This is an item I've been aware of for quite a long time.   It's been puzzling me why it was  so long in coming. I'm not surprised that people are icky about mouth to mouth but it doesn't bode well for humanity if saving one of your fellow beings has to be neat and tidy. 

I'm amazed that the US culture appears to value non offense over saving life.  E.g  how many  people have been through  tolerance in the workplace versus  basic first aid?  How many schools  teach anything practical in this area?  

If you want to teach tolerance , respect and all your favourite PC buzzwords maybe we should consider this . When it comes to hardware we mostly  do bleed, choke and go into shock the same way.  Maybe with a little more understanding of our fragility on this game show of a planet  it would be easier to get along. 

In a major change, the American Heart Association said Monday that hands-only CPR -- rapid, deep presses on the victim's chest until help arrives -- works just as well as standard CPR for sudden cardiac arrest in adults.

Heart Association: Hands-only CPR works - CNN.com