Today's Globe: SCHIP, used syringes, Army suicides, food safety tests, octuplets

The Obama administration yesterday lifted a Bush-era directive to states that restricted some middle-class families from getting government health insurance through the State Children's Health Insurance Program.

Patients who got hepatitis from contaminated syringes and medicine vials are joining infection control advocates to warn Americans about a problem they say is more common than people think. Many exposures involved reuse of syringes: Health workers likely thought they were being safe by discarding the syringes' used needles and snapping on sterile ones.

The Army is investigating a stunning number of suicides in January - a count that could surpass all combat deaths on America's two warfronts last month.

Lawmakers reacted angrily yesterday when told that food makers and state safety inspectors are allowed to keep test results secret. That keeps federal health officials in the dark even when products have been contaminated by salmonella or other dangerous bacteria.

"If a fertility doctor approved the implantation of eight embryos, he or she did not follow guidelines of the American Society of Reproductive Medicine. [It] it is investigating the case. As well it should," a Globe editorial says.

"We are far more rigorous about accepting people for adoption or foster care than for fertility treatments," columnist Ellen Goodman writes. "But shouldn't there be limits?"