Retail Clinics

WASHINGTON — Menthol-flavored cigarettes are the latest target for tobacco opponents, according to published reports.

Reuters reported Friday that a committee of advisers to the Food and Drug Administration said in a report that banning mentholated cigarettes would benefit public health. Under legislation adopted in 2009, most flavored cigarettes already are banned.

WASHINGTON — A new study conducted by the Institute for Alternative Futures and funded by Novo Nordisk highlighted the top 10 U.S. states that are labeled as "diabetes hot spots" and are projected to carry the brunt of the epidemic over the next 15 years.

CHICAGO — Between 1965 and 2007, the number of people with a pack-a-day habit significantly declined, as did the number of people who smoked 10 or more cigarettes a day, according to a study in the March 16 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — SB 437, a bill passed Wednesday by the Arkansas House by a vote of 60-31, introduces a number of new issues to the debate on whether or not pseudoephedrine and similar ingredients should be sold behind the counter or by prescription only.

SEATTLE — Bartell Drugs will celebrate health and beauty with a series of events at some of its stores in the Puget Sound area, the metropolitan area around Seattle, the regional retail pharmacy chain said Wednesday.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday announced that the only over-the-counter asthma inhaler sold in the United States no longer will be available as of Dec. 31 as part of an international agreement to stop the use of substances that damage the environment.

NEW YORK — While several drugs to treat Type 2 diabetes are on the market, researchers have found that the best first-line option is metformin.

Led by Wendy Bennett, an assistant professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, researchers reviewed 140 trials and 26 observational studies of head-to-head comparisons of monotherapy or combination therapy that reported intermediate or long-term clinical outcomes or harms of six oral diabetes medications.

NEW YORK — Following reports of additional reactor failures at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility, natural health stores in Hawaii, Oregon and California rapidly are selling out of potassium iodide (KI) pills, a potassium supplement that can help protect the thyroid gland from radiation poisoning, FOXnews.com reported Tuesday.