In brief | Nation & world | 5-30-14

FDA requires warning labels, safety measures for indoor tanning devices linked to cancer

WASHINGTON — Tanning beds and sun lamps will carry new warnings that they should not be used by anyone younger than 18, part of a government action announced Thursday aimed at reducing skin cancer linked to the radiation-emitting devices.

The Food and Drug Administration has regulated tanning machines for more than 30 years, but the agency is now requiring more prominent warnings about the cancer risks of indoor tanning.

Makers of sun lamps and related devices must include a bold label, known as a black box warning stating that they should not be used by people younger than 18. Additionally, manufacturers must provide more warnings about cancer risks in pamphlets, catalogues and websites that promote their products. Those materials must warn that the devices shouldn’t be used by people who have had skin cancer or have a family history of the disease.

For years, medical groups have urged the U.S. government to take action on tanning beds because of rising rates of skin cancer among teenagers and 20-somethings, particularly women. Over 76,000 new cases of melanoma, the deadliest form of skin cancer, are expected to be diagnosed this year, and the disease is expected to cause 9,710 deaths, according to the American Cancer Society. While most cases are diagnosed in people in their 40s and 50s, the disease is linked to sun exposure at a young age. But melanoma is also the second-most common form of cancer among young adults, according to the American Academy of Dermatology.

An estimated 2.3 million U.S. teenagers tan indoors each year.

In reversal, Texas attorney general says state can keep its source of execution drugs a secret

DALLAS — Texas’ prison system does not have to reveal where it gets its execution drugs, the state attorney general’s office said Thursday, marking a reversal by the state’s top prosecutor on an issue being challenged in several death penalty states.

Under Greg Abbott, who is also the Republican nominee for governor in the nation’s busiest death penalty state, the Texas Attorney General’s Office had since 2010 rejected three similar attempts by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to keep secret its source of the drugs used to carry out lethal injections.

But on Thursday, Abbott’s office sided with state prison officials who said their supplier would be in danger if identified, citing a “threat assessment” signed by Texas Department of Public Safety director Steven McCraw.

The assessment, a one-page letter dated March 7, said pharmacies “by design are easily accessible to the public and present a soft target to violent attacks.” He added that naming a pharmacy supplying execution drugs “presents a substantial threat of physical harm … and should be avoided to the greatest extent possible.”

Abbott’s decision came the same day Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said his state should consider creating its own laboratory to make execution drugs rather than relying on “uneasy cooperation” with outside suppliers. A state-operated lab would be a first, and it wasn’t immediately clear if Missouri could open such a lab without approval from lawmakers.

AP-WE tv poll: As women earn and learn more, traditional gender roles still drive dating scene

WASHINGTON — In dating, money may be the biggest taboo.

An Associated Press-WE tv poll finds that two-thirds of Americans think it’s tougher to talk money with your romantic partner than it is to talk sex. Three in 10 say sex is the harder conversation.

And when people do lay out their thoughts on money and gender in the dating scene, all kinds of contradictions emerge.

Seven in 10 of those surveyed say it’s unacceptable to expect a date to pay for everything. But most still say it’s a man’s job to pay for the first date.

Most say it’s OK to ask someone out because he or she seems successful. But even more say it’s unacceptable to turn down people because they haven’t had much success.

By wire sources