Capsules

> There is too much deception in advertisers' claims for toothpaste and tooth powders and also for tranquilizers. charged a subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Operations--and it's up to the Federal Trade Commission to do something. The subcommittee's prescription : force the manufacturers to agree on a code of fair practices in advertising.

> Grandma and her grandma used to say that the best way to treat a burn was to hold it under the spout (cold water, naturally), but later generations of medical scientists have pooh-poohed the idea. Now, University of Utah researchers are convinced that grandma was right: cold (not iced) water or a cold wet pack is the best first aid for burns, should be started within seconds or minutes to do the most good. Principal beneficiary of the research is the U.S. Navy, which paid for it. Navymen are exposed to many burn hazards and usually have plenty of cold water handy (fresh is better, but salt will do).

> Medical researchers have been trying for years to prove that people with a particular blood type are especially prone to certain diseases. Example: Type O blood is supposed to run with a high rate of peptic ulcer. Wait, says a hardheaded Swiss, Geneva's Dr. Alexander Manuila, in the A.M.A. Journal. It may be true, but cannot be proved by available data--the claims have been based on inadequate studies and inaccurate statistics.

> On the possible dangers of the methox-salen suntan pills, Meloxine and Oxsoralen (TIME, Aug. 4), the A.M.A. declared: "No one knows what will happen to the skin when courses of methoxsalen and sun exposures are repeated once, twice, or oftener each year for many years. Nor is it yet certain what effects, good or bad, this drug will have on the development and course of skin malignancies or on the usual senile skin changes." Determined not to have its editorial head turned by the bronzed body beautiful, the A.M.A. concluded that "even the esthetic value of its effects is still dubious."

> The ranks of public officials on record against the dangers of heavy cigarette smoking won a noted recruit in New York's Health Commissioner Herman E. Hilleboe. Granting there is no proof that smoking is the only cause of lung cancer, Dr. Hilleboe declared that several recent studies "give irrefutable evidence that the long-range effects of cigarette smoking are harmful for many people."

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