Health: More Kids Hospitalized For Obesity-Related Problems

Image from BBC blogs

Raw Story reports that John Morton, a professor of medicine at Stanford University, presented a paper at a conference organized by The Obesity Society that claims that more children have been hospitalized between 1998 and 2004 for obesity-related problems such as sleep apnea and hypertension.

What a surprise! The Huffington Post tells us that the White House

severely edited congressional testimony given Tuesday by the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the impact of climate change on health, removing specific scientific references to potential health risks ....

Say yer surprised, c'mon.

Meanwhile, despite multiple incidents of food contamination at home and abroad, the FDA is apparently shutting down half its food safety labs.

According to FDA Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach, the proposed cutbacks are necessary in order to adapt to increasing imports, growing demand for fresh produce and new food-borne pathogens. He claims that no jobs will be lost from the closings, but that employees will merely be reassigned.

But the House committee found no evidence that the lab consolidation would save money, and concluded that it would, in fact, lead to the loss of experienced employees.

Please let your congresscritter hear from you. Also the FDA. Things are bad enough without them tossing what's left of food safety down the toilet and pulling the handle. For a list of the numbers you can use to contact the FDA, go here.

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