Barbara Bush remains in Houston hospital Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 01:01 PM PST (Reuters) - Former first lady Barbara Bush was in a Houston hospital for a third day being treated for a respiratory ailment, a spokesman for her husband's office said. Bush, 88, was admitted on Monday to Methodist Hospital in Houston's Texas Medical Center, the office of former President George H.W. Bush said on Wednesday. George H.W. Bush was the 41st president of the United States. The former first lady is also the mother of George W. Bush, the 43rd U.S. president. Full Story | Top |
| Gay couple exchanges wedding vows on Rose Parade float Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 11:46 AM PST  A gay Los Angeles couple exchanged wedding vows atop a flower-covered float trundling through Pasadena on Wednesday as part of the nationally televised Tournament of Roses Parade, capping a momentous year for same-sex marriage in the United States. The nuptials of Danny Leclair, 45, and Aubrey Loots, 42, who have been together for 12 years and own a local chain of hair salons, marked the first same-sex marriage on a Rose Parade float in the 125-year history of the annual event, organizers said. In the past, two heterosexual couples have tied the knot during Rose Parades - in 1989 and last year. Leclair and Loots made it official aboard a float shaped like a wedding cake coated in white coconut chips, accented with red kidney beans and festooned with 12,000 roses and other floral decorations, said Ged Kenslea, a spokesman for the AIDS Healthcare Foundation. Full Story | Top |
| Ex-Israeli Prime Minister Sharon's condition worsens: reports Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 11:23 AM PST  Former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, comatose since a 2006 stroke, has deteriorated to a "life threatening" condition after suffering kidney malfunction, Israel Radio reported on Wednesday. Officials at the hospital near Tel Aviv where Sharon, 85, has been treated, did not answer their telephones. The ex-general and right-wing leader was known for executing a dramatic political about face with a 2005 Gaza pullout that turned Israeli politics on its head when he quit his party and created a centrist faction that ruled Israel for several years. The radio, echoing reports by other Israeli media outlets, said Sharon's condition had worsened in the past several days and that his life was in danger due to kidney failure. Full Story | Top |
| OSHA plans to slash silica workplace exposure limits Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 08:46 AM PST  The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) estimates that 2.2 million people in the U.S. are exposed to silica at work, including 1.85 million construction workers. Other occupations carrying a risk of silica exposure include sandblasting, mining, stone grinding, as well as ceramic and glass manufacturing. Silica has long been known to cause silicosis, and evidence now confirms that silica exposure can cause lung cancer as well, Kyle Steenland of Emory University in Atlanta, a co-author of the new report, told Reuters Health. Recent research has also shown that non-smokers can get lung cancer from silica exposure, and that people who develop silica-related lung cancer don't always have silicosis, Steenland and his colleague Elizabeth Ward of the American Cancer Society note. Full Story | Top |
| U.S. justice grants exemption in contraception mandate challenge Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 08:42 AM PST By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Roman Catholic Church-affiliated organizations on Tuesday obtained last-minute court injunctions that give them temporary exemptions from a part of the Obamacare healthcare law that requires employers to provide insurance policies covering contraception. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor granted one temporary injunction to Baltimore-based Little Sisters of the Poor and Illinois-based Christian Brothers Services, plus related entities. Two different appeals courts granted stays in three other cases that had been pending at the high court, filed by various organizations, including Catholic University of America and non-profits in Michigan and Tennessee, according to a lawyer representing the groups. The lower court action meant the Supreme Court did not need to act in those cases. Full Story | Top |
| Women may skip radiation therapy over child care concerns Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 07:26 AM PST  By Kathleen Raven NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Child care issues may keep breast cancer patients from getting the treatments they need, a new study suggests. Mothers with young children were more likely to skip recommended radiation treatments after breast cancer surgery because of worries about the time involved, researchers found. In particular, women who had a breast tumor removed were less likely to undergo radiation therapy afterwards if they had kids age seven or younger at home. About 81 percent of women surveyed in the study who had younger kids received radiation therapy. Full Story | Top |
| Schumacher 'stable', media urged to respect privacy Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 03:19 AM PST  By Lucien Libert GRENOBLE, France (Reuters) - Seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher was in a stable condition on Wednesday, three days after suffering brain injuries in a skiing accident, his agent Sabine Kehm said outside the French hospital treating him. Kehm urged journalists to respect the 44-year-old German's privacy after security guards said they intercepted a reporter disguised as a priest trying to get into Schumacher's room. Schumacher is battling for his life after slamming his head against a rock while skiing off-piste in the French resort of Meribel on Sunday. Doctors carried out an operation on Monday to alleviate the build-up of pressure in Schumacher's skull as a result of internal bleeding. Full Story | Top |
| GRENOBLE, FRANCE - EX-FORMULA ONE CHAMPION MICHAEL SCHUMACHER'S AGENT SAYS HIS CONDITION IS "STABLE" Wednesday, Jan 01, 2014 02:05 AM PST Full Story | Top |
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