Daily Rounds: BPA Ban; Religion On The Brain; Reform Foes Energized; Healthy Grades; Deadly Dialysis Rationing

State bans bottles and cups with BPA - The Boston Globe "The Massachusetts Public Health Council voted unanimously yesterday to ban the sale and manufacture of baby bottles and sipping cups containing the chemical BPA, but turned aside a push by environmental activists for more sweeping restrictions on use of the chemical linked to possible health risks in children." (Boston Globe)

Neurotheology: This Is Your Brain On Religion : NPR "In an effort to address those questions, Dr. Andrew Newberg has scanned the brains of praying nuns, chanting Sikhs and meditating Buddhists. He studies the relationship between the brain and religious experience, a field called neurotheology. And he's written a book, Principles of Neurotheology, that tries to lay the groundwork for a new kind of scientific and theological dialogue." (npr.org)

Mass. health foes eye Fla. suit - BostonHerald.com "An emboldened local opponent of the state’s “Health Care for All” law said he believes a second federal lawsuit with a major hearing tomorrow will also condemn the Bay State-modeled Obamacare — and potentially pave the way to reverse universal care in Massachusetts." (news.bostonherald.com)

Good Grades Lead to Better Health - NYTimes.com'“What we’ve seen all along in other studies is the link between attainment — years of schooling — and health,” said study author Dr. Pamela Herd, associate professor of public affairs and sociology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison. “Here there’s a link between health and actual academic performance. “Even among those who each had 12 years of education, the person who performed better had better health,” she said. “That’s new.” The study was published online in The Journal of Health and Social Behavior.' (ell.blogs.nytimes.com)

Life and Death Choices as South Africans Ration Dialysis Care - ProPublica '“Probably in the middle of the last decade we were turning away 50 percent of the patients,” said Dr. Rafique Moosa, a kidney specialist at Tygerberg Hospital and head of the Department of Medicine at the University of Stellenbosch. According to him, as of August they were turning away 80 percent, and in November, only two out of 20 patients were accepted. “We just don’t have the resources to deal with the patients,” Moosa said. But deciding to reject patients for the program can feel like issuing a “death sentence,” he said.' (ProPublica)