Tag: Asthma

Biden Administration Toughens Limits on Deadly Air Pollution

The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday tightened limits on fine industrial particles, one of the most common and deadliest forms of air pollution, for the first time in a decade. Business groups immediately objected, saying the new regulation could raise costs and hurt manufacturing jobs across the country. Public health organizations said the pollution rules […]

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Pollution Is Driving Black Americans to the South. It May Not Be Any Better.

The air pollution in Emma Lockridge’s community in Detroit was often so bad, she had to wear a surgical mask inside her house. The smokestacks of nearby refineries and factories filled the sky outside her windows with black particles. “I couldn’t sleep because of those fumes,” she told me last year. In 2021 she fled […]

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F.D.A. Warned of Mental Side Effects from Asthma Drug, Singulair. Few Were Told.

In early 2020, the Food and Drug Administration responded to decades of escalating concerns about a commonly prescribed drug for asthma and allergies by deploying one of its most potent tools: a stark warning on the drug’s label that it could cause aggression, agitation and even suicidal thoughts. The agency’s label, which was primarily aimed […]

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The Mystery of My Burning Esophagus

It wasn’t until I called Brendan Canning, a professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins, that I found someone willing to speculate how an allergy in the esophagus might lead to the terrifying sensation of drowning. Canning, a self-described “science nerd,” is not a physician but a researcher who focuses on allergies and airways. He explained […]

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Common Patenting Tactic by Drug Companies May Be Illegal, F.T.C. Says

The Federal Trade Commission on Thursday issued what amounted to a warning to pharmaceutical companies about the legality of a widespread patenting strategy that experts say has helped keep inhaler costs high for patients with asthma and lung problems. In a policy statement unanimously endorsed by the agency’s commissioners, the F.T.C. said it “intends to […]

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