http://www.post-gazette.com/ Health, Science, Environment, Medicare news en-us Copyright 2012, post-gazette.com. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 17:39:55 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208157-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Across the country, activists with ties to the tea party are railing against all sorts of local and state efforts to control sprawl and conserve energy. They say government action in service of expanding public transportation routes and preserving open space is part of a United Nations-led conspiracy to deny property rights and herd citizens toward cities. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208213-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The Sierra Club's president, Michael Brune, has acknowledged in a blog post that beginning five years ago, the club accepted $26 million from people connected with Chesapeake Energy, the country's second-largest natural gas producer. He added that the club had turned down $30 million pledged by those donors since August 2010. Chesapeake uses a natural gas extraction method called hydraulic fracturing, which environmental groups say can pollute water sources. The club's position on fracking, as it is called, Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12035/1208214-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The space shuttles are headed for museums, but NASA said Friday that more than 6,300 people responded to its latest call for would-be astronauts, the second highest in its history and about double the 2,500 to 3,500 applications it usually gets. Sat, 4 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207778-28.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Pennsylvanians can now choose their wind energy suppliers like they choose their corn and cabbage: from local "farms" involved in a new program, ChoosePAWIND. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207793-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The renowned breast cancer charity Susan G. Komen for the Cure faced an escalating backlash Thursday over its decision to cut breast screening grants to Planned Parenthood. Some of Komen's local affiliates are openly upset, including all seven in California, and at least one top official has quit, reportedly in protest. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207800-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The Allegheny County Health Department has lifted a consumer alert it issued for Mullen's Bar and Grill on the North Shore after an inspector said she found several dead mice and more than 100 droppings scattered throughout the restaurant. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207803-454.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Pennsylvania health officials say the number of people stricken with illness after consuming raw milk from the same dairy has risen to 35 in four states. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207808-454.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Another suburban Philadelphia school has reported an outbreak of whooping cough. Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12034/1207874-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Fishermen from Cape Cod, Mass., to northern Maine would have to reduce the amount of cod they catch under an emergency proposal by the New England Fishery Management Council. The proposal, a nonbinding request to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, would reduce the catch of Gulf of Maine cod by as much as 20 percent in the fishing year that starts May 1. It would be an interim step, meant to delay a much steeper cut that federal regulators believe is needed to end overfishing. If regulators Fri, 3 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207738-100.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml West Penn Allegheny Health System hopes to get regulatory approval for its affiliation with Highmark by the fall and, if that goes through, it expects to be on good financial footing in two or three years, interim president and chief executive officer Keith T. Ghezzi said today. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 14:18:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207647-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The Allegheny County Health Department has issued a consumer alert for Mullen's Bar and Grill on the North Shore after an inspector said she found several dead mice and more than 100 droppings scattered throughout the restaurant. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 12:20:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207559-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Phones were ringing off the hook on Wednesday in the Regent Square offices of the Pittsburgh affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. "I hope you're having a better day than I am," said Kathy Purcell, local executive director of the charity dedicated to trying to eradicate breast cancer. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 01:10:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207640-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab ruled Wednesday that West Penn Allegheny Health System must provide UPMC with some of the information that its larger rival has requested, but not all of it. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:13:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207383-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Last fall, weather experts were predicting our region and the Midwest would be experiencing a harsh winter due to record-breaking snowfall averages and blasts of Arctic air. So far this winter, our average temperatures are above normal and snowfall totals are below normal. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207560-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml INDIANAPOLIS -- Birth control pills are known to be nearly 100 percent effective when taken properly, but a recall of the drugs could send a shudder through women of childbearing age. A manufacturing mix-up by Pfizer Inc., the world's largest drug maker, led to some packets being distributed with the pills out of order. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207561-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Indoor tanning comes with health risks, and congressional Democrats on Wednesday accused the indoor tanning industry of providing false and misleading information about those risks. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207564-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Alzheimer's disease seems to spread like an infection from brain cell to brain cell, two new studies find. But instead of viruses or bacteria, what is being spread is a distorted protein known as tau. The surprising finding answers a long-standing question and has immediate implications for developing treatments, researchers said. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207621-28-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Texas has more gas drilling than any other state and on Wednesday it started requiring drillers to release the list of chemicals used on each well -- everything from the tetrakis hydroxymethyl-phosphonium sulfate that eliminates bacteria in water to the formic acid used to prevent pipe corrosion. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207623-503.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Gov. Tom Corbett is reinforcing his position that local rules for natural-gas drillers need to be more uniform across the state, and now is speaking favorably of the proposal to do so that passed the House and Senate late last year. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207659-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Several populations of Atlantic sturgeon, the large, primordial-looking fish that were once common along East Coast watersheds, are endangered, the National Marine Fisheries Service declared Tuesday. The ruling includes the Chesapeake, Carolina and South Atlantic populations, as well as the New York Bight, which stretches from Massachusetts to Maryland. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12033/1207660-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml A deal was struck on Wednesday to save what could prove to be one of the richest treasure wrecks of all time. Thu, 2 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207420-100.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab ruled today that West Penn Allegheny Health System must provide UPMC with some of the information that its larger rival has requested, but not all of it. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 15:54:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207211-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml This is one of a series presented by the National Aviary. The National Aviary works to inspire respect for nature through an appreciation of birds. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207224-28-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml There are numerous "gaps and barriers" to implementing the health information technology reforms envisioned by the federal health IT act of 2009, according to a new report issued by the Bipartisan Policy Center, based in Washington, D.C. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207268-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml LOS ANGELES -- A partial mastectomy allows doctors to remove a cancerous tumor without having to remove the entire breast. A new study shows, however, that 1 in 4 women who undergo a partial mastectomy have to return for another surgery, called a re-excision, to remove additional tissue. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207269-114-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml It's no longer enough to vaccinate pre-teen and adolescent girls against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, a sexually transmitted virus that can cause cervical cancer later in life. Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207315-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml A new map detailing all known geologic faults east of Denver was issued Tuesday by the government and a nonprofit electric research group, opening the way for nuclear power plants in the United States to embark on a broad re-evaluation of their vulnerability to earthquakes. It was the first major update of the map since 1989. While researchers began the computer modeling for the map long before the earthquake and tsunami that caused last year's Fukushima Daiichi plant disaster in Japan, that calamity lent u Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12032/1207316-115-0.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml What's black and white, with a skunkish look to its cover, Wed, 1 Feb 2012 00:00:00 -0500