Free Republic

A U.S. judge said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn't have authority to regulate electronic cigarettes, dealing a blow to the agency's efforts to regulate tobacco products as drugs or devices. In a 32-page opinion, U.S. District Judge Richard J. Leon sided with electronic-cigarette makers Smoking Everywhere Inc. and NJoy in finding that the FDA has no authority to regulate the products and can't stop them from entering the country. "This case appears to be yet another example of FDA's aggressive efforts to regulate recreational tobacco products as drugs or devices," Leon said in his ruling. He added the...

Sleeping too much, just like sleeping too little, could increase a person's risk of dying, a new U.K study indicates. Researchers at the University of Warwick's Warwick Medical School studied 10,308 British civil servants in two different time periods: between 1985 and 1988, and between 1992 and 1993. Study participants who slept longer than eight hours were more than twice as likely to die as those who kept sleeping for seven. Researchers believe depression, low socioeconomic status and cancer-related fatigue could play a part. (CBC) With seven hours seen as the optimal amount of sleep for the average adult, the...

FOR decades, companies that make everything from after-shave to lip gloss have conducted safety testing on grooming products and shipped the cosmetics to stores to be sold to consumers, all with very little government involvement. And over the years, there have been few health or safety problems associated with the myriad grooming products and cosmetics on the market. Nonetheless, momentum has been building for greater oversight of the chemicals in everyday products, with the European Union and California taking the lead in imposing new rules for monitoring what is in the perfumes, creams, nail polish and hair sprays that are...

Binge eating is not yet officially classified as a psychiatric disorder. But it may be more common than the two eating disorders now recognized, anorexia nervosa and bulimia. The first nationally representative study of eating disorders in the United States, a nationwide survey of more than 2,900 men and women, was published by Harvard researchers in the Feb. 1 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry. It found a prevalence in the general population of 0.6 percent for anorexia, 1 percent for bulimia and 2.8 percent for binge-eating disorder. Lifetime rates of the disorders, the researchers found, are higher in younger...