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Two bills, SB7, which increases the smoking age to 21, and SB5 which standardizes e-cigarettes as tobacco products have been passed by the State Assembly. Passed on February 25, both the bills are likely to pass in the State Senate before it reaches on the desk of Governor Jerry Brown.

Public health advocates’ attempts of pushing past the clout of the tobacco industry in the state have majorly been an uphill fight. Prime goal of both the bills is to curb the tobacco usage among teenagers which can result into a lifelong addiction.

Former US President Jimmy Carter doesn’t need further treatment for the metastatic melanoma that spread across his liver and brain. Former President Carter has been able to recover miraculously because of a drug Keytruda, which is among the new drugs that focus on treatment called immunotherapy.

Immunotherapy-based drugs take help from a person’s own immune system for fighting the cancer, in the case of Carter it was melanoma, which takes nearly 10,000 lives in America every year. Some refer to the treatment Keytruda as the ‘golden age of chemotherapy drugs’ and a ‘miracle cure’.

Starbucks’ pre-packaged sausage, egg, and cheddar cheese on English muffin breakfast sandwiches from its Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma stores have been recalled over concerns that the products could have traces of listeria.

The contaminated products belong to Progressive Gourmet, a Wilmington, Massachusetts supplier. It is packed in a six-ounce, clear plastic, and has been marked with ‘Best Before: 07-AUG-2016’.

In an online statement, the FDA noted that the Seattle-based coffee chain has pulled off the sandwiches from its all 250 stores that have probably received it.

A latest research has suggested that people with more body fat, no matter of what size they are, could have higher chances of dying at an early age in comparison to people with less body fat.

Contrary to that, high body-mass index (BMI) wasn’t linked to early death in the study. BMI is a measure of weight related to height, generally used to measure obesity.

According to the investigators, the findings backed the idea that BMI is a fairly basic measure that couldn’t reflect body composition of an individual, or be a good indicator of health.

Researcher Dr. William Leslie explained that for example, an individual with a lot of muscle mass could have a high BMI and, can technically be present in the ‘overweight’ category.

An Iowa bill may soon benefit those individuals who are with mental illness as it has made through the state legislature. Supporters believe the bill, Senate File 2259, will change the way mental health professionals treat a serious mental illness patient who doesn’t comply with ordered outpatient treatment by the court.

They said the bill would offer choices to patients and mental health professionals. As per current state rules, an individual with mental illness who doesn’t comply with their court-ordered treatment may be involuntarily recommitted to inpatient treatment.

Many African staple food crops are at risk due to climate change, and there is an urgent need for strict actions to help farmers become accustomed to changing weather patterns, revealed a new study. With changing climate, farmers in many regions across Africa will have to adapt with the change. Unless the farming community receives helps from government and local authorities, food scarcity could lead to catastrophic outcomes, mainly due to changing weather patterns in Africa.

Researchers warned that if we fail to tackle the problem now, it will be very difficult to grow some food crops in sub-Saharan Africa in near future. Climate change is threatening the region’s nine crops, including beans, maize and bananas, as per the study.