Health Report

THE GOOD NEWS

-- To combat bacterial food poisoning, the U.S. Agriculture Department proposes stricter poultry processing. Under new rules, chickens would be inspected more closely for contamination with fecal matter, and bird carcasses would be treated with germ-killing sprays or rinses.

-- Nearly 80 medicines to control infectious diseases are under development, according to a drug-industry survey. Among them: a vaccine for Lyme disease and a drug derived from cow's milk to fight a parasite that strikes many AIDS patients.

-- Echocardiograms that measure the thickness of the heart's main pumping chamber may help doctors judge which patients are most at risk for heart disease or stroke and require aggressive therapy.

THE BAD NEWS

-- The annual medical tab for smokers is $50 billion -- almost twice as much as previously estimated -- a new study concludes. Half the money is spent on hospitalization alone.

-- A report on New York City homicides shows that 3 out of 10 victims have cocaine in their system when they die. Researchers speculate that the drug's tendency to increase irritability, aggression and paranoid thinking may spur users into violent confrontations.

% -- A Norwegian survey of 370,000 mothers provides the strongest evidence yet that environmental hazards may trigger birth defects. Women who had given birth to one child with a defect had half the risk of having a second child with the same problem if they moved to another town.

Sources -- GOOD: U.S. Department of Agriculture; Pharmaceutical Research Manufacturers of America; Journal of the American Medical Association.

BAD: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Journal of the American Medical Association; New England Journal of Medicine.