Pfizer the pharmaceutical major has tied up with Max Healthcare to help smokers quit and plans on opening 600 smoking cessation clinics by the end of 2010 in and around New Delhi. India has 120 million tobacco users and the cessation clinics are much needed.

The newest edition of the "Tobacco Atlas" released on Monday paints a grim picture of Tobacco usage, which is likely to take lives of around six million people throughout the world by 2010.

The report also disclosed that it drain approximately $500 billion from the global economy, on a yearly basis, as the industry has shifted its focus to poor nations, which have less effective public health plans.

World Lung foundation jointly with American Cancer society (ACS) prepared the Atlas.

Public health officials advised people who received tattoos or piercing at a Cooksville tattoo and piercing parlour, Mississauga between March 2005 and last month to get blood tests.

Inspection by health officials revealed that the tattoo parlour failed to keep adequate maintenance records for its sterilization equipment. It is estimated this negligence of proper sterilization can put nearly 3,000 people at risk of contracting HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C.

Findings from a 10-year study indicated that intake of nutrient in large quantity can increase risk of some diseases rather than reducing them. This study revealed that men who took folic acid supplements were at more than twice risk of prostate cancer as compared to those who didn't take the supplements. However men who got adequate amounts of folate in their diet were at slightly lower risk. Folic acid is a synthetic version of folate, a basic nutrient found in green, leafy vegetables.

Recent study revealed that blood tests and ultrasound scans can diagnose deadly ovarian cancer at the most early and treatable stages. According to statistics, ovarian cancer was diagnosed in more than 21,000 women in the United States in 2008 and it killed more than 15,000; in Britain 7,000 women are affected by it annually and more than 4,000 lost their lives due to it.

In a shocking development, one more death case of hepatitis has come to light in Sabarkantha district of Gujarat.

But, health officials in the state are leaving no stone unturned to make sure that there no other person dies because of this viral disease.

Dr. H S Patel, chief district health officer (CDHO), told, “One death has been reported from the Idar taluka of the Sabarkantha. While two new cases of hepatitis have been reported from Idar and Vujaynagar talukas.”