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

Radioactive Thyroid Cancer Patients a Threat: Report

Allowing U.S. hospitals to discharge radioactive thyroid cancer patients to their homes and hotels poses a public health threat, according to a Congressional report released Thursday.

The document also said that insurers routinely use the Nuclear Regulatory Commission policy to deny hospital care to thyroid cancer patients treated with radioactive iodine, even when doctors warn those patients may pose a radiation risk to others, said USA Today.

The NRC patient release regulations are less stringent than the global standard, and the agency has repeatedly rejected efforts to get it to adopt stricter rules, said the report released by Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., chairman of the House Subcommittee on Energy and the Environment.

"The United States simply cannot play radioactive roulette and gamble with public health and safety," said Markey, USA Today reported.

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Arizona Drops Children's Health Insurance Program

Nearly 47,000 low-income children in Arizona will no longer have health coverage after the state became the first in the country to eliminate its Children's Health Insurance Program.

The budget signed Thursday by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer also rolls back Medicaid coverage for childless adults, a policy change expected to eventually remove more than 310,000 people from the rolls, The New York Times reported.

State leaders said they had to make the cuts to deal with a $2.6 billion projected shortfall next year.

However, critics say children could suffer long-term developmental problems because of inadequate medical care, and hospital emergency rooms may be deluged by patients with few other options for health care, The Times reported.

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Loneliness Boosts Blood Pressure

Loneliness and lack of connection with others can increase the risk of high blood pressure in people age 50 and older, says a new study.

It included 229 people, ages 50-68, who answered questions about loneliness and their connections to others. Over four years, the loneliest participants' blood pressure increased 14.4 millimeters of mercury more than those who were most socially satisfied, United Press International reported.

The researchers also looked at the effects of depression and stress, but found they didn't fully explain the increase in blood pressure among the lonely people.

"Loneliness behaved as though it is a unique health-risk factor in its own right," study author Louise Hawkley, of the University of Chicago, and colleagues wrote in the study, published in the journal Psychology and Aging.