Two out of every five people residing in the top six metro cities of the country suffer from tooth sensitivity, a survey has revealed.

The survey, conducted by research firm Nielsen for a leading oral care company and covering 1,800 respondents, was commissioned to gauge the existing condition of tooth sensitivity in Indian metro cities -- Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad.

The findings reveal that although tooth sensitivity is increasingly becoming a common oral health problem, awareness about this condition is fairly low.

Tooth sensitivity is the condition of a short, sharp pain experienced on consumption of hot or cold food and liquids.

Of the six cities surveyed, the incidence of sensitivity was recorded highest in Hyderabad with 55 percent of the population claiming to suffer from the problem. This was followed by Chennai, where 53 percent respondents had the problem.

46 percent respondents from New Delhi, 42 percent from Mumbai and 36 percent from Kolkata claimed to suffer from sensitivity. The incidence of sensitivity is lowest in Bangalore with only 18 percent of the respondents claiming to suffer from the problem.

"Most Indians tend to follow a remedial path where they seek professional dental care only at the time of severe toothaches as a result of which such problems go ignored," said Indian Dental Association (IDA) secretary Dr Ashok Dhoble.

"Some common causes of tooth sensitivity include receding gums or loss of enamel, incorrect brushing technique, tooth decay, fracture of teeth, teeth grinding and improper oral hygiene," he said.

Overall, over 40 percent of the respondents claimed to suffer from tooth sensitivity but only 21 percent of the respondents knew that they could get instant and lasting sensitivity relief, the survey said.

31 percent of the respondents suffering from tooth sensitivity think it is just toothache, said the survey.

Also, the incidence of sensitivity increases from 33 percent at the age group of 18-25 years to 54 percent for the age group of 51-55 years, it added.

A new study shows that being married boosts survival odds for both men and women with colon cancer at every stage of the disease.

Married patients had a 14 percent lower risk of death according to researchers at Penn State's College of Medicine and Brigham Young University. That estimate is based on analysis of 127,753 patient records.

Similar to studies of other types of cancers, the researchers did find that married people were diagnosed at earlier stages of colon cancer and sought more aggressive treatment. The researchers took those and other factors into account before calculating the benefit of marriage on survival odds.

"Controlling for the stage that the cancer was detected is key," said Sven Wilson, a study coauthor and professor at Brigham Young University. "Without that, it's hard to know whether the analysis is just picking up a diagnosis effect."

Colon cancer is the fourth most common type of cancer in the United States for both men and women. Curiously, the marriage benefit seen in the new study was nearly identical for both men and women.

So what's driving the different survival rates? Marriage is a self-selected group, and Wilson is careful to note that the selection process makes it difficult to sort out the root cause. One intuitive idea is that spouses serve as an important informal caregiver during a critical time, and that extra support may translate into better disease management and, hence, better outcomes.

The Delhi government has banned the use of calcium carbide for artificial ripening of fruits, recognising its harmful effects of health, and suggested ethylene gas as an alternate technique.

"Use of calcium carbide for artificially ripening the fruits is banned in Delhi under the PFA (Prevention of food adulteration) Act," Delhi Health Minister A K Walia has said.

Walia had chaired a meeting of state officials, scientists from ICAR and mango traders here yesterday to discuss the alternate techniques for maturing of fruits.

Officials from department of prevention of food adulteration, scientists from Shri Ram Institute of Industrial research and representatives of Mother Dairy were also present.

Based on inputs provided by the experts, the minister said ethylene gas can be used as alternate technique for ripening of fruits, which is not harmful.

"The fruits ripened with Ethylene have more acceptable colour than naturally ripened fruits and have more shelf-life than fruits ripened with calcium carbide," Walia had said.

Horticulture experts say that calcium carbide used for ripening of the king of fruits is carcinogenic and thus the final product is cancerous.

The minister said the government is soon going to organise special awareness campaign to spread awareness among the fruit traders and merchants for the adoption of ethylene as an alternative medium for ripening of fruits.

"The technique is also said to be very cost effective, so it won't affect the customer," Walia said, adding, similar technique is already being used by Mother Dairy and a few states.

Sudesh J Schdeva, President of Mango Merchant Association at Azadpur (Asia's biggest fruit and vegetable wholesale market) said a group of ICAR scientists are expected to visit the market tomorrow to educate mango merchants about advantages of ethylene gas for artificial ripening of the fruit.

