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Nanotech Safety, Side Effects, & Health Risks Study Urged

U.S. panel calls for probe into nanotech’s safety, health risks: It’s become a multibillion industry and sales are expected to expand rapidly in the next decade.

Currently, it’s used in a growing number of state-of-the-art products like special zinc oxide sunscreens that seem to glide on the skin, extremely high-memory computer hard discs, non-friction swimsuits that help Olympic athletes swim faster, and catalytic converter components for cars that remove pollutive particles even before these can be released into the air.

It also promises to revolutionize medicine and health care, electronics and computers, energy production and conservation, environmental cleanup and protection, and world security and defense.

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Bird Superflu Virus: Yoshihiro Kawaoka & Ron Fouchier Research Halted

Just in case you missed it, here’s something straight out of a sci-fi thriller—except that it’s true and has been recently in the news: Scientists in a lab, working on a dangerous virus that usually kills half of those infected, have mutated it to make it as contagious as the common flu.

For as long as the virus remains locked up in a lab, we’re safe. But what if the virus escapes—or gets into the hands of bioterrorists? Unleashed, the virus could trigger a pandemic that would kill millions around the world.

So far, the Dutch scientist and the University of Wisconsin-Madison virologist whose bird flu researches sparked recent global controversy have agreed (on Jan. 20)—together with 37 other bird flu scientists—to suspend their research for 60 days.

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Are Teflon Pans Safe? PFC Side Effects, Vaccines, & Your Immune System

Do PFCs reduce vaccine effectiveness? The dangers they pose are not fully known, but they’re everywhere. PFCs — perfluorinated compounds — are found in household items like Teflon pans, microwave popcorn bags and pizza boxes, stain repellants, floor wax, carpet treatments and some shampoos.

PFCs don’t break down easily and they’re often found in the environment and wildlife, and dispersed into the air and water by industrial waste from some chemical plants.

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Sativex Marijuana Spray vs. Cancer Pain: Side Effects & Precautions

Marijuana mouth spray for cancer pain may get FDA nod soon: Marijuana in a mouth spray? Now ain’t that cool? Before you fall of your chair, take note: the spray is a medication and not a new form of smokeless pot.

But the great news is that the marijuana-based mouth spray — the the world’s first medication developed from raw marijuana plants — may even get the nod of the United States Food and Drug Authority as soon as next year (2013) for use as treatment in cancer pain.

The spray, called Sativex, contains Tetranabinex and Nabidiolex, extracts of chemically and genetically characterized Cannabis sativa L. or marijuana plants. It has the same active components in the type of pot smoked by people around the world: delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and cannabidiol (CBD).

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High Heels, Health Risks, Bad Side Effects, & Muscle Stress

High heels stress muscles, pose injury risk—and change the way future women will walk?

If, over the next millennia, women will continue to use high-heeled shoes as modern women do, women in the future may evolve a tottering gait, walking with shorter, more forceful strides than men, with their feet perpetually in a flexed, toes-pointed position.

The long-term consequences of walking this way are yet unknown but will certainly be far-reaching and profound—not unlike the significant outcomes of Australopithecus afarensis hominids beginning to walk upright rather than in a crouched position like their distant cousins, the apes.

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Gardasil for Men (vs. Anal Cancer & Genital Warts): Side Effects & Safety

Gardasil for boys advised by US, Canada health authorities: Do you want to protect your son against genital warts? Or are you a sexually active male gay worried that you may get anal cancer?

If you are either, you might be glad to know that the use of Gardasil in males to protect against anal cancer, pre-cancerous lesions and genital warts was endorsed in January (2012) by Canada’s federally appointed panel of experts.

This follows the lead of its counterpart in the United States, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices that voted last fall to strongly recommend the use of HPV vaccines in boys and young men.

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