Daily Rounds: Hot & Hotter; Baystate Layoffs; Breast-Milk Baby Doll; Calorie (Mis)Counter; Embalmers For Formaldehyde

Deadly Heat Wave Moves Toward Northeast - NYTimes.com "A blistering, eastern-moving band of heat hovering over the Plains and southern United States has killed two dozen people this week, and forecasters expect it to scorch the Northeast in the coming days, pushing temperatures toward 100 degrees on Friday." (nytimes.com)

Baystate Health to reduce staff by 354 from White Coat Notes "Baystate Health System announced that it will lay off 169 people and eliminate another 185 vacant positions by Aug. 19. The four-hospital nonprofit system, which serves western Massachusetts, cited the impacts of the recession and state cost containment policies." (boston.com)

Child’s Play: What’s So Bad About ‘The Breast Milk Baby’? – TIME Healthland "So why all the brouhaha over the The Breast Milk Baby?“Yuck” is the general reaction that the sweet-faced Spanish import is receiving in the U.S. It's apparently a hit in Europe, but more prudish Americans are clamoring to decry the inappropriateness of a doll that lets a young girl pretend to breast-feed. The six models — Cameron, Jeremiah, Lilyang, Jessica, Savannah and Tony — are sold with a flowered halter top for your breast-feeder-in-training to wear. Hold the baby to the strategically placed flower “nipple,” and the doll moves its mouth and makes associated suckling sounds." (Time Magazine)

Restaurants Often Miss The Mark On Calorie Counts : Shots - Health Blog : NPR "But when calorie counts were off, they could be way off. Nearly 1 in 5 of the foods contained 100 or more calories than stated. In some cases, the discrepancies were "huge," Tufts researcher Lorien Urban tells Shots. For example, a blue cheese wedge side salad at Outback Steakhouse was 659 calories richer than the menu noted. And a side order of chips and salsa at On The Border Mexican Grill and Cantina was too low by a whopping 1,081 calories. "(npr.org)

Despite Cancer Risk, Embalmers Stay With Formaldehyde - NYTimes.com “Formaldehyde is the perfect product for fixation and short-term preservation,” said Debbie Dodge, president of the Dodge Company in Cambridge, Mass., which markets embalming fluids to funeral homes. “Formaldehyde will firm up the body tissue more than any of the nonformaldehyde products out there.”
The formaldehyde industry fought the government’s designation for years, arguing that the science was fuzzy on the link between the chemical and certain cancers. Consumer advocates hope a government warning in June will spur increased demand for products with little or no formaldehyde — for items as diverse as plywood, pressed wood, wrinkle-free shirts and hair straighteners.
Among funeral directors? Not likely." (nytimes.com)