People have the opportunity to have their eyes checked with one-of-a-kind equipment for free, while helping to solve the mystery behind the leading cause of blindness in Australia. Even people with healthy eyes, aged 50 and over, are being encouraged to participate in the Queensland University of Technology study. Eye specialist and QUT researcher Dr Beatrix Feigl is embarking on the study to detect the early signs of age-related macular degeneration, a disease that progressively causes vision loss.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is warning businesses across Britain not to be duped into buying unnecessary and overpriced copies of its health and safety law poster. The poster is a fixture of every workplace in Britain and employers have a legal duty to display the poster in a prominent position or provide each worker with a copy of a Law pocket card. Both outline employer and workers responsibilities and where workers can seek advice. There is some evidence of misleading
promotions wrongly claiming that the old poster must be replaced immediately and that the new law poster should be displayed on every notice board within the business" premises. This is incorrect and employers could be led to believe that they are not meeting their legal requirements. 
Men are being warned that steroids can lead to premature baldness after a leading hair clinic reported an alarming rise in the number of patients affected by the designer drugs. Optima Hair Specialists - which supplies advanced hair replacement systems - has seen a 60 per cent increase* in enquiries from men who have taken anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) and suffered early hair loss as a result. AAS are believed to stimulate Dihydrotestosterone** (DHT) - a powerful sex
hormone that triggers baldness in men***. Peter Murtha, founder of Optima Hair Specialists, said: "It is widely accepted that DHT has an adverse affect on hair follicles and is the main culprit behind male pattern baldness. Recent studies have found that steroid drugs can increase the levels of DHT within the body and therefore accelerate hair loss. 
A new laser technique that could lead to bone disorders being diagnosed earlier is to be tested in a hospital for the first time. The study, which it"s hoped will pave the way for future clinical trials, will apply a revolutionary approach known as SORS (Spatially Offset Raman Spectroscopy), to examine specific substances in non see-through surfaces deeper than has previously been possible, without damaging the surface. The research team hope ultimately that the method
can be used both to detect and screen for early signs of diseases such as osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.
Children given an oral syrup containing the naturally occurring sweetener xylitol may be less likely to develop decay in their baby teeth, according to a report in the July issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. Early childhood caries (cavities), also called baby bottle tooth decay or nursing caries, continue to increase in prevalence, according to background information in the article. "Poor children experience
rates twice as high as those of their more affluent peers, and their disease is more likely to be untreated," the authors write.