http://www.post-gazette.com/ Health, Science, Environment, Medicare news en-us Copyright 2009, post-gazette.com. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:33:31 -0500 15 http://www.post-gazette.com/includes/2007design/images/150x30pg_now_logo.gif http://www.post-gazette.com/ 144 39 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014926-56.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Standing in ponchos and under a canopy of umbrellas, a few hundred people gathered in the rain in front of UPMC Braddock yesterday to decry UPMC's decision to shutter the hospital there, hoping their messages -- conveyed over a crackly portable speaker -- would sway the medical giant to change its mind about closing the facility. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 08:34:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015036-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml With less than three weeks remaining before negotiators gather in Copenhagen to hammer out a global response to climate change, a rapid-fire succession of countries are unveiling national plans that serve as opening bids for reining in heat-trapping emissions. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1015037-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Science has never given much credence to claims that you can learn French or Chinese by having the instruction CDs play while you sleep. If any learning happens that way, most scientists say, the language lesson is probably waking the sleeper up, not causing nouns and verbs to seep into a sound-asleep mind. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014985-84.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Women can delay their first Pap test for cervical cancer until they turn 21, and many can wait longer to go back for follow-up screenings, according to new guidelines released today by a major medical group. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09324/1014986-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Flanked by a panoply of health reform advocates in a packed Capitol meeting room i Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid showcased the sweeping plan he had unveiled the day before to overhaul the nation's health insurance system and expand coverage to millions. Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014702-56.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml More than 150 Mon Valley residents, health care activists and elected officials gathered at Braddock Carnegie Library last night, where Allegheny County Executive Dan Onorato hosted a public hearing on UPMC's decision to shutter its hospital there at the end of January. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 09:33:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014752-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The Earth's oceans, which have absorbed carbon dioxide from fuel emissions since the dawn of the industrial era, have recently grown less efficient at sopping it up, new research suggests. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014605-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Ambulatory surgical centers, free-standing facilities where patients can go for minor procedures, continue to proliferate in Pennsylvania. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014698-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- California regulators adopted the nation's first energy-efficiency standards for televisions yesterday in hopes of reducing electricity use at a time when millions of U.S. households are switching to power-hungry, wide-view, flat-screen, high-definition sets. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09323/1014711-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Senate Democratic leaders unveiled their proposal yesterday for overhauling the health care system, outlining legislation that they said would cover most of the uninsured while reducing the federal budget deficit. Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014218-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:26:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014216-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:37:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014209-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Q. Will I receive Diprivan (propofol), the same medication implicated in Michael Jackson's death as part of my next anesthetic? Wed, 18 Nov 2009 10:23:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014258-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml State and federal agencies are checking southwestern Pennsylvania streams for the non-native, golden algae that had a role in killing aquatic life in 30 miles of Dunkard Creek in September. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 09:59:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014359-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml In 2002 Responsible Travel became one of the first travel companies to offer customers the option of buying so-called carbon offsets to counter the planet-warming emissions generated by their airline flights. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014360-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The NASA rover Spirit, stuck in sand on Mars, tried to move Tuesday for the first time since May. In less than a second, it stopped. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014256-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Once a month, Rose Jelinek visits Gateway Rehabilitation Center's Cranberry office and relives the worst day of her life: The day her oldest child, Ryan Schatzel, 21, died of a heroin overdose. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:29:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014306-455.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Local breast cancer experts were "shocked" and irritated by a federal task force recommendation that women ages 40-49 do not necessarily need routine, yearly mammograms, as is currently advised. But they were equally concerned about the estimated 30 percent of those 40 and older who aren't tested. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 01:28:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014210-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml GOAL Project is joining with Square Cafe in Regent Square to sponsor a Spoken Word Night from 6 to 9 p.m. tomorrow. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014212-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Getting through the stress of day-to-day living is hard for many of us. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014214-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Between Your Ears is a column featuring some of the latest findings in brain and psychological research that will appear occasionally in Health. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014224-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml International Petroleum Investment Corp., the Middle Eastern investment group that acquired Nova Chemicals earlier this year, yesterday said it isn't planning to acquire Bayer AG's MaterialScience business but it could tap Bayer as a joint venture partner. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014307-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Buried in the text of yesterday's joint declaration between the President Barack Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao was a significant climate announcement: The Obama administration will offer concrete emission reduction targets as part of next month's negotiations, as long as the Chinese offer a climate proposal of their own. Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09322/1014311-53.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml To Taunya Tinsley, the problem is clear: black communities are deeply vulnerable to depression, anxiety and grief, but the place where so many African-Americans seek refuge -- their house of Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:01:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014044-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml HARRISBURG -- Historical sites will be shuttered, the wait for government services will be longer, swimming and camping seasons at state parks will be shorter, and hundreds of state employees will be looking for new jobs. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 23:54:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014056-84.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml WASHINGTON -- Women in their 40s should stop routinely having annual mammograms, and older women should cut back to one scheduled exam every other year, an influential federal task force has concluded -- challenging the use of one of the most common medical tests. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 11:19:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014013-84.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml BALTIMORE -- The nation's Catholic bishops expressed cautious satisfaction with the way that national health care legislation is progressing but said they will remain vigilant to prevent any government subsidy of elective abortion and to extend care to immigrants and other vulnerable people. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 10:58:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014118-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml EGG HARBOR, N.J. -- Up in the cockpit, Larry Van Hoy, a Federal Aviation Administration pilot, was flying low-tech. Radar showed a bit of nearby cloud cover, and to learn about other aircraft, he talked to the ground controller or looked out the window. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1014119-115.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml BELLEVUE, Wash. -- Inside a nondescript warehouse on a nondescript street of this Seattle suburb is a research laboratory that looks like it came out of a James Bond movie -- had Q the gadget master been a gastronome. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 02:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1013990-114.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml Highmark Inc. is in the final stages of dismantling Employee Benefit Data Systems Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/09321/1013991-113.stm?cmpid=healthscience.xml The building that you work in may contribute more greenhouse gas emissions than the car you drive to work each day. Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0500