Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Don't Swap Your Sunscreen Lotion For Pills, FDA Warns
Federal regulators warned聽natural sunscreen companies Tuesday that they're illegally marketing pills and capsules that claim聽to protect against the sun.聽The Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said the companies are "misleading consumers, and putting people at risk."聽"There鈥檚 no pill or capsule that can replace your sunscreen," said Gottlieb.聽(O'Donnell, 5/22)
According to the nonprofit Environmental Working Group鈥檚 12th annual sunscreen guide, 67 percent of products tested don鈥檛 work well or contain potentially harmful ingredients. ...For the EWG report released Tuesday, researchers evaluated more than 1,000 sunscreens, moisturizers and lip balms that advertise sun protection. (Pirani, 5/22)
Legal drugs, such as tobacco and alcohol, cause significantly more harm to people globally than illegal ones, a new international study suggests. But researchers say that鈥檚 not surprising, considering the varying prevalence of each. (Lemon, 5/22)
More coal miners in central Appalachia have suffered the advanced stages of the deadly disease black lung than previous government research has found, and more miners working in the region today have earlier stages of the disease. Those are two of the findings in a bundle of studies released Tuesday and expected to be released soon, which focus on the epidemic of black lung disease first reported by NPR in 2016. (Berkes, 5/22)
A major global partnership based at Boston University will receive more than $50 million to expand its fight against drug-resistant superbugs by developing new antibiotics, vaccines, and diagnostic tools. The partnership, CARB-X, will receive $25 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and $26.8 million from the UK government to come up with life-saving products, particularly for 鈥渧ulnerable populations鈥 in poor and middle-income countries. (Saltzman, 5/22)
Closing coal- and oil-fired power plants is associated with a reduction in preterm births in the surrounding region, researchers report. Scientists counted the number of preterm babies born in regions surrounding eight power plants before and after their closings from 2001 to 2011. The study is in the American Journal of Epidemiology. Based on the mother鈥檚 home address, the researchers looked at preterm birthrates within three, six and 12 miles of each plant in the year before and the year after closing. (Bakalar, 5/22)