A roundup of today's other health stories in brief:
FISH WARNING: An animal rights group in Britain yesterday launched a campaign encouraging consumers not to eat fish.
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) unveiled a billboard in London showing the potential health impact of eating fish contaminated with mercury.
A catchline on the billboard says: "Extreme case of mercury poisoning: How much is in your fish?"
Peta campaign co-ordinator Marie-Claire Macintosh urged consumers to go vegetarian, saying: "If fish flesh were labelled for all the dangerous substances that it contains - including mercury, PCBs and potentially deadly bacteria - it would be the last thing that anyone would want to swallow."
But the UK's food watchdog said an expert report published in 2004 showed the health benefits of eating some fish clearly outweighed the possible risks from contamination.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) spokesman said: "There is good evidence that eating fish is beneficial to health."
SAFETY AND HEALTH AT WORK: This week is European Week for Safety and Health at work and this year it is focusing on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) in the workplace. A new publication, Work-related musculoskeletal disorders: Back to work, has been launched to coincide with the event. It focuses on retaining and reintegrating people with such disorders.
The Health and Safety Authority is running a series of regional seminars in association with the Irish Ergonomic Association this month and next.
For more information log on to http://ew2007. osha.europa.eu/
FAT LETTERS: Parents could be officially warned their children are fat as part of a drive to tackle Britain's growing obesity problem.
The British Department of Health is considering new plans to issue letters to parents after their children have been weighed and measured in school at the ages of five and 10.
Youngsters are currently weighed as part of a national data collection programme, although the scheme has been criticised for allowing parents to "opt out" of having their children put on the scales.
This means some overweight and obese children are not measured, skewing the national results.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Health could not confirm today that parents would be sent letters, saying it was "one of a range of options currently being considered".
At present, parents are only given the results if they ask for them.
BACKING TECHNOLOGY: Invest NI has said it is to support the development of innovative new technology that will be used in products, which it claims "could revolutionise the connected healthcare industry".
The technology is being developed by NovaUCD firm BiancaMed at its new R&D centre in Belfast. Invest NI has offered £250,000 towards the set up of the R&D centre at the Queen's University, Institute of Electronics, Communications and Information Technology.
BiancaMed's core product is a wireless sensor that can detect breathing and heart rate up to a distance of two metres. The first application for the technology is a baby monitor, but the technology will be developed further for use in other applications with life-saving potential, such as home health and exercise monitors.
As well as receiving assistance through Invest NI's Compete programme, which supports the commercial- isation of research, BiancaMed has secured $2.5m venture capital support for the project, from Draper Fisher Jurvetson ePlanet Ventures and ResMed.
VACCINE DONATION: Merck & Co said yesterday it would donate at least three million doses of its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil for use in demonstration projects in lowest income countries throughout the world.
The initiative was announced at the 2007 annual meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.
"By donating three million doses of Gardasil over the next five years, we are committing to the vaccination of one million girls and young women against cervical cancer, a disease that takes the lives of nearly 250,000 women each year," Margaret McGlynn, president, Merck Vaccines and Infectious Disease claimed.