Health & Safety

Our Food-Safety System Is A Patchwork With Big Holes, Critics Say

3:41pm March 30, 2015

by Grant Gerlock

More than a dozen federal agencies play a part in keeping food from making Americans sick. Critics say the system has gaps, and we'd all be safer if federal food safety efforts were under one roof.

Dan Swangard, a 48-year-old physician from San Francisco, was diagnosed in 2013 with a rare form of metastatic cancer.

Doctors With Cancer Push California To Allow Aid In Dying

2:55pm March 30, 2015

by Anna Gorman

Dr. Dan Swangard doesn't know if he would take lethal medications to hasten death. But as someone with metastatic cancer, he wants to have that choice. He's part of a suit to change California law.

Dr. Shane Avery (right) and Kevin Collins, Scott County's coroner, say the prescription opioid problem in their community has led to an HIV outbreak that's still expanding.

Indiana's HIV Spike Prompts New Calls For Needle Exchanges Statewide

2:32pm March 30, 2015

by Jake Harper

Southeastern Indiana is battling an HIV outbreak. The new cases are mostly linked to injection drug use and have reignited a debate over needle exchanges, which are currently illegal in the state.

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Mary Harris was relieved when Stella was born with a mop of thick black hair, as if she had been protected from the chemo somehow.

Pregnant With Cancer: One Woman's Journey

2:25pm March 30, 2015

by Mary Harris

Mary Harris found out she was pregnant the day before she had scheduled surgery for breast cancer. It turns out there is limited data on how chemotherapy during pregnancy affects a baby.

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Critic Faults Alcoholics Anonymous For Lack Of Evidence

9:34am March 30, 2015

by NPR Staff

Writer Gabrielle Glaser challenges the usefulness of Alcoholics Anonymous in April's issue of The Atlantic. The program's tenets aren't based in science, she says, and other options may work better.

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Health & Safety

How Much Does Cancer Cost Us?

9:33am March 30, 2015

by Kathryn Tam

We asked people on Facebook to share their stories about coping with the cost of cancer care. See what they told us. Also, test your knowledge of cancer costs with a quiz.

Health & Safety

Congressional Panels Probe Opiate Prescriptions At Wis. VA Hospital

7:33am March 30, 2015

by Maureen McCollum

Two congressional committees travel to the town of Tomah, Wis., on Monday to hold a hearing on the VA hospital there. The hospital has been singled out for over prescribing opiates to vets.

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Health & Safety

At Aging Conference, Old Is The New Black

10:56am March 28, 2015

For the first in a series of regular discussions about aging, NPR's Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Ina Jaffe from the Aging in America Conference in Chicago.

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A health inspection grade is posted outside a Manhattan eatery. In several cities, Yelp users can now find out how a restaurant scored on its health inspection well before they walk through the door.

Did That Restaurant Pass Its Health Inspection? Now Yelp Will Tell You

6:00pm March 27, 2015

by Poncie Rutsch

You might not see health inspection information until you're opening a restaurant's door. But if you're in San Francisco and some other cities, you'll see it when you check out an eatery's Yelp page.

Flight crew in cockpit, rear view (zoom effect).

Is There Any Way To Screen The World's Pilots For Suicidal Tendencies?

3:45pm March 27, 2015

by Emily Sohn

There are questionnaires that aim to identify people at risk of killing themselves. But the tests are flawed — and it's not at all clear they'd be effective in assessing the mental state of pilots.