Health Highlights: June 7, 2013

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

Judge Suspends Age Rule for Another Child Needing Lung Transplant

The judge who ordered that a dying 10-year-old girl be placed on the adult waiting list for a lung transplant has made a similar ruling for an 11-year-old boy.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Baylson ordered that a 12-and-over age requirement be suspended for Sarah Murnaghan, who has end-stage cystic fibrosis. He then made a similar ruling Thursday for Javier Acosta, who also has cystic fibrosis, the Associated Press reported.

Acosta's mother filed a lawsuit Thursday after Baylson made his ruling in Murnaghan's case. An expert questioned the court rulings, which apply only to these two children, on medical and ethical grounds.

"When a judge steps in and says, 'I don't like these rules, I think they're arbitrary,' they better be very arbitrary or he's undermining the authority of the whole system," Dr. Arthur Caplan, a bioethicist at New York University Langone Medical Center, told the AP.

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New Rules Would Require Labeling of Mechanically Tenderized Beef

Labels on beef would have to disclose whether the meat was mechanically tenderized, under proposed new rules announced Thursday by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

About a quarter of the beef sold in the U.S. is mechanically tenderized, an unlabelled process which uses needles or blades and regulators say contributes to contamination with E. coli and other pathogens, Bloomberg News reported.

Consumer groups have campaigned for labeling of mechanically tenderized meat, pointing to studies that show the needles can push E. coli from the surface deep inside the meat where it is harder to kill through cooking. Mechanically tenderized beef looks no different than non-tenderized beef.

The labels disclosing the use of mechanical tenderizing will also have to include cooking instructions to help protect consumers. The new rules could take effect as soon as next year, Bloomberg reported.