>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>
>
>
