health
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New York kids need a doctor’s note to use sunscreen in school or at camp
Once upon an innocent American summer, sun-kissed cheeks were all the rage for lithe, beautiful children freckling in the clean air. But now we know that evil sun rays will kill you — not now, but later, with skin cancer — and that kids should wear sunscreen pretty much any time they go outside for […]
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Obama wants to give white children asthma, says blogger
You might think that air quality controls are about mitigating the health effects of breathing in pollution. If you’re a staunch Republican, you might think they’re about destroying capitalism. But blogger (and birther) Daren Jonescu knows what air quality controls are really about: Giving white children lung diseases. (And destroying capitalism.) Jonescu wrote a piece in […]
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Beverage industry to NYC: Ignore the mayor. Soda’s totally cool
Well, that didn’t take long. Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that NYC would be banning sugary drinks if they came in containers bigger than 16 ounces. And today, the American Beverage Association is pushing back with an ad that says, basically, “Do not believe that science over there! Believe this science that says soda is […]
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Sugar might make you stupid
We all know eating too much processed sugar screws up your body in serious ways. But a new study suggests it could mess up your brain, too.
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President Bartlet wants you to go for a walk
If you worked in President Bartlet’s White House, you would not have to worry about dying an early death from sitting all day, because the West Wing staffers are always walking! And talking! And walk-and-talking! About things like how no one realizes that the president actually can’t fix gas prices. And after you watch this […]
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Traditional Chinese medicine contains endangered animals, carcinogens
It’s probably best not to make all your meals out of pink slime and enriched HFCS, but a word to the wise: “Natural” doesn’t always mean safe.
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Americans walk less than any other industrialized nation
Here are the juicy bits of Tom Vanderbilt's new series on walking.
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Here’s how to never get cancer
Over at Jezebel, the inestimable Lindy West has noticed just how many foods, chemicals, and habits are reported give you cancer, and she’s figured out how to dodge them all. She walks us through a day of her cancer-free lifestyle, from waking up in a windowless apartment in Singapore (lower rates of cancer in women) […]
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Watch out for radioactive tissue boxes
Radiation is an effective treatment for some serious illnesses, but it’s not generally applied to the common cold — unless you bought a metal tissue box from Bed Bath & Beyond. In January, the retailer recalled tissue boxes from 200 stores because they had been contaminated by radioactive metal.