The U.S. Food and Drug Administration took a “momentous” step toward banning menthol in cigarettes and banning flavored cigars. (Liudmila Chernetska / iStockphoto / Getty Images)

The FDA has been officially exploring the possibility of a menthol ban for more than a decade. In July 2013, the FDA requested comments on preliminary research, data and evaluations with regard to the regulation of menthol.

A still image from a video taken of the demolition of the Crawford Coal Plant smokestack, April 11, 2020. (Alejandro Reyes / YouTube)

Dave Graham, who a watchdog report said should be fired for “willful bureaucratic negligence” in the 2020 incident that covered Little Village in dust, is now in charge of environmental inspections and enforcement.

(CNN)
,

The rise in opioid deaths is largely due to the increase in synthetic opioids like fentanyl, says law enforcement officials. 

(WTTW News)
,

The Narcotics Arrest Diversion Program, an initiative launched in 2018, offers those arrested for low-level drug offenses who meet certain criteria a chance to have their charges dropped if they agree to meet with a drug counselor.

Law enforcement members of New York Sheriff's Joint Compliance Task Force (SJCTF) carry bags of confiscated vaping products, during a spot raid of a tobacco shop, Wednesday Sept. 27, 2023, in New York. (Bebeto Matthews / AP Photo)

The recent shift toward e-cigarettes that can’t be refilled has created a new environmental dilemma. The devices, which contain nicotine, lithium and other metals, cannot be reused or recycled. Under federal environmental law, they also aren’t supposed to go in the trash.

(agilemktg1 / Flickr)
,

The Department of Healthcare and Family Services (HFS) announced the cutoff date on Thursday, making good on a spring promise to limit membership in order to keep costs in check. Activists who want the program expanded rather than curtailed said that the move was expected but nonetheless disappointing.

Milk and Moon Lactation Counseling LLC in Spring Valley, Ill., is a milk depot and donor milk dispensary in partnership with the Mothers’ Milk Bank of the Western Great Lakes. (Courtesy of Milk and Moon Lactation Counseling)

Demand for donor breast milk has been growing as the country continues to recover from last year’s infant formula shortage that left many store shelves empty following a host of supply chain issues and product recalls.

A woman works on a lung cancer vaccine on October 1 at the Ose Immunotherapeutics laboratory in Nantes. (Loic Venance / AFP / Getty Images)

Awareness of the lung cancer’s effects on women is lacking, experts say, and the U.S. government spends significantly less on its research than on similar studies in men.

(Nataliya Vaitkevich / Pexels)

About 66,900 Chicagoans, or 2.4% of the city population, have received the new vaccine since updated COVID-19 vaccines were recommended in mid-September, the Chicago Department of Public Health reports.

(WTTW News)

The measles case involves an unvaccinated individual and was confirmed by public health officials on Wednesday.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is proposing to ban certain hair-straightening products, such as chemical relaxers and pressing products, that have been linked to health risks. (Adobe Stock)

Scientists have long identified an association between the use of hair-straightening chemical products with an increased risk of certain cancers. Research suggests that about 50% of products advertised to Black women contain these types of chemicals, compared with about 7% that are advertised to White women.

 A nurse fills test tubes with blood to be tested during an American Red Cross bloodmobile in Fullerton, CA, in 2022. (Paul Bersebach / MediaNews Group / Orange County Register / Getty Images)

The American Red Cross, which provides about 40% of the nation’s blood and blood components, says the distribution of blood products to hospitals is outpacing the number of donations. Since early August, there has been a nearly 25% decline in donations, it says.

FILE - A prescription is filled, Friday, Jan. 6, 2023, in Morganton, N.C. A dose of patience may come in handy at the pharmacy counter this fall, as drug and staffing shortages haven’t gone away. (Chris Carlson / AP Photo, File)

Some drugstores have addressed their challenges by adding employees at busy hours. But experts say many pharmacies, particularly the big chains, still don’t have enough workers behind the counter.

Illinois DCFS Director Marc Smith appears on “Chicago Tonight” in 2019. (WTTW News)

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services Director Marc Smith will resign effective Dec. 31, he told colleagues in an all-staff town hall meeting Wednesday morning.

(WTTW News)

The CDC said suicide rates increased by 37% for Black people 10 to 24 years old, the highest rise of any category, from 2018 to 2020. A National Institutes of Health study found among children ages 5 to 12, Black children were twice as likely to die by suicide as their White counterparts.

File photo of a hospital hallway. (WTTW News)

Prostate cancer can be a touchy subject for men to talk about, but discussing it with a doctor can be a literal lifesaver.