<img alt=“TV.jpg” src=“https://blogs.nature.com/nm/spoonful/TV.jpg” width=“250” height=“167” align=“right” border=0 hspace=“10px”/>
— Intensive TV viewers will have to tune in to a new kind of reality: A six-year study of more than 8,000 adults, all with no history of heart disease, found that those who watch more than four hours of TV each day are 80% more likely to die from heart disease, and 46% more likely to die from any cause, than those who watch less than two hours. Researchers attributed the difference to decreased physical activity while sitting, though it’s unclear whether sickness contributed to greater TV watching. Alas, there’s still no word on whether skipping commercials with TiVo can help. (CNN)
— British American Tobacco is accused of “working the system” in a new report, unfairly influencing the European Union’s impact assessment, which weighs public health, business, and other concerns regarding tobacco. Across the pond, however, it seems the system is working: The American Lung Association, in a new report, gave the US government an ‘A’ for granting the Food and Drug Administration regulatory power over tobacco and doubling the federal cigarette tax last year.
— It might not be Chinese New Year, but on 1 January, the National Science Foundation of China (NSFC) opened a medical division similar to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new department, a result of campaigning by health minister Chen Zhu, is expected to dole out 1 billion renminbi ($150 million) in 2010. (Science)
— The more involved researchers are in a clinical trial, the more likely they’re close to industry, according to new research. A study of 235 trials published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology from January 2006 through June 2007 found that authors identified as performing a key role were four times as likely to report industry ties. (Reuters)
Image by schmilblick via Flickr Creative Commons