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Needle Exchange Restrictions Included In House Bill Could Hinder Programs, Advocates Say
A recently passed House spending bill that lifts the ban on the use of federal funding for needle exchange programs, which included an amendment addressing the locations of needle exchanges, "according to many health and human rights advocates, has been diluted to the point that it won"t help the same urban areas most afflicted by" blood-borne illnesses such as HIV, the Washington Independent reports. House Appropriations Committee Chair David Obey (D-Wis.) added an amendment to the bill that prohibits needle exchanges from operating "within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers and other areas where children are likely to congregate," according to the Independent. Obey "included the restriction, not because he supports it, but to appease conservative critics who might have killed the entire provision otherwise," the article states. William McColl, political director for AIDS Action, said, "In an urban environment, that really is a restriction on almost anywhere."
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FDA Approves ADCIRCA(TM) (Tadalafil) Tablets For The Treatment Of Pulmonary Arterial Hypertension
United Therapeutics Corporation (Nasdaq: UTHR) announced that the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ADCIRCA(TM) (tadalafil) tablets for oral administration, with a recommended dose of 40 mg, as the first once-daily phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitor for the treatment of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). ADCIRCA is indicated to improve exercise ability in WHO Group I PAH patients, which encompasses patients with multiple forms of PAH including etiologies such as idiopathic and familial PAH as well as PAH associated with scleroderma and congenital heart disease.
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Neighborhoods Affect Asthma Rates
Neighborhoods with restaurants, entertainment, cultural facilities and ethnic diversity have lower asthma rates in the city of Chicago than neighborhoods where residents are less likely to move, and where there are more churches and not-for-profit facilities.
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Quality And Purity Of Popular Stevia Sweetener Strengthened By New Reference Standards

As the number of food and beverage products sweetened with stevia-based ingredients continues to grow in the United States and worldwide, the U.S. Pharmacopeial (USP) Convention announces that new reference standards for Rebaudioside A and Stevioside are now available. The reference standards for these two ingredients complement the soon to be released written testing standard for high-purity Rebaudioside A in the Food Chemicals Codex (FCC), a collection of documentary standards for food ingredients that allow manufacturers to demonstrate the quality, and thus related aspects of safety, of the products they provide to consumers. The reference standards for Rebaudioside A and Stevioside are authenticated pure chemicals against which both producers and purchasers can compare their ingredients to help ensure and substantiate the identity, quality, purity, strength and consistency of their food ingredient, protecting their products and brands from low-quality, potentially adulterated ingredients, thus helping to maintain food safety. The internationally recognized FCC and its associated reference standards are produced by USP, a nonprofit scientific organization that has set chemical standards for close to 200 years. These standards - for pharmaceuticals, excipients, dietary supplements and food ingredients - are used in more than 130 countries throughout the world. The new stevia standards demonstrate the commitment of USP to continue to support the food industry with quality monographs and reference standards. "These new reference standards, taken together with the written standards in the FCC, provide a powerful tool to help ensure the authenticity of the ingredients manufacturers are using in their new stevia-based product lines," said James Griffiths, Ph.D., vice president of food, dietary supplement and excipient standards for USP. "As these ingredients are produced all over the world in widely disparate facilities, their authenticity, quality and purity cannot be taken for granted. It is thus important for ingredient producers who want to safeguard their products to demonstrate the quality of their ingredients to their customers. USP is well poised and committed to providing useful tools for enabling interested parties to readily verify new stevia-based sweeteners and numerous other food ingredients." The new reference standards have been thoroughly tested and endorsed by USP"s Reference Standards Expert Committee, a group of independent volunteer experts, to ensure their suitability for use. The written FCC testing standard for high-purity Rebaudioside A is expected to be released August 31, 2009. Francine Pierson US Pharmacopeia


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