The consumer health week in review: Med device tax; Sheryl Crow reveals brain tumor diagnosis; CT scans and kids; Disney on a diet
House votes on medical device bill
The House voted on a bill this week, proposed by Minnesota Republican Congressman Erik Paulsen, which would eliminate a 2.3 percent excise tax on medical devices. The tax was included in President Obama’s health-reform legislation and is set to go into effect next year. Device manufacturers are anxious to kill the tax before it is initiated. According to the Associated Press, more than 700 companies and industry associations including AdvaMed and the Medical Device Manufacturers Association, wrote to members of the House encouraging them to kill the tax, noting “If this tax is not repealed, it will continue to force affected companies to consider cutting manufacturing operations, research and development, and employment levels to recoup the lost earnings due to the tax.”
Sheryl Crow diagnosed with brain tumor
Singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow announced this week that she was diagnosed with a benign brain tumor called meningioma. The breast cancer survivor told the Las Vegas Review-Journal that she went in for an MRI after forgetting song lyrics on stage. She was subsequently diagnosed with a brain tumor. Meningioma is a common type of brain tumor that is usually noncancerous and grows in the membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord. Stars such as Elizabeth Taylor and Mary Tyler Moore also suffered from meningiomas. Crow will not be having surgery, but will have periodic scans to monitor the tumor.
CT scans linked to increased cancer in kids
According to a study appearing in the June 7 online edition of The Lancet, children who received several CT scans have a slightly higher chance of brain cancer and leukemia later in life. Researchers studied nearly 180,000 patients under age 22 who had a CT scan in British hospitals between 1985 and 2002. Following the patients until 2008, the researchers found 74 of them were diagnosed with leukemia while 135 had brain tumors. The researchers, however, emphasize that these diseases are rare and the risk is still small and probably outweighed by the need to get the CT scan.
Disney goes on a diet: No more junk-food ads
The Walt Disney Company announced that all products advertised on its child-focused television channels, radio stations and Web sites must comply with a strict new set of nutritional standards. The initiative was announced Tuesday at a Washington news conference with first lady Michelle Obama. According to the new guidelines, which start in 2015, all food and beverage products that are advertised, promoted or sponsored will have to meet the company's nutrition criteria for limiting calories and reducing saturated fat, sodium and sugar. The campaign was initiated in an effort to combat childhood obesity.
Posted by Brianne Donahue on June 8, 2012 at 12:19 PM
