given final clearance by the US government last week and should reach supermarkets in the fall of 1996.

Under rules governing pesticides, the US Environmental Protection Agency approved full commercial production of the Monsanto Co.'s NewLeaf potato, which has been genetically altered to produce a naturally occurring toxin.

The toxin, already in use by organic producers and home gardeners, has proven effective in killing the Colorado potato beetle.

The NewLeaf is the first pesticide-producing crop to win EPA approval.

Flour, according to the influential British Medical Journal, should by law be fortified with folic acid, a vitamin that prevents defects in the spinal cord.

For several years, doctors and government in Britain have told pregnant women and women expecting to become pregnant that they should take supplements of folic acid to prevent their babies from developing spina bifida and other neural tube defects.

But the BMJ, in a recent editorial, said that this advice wasn't enough.

"Sadly, most people are still not aware of the importance of folic acid in the prevention of neural tube defects,'' the journal told readers before recommending that flour manufacturers be required by law to fortify their product with folic acid in order that women may get the recommended dietary intake of 0.4 milligrams a day.

Currently, the average dietary intake of folic acid, which is found naturally in such foods as broccoli, is 0.2 milligrams a day.

In another triumph for preventationists, a US study released this week has found that children who are fed a low-fat diet will likely face a reduced risk of heart disease later in life without sacrificing growth rates or becoming depressed as previous research has warned.

During the study, which was conducted by University of Iowa researcher Ronald Lauer and reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, a group of 334 children who received nutrition advice and met with nutrition and behavioural experts for three years had slightly lower levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (or so-called bad cholesterol) in their blood while maintaining normal growth rates and vitamin levels.

Compared to 329 children in a "usual care group,'' the low-fat group was just as mature and actually scored better on tests designed to measure depression -- an unexpected finding that researchers attributed to the counselling sessions attended by children and their families.

Although Lauer admitted that "long-term follow-up studies will be necessary to determine whether the intervention had long-term effects on (bad cholesterol),'' he said that even small reductions in cholesterol levels at a young age could slow the progress of atherosclerosis, or blocking of the arteries, and lessen the risk of heart disease.

On Tuesday, Mercy Hospital of Pittsburgh announced that it has received a $600,000 grant from the US National Cancer Institute to study potential cancer-preventing properties in garlic, onion and some other vegetables.

Mercy Cancer Institute chief Dr. Shivendra Singh and her colleagues will attempt to identify the chemical processes by which naturally occurring organosulfur compounds, which are found in garlic and onion, inhibit cancer of the lungs and forestomach, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Recent Chinese studies have shown an inverse correlation between stomach cancer risk and dietary intake of genus allium vegetables.