“Parents who warm up baby bottles could be putting their child at risk of ‘gender bending’ chemicals,” the Daily Mail reported. The Guardian said, “Scientists found that polycarbonate plastic bottles release a known environmental pollutant 55 times more quickly when filled with boiling water.

Positron Emission Tomography (PET) was much more sensitive and more accurate than conventional imaging methods in detecting response to treatment in sarcoma patients, according to a UCLA study that is among the first to directly compare PET to CT scanning. The study has important implications for patients.

Recently, numerous allergy medicatons previously available only by prescription are not available over-the-counter. Claritin, Claritin-D, Zyrtec, Zyrtec-D, Zaditor and NasalCrom are examples of allergy medications that now can be purchased…

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) in his budget for the next fiscal year has proposed increasing eligibility for Child Health Plus, the state’s version of SCHIP, to children in families with incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level from 250% of the poverty level, the Albany Times Union reports.

President Bush on Monday will release a fiscal year 2009 budget request that includes large reductions in Medicare spending growth and a decrease in Medicaid spending, according to Bush administration officials and budget documents, the New York Times reports.

Some HIV/AIDS advocates are calling on Congress to allocate more money than President Bush has asked for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief as lawmakers prepare to vote next week on reauthorizing the program, Inter Press Service reports. Bush has called on Congress to

The U.S. is likely to fall far short of its benchmark goals toward eliminating tuberculosis as a public health problem, according to data from a nationwide survey. Latent TB infection (LTBI) prevalence in the 1999-2000 U.S. population (excluding homeless and incarcerated individuals) was found to be 4.2 percent, according to the survey. The current infection rate would have to be 1 percent and decreasing if the U.S.

Women from three low-income communities in Manila, Philippines, on Wednesday asked an appeals court to revoke a local law that bans city clinics from providing contraceptives, Reuters UK reports. Lawyers representing the women said the law is unconstitutional (Mogato, Reuters UK, 1/30).

Robert Ball — a “chief architect” of Medicare who administered the program for its first seven years — died at age 93 on Tuesday at Collington Episcopal Life Care Community in Mitchellville, Md., the Washington Post reports. In the past 25-years, Ball “helped reform and save” Medicare three times, according to the Post.

The following highlights recent news of state actions on women’s health-related legislation and ballot proposals.Embryonic Stem Cell ResearchMichigan: Stem cell research supporters submitted language for a petition in support of a ballot initiative aimed at loosening restrictions on embryonic stem cell research in the state to the