WASHINGTON, Aug. 2 (UPI) — A U.S. Senate panel has approved a bill that empowers the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco products, Congressional Quarterly said Thursday.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has endorsed the measure by a 13-8 vote, clearing the way for an appearance on the Senate floor after the August recess, the journal noted.

The committee also adopted several amendments, including one banning the use of cloves in tobacco products marketed in the United States.

Among the opponents who would like to stamp the bill out are Republican Senators Richard M. Burr of North Carolina, who proposed lessening the regulatory powers the bill would give the FDA, and Michael Enzi of Wyoming, who is fighting to phase out the use of tobacco for smoking during the next 20 years.

The Bush administration has not given an opinion on the bill, but is not expected to support it, Congressional Quarterly said.

By ANDREW BRIDGES
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Stores nationwide are continuing to sell recalled canned chili, stew, hash and other foods potentially contaminated with poisonous bacteria even after repeated warnings the products could kill.

Thousands of cans are being removed from store shelves as quickly as investigators find them, more than a week after Castleberry’s Food Co. began recalling more than 90 potentially contaminated products over fears of botulism contamination.

The recall now covers two years’ production at the company’s Augusta, Ga., plant - a tally that spirals into the tens of millions of cans.

Spot checks by the Food and Drug Administration and state officials continue to turn up recalled products for sale in convenience stores, gas stations and family run groceries, from Florida to Alaska. The FDA alone has found them in roughly 250 of the more than 3,700 stores visited in nationwide checks, according to figures the agency provided to The Associated Press.

More from the AP

By KEVIN FREKING, Associated Press Writer
from Yahoo! News

WASHINGTON - For the first time, manufacturers of vitamins, herbal pills and other dietary supplements will have to test all of their products’ ingredients. The Food and Drug Administration said Friday it is phasing in a new rule that is designed to address concerns that existing regulations allowed supplements onto the market that were contaminated or didn’t contain ingredients claimed on the label.

Last year, the agency found that some supplements contained undeclared active ingredients used in prescription drugs for erectile dysfunction. In the past, regulators found supplements that didn’t contain the levels of Vitamin C or Vitamin A that were claimed.

If, upon inspection, the FDA finds that supplements do not contain the ingredients they claim, the agency would consider the products adulterated or misbranded. In minor cases, the agency could ask the manufacturer to remove an ingredient or revise its label. In more serious cases, it could seize the product, file a lawsuit or even seek criminal charges.

Dietary supplements - pills, liquids or other products - are a $22 billion industry.

Most companies already test their raw ingredients, said Steve Mister, president and CEO for the Council for Responsible Nutrition, a trade association representing about 65 manufacturers.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

As if I don’t have enough to worry about as a man of 54 years, now this. How nice!

WASHINGTON - There’s more worrisome news about vitamins: Taking too many may increase men’s risk of dying from prostate cancer.

The study, being published Wednesday, doesn’t settle the issue. But it is the biggest yet to suggest high-dose multivitamins may harm the prostate, and the latest chapter in the confusing quest to tell whether taking various vitamins really helps a variety of conditions - or is a waste of money, or worse.

Government scientists turned to a study tracking the diet and health of almost 300,000 men. About a third reported taking a daily multivitamin, and 5 percent were heavy users, swallowing the pills more than seven times a week.

Within five years of the study’s start, 10,241 men had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. Some 1,476 had advanced cancer; 179 died.

Heavy multivitamin users were almost twice as likely to get fatal prostate cancer as men who never took the pills, concludes the study in Wednesday’s Journal of the
National Cancer Institute.

Here’s the twist: Overall, the researchers found no link between multivitamin use and early’stage prostate cancer.

The researchers speculate that perhaps high-dose vitamins had little effect until a tumor appeared, and then could spur its growth.

read more at YAHOO! NEWS

Unfortunately, some of the following article from YAHOO may have some really mistaken information. In particular is the reference and “OK” of Aspartame. If you have never seen the documentary about Aspartame called “Sweet Misery”, it’s a MUST-SEE!!!

Be sure to see the two videos below after reading the article. You may change your mind about what you’re putting into your body.

