Today's Globe: backyard lead, gift ban, biolab site, Stuart Hauser, hygienists

As backyard vegetable gardens undergo a renaissance, environmental officials and scientists are warning homeowners to be careful before planting the carrots and chard: There might be lead in the soil.

Governor Deval Patrick yesterday signed into law one of the nation's strictest limits on gifts given to medical professionals by drug salespeople, the most contentious measure contained in a broad package intended to improve healthcare safety and curb skyrocketing costs.

The Homeland Security Department swept aside evaluations of government experts and named Mississippi - home to powerful US lawmakers with sway over the agency - as a top location for a new $451 million, national laboratory to study some of the world's most virulent biological threats, according to internal documents obtained by the Associated Press.

Dr. Stuart Hauser, a scholar who led the Judge Baker Children's Center in Boston for more than a decade, died Tuesday of complications from treatment for cancer of the esophagus. He was 70 and had lived in Brookline.

"Last week's Globe report on the difficulty many of the state's newly insured residents are having getting dentist appointments underscores the need for pending legislation that would expand access to dental care," a Globe editorial says (third item). "Under the bill, dental hygienists -- in collaborative agreements with dentists -- could provide care in health centers, schools, nursing homes, and other settings."