Here are a few of the stories I have been reading elsewhere.

Motivated by a Tax, Irish Spurn Plastic Bags

“There is something missing from this otherwise typical bustling cityscape. There are taxis and buses. There are hip bars and pollution. Every other person is talking into a cellphone. But there are no plastic shopping bags, the ubiquitous symbol of urban life.

“In 2002, Ireland passed a tax on plastic bags; customers who want them must now pay 33 cents per bag at the register. There was an advertising awareness campaign. And then something happened that was bigger than the sum of these parts.

“Within weeks, plastic bag use dropped 94 percent. Within a year, nearly everyone had bought reusable cloth bags, keeping them in offices and in the backs of cars. Plastic bags were not outlawed, but carrying them became socially unacceptable — on a par with wearing a fur coat or not cleaning up after one’s dog.”

Good food ‘boosts earning power’

“During the 1970s, some of the babies in the study were given a very nutritious food supplement, some a less nutritious one.

“When the researchers returned three decades later to see how the babies — now men — were faring, they found that men who had had the very nutritious supplement up to the age of three were earning nearly half as much more per hour than the other villagers.”

New Food Formula: Tastes Fine, Kills Worms

“Kraft Foods, the conglomerate built on macaroni and cheese, is working on a new and unusual product line — food that is not only tasty, but kills intestinal worms… Tests on humans have not been done, so it is not clear what the prospective delicacies will taste like, said Sarah Delea, a spokeswoman for Kraft.”

Inhaling Pig Brains May Be Cause of New Illness

“While the illness is similar to some known conditions, it does not match any exactly. Nor is the leading theory of its cause something medical researchers have studied. That is because the illness appears to be caused by inhaling microscopic flecks of pig brain.” (See also A Medical Mystery Unfolds in Minnesota and Science and Medicine: New Disease Discovery)

Study: Alcohol may stop heart disease

“Combining exercise with moderate alcohol consumption may help in the fight against heart disease, a new study suggests.

“In the study, people who both exercised and drank moderately had a 50 percent decrease in their risk for heart disease. Those who just exercised had a 30 percent decreased risk, the same as non-exercisers who drank moderately — meaning that the exercise and alcohol essentially had the same effect on the heart.”

Whole grain diets lower risk of chronic disease

“[The] whole grain group experienced a 38 percent decrease in C-reactive protein levels in their blood. A high level of this inflammatory marker is thought to place patients at a higher risk for diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease… but the refined grain group showed no decrease… even though they lost weight…

“While it is not fully clear how exactly the protein is decreased in the whole grain group, Richard Legro, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Penn State Hershey Medical Center and a co-investigator, said the scale of reduction is similar to that seen with the use of statin drugs, highlighting the potential of diet to prevent serious medical complications.”

The Real FDA Scandal

“Washington is responding to a series of investigations concluding that the FDA cannot ‘adequately’ monitor America’s food supply and medical products. One of the FDA’s outside advisory panels, the Science Board, reports that the agency is in ‘a precarious position,’ in part because it is chronically underfunded. The Government Accountability Office chimes in that, at the FDA’s current pace, it would take 13 years to inspect every foreign drug plant exporting to the U.S. and 1,900 years to inspect every overseas food factory.”

A Food Fight Over Calorie Counts

“A battle is brewing over control of one of the hottest pieces of real estate in the restaurant business: the menu. On one side are public health officials, desperate to combat an epidemic of obesity. They want chain restaurants to display the number of calories their offerings contain next to each item. On the other side is the restaurant industry, which contends that displaying the numbers could confuse consumers.”

Kitchen kitsch

“Available in your choice of Oyster White and Charcoal, Warm Red and Nectarine, or Cornflower Blue and Creamy Yellow, the Movers & Shakers may look like ordinary salt shakers, but they conceal a terrifying secret. Pull the cord attached to the shaker, turn it upside down, and it will shake itself. That’s right: self-shaking salt and pepper shakers.”