With most of the potentially "tainted" beef believed to already have been consumed, civic groups and legislators criticized the United States Department of Agriculture for doing too little, too late in ensuring public safety.

Jean Halloran, director of food policy initiatives at Consumers Union said more should have been done sooner

In the face of criticisms aired by California physicians that a request by Blue Cross to uncover pre-existing medical conditions of new policy holders may violate the patient-physician confidentiality, Blue Cross stopped sending letters to the doctors.

In a statement issued Tuesday, Blue Cross said, "Today we reached out to our provider partner and California regulators and determined this letter is no longer necessary and, in fact, was creating a misimpression and causing some members and providers undue concern. As a result, we are discontinuing the dissemination of this letter going forward

Blue Cross is tapping the assistance of California doctors to uncover patients' pre-existing medical conditions not disclosed in their insurance policies. The move is part of the health insurance firm's strategy to cut down on costs. But state physicians are not inclined to grant Blue Cross' request.

Blue Cross sent California medics letters, together with the copies of health insurance applications of new policy holders. Included in the pre-existing conditions that Blue Cross wants divulged prior to signing up or else face cancellation of their policy was pregnancy

Tobacco use will kill 1 billion people by 2100, unless stricter regulations will be implemented by governments in poor nations, a report issued by the World Health Organization states.

Citing examples such as raising taxes and require health warnings, the 330-page report released by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the WHO, said that mandates that may decrease the number of smokers are not being fully implemented by any country

An Australian professor has predicted that climate change will worsen diseases particularly in low-income countries. So health care strategies to deal with the problem should be developed, the professor says.

In his article published in the British Medical Journal on Jan. 19, Tony McMichael, director of the National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health of the Australian National University in Canberra made those points. He said contamination of air, water, soil and food due to heat waves, floods and wildfires would alter the incidence, range and seasonality of diseases