In Washington, a pivotal battle over sugar is heating up. One small corner of the wider culture war over public health and sweeteners, this fight isn’t about how much sugar should be in your food, but how much you should know about it. U.S. food regulators say the public needs to know how much sugar manufacturers add to their products, beyond the sweetener that naturally occurs in the raw ingredients. Companies such as Campbell Soup Co. say they don’t need to inform the public, and that making a distinction risks dangerous confusion. (Chicago Tribune) Read more...

Medical costs for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) in the United States are more than $32 billion each year, according to new research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The yearly financial toll of COPD (which includes emphysema and chronic bronchitis) is expected to reach an estimated $49 billion by 2020. (HealthDay News) Read more...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture today denied a three-year-old regulatory petition from the Center for Science in the Public Interest asking the department to declare dangerous strains of antibiotic-resistant Salmonella as adulterants. The department also released a long-awaited redraft to a proposal ostensibly aimed at modernizing poultry inspection but that has been roundly criticized by advocates in the labor, animal welfare, and food safety movements. (Center for Science in the Public Interest) Read more...

The July 21, 2014 editorial of The Roanoke Times entitled “Our view: From zero to six?” highlighted the growing need for physicians in America and the efforts underway in Virginia, especially in Southside and Southwest Virginia, to meet this need. The decreasing physician population creates real challenges for many rural Virginia communities; yet, increasing access to quality health care in these communities requires a much broader approach than simply the education of physicians. (The Roanoke Times) Read more...

U.S. Senator Tim Kaine met with White House Drug Policy Acting Director Michael Botticelli to discuss the opioid crisis in Virginia and next steps to combat the epidemic. Last month, Kaine praised Botticelli’s announcement in Roanoke that the Administration plans to direct $25.5 billion toward public health and criminal justice initiatives that will help tackle rapidly growing rates of prescription painkiller and heroin abuse across the country. (Augusta Free Press) Read more...

How much are you willing to work out in order to dine out? That’s the tongue-in-cheek question posed by the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a watchdog group that released its latest list of high-calorie, high-fat, high-sodium and high-sugar meals served at chain restaurants. CSPI reviews menu and nutritional information for more than 200 of the top U.S. chain restaurants “and we just look for the worst items that we can find,” said Paige Einstein, registered dietitian with CSPI. This year’s “Xtreme Eating Awards,” the group’s sixth such compilation, come as some restaurants have started to list calorie contents for their items on their menus or online. (Chicago Tribune)

Get this: Rosa DeLauro, the brave and beloved 12-term congresswoman from New Haven, will be introducing a bill in the House of Representatives Wednesday that would require a national tax on sugar-sweetened beverages. And it’s about time. You know the big picture, even if you’ve forgotten the details, so I’m going to spare you the stats about obesity and diabetes that have been reiterated here and elsewhere ad infinitum. (If you want a refresher course, see this.) Suffice it to say that sugar-sweetened beverages are linked to obesity and diabetes, and that some form of control is needed.

With coalition-building (the American Public Health Association and the Center for Science in the Public Interest, among others, are supporting the SWEET Act), education and continuing research and revelations about the damage wrought by high sugar consumption, we should see increased support for regulation of the marketing and sales of what’s sometimes called “liquid candy.” (New York Times)

This week the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is hosting public hearings for its Clean Power Plan, which proposed the first-ever nationwide carbon emissions limits for existing power plants. More than 1,500 people were scheduled to testify in Atlanta, Denver, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C., to debate the rule, which is under a 120-day comment period after its June 2 announcement.

After its release, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy announced that by 2030 the plan would reduce carbon pollution by 30 percent and smog and soot by 25 percent. (public health newswire)

Those of you tanning or burning your skin this summer should stop undefined seek the shade, wear a hat and some sunscreen and, whatever you do, stay out of indoor tanning salons. It’s a familiar skin-cancer prevention message, but it’s coming from a new source: the office of the U.S. Surgeon General.

The call to action from acting Surgeon General Boris Lushniak, released Tuesday, says that skin cancer is a “major public health problem” and that too much exposure to indoor and outdoor ultraviolet light is a major cause. It comes just two months after the Food and Drug Administration announced it will soon require labels on tanning beds and lamps warning against use by anyone younger than 18. (USA Today)