Just in time for the holidays, as many among us prepare to sit down to turkey or ham at the dinner table, FDA has taken a big step backwards on the public health threat of antibiotic resistant bacteria in our meat and in our everyday lives. The agency has chosen to go back on its nearly 35-year-old promise to stop the use of certain antibiotics in animal feed. Today, it essentially announced to the American citizens it is supposed to protect that they are on their own when it comes to antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

As I’ve written before, leading medical and health experts agree that the widespread and unnecessary practice of giving healthy animals low doses of antibiotics endangers public health-by increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria. Rising resistance renders antibiotics less effective for treatment of human diseases and makes treatment riskier and more prone to side effects. In some cases, treatment is no longer possible. In the US, 80 percent of all antibiotics sold are for use in livestock. Public health advocates have repeatedly asked FDA to address the looming crisis of untreatable infections, but FDA has repeatedly evaded the issue.

In November, I wrote about FDA punting on its obligations to […]

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They are a daily essential for millions of Britons hoping to ward off ill-health.

But despite the millions of pounds spent on vitamin pills, they do nothing for our health, according to a major study.

Researchers spent more than six years following 8,000 people and found that those taking supplements were just as likely to have developed cancer or heart disease as those who took an identical-looking dummy pill.

And when they were questioned on how healthy they felt, there was hardly any difference between the two groups.

Experts said the study – one of the most extensive carried out into vitamin pills – suggested that millions of consumers may be wasting their money on supplements.

Many users fall into the category of the ‘worried well’ – healthy adults who believe the pills will insure them against deadly illnesses – according to Catherine Collins, chief dietician at St George’s Hospital in London.

She said: ‘It’s the worried well who are taking these pills to try and protect themselves against Alzheimer’s disease, heart attacks and strokes.

‘But they are wasting their money. This was a large study following people up for a long period of time assessing […]

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Republicans launched an unprecedented frontal assault against environmental protections and regulations this year, prompting Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) to call his chamber ‘the most anti-environment House in history.

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A recent patent application filed by computer giant Apple reveals what might be the company’s next big thing: hydrogen batteries.

Hydrogen batteries work by splitting water into its core chemical components, then using those chemicals to generate electricity, but for many years the reaction was too volatile for most commercial applications.

Scientists announced in 2008 that they had finally discovered a way to conduct the reaction in a much smaller container, free from the corrosive effects that marred previous attempts. They also learned how to create hydrogen batteries that can store vast amounts of electricity in very small containers.

Those discoveries played a key role in influencing Apple to look at hydrogen cells as the potential next generation power source for mobile electronics, and this latest patent filing is not their first.

Apple’s latest patent seems to carry the technology even further, suggesting that some day soon, hydrogen batteries will be lighter and more energy efficient than today’s portable electricity storage, potentially giving mobile electronics a charge for weeks at a time.

The application also makes an interesting note about the power of consumer opinion, suggesting that because the people want renewable energy, Apple will strive to give it to them.

‘Our country’s continuing reliance on […]

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MIAMI — As her mother sat in a homeless shelter in downtown Miami, talking about her economic struggles and loss of faith in the U.S. political system, 3-year-old Aeisha Touray blurted out what sounded like a new slogan for the Occupy Wall Street protest movement.

‘How dare you!’ the girl said abruptly as she nudged a toy car across a conference room table at the Chapman Partnership shelter in Miami’s tough and predominantly black Overtown neighborhood.

There was no telling what Aeisha was thinking as her 32-year-old mother, Nairkahe Touray, spoke of how she burned through her savings and wound up living in a car with five of her eight children earlier this year.

But how dare you indeed? How does anyone explain to kids like Aeisha and countless others how they wound up homeless in the world’s richest nation?

In a report issued earlier this month, the National Center on Family Homelessness, based in Needham, Massachusetts, said 1.6 million children were living on the streets of the United States last year or in shelters, motels and doubled-up with other families.