Japan approves birth control pill
TOKYO (AP) - The Japanese government has decided to allow limited sale of
the birth control pill after nine years of deliberations, health officials
said Wednesday. The Health Ministry's Central Pharmaceutical Affairs
Council submitted its recommendation to the ministry, and formal approval
will take place by the end of the month, said Toshiki Hirai, director of
the ministry's Pharmaceutical Safety Bureau. The drug, which will require a
doctor's prescription and will not be covered by public health insurance,
is expected to become available in Japan by the fall, Hirai said. The
approval comes a few months after an uproar over the Japanese government's
quick decision to allow the sale of the male impotence drug Viagra. See
full story
<http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559773619-1de>
Feds to review snowmobiles in parks
WASHINGTON (AP) - The National Park Service will study the impact of
snowmobiles on the park system, which could lead to restrictions on where
they can be used. The study was prompted by a petition from environmental
groups for a ban on snowmobiles in national parks. Once the review is done
this fall, the park service will decide whether to propose new
restrictions, Chip Davis, the agency's regulations program manager, said
Wednesday. Snowmobiles are permitted in 28 park units, with the heaviest
use by far in Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks in Wyoming, and at
Voyageurs National Park in Minnesota. The study will entail a broad look at
snowmobile use in the parks to see what impacts have been observed, how
many have occurred and what resources are affected," Davis said. See full
story <http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559778351-93b>
Mollusks get experimental homestead
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government biologists want to put more mussel into Muscle
Shoals. They're ready to reintroduce into the famous Alabama riverbeds
mollusk species washed out by reservoirs on the Ohio, Cumberland and
Tennessee rivers. Building new homesteads for up to 16 species of
endangered mussels may sound simple, but they're such complicated creatures
that researchers spent decades figuring out how to do it. "It's 20 years of
work that I've been working with these animals to get to this point," said
Richard Biggins, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fish and mollusk recovery
coordinator. At least 34 species of mussels have disappeared from Muscle
Shoals, a 53-mile stretch of the Tennessee River once thought to have the
world's greatest collection of freshwater mussels, he said. See full story
<http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2559778629-3f1>
