Newer anti-psychotic drugs are no safer than older ones for the risk of suddenly dying from a heart problem, says a study that finds they roughly double that hazard.

The older drugs had already been linked to an increased chance of sudden cardiac death, in which the heart loses its normal rhythm and can’t pump blood normally.

The older and newer anti-psychotics had also been shown to boost the risk of death when used to treat agitation, aggression and delusions in elderly dementia patients. The new study was conducted among a much broader group of adults, with an average age of 46 and various psychiatric problems.

Anti-psychotic drugs are approved for treating schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, which is also called manic-depression, but doctors can legally prescribe them for any other use.

The new, federally funded study appears in Thursday’s issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers examined Tennessee Medicaid records covering the 15 years ending in 2005. They focused on about 44,000 users of older anti-psychotic drugs like haloperidol and about 46,000 users of newer drugs like Zyprexa, made by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly & Co., and Risperdal, made by New Brunswick, N.J.-based Johnson & Johnson Inc.

The newer drugs have largely replaced the older medications in patient care.

A 27-year-old woman in northern China has died from bird flu in the country’s second death from the disease this year, the Health Ministry said.

The woman, surnamed Zhang, lived in Jinan city of Shandong province and died Saturday after falling sick on Jan. 5, the ministry said on its Web site late Sunday. The notice did not say how Zhang contracted the virus.

Earlier this month, a 19-year-old woman died from the bird flu virus in a Beijing hospital after contact with ducks in a market in a neighboring province. That was the first death from bird flu since February last year.

Health officials worry that the H5N1 bird flu virus could mutate into a form that could spread easily among people. China, which raises more poultry than any other country, has vowed to aggressively fight the virus.

The case comes at a worrisome time for authorities as tens of millions of people are on the move between cities and rural hometowns for Chinese New Year, which begins on Jan. 26. The Agricultural Ministry has said it will step up checks before the holiday.

A 2-year-old girl in northern China is currently in critical condition after testing positive for bird flu. She fell ill on Jan. 7 in central Hunan province and was taken to a hospital by her grandparents four days later after she returned home to Shanxi province, the Health Ministry said.

All the people who had close contact with the girl were under medical observation, the ministry said, and no one else has been found ill.

According to the latest World Health Organization figures, bird flu has killed 248 people worldwide since 2003, including 21 in China. The two deaths in China so far this year did not appear to be reflected in the tally.

A collaborative study has lent more force to the suggestion that water pollution is triggering male fertility problems.

The study involving researchers from Brunel University, the Universities of Exeter and Reading and the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology has revealed that a group of testosterone-blocking chemicals is finding its way into UK rivers, affecting wildlife and potentially humans.

Supported by the Natural Environment Research Council, the study has led to the identification of a new group of chemicals that act as ‘anti-androgens’, which means that they inhibit the function of the male hormone, testosterone, reducing male fertility.

The researchers think that when these chemicals get into the water system, they may play a pivotal role in causing feminising effects in male fish.

Previous studies conducted by Brunel University and the University of Exeter scientists have already confirmed that female sex hormones (estrogens), and chemicals that mimic estrogens, are leading to ‘feminisation’ of male fish.

These chemicals are found in some industrial chemicals and the contraceptive pill, and enter rivers via sewage treatment works.

The researchers say that this causes reproductive problems by reducing fish breeding capability, and, in some cases, can lead to male fish changing sex.

A link between this phenomenon and the increase in human male fertility problems caused by testicular dysgenesis syndrome has also been suggested by several other studies.

However, scientists could not fully believe in the existence of any such link because the list of suspects causing effects in fish was limited to estrogenic chemicals, whilst testicular dysgenesis is known to be caused by exposure to a range of anti-androgens.

The new research findings illustrate the complexities in unravelling chemical causation of adverse health effects in wildlife populations and re-open the possibility of a human – wildlife connection in which effects seen in wild fish and in humans are caused by similar combinations of chemicals.

We have identified a new group of chemicals in our study on fish, but do not know where they are coming from. A principal aim of our work is now to identify the source of these pollutants and work with regulators and relevant industry to test the effects of a mixture of these chemicals and the already known environmental estrogens and help protect environmental health.”

Senior author Professor Charles Tyler of the University of Exeter said: “Our research shows that a much wider range of chemicals than we previously thought is leading to hormone disruption in fish. This means that the pollutants causing these problems are likely to be coming from a wide variety of sources.

Our findings also strengthen the argument for the cocktail of chemicals in our water leading to hormone disruption in fish, and contributing to the rise in male reproductive problems. There are likely to be many reasons behind the rise in male fertility problems in humans, but these findings could reveal one, previously unknown, factor.”