Federal regulators have named a veterinary tranquilizer as an "emerging threat" when it's mixed with the powerful opioid fentanyl, clearing the way for more efforts to stop the spread of xylazine. The Office of National Drug Control Policy announced the designation this week, the first time the office has used it since the category for [...]
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the COVID-19 public-health emergency ends next month, people will still have access to a multitude of tests but with one big difference: Who pays for them. For the first time, people may have to pick up some or all of the costs, depending on insurance coverage and whether the tests are [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal health officials released data earlier this week showing how chlamydia, gonorrhea and syphilis cases have been accelerating, but doctors are hoping an old drug will help fight the sexually transmitted infections. Experts believe STDs have been rising because of declining condom use, inadequate sex education and reduced testing during the [...]
Some 9.2 million lead pipes carry water into homes across the country, with more in Florida than any other state, according to a new Environmental Protection Agency survey that will dictate how billions of dollars to find and replace those pipes are spent. The survey released earlier this week was the first time the agency [...]
DETROIT (AP) — Nearly 43,000 people died in traffic crashes in 2021, the highest number in 16 years with deaths due to speeding and impaired or distracted driving on the rise. The 2021 final numbers, released Monday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, confirmed earlier estimates by the agency showing a 10.5 percent increase [...]
NEW YORK (AP) — For every American killed by gunfire, an estimated two or more survive, often with terrible injuries — a fact that public-health officials have said is crucial to understanding the full impact of guns on society. A new federal government study highlights a surge in gunfire injuries during the COVID-19 pandemic, when [...]
NAVAL STATION NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — On Navy ships docked at this vast base, hundreds of sailors in below-deck mazes of windowless passageways perform intense, often monotonous manual labor. It's necessary work before a ship deploys, but hard to adjust to for many already challenged by the stresses plaguing young adults nationwide. Growing mental-health distress [...]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration earlier this week approved selling Narcan, the leading version of naloxone, without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter. It's a move that some advocates have long sought as a way to improve access to [...]
Residents of a Louisiana parish located in the heart of a cluster of polluting petrochemical factories filed a federal lawsuit this week raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations. The lawsuit names St. James Parish as the defendant and says the parish council approved the construction of several factories in two [...]
WASHINGTON — A new “good neighbor” rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency will restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution. Nearly two dozen states will have to cut harmful industrial emissions of nitrogen oxide and other pollutants to improve air quality for millions of [...]