Month: November 2014

In the last 2 years, more than 700 young children needed hospital care after exposure to laundry detergent “pods,” a new study finds. One child died. Pods are brightly colored, single-use packets of concentrated laundry detergent. The membrane around them dissolves in water. The new study looked at numbers from U.S. poison control centers. They covered the years 2012 and 2013. In all, 17,230 children under age 6 were reported exposed to laundry detergent from pods. About 4 out of 5 tried to eat the pod. About 3 out of 4 children were under age 3. For more than 1,300 children, the exposure caused a moderate or major medical problem. Of those who required a hospital stay, 100 needed a tube in the throat to help them breathe. Researchers said kids who bite into the pods get a concentrated squirt of liquid into the mouth. This can cause them to swallow toxic chemicals, cough or choke.

Older longtime smokers and ex-smokers on Medicare soon may be able to get screening tests for lung cancer. These tests can find cancers early enough that they may be curable. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced the policy change November 10. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force recommended the screening for certain smokers last year. As a result, private insurers will be required to cover screening beginning in 2015. But Medicare officials waited so they could review the evidence and potential costs. The proposed policy will cover a low-dose chest CT scan each year for certain high-risk smokers and ex-smokers. They must be age 55 to 74 and have a smoking history of at least 30 pack-years. The number of pack-years is equal to packs per day multiplied by years of smoking. Ex-smokers can get screened if they quit within the last 15 years.