Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by editors of HealthDay:

Tests Confirm Second Food and Mouth Outbreak in Britain

A second outbreak of foot and mouth disease has been confirmed on a British farm close to the farm where the first outbreak was detected, Britain's Environment Secretary Hilary Benn told BBC television Tuesday.

Agence France-Presse reported that the second farm is located within a two-mile protection zone established around the farm south of London where the first outbreak was confirmed Friday.

About 120 cattle were slaughtered at the first farm, near the village of Normandy in Surrey, and tests have confirmed foot and mouth disease in three of those animals. Officials have ordered the slaughter of 50 cattle at the second farm, AFP reported.

The outbreaks on the two farms have farmers and officials worried about a possible repeat of the 2001 foot and mouth epidemic that devastated Britain's farming industry, AFP reported.

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U.S. Panel Reviews Safety of Chemical Used in Plastics

An independent panel of scientists appointed by the U.S. National Institutes of Health has started a review of the controversial chemical bisphenol A, which is used to make a wide range of plastic products, including food and beverage containers.

Trace amounts of the synthetic estrogen leak from containers into food and drinks and are absorbed by the body, CBC News reported.

In rodents, bisphenol A has been linked to a number of health problems, including cancer, insulin resistance and obesity. There is growing concern that the chemical may harm human health.

The panel will review available scientific evidence and is expected to make a recommendation on whether bisphenol A poses a threat to human development or reproduction, CBC News reported.

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China Bans Crude Population Control Slogans

Crude and insensitive slogans used by rural Chinese officials to support the country's strict population control laws have been banned by China's top family planning bureau, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday.

Examples of outlawed slogans include: "One more baby means one more tomb," "Raise fewer babies and more piggies," and "Houses toppled, cows confiscated, if abortion demand rejected."

To replace these and other similar messages, Xinhua said the National Population and Family Planning Commission issued a list of 190 acceptable sayings, the Associated Press reported.

Among the kinder, gentler new slogans: "Mother earth is too tired to sustain more children" and "Both boys and girls are parents' hearts."

Under Chinese law, most urban couples are limited to one child, while some rural couples are allowed to have a second child if their firstborn is a girl, the AP reported.

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No Condom Talk Please, We're British

A new survey suggests that about a third of Britons are so embarrassed about discussing condoms with a new sex partner that they don't use a condom at all.

But the Family Planning Association (FPA) poll of 2,169 adults also found that about a third of respondents also said they regretted not using a condom with a new sex partner in the past, BBC News reported.

"We have to ask why in the 21st Century when sex is so widely portrayed in British culture, talking about condoms is still embarrassing," said FPA chief executive Anne Weyman.

She noted that adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s seem to have an especially difficult time talking about condoms and need special targeting with safe sex campaigns, BBC News reported.

"Thirty-somethings are a forgotten generation. They received little sex and relationships education at school but grew up in an increasingly sexualized society," Weyman said. "They've had to find the confidence themselves to talk about condoms and learn the hard way."

Sexually transmitted disease rates are on the rise in England. For example, in 2006, cases of genital herpes increased by 9 percent and chlamydia cases increased by 4 percent, BBC News reported.

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Pakistan Destroyed Expired Flu Vaccine Donated by Illinois

Pakistan destroyed $2.6 million worth of outdated flu vaccine donated to the country by the state of Illinois, according to a story published Sunday in the The Chicago Tribune.

"After all, human beings are equal. They are not guinea pigs. And vaccines, if they are not good in one country, they should not be used in another country," said retired Lt. Gen. Farooq Ahmad Khan of Pakistan.

The newspaper said that Illinois ordered the vaccine from European suppliers in 2004, the Associated Press reported. But federal officials said the vaccine was not approved and refused to allow it into the United States. The vaccine was then offered to Pakistan, which destroyed it in November 2006.

Pakistani officials said they didn't know the vaccine was past its expiry date when they accepted it.

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New Gene That Targeting Aggressive Lung Cancer Tumors Identified

There are relatively few genes in the body that can spot growths leading to cancer. Scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine and Harvard Medical School announced Sunday that they have discovered a powerful, tumor-suppressing gene, which they call LKB1.

The research, published Aug. 5 in the online edition of the journal Nature, found that LKB1 is a mutation in almost one quarter of all lung cancers. And experiments with laboratory mice indicate that this type of lung cancer causes tumors that are more aggressive and more likely to spread throughout the body.

"Defects in this gene appear to result in a much nastier form of lung cancer, a disease that is bad to begin with," said senior author Dr. Norman Sharpless, assistant professor of medicine and genetics at the UNC School of Medicine, in a university news release.

Identifying the gene can now give physicians a better chance of giving a better prognosis and targeting a more precise therapy for lung cancer patients.

"Based on this study and ones like it, we should be able to sort patients into groups based on exactly what genetic lesion is causing their cancer," said UNC assistant professor of medicine Dr. Neil Hayes, co-author of the study, in the news release. "Then we can make better treatment decisions depending on which therapy is most likely to target that defect."

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