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You might want to reconsider what you're cleaning with. A new study has found that chemicals in certain cleaning products have led to reproductive problems in mice. According to newswise.com, Virginia Tech researchers who were using a disinfectant when handling mice have discovered that two active ingredients in it cause declines in mouse reproduction. Although the chemicals responsible for the declines are common in household cleaning products and disinfectants used in medical and food preparation settings, including hand sanitizers, academic scientists have never published a rigorous study, until now, on their safety or toxicity. “If these chemicals are toxic to humans, they could also be contributing to the decline in human fertility seen in recent decades, as well as the increased need for assistive reproductive technologies such as in-vitro fertilization,” said Dr. Terry Hrubec, a research assistant professor in the Department of Biomedical Sciences and Patho...

It's something we don't think about much.  After all, we were vaccinated for measles and mumps and chicken pox years and years ago. But a new study  is finding that millions of Americans are not getting vaccinated against whooping cough (which can kill newborns), tetanus, shingles, and other diseases, according to Jennifer Brown at the Denver Post. Just 14 percent of adults 19 and older are vaccinated against tetanus, diphtheria and whooping cough. Only 20 percent age 60 and older received the shingles vaccination, and only about 35 percent of women ages 19 to 26 are immunized against HPV, or human papillomavirus, she writes. The low vaccination rates are leading to outbreaks, CDC officials have said, Brown points out. More than 48,000 cases of whooping cough, for example, were reported in 2012 — more than any other year since 1955. The illness, named after its excessive coughing that ends in a whooping noise, costs far more to treat than the vaccine costs-- $2,000 vs. a...

Could it possibly be?  Our kids are eating less sugar today than 15 years ago?  A new study says just that. According to a story by Bruce Horovitz at USA Today, "Kids drank fruit juices 16 fewer times than in 1998."  And the decline is accelerating. You know all those commercials where they tell you the drinks are mostly fruit?  What they don't say is that the rest of it is all sugar. (Read the back of a container some time.)  I love how they're now trying to promote these juices as healthier than soda! "The typical child ate or drank the 20 most common sugary sweets an average 126 times fewer last year than in 1998, reports NPD," including 62 fewer times imbibing carbonated soft drinks and 22 fewer times eating pre-sweetened cereals, Horovitz writes. Are our kids actually turning away from Cocoa Puffs?  (And am I dating myself?!) But apparently, at least in some segments of the food market, our kids are eating less sugary items.  I don't k...