Deterring Smoking & New Toy Safety

Do you have a question for Dr. Steve, CLICK HERE

7:00am Segment Info:
The one thing about smoking is you can't really see the damage it's doing to your body, if you did, you would quit on the spot.

Now researchers in Britain say when you tell smokers how "old" their lungs are they're more likely to quit. It's kind of like those ads you see on TV these days showing the actual physical effects of cancer, but in this case researchers showed people their "lung age" and compared it to healthy people of the same age and after one year. 13% of the smokers told their lung age quit compared to only 6% in a control group.

In other news, there's going to be tougher checks on toys from overseas.

MORE INFO AFTER THE JUMP

That's right, you remember all the toy recalls we had this past year.

Well the senate has passed legislation that will toughen inspections of toys and other playthings made outside the U.S. the bill is calling for a public database of consumer complaints and it's going to help the consumer products safety commission to certify the safety of overseas products. It's also going to ban lead in children's goods and set new standards for safe toys.

Did the house pass a similar bill?

It did back in December, with some differences. The house version included a lower cap for jury awards and proposed a study on how to create a database. Experts say it's likely this bill will pass into law and will not be vetoed by president bush. The urgency of this new legislation is largely due to the media attention that it got this past year. Also, families testified before congress about how dangerous these toys can be. Hundreds of children in the US have been sickened or even died from these toys.