Babytalk: Phthalates Are Hard! Let's Go Shopping!

Holy crap. A few weeks ago, a group of educated, well-paid, professional women sat in a conference room at the Bonnier Corporation in midtown Manhattan and decided that, in matters of basic science, medicine, and health, they would treat moms...
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Check Out These Vintage Hospital Symbols

.flickr-photo { border: solid 2px #000000; } .flickr-yourcomment { } .flickr-frame { text-align: left; padding: 3px; } .flickr-caption { font-size: 0.8em; margin-top: 0px; } IMG_6581.JPG, originally uploaded by crabstick. E. Christopher Klumb & Associates designed a symbol and signage...
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JPMA: We Are 100% Behind BPA. Until We're Not.

I totally forgot to post this earlier this week. At first glance, this press release from the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association might seem like one more mindlessly self-serving, knee-jerk response to a damning front page article in the Washington Post...
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BPA BFD: Hysterical, Hippie Boutique Wal-Mart Turns Back On BPA-Loving America

In a move clearly designed to exploit the misguided media confusion over the baby industry's most successful puberty hastening plastic compound, a publicity-craving, yuppie boutique in Bentonville, Arkansas has grandly announced that it will stop carrying baby products with BPA...
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Quirky Canada Has Own Health Ministry, Bisphenol-A Laws

And thanks to NAFTA, soon Americans will, too, Bisphenol-A policies set right there in Ottawa, which polycarbonate gear manufacturers who treat the US and Canada as one market will have to adhere to. As a couple of Canadian types have...
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NIH Panel: Oh, THAT BPA? Yeah, That S**t'll Kill Ya

From the front page of the Washington Post: seems the new draft report of the NIH's National Toxicology Program panel is going to state that Bisphenol-A, the plastic additive found in baby bottles, sippy cups, and liquid formula can liners,...
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UK Study: It's Part Of A Brightly Colored, Wildly Imbalanced Breakfast!

I don't know what's more headscratching about this UK study linking commonplace processed food colorings and additives to ADHD in kids: the possibility that some of the most common food additives in the world [may be contributing to hyperactivity and...
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DT Headline Update: The International Breast Milk Project Is Also The Milk Supplier For Prolacta Bioscience

The ABC News report yesterday on the International Breast Milk Project actually didn't lead off with their donations of breast milk to HIV/AIDS orphans in Africa. Instead, it began with a domestic tragedy, the tale of Kim Sciulli, who...
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DT Link Round-Up: Imagine All The People Edition

Seems that even when I'm on the road, the browser tabs just keep filling up with interesting stuff. And how: The Birth Tour 2008 is coming to a yoga center near you: "What is THE BIRTH TOUR? Imagine a room...
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UK Waits Until After Cold Season To Ban Cold Medicine For Babies

It's part of the "special relationship" the US has with the UK: we copy their ubiquitous surveillance state apparatus, and they get our cold medicine ban for kids under two. The BBC reports that The Medicine and Healthcare products Regulatory...
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From Kill The Wabbit To Pee On A Stick: A History Of The Pregnancy Test

1978 is the 30th anniversary of the home pregnancy test, which was developed by pioneering researchers in reproductive endocrinology at the National Institutes of Health. "A Thin Blue Line" is the NIH's online history of the project, and it makes...
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Wasting Away Again In KidKupzville

Uh-oh: "If you're a Mom, you're likely familiar with the age-old problem of trying to administer harsh-tasting medicine to a sick, fussy child!" Good thing the publicist added "or a dad" in the press release, or we coulda had...
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DT Followups: Outsized Efforts Edition

Here are some follow-ups to recent posts on DT: From the NYT report that after spending several years and millions of dollars, Korean scientists have developed space kimchi:Ordinary kimchi is teeming with microbes, like lactic acid bacteria, which help fermentation....
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That Would Explain The Laugh: Spongebob Musical Rectal Thermometer

At least it's not shaped like a pineapple. Musical SpongeBob™ Digital Thermometer [bd.com via cartoonbrew]...
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Swedish Scientists On Eczema Cause: Smells Like Floras

A study at Sweden's Lund University shows that infants who have an imbalanced intestinal bacterial flora a week after birth are more likely to develop eczema.The composition of a child’s bacterial flora is dependent on the mother’s microflora, since...
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Uma's Choice: Milk Bank Can Either Save Preemies Or Cure Cancer

It's devastating, but simple: Fort Worth has so many teen pregnancies with so many premature births, the Mothers' Milk Bank has to turn away throat cancer patients who would otherwise be cured by the liquid gold. Fortunately, the solution is...
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All The IVF Twins News That's Fit To Print, And Then Some

Last week, the Trouble With Twins was all about getting into preschools on the Upper West Side and double stroller gridlock at Fairway. This week, it's all oocytes and comparative genomic hybridization. From the NY Times' apparently weekly series of...
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DT Headline Roundup: A Good Meal, A Little Massage, & A Minivan Edition

Or, what's in my browswer tabs: If You Give A Baby A Protein Shake... Thirty years ago, researchers in Guatemala wanted to test the impact of high nutrition and protein intake on preschool growth and development, so they gave fortified...
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Female Infant Circumcision? Oh, You Mean The Indonesian Bris?

I've been too unsettled about the New York Times' recent article on female infant genital cutting ceremonies in Indonesia to write about it. Though there's the obligatory quotes from human rights and womens' health advocates, for the most part, the...
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Seawater Spray Cures Colds, Says Seawater Spraymaker-Sponsored Researchers

Now that cold medicine's been criminalized, only criminals will give their kids cold medicine. I'd meant to point last week to the NY Times science blog, where Dr. Alan Greene, some hippie doctor with a Green Baby book to promote,...
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