Scientists study ‘garbage patch’ in Pacific Ocean

It is a problem of massive plastic proportions — a giant floating debris field, composed mostly of bits and pieces of plastic, in the northwest Pacific Ocean, about a thousands miles off the coast of California. It’s called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and it covers a vast area of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of miles of open ocean

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Police: Hospital employee swiped shots, spread hepatitis C

A former hospital employee may have exposed hundreds, or even thousands, of surgical patients to hepatitis C after taking their fentanyl injections and replacing them with used syringes filled with saline solution, authorities say. Kristen Diane Parker, who worked at Rose Medical Center in Denver, has admitted to secretly injecting herself in a bathroom and using unclean syringes as replacements for patients, investigators said

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Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm

As he rolls across the wheat fields of his Nebraska farm, Steve Tucker often has his hands not on the wheel of his tractor, but on a smartphone. He sometimes posts a dozen messages per day on Twitter, commenting on everything from the weather to the state of his crops to his son’s first tractor ride and even last night’s cheeseburger.

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FDA advisers vote to take Vicodin, Percocet off market

A government advisory panel voted Tuesday to recommend eliminating prescription drugs that combine acetaminophen with narcotics — such as Vicodin and Percocet — because of their risk for overdose and for severe liver injury. The panel, assembled by the Food and Drug Administration, voted 20 to 17 to advise the FDA to remove such prescription combination drugs from the market. The group recommended that the FDA “send a clear message that there’s a high likelihood of overdose from prescription narcotics and acetaminophen products,” Dr.

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