The national capital receives over 200 trucks of mangoes containing about 10 tonnes of the fruit daily from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and South India, Sachdeva added.

About 61 percent of non-elderly Americans got their healthcare coverage through employers in 2009, down from 69 percent in 2000, according to a study sponsored by the non-partisan Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Low and moderate-income families employed by small firms were the most likely to be affected by a loss of employer-sponsored coverage.

Julie Sonier, a senior researcher at the University of Minnesota who helped write the report, said the erosion in employer-sponsored insurance in the decade before the healthcare law was enacted underscored the need for action.

"When people don't have access to employer coverage, they might get public coverage, they might be uninsured, there might be a higher uncompensated care burden at their local hospital. The costs are in the system somewhere," she said in a telephone interview.

A second study by the centrist Urban Institute said it expects the healthcare overhaul signed into law last year by President Barack Obama to help small businesses provide medical coverage to employees.

"Our results show significant health care cost savings (under the law) to firms with fewer than 50 workers, as well as a small increase in the number of people covered by their employer-sponsored plans," the Urban Institute study said.

The law includes some tax incentives for small employers to provide coverage and penalties for large employers with employees who receive subsidized medical coverage on state-based exchanges that will go into operation in 2014.

"The evidence suggests the Affordable Care Act may have a stabilizing influence on small firm coverage," the study said.

The studies counter a recent report by Chicago consulting firm McKinsey that said about 30 percent of employers will "definitely" or "probably" stop offering health coverage once the state insurance exchanges begin operation, which are to provide a place for small businesses and individuals to shop for health insurance coverage.

That report sparked a fresh round of criticism of Obama's healthcare law by Republicans who are pushing to repeal it. Democrats demanded an explanation of the methodology, since other reports, including the Congressional Budget Office, said the law would have a small impact on employer coverage.

On Monday, McKinsey clarified that its report was a survey of employer attitudes and "was not intended to be a predictive economic analysis" of the impact of the new healthcare law.

The two studies sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that were released on Tuesday said most of the erosion in employer sponsored healthcare since 2000 was by small businesses.

Four states, Mississippi, Indiana, Michigan and Minnesota saw a loss in employer-sponsored coverage that was twice as large a the national average, according to the studies.

(Reporting by Donna Smith; Editing By Cynthia Osterman)

Cancer death rates are continuing to fall, but not all segments of the population are benefiting, the American Cancer Society said on Friday.

Overall, the group predicts 1,596,670 new cancer cases in the United States and 571,950 deaths in 2011.

Death rates for all cancer types fell by 1.9 percent a year from 2001 to 2007 in men and by 1.5 percent a year in women from 2002 through 2007.

Steady overall declines in cancer death rates have meant about 898,000 who would have died prematurely from cancer in the past 17 years did not, the organization said.

Americans with the least education are more than twice as likely to die from cancer as those with the most education, according to the group's annual cancer report.

Death rates for all cancer types have fallen in all racial and ethnic groups among both men and women since 1998 with the exception of American Indian/Alaska Native women, among whom rates were stable.

Black and Hispanic men have had the largest annual decreases in cancer death rates since 1998, falling by 2.6 percent among blacks and 2.5 percent among Hispanics.

New cases of lung cancer among women fell after rising steadily since the 1930s. The decline comes more than a decade after lung cancer rates in men started dropping and reflects differences in smoking trends among U.S. men and women, who took up smoking later in the last century than men.

Lung cancer is expected to account for 26 percent of all cancer deaths among women in 2011 and remains the No. 1 cancer killer of both men and women in the United States.

Breast cancer comes in No. 2 for women. Prostate cancer is the second most common killer of men, and colon cancer is the third-leading cause of cancer deaths for both sexes.

These four cancers account for almost half the total cancer deaths among men and women.

Cancer rates vary considerably among racial and ethnic groups. For all cancer types, black men have a 14 percent higher rate of new cases and a 33 percent higher death rate than white men, while black women have a 6 percent lower rate of new cancer cases and a 17 percent higher death rate than white women.

The report found cancer rates in the least educated were 2.6 times higher than in the most educated. This was most pronounced in lung cancer, reflecting higher smoking rates among those with less education.

Thirty-one percent of men with 12 or fewer years of education are smokers, compared with 12 percent of college graduates and 5 percent of men with advanced degrees.

(Editing by Todd Eastham)