Ratty restaurants
A video of rats running around in a New York City restaurant was broadcast on television last week, but health experts say there are more dangerous things to worry about at restaurants.
The New York City Health Department said employees that don’t wash their hands and foods stored at improper temperatures pose a greater health risk to restaurant patrons than rodents do.
The video of scampering rats was shot at a KFC/Taco Bell one day after the restaurant passed a health department inspection. The video has led to the removal of the inspector who conducted the review and 13 restaurant closures.
The parent company of KFC/Taco Bell, Yum Brands Inc., has hired an urban pest control specialist to review the standards of its New York City restaurants.
Are you smoking yet?
White teenagers who watch a lot of R-rated movies and have unlimited access to TV are more likely to start smoking than similarly media-exposed black teenagers.
The report was based on a study of 735 children ages 12 to 14, about equally divided between black and white. They were interviewed about which of 93 popular films shown in theaters from 2001 to 2002 they saw, how often they watched TV and if their parents had rules about their television viewing.
Researchers found that white teens with the most exposure to R-rated movies were seven times more likely to have begun smoking than those with less exposure. Unsupervised TV viewing also made white adolescents more likely to start smoking.
No similar impact on smoking habits was found in the black teenagers interviewed.
But for white teens, even when the study took into account smoking friends, lack of parental guidance or poor grades, the ones who watched more R-rated movies were still found to be three times more likely to start smoking.
“Party pill” ban?
As a nation of thrill-seekers, New Zealanders ski down active volcanoes, bungy-jump off bridges and “zorb” down mountains in huge plastic balls. But lawmakers might be cracking down on the country’s currently legal stimulants called “party pills.”
The craze has grown into a NZ $25 (US $17) million industry over the past six years.
Created in 2000 to help people break their addictions to methamphetamines, the synthetic benzylpiperazine-based party pills affect the brain’s dopamine and noradrenaline neurotransmitter systems, giving the user an ecstasy-like high.
Fans of the drug are fighting the proposed government ban, arguing that legal highs are safer than many of the country’s pastimes.
The chair of party pills’ industry body argues that many dangerous sports should be banned before the pills are if the country is to be consistent in its risk evaluations.
In June 2005 the drug was reclassified as a restricted substance, preventing it from being sold to anyone under the age of 18.
A 2006 National Household Survey in New Zealand found that one in five residents between the ages of 15 and 45 had used party pills; thus making them just as popular as cannabis, the number one illegal drug in the country.
Brains vs. brawn
An Italian family beat up a middle school principal after one of their young relatives received bad grades. The family was also angry about the principal banning cell phones at the school.
The father, grandfather and another male relative of the student pushed and punched the principal. He was taken to the hospital and treated for mild contusions. He has been principal of the school for the past 22 years.