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Today's Globe: St. E's union vote, inhalable chocolate, suicides, food-borne illness, Shriners trouble

E-mail | Print | Comments () Posted by Elizabeth Cooney April 10, 2009 06:42 AM

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More than 800 employees at St. Elizabeth's Medical Center in Brighton will join the Service Employees International Union, the largest union victory at a Boston area hospital in about two decades.

Chocoholics rejoice: A Harvard professor has invented a calorie-free way of experiencing the sweet obsession - by inhaling it.

The Massachusetts suicide rate among young adult males has jumped 28 percent.

The number of food-borne illnesses in the United States has remained stagnant over the last three years, and, in some cases, has been on the upswing, giving new urgency to efforts to reform the nation's food safety system, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported in a study released yesterday.

Shriners Hospitals for Children, which has provided free care since before the Great Depression, is considering closing one-quarter of its facilities as donations stagnate, costs increase, and the charity's endowment shrivels.

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About white coat notes

White Coat Notes covers the latest from the health care industry, hospitals, doctors offices, labs, insurers, and the corridors of government. Chelsea Conaboy previously covered health care for The Philadelphia Inquirer. Write her at cconaboy@boston.com. Follow her on Twitter: @cconaboy.

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