Asbestos-related disease accounts for over 3,500 deaths each year, creating what is the UK’s biggest single cause of work related deaths. Nationally approximately 600 of these deaths each year arise from work with asbestos in the construction industry and allied trades.

The following highlights local actions on women’s health. Howard County, Md.: Some health experts recently criticized a new county Board of Education regulation that directs school officials to notify parents when students reveal they are pregnant, saying it violates girls’ right to privacy and will reduce their willingness to seek other health care services, the

California hospitals collect a higher percentage of their listed charges from uninsured patients than from Medicare, according to a study published on Tuesday in Health Affairs, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. For the study, researchers from RAND and the

“There are great racial and socioeconomic disparities that make some women more likely to lose their fight [against breast cancer] than others. This isn’t just wrong; it’s unthinkable,” Hannah Linden and Carey Jackson, both physicians and associate professors of medicine at the University of Washington write in a

National Association of Chain Drug Stores on Monday announced that it will launch an advertising campaign next month in the Washington, D.C., region to raise the industry’s profile, The Hill reports.

Black men with kidney disease and high blood pressure are more likely than others to not have their blood pressure under control, which could worsen their kidney disease, according to a study in the current issue of the American Journal of Kidney Diseases, HealthDay News/U.S. News & World Report reports.

Artificial heart manufacturers Abiomed and SynCardia Systems on Monday announced that CMS has proposed to extend Medicare coverage to the devices for beneficiaries who participate in clinical trials approved by FDA, the

The Bush administration on Wednesday filed arguments in a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of San Francisco stating that veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

“How Non-Group Health Coverage Varies With Income,” Kaiser Family Foundation: The analysis examines how often people at different income levels purchase individual health coverage when they do not have access to employer-sponsored coverage or do not obtain public coverage. Researchers found that relatively few people at lower incomes buy individual coverage.

The Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria plans to review its programs in India after the World Bank announced it had uncovered fraud in its programs in the country, Taufiqur Rahman, Global Fund head of grants for South and West Asia, said on Friday,