Health Highlights: Dec. 7, 2008

Michele Meeker, a spokeswoman for AstraZeneca, which makes Symbicort, said the FDA's safety division improperly excluded most studies of Symbicort in its analysis. A review of all the data shows the drug doesn't increase the risks of death or hospitalization, she said, according to the Times.

Dr. Daniel Frattarelli, a Detroit pediatrician and member of the American Academy of Pediatrics's committee on drugs, said he treats children with Advair, and his committee had recently discussed the safety of the medicines.

"Most of us felt these were pretty good drugs. I'm really looking forward to hearing what the FDA committee decides," he told the newspaper.

Asthma is a chronic disease that can cause the airways to constrict, reducing airflow to the lungs. This can lead to wheezing, coughing, chest tightness and trouble breathing. Severe asthma attacks can be fatal, according to the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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WHO Sets Standards for Melamine Contamination in Foods

Responding to mounting global concerns, the World Health Organization on Friday issued safety limits for levels of melamine in foods. The industrial chemical should not be present in baby formula, but trace levels are unavoidable in some foods, especially those consumed by adults, according to published reports.

Melamine has been blamed for sickening nearly 300,000 children in China and may have caused six deaths, Agence France-Presse reported.

Friday's action marks the first time the United Nations-affiliated agency has set safety limits for the chemical, which is used in the production of plastic products. WHO officials stressed, however, that melamine "should not be in food," even though traces are sometimes unavoidable, the news service said.

Melamine can cause kidney stones if consumed in excessive levels; in severe cases, it can cause kidney failure. The chemical has been routinely mixed into Chinese milk and dairy products to boost protein content.

Jorgen Schlundt, the WHO director for food safety, said the Tolerable Daily Intake (TDI) threshold states that a 50 kilogram (110-pound) person could tolerate 10 milligrams of melamine a day. This is not a "safe" level, but rather the amount a human being can consume without higher health risks, Schlundt said, according to the Associated Press.

"The TDI is meant to help national authorities set safe limits in food for withdrawal purposes should melamine be detected as a result of intentional adulteration," added the WHO.

The melamine scandal has prompted many countries around the world, including the 27-nation European Union, to ban Chinese milk imports, AFP said. The United States has put in place an import alert that requires importers to prove that Chinese milk products are melamine-free.

Last month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced an allowable threshold of 1 part per million of melamine in baby formula. The FDA had originally said that no levels of the chemical were acceptable.

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Alzheimer's Drug May Help Brain Cancer Patients

An experimental Alzheimer's drug may be effective against highly aggressive brain tumors called malignant gliomas that are resistant to conventional treatments, according to Canadian researchers.

The University of Calgary team identified a "switch" activated by a protein already present in the brain that enables cancer cells to spread from the primary brain tumor. The Alzheimer's drug prevents that switch from being turned on, CBC News reported.

The study was published in the journal PLoS Biology.

"Several drug companies have already invested hundreds of millions of dollars in developing drugs that target this process, although in Alzheimer's, not in cancer, so it's sort of a new way to think about it, and we have a leg up where we could make an impact," oncology professor Dr. Peter Forsyth told CBC News.