Health Hazards

The Food and Drug Administration ordered stronger warnings Thursday on four medications widely used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other serious illnesses, saying they can raise the risk of possibly fatal fungal infections. The drugs -- Enbrel, Remicade, Humira and Cimzia -- work by suppressing the immune system to keep it from attacking the body.

With patients facing increasing threats from antibiotic-resistant "super bugs," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Thursday signed two measures requiring California hospitals to strengthen their efforts at preventing staph outbreaks and to reveal to the public their rates of infection. The move was a reversal for the governor, who vetoed similar legislation four years ago.

Federal regulators took control of an oil field cleanup Wednesday after Greka Oil and Gas allegedly failed to do the work on time. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it was sending workers to finish cleanup of settling ponds on a lease near Cat Canyon Creek. Ponds were leaking in multiple locations and posed a spill hazard, said Mary Simms, an EPA spokeswoman. Greka failed to meet multiple cleanup deadlines, Simms said. It's the third time in three years that the EPA has intervened in cleanups ordered for Greka-owned leases, she said.

China is already home to 16 of the planet's 20 most heavily polluted cities -- a noxious consequence of its double-digit economic growth. Now researchers have worse news for the nation's beleaguered lower classes: The air inside their homes is up to 10 times worse than the prevailing gloom outside.

Looking to bolster the fight against childhood lead poisoning, the Environmental Protection Agency last month approved a tough new rule aimed at clearing the nation's air of the toxic metal. But at the last minute, federal documents show, the Bush administration quietly weakened a key provision, exempting dozens of polluters from scrutiny. A new network of monitors that is to track lead emissions from factories has been scaled back.

Beside a field of rolling tumbleweed in this remote Central Valley town, the state opened its newest prison in 2005 with a modern design, cutting-edge security features and a serious environmental problem. The drinking water pumped from two wells at Kern Valley State Prison contained arsenic, a known cause of cancer, in amounts far higher than a federal safety standard soon to take effect.

A nasty staph germ circulating in the community and some hospitals produces a poison that can kill pneumonia patients within 72 hours, researchers have reported. \o7Staphylococcus aureus \f7bacteria -- staph for short -- can pass one another the gene for the toxin and are apparently swapping it more often, the researchers reported in the Jan. 19 issue of the journal Science. The toxin, called Panton Valentine leukocidin, or PVL, can itself cause pneumonia and can kill healthy tissue.

Some shampoos and other bath products still contain traces of a cancer-causing petrochemical that federal health officials have expressed concerns about for more than 20 years, according to test results announced Thursday by environmental activists.

The Food and Drug Administration said it was notifying healthcare providers and consumers about reports of about 28 cases of infants suffering a serious bowel condition after receiving Merck & Co.'s new vaccine against rotavirus. The FDA said it was not clear how many of the 28 reported cases were caused by the vaccine. It said the condition, known as intussusception, can occur in the absence of vaccination.

The county department of public health mandated 63 closures of downtown wholesale produce vendors after an investigation by KNBC-TV revealed unsanitary conditions, vermin and lax regulation at the market housing the vendors, officials said this week. County health officials filed 25 reports of investigation in support of criminal complaints with the city attorney, including one against the firm that operates the Seventh Street Produce Market.