Health Highlights: Oct. 30, 2015

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

FDA Targets Stores Selling Tobacco to Minors

Tobacco sales could be halted at eight stores that have repeatedly sold tobacco products to children younger than 18, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration says.

The agency said the stores in Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Missouri and New Jersey have 30 days to stop selling tobacco products or appeal, NBC News reported.

“The FDA plans to conduct unannounced compliance check inspections during that period to check whether the establishment is complying with the terms of the order,” the agency said in a news release.

“Retailers are the first line of defense in preventing the illegal sale of harmful and addictive products like cigarettes and smokeless tobacco to youth,” said Mitch Zeller, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, NBC News reported.

“These enforcement actions will send a powerful message to all retailers that there are real consequences for repeatedly violating the law,” he added.

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U.S. Doctor Who Helped Created Modern Paramedic System Dies

A doctor who played a major role in creating the modern paramedic emergency system has died.

Dr. Walter Graf was 98 when he died Oct. 18 while under home hospice care, said Dr. Baxter Larmon, a professor at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California, Los Angeles, the Associated Press reported.

“He was a pioneer,” according to Larmon, who delivered a eulogy at a memorial for Graf last week. “Today ambulances do trauma care, they do respiratory care, they provide all kinds of care. And it’s all based on Graf’s original model.”

In 1969, Graf turned a van into a “mobile critical care unit,” and later equipped ambulances with heart defibrillators and technicians who were trained in their use, the AP reported.

“It’s easy to take for granted the incredibly elaborate, sophisticated EMS system that we have today, but just 50 years ago, it did not exist,” Dr. Clayton Kazan, medical director, Los Angeles County Fire Department, said in a statement.

“While ambulance transportation existed, virtually no medical care was provided until the patient arrived at the hospital,” he noted.

Graf helped create “a movement that has been responsible for saving innumerable lives worldwide,” Kazan said, the AP reported.

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Herr’s Chips Recalled Due to Gluten-Free Mislabeling

Certain bags of 1.875 oz. Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips are being recalled by Herr Foods Inc. because they were mistakenly labelled as being gluten-free.

The recalled bags were distributed across the United States and sold as individual bags, the company said.

No other bag sizes of Herr’s Sour Cream & Onion Potato Chips and none of the company’s other products are included in the recall.

For more information, consumers can call Herr’s at 1-800-523-5030.

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