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Episode details

World Service,11 May 2016,26 mins

Vapers Urged to Keep e-Liquids Away from Young Children

Health Check

Available for over a year

More and more smokers are turning to e-cigarettes to help them give up tobacco. This is good news for their health, but research from the United States across the past three years, shows that child poisonings from the nicotine liquid in e-cigarettes have been on the increase. The National Poison Data System is now receiving a call about it every three hours. The study is published in the journal Pediatrics and one of the authors, Dr Gary Smith, Director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus in Ohio, tells Claudia how concerned we should be. Brazil has the highest rate of caesarean sections in the world, with more than half of all births taking place surgically. In the private healthcare sector, which covers 1 in 4 Brazilians, the rates are even higher, with 84% of babies born by C-section. But things might be about to change. In April, Brazil’s Ministry of Health issued new guidelines aimed at reducing caesareans, based on a concern, shared by the World Health Organization, that unnecessary C-sections may increase risks for mothers and babies, without adding clear benefits. And new regulations have been placed on health insurers too, as Claire Rigby reports from Brazil. What is the optimum amount of sleep for your health? Is it right that the longer you sleep, the healthier you become? Matthew Walker, Professor of Neurology at the Institute of Neurology at University College London unpicks a medical myth. How early does gender stereotyping begin? New research from David Reby at Sussex University in the UK shows that it may start as early as three months. (Photo: Woman holding an e-cigarette and exhaling vapour. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

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