A legislative proposal to ensure pullout of unsafe food, drugs and toys faced further scrutiny from Canadian consumers, particularly a provision speeding the approval of new drugs. It involved dropping certain procedures.

Health Minister Tony Clement assured Canadians the new measures, unveiled Wednesday by Prime Minister Stephen Harper, would not compromise safety requirements for new drugs. In an interview with Globe and Mail, Clement said, "I can assure you we are not going to change our standards or change our stringent review... Out work is going to remain as intense

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said in a press conference Tuesday he favors the reclassification of cannabis to a class B drug instead of its present class C status. The move would reverse cannabis' downgrade by former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, which was seen as having encouraged its heavier use by young Britons.

Brown's policy comes ahead of a report slated to come out this month following a formal review of cannabis' classification ordered by the prime minister on June as soon as he took office

The World Bank Group has approved a US$6 million grant to help Cambodia carry out its national plan to counter threats from avian and human influenza, and to strengthen its health system to respond to any possible outbreak in the future.

The grant, provided by the International Development Association (IDA), will be used to finance the Avian and Human Influenza Control and Preparedness Emergency Project (AHICPEP), a World Bank (WB) press statement said

Transfusions of blood stored for more than two weeks cut survival rates and could pose complications for heart-surgery patients, a study found. The new study about the shelf life of blood says that blood deteriorates with age and that rules allowing blood to be stored for six weeks may pose a safety risk in some patients.

According to the latest research published in the latest New England Journal of Medicine, eighty-eight patients given blood that had been kept for an average of 20 days died in the hospital after surgery compared with 49 people who got transfusions of blood stored an average of 11 days. Patients receiving older blood also increase their chances of suffering from kidney failure and blood infections

More Americans, primarily senior citizens or those about to retire, will likely develop Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia during their twilight years.

Stephen McConnell, vice president of public policy for the Alzheimer's Association, estimates 18 percent or 14 million of the U.S.'s 79 million baby boomers will likely have Alzheimer's, a degenerative brain disease characterized by severe memory loss and confusion