Good news for the vaping community! A new study, produced by the environmental health consulting firm CHANGE LLC, claims that the secondhand risks from e-cigarette vapors are minuscule, and we should all just be chill about co-workers using them in the office. Read More
New York may need a time-out to sit and think about what it’s done. According to Mayor Bloomberg, who has already made it clear that NYC citizens will no longer be able to sneak smoking breaks in the park or in their own homes (or anywhere else, really), he is now worried that we’re all fat people ferrying prostitutes to and fro. Read More
If Mayor Bloomberg has his way, super-size portions of sugary drinks will go the way of cigarettes in restaurants. And that’s not a bad thing.
The mayor has a way of upsetting those who believe that government has no role to play in policing unhealthy private consumption. Critics charged that the mayor’s controversial ban on smoking in restaurants and bars would lead to an economic calamity, and, what’s more, showed that the mayor was just another operative in so-called “nanny-state” government. His insistence that fast-food outlets display the number of calories in their meals inspired more complaints about government intervention in private consumption habits.
Now, the mayor is targeting the purveyors of sugary drinks. Again there are cries of outrage from the live-and-let-live (or live-and-let-die) crowd who believe that elected leaders have no business telling the rest of us what we should drink, eat or smoke.
Here’s the problem: We all pay for the poor eating, drinking and smoking habits of our fellow citizens. Read More
So much for a man’s home being his castle and all that. Mayor Michael Bloomberg is now going after the last refuge of the city’s beleaguered smokers—their apartments.
Mayor Bloomberg is strongly advocating for a new law that would require buildings to disclose smoking policies and procedures to potential tenants and renters. The Wall Street Journal was the first to break the bad news. Read More
Say what you will about investment banking as a benefit to and/or plague on the finance sector, economy, New York City, and the universe in general. Now there’s science to back the idea that, yes, investment banking is actually, medically ‘bad’ for one’s health. How bad? Try “insomnia, alcoholism, heart palpitations, eating disorders and an explosive temper” or at the very least “a stress-related physical or emotional ailment within several years on the job.” Science! Read More
It is inevitable that 2012 will be rife with omens of doom. Here’s a beaut: Totally Drug-Resistant TB (TDR-TB) has spread to India. TDR-TB (or something very like it) was first reported in Iran in 2009. Now it’s made its way to Mumbai to hang out with charming acquaintances like Multi-Drug-Resistant TB (MDR-TB) and Extremely Drug-Resistant TB (XDR-TB). It’s a pretty doomy disease. Read More
Last May, The Observer chronicled a problem beginning to plague New York City: a shortage of Adderall, the amphetamine ostensibly used in conjunction with a diagnosis of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder) or just plain old ADD, but is often employed as a totally legal way to do speed during the workday. As one can imagine, a shortage of the drug might affect New York City particularly hard, which—with the shortage now in full, national swing—it has. Read More
It comes along at a certain time each year — that turning point when the wind picks up and the bone-cold air ignites within New Yorkers a craving for something warm to eat. And when this desire sets in, there’s no better way to succumb than to whip up a big, scalding-hot, salt-blasted bowl of Read More
An occasional series exploring New York’s health and fitness culture.
I went to one of those colleges out East where the girls were overachievers and competed in everything from semiotics to style. But what we cared about most was staying skinny. After long study sessions at the library, we ran to the treadmills at midnight Read More
Just as we bid farewell to H1N1, a new so-called “superbug” is rearing its ugly head. British researchers said Wednesday that they’ve discovered a new strain of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and that this microscopic monster may have been spread in part by medical tourism. The strain has been dubbed NDM-1 and Read More
