Smokers can sue over 'light cigarettes': US Supreme Court (AFP)
AFP - The US Supreme Court on Monday ruled that smokers can sue Altria and other tobacco companies for allegedly deceptive marketing of "light" or "low tar" cigarettes.
Colorectal Cancer Racial Gap Still Growing (HealthDay)
HealthDay - MONDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Despite major progress reducing overall colorectal cancer incidence and death rates in the United States, black men and women are still 45 percent more likely than whites to die of the disease.
Later School Start Time Cuts Teens' Car Crash Risk (HealthDay)
HealthDay - MONDAY, Dec. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Letting teens sleep a little more by starting the school day a bit later may lower their odds for car crash injury or death, a new study finds.
Reuters - Mattel Inc, the world's largest toymaker, reached a $12 million settlement with 39 U.S. states over lead-tainted toys that prompted a health scare in 2007, the Massachusetts attorney general said on Monday.
Weight can be kept off no matter how it's lost (Reuters)
Reuters - Obese people who have lost substantial amounts of weight without surgery can do just as well at maintaining the healthier weight as their peers who lost weight via gastric surgery. That's the finding of the first study to compare the two strategies.
One in 10 EU hospital patients 'suffers adverse effects': EU (AFP)
AFP - One in 10 patients are suffering extra adverse effects while being treated in European hospitals, the EU's health commissioner said Monday, urging member states to take steps to improve the situation.
AP - Finally, a little good health care news for consumers: U.S. prices for generic prescription drugs, which already cost as little as one-third what their brand-name cousins do, have been getting cheaper and likely will keep doing so.
U.S. blacks lag whites in colorectal cancer progress (Reuters)
Reuters - Colorectal cancer diagnoses and deaths have fallen in the United States this decade, but the gap in progress between whites and blacks is widening, the American Cancer Society said on Monday.
Racial gap in colon cancer deaths is widening (AP)
AP - The racial gap in colon cancer death rates is widening, a new report says, and experts partly blame blacks' lower screening rates and poor access to quality care.
Indian state to kill 200,000 fowl in bird flu cull (Reuters)
Reuters - Indian authorities will slaughter 200,000 chickens in the northeast state of Assam in the next two days in a culling operation to tackle the threat of bird flu, officials said.