Even though many everyday foods - from cereals to chewing gum to diet beverages - are sweetened with artificial sweeteners, many Americans still wonder if these substances are really safe. Are they harmful? What are the possible side effects of regularly consuming them?

Sugar substitutes are compounds that offer the sweetness of sugar without adding to the calories or elevating blood sugar. These non-nutritive (i.e., no-calorie) sweeteners are highly concentrated; their sweetness ranges from 200 to 13,000 times sweeter than regular sugar. They are helpful for many people trying to cut down on the number of calories they consume, to lose weight, and to control diabetes.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved five artificial sweeteners that are reportedly safe to consume daily over a lifetime. In order for an artificial sweetener to be FDA approved, it must be tested for safety. Although numerous studies have been conducted on artificial sweeteners and their relation to cancer, research has found no evidence to support such a link in humans.

With all the dietary supplements around that are not regulated by the FDA, I thought it would be enlightening to list the calorie-free sugar substitutes that are approved by the FDA:

* Aspartame. Teaspoon for teaspoon, aspartame has the same number of calories as sugar, but with one big difference: Since aspartame is 200 times sweeter, most amounts of it consumed are virtually calorie free. It is sold under the brand names NutraSweet®, Sugar Twin®, and Equal® and is typically found as a tabletop sweetener or as an ingredient in chewing gums, breakfast cereals, and soft drinks.
* Saccharin. Sold under the brand names Sweet’N Low®, Sweet Twin®, and Necta Sweet®, saccharin is 200 to 700 times sweeter than sugar. It is typically found as a tabletop sweetener or as an ingredient in chewing gums, soft drinks, baked goods, and jams.
* Acesulfame-K. Also 200 times sweeter than sugar, Acesulfame-K is sold under the brand names Sunnet® and Sweet One®. It is typically found as a tabletop sweetener and in baked goods, frozen desserts, candies, beverages, cough drops, and breath mints.
* Neotame. This one packs a real wallop - it’s 7,000 to 13,000 times sweeter than sugar - and is typically found in baked goods, soft drinks, chewing gums, frostings, frozen desserts, jams, jellies, gelatins, puddings, processed fruits and fruit juices, toppings, and syrups.
* Sucralose. Sold under the brand name Splenda® and approved as a general-purpose sweetener in all foods, sucralose is 600 times sweeter than sugar.

More and more new products are being prepared with these artificial sweeteners, making those foods very low in calories or entirely calorie-free. For more information on artificial sweeteners and their safety, visit: www.fda.gov or www.eatright.org.

Be sure to watch BOTH OF THESE VIDEOS!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0hjP62Y6gI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-n-gA0wvi84

Actually, quite sickening. If this is true that drug companies are paying doctors to “pill up” our children, it’s another sad story of corporate greed in America. Something that must stop…and stop now! - Jim

from The New York Times
By GARDINER HARRIS, BENEDICT CAREY and JANET ROBERTS

When Anya Bailey developed an eating disorder after her 12th birthday, her mother took her to a psychiatrist at the University of Minnesota who prescribed a powerful antipsychotic drug called Risperdal.

Created for schizophrenia, Risperdal is not approved to treat eating disorders, but increased appetite is a common side effect and doctors may prescribe drugs as they see fit. Anya gained weight but within two years developed a crippling knot in her back. She now receives regular injections of Botox to unclench her back muscles. She often awakens crying in pain.

Isabella Bailey, Anya’s mother, said she had no idea that children might be especially susceptible to Risperdal’s side effects. Nor did she know that Risperdal and similar medicines were not approved at the time to treat children, or that medical trials often cited to justify the use of such drugs had as few as eight children taking the drug by the end.

Just as surprising, Ms. Bailey said, was learning that the university psychiatrist who supervised Anya’s care received more than $7,000 from 2003 to 2004 from Johnson & Johnson, Risperdal’s maker, in return for lectures about one of the company’s drugs.

Doctors, including Anya Bailey’s, maintain that payments from drug companies do not influence what they prescribe for patients.

But the intersection of money and medicine, and its effect on the well-being of patients, has become one of the most contentious issues in health care. Nowhere is that more true than in psychiatry, where increasing payments to doctors have coincided with the growing use in children of a relatively new class of drugs known as atypical antipsychotics.

read more at The New York Times