Current Events

Auto safety regulators are investigating a recall last year of some 895,000 Jeep and Dodge S.U.V.s with sun visors that can short-circuit and ignite after some of them apparently caught fire even after being repaired.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it had received eight reports of fires in vehicles whose electrical wiring had been repaired in a recall started by Fiat Chrysler in July, according to a statement on its website announcing a “recall query.” There were no reports of injuries.

Read More.

Aetna Inc. will stop covering routine use of the laparoscopic power morcellator this month, marking the most direct blow from a major health insurer to a surgical tool that regulators determined can spread hidden cancer in women.

Read More.

Under government pressure, Ford Motor Co. said Friday it will expand a recall by another 156,000 vehicles for faulty door latches linked to two minor injuries and one accident — the latest in a series of call backs for door latch issues.

Since 2014, Ford has now issued five recalls covering more than 1.55 million vehicles for door latch issues in the last year. The new recall covers the 2011 Fiesta vehicles and Ford said it was at the request of government regulators.

Read more.

When a new contraceptive implant came on the market over a decade ago, it was considered a breakthrough for women who did not want to have more children, a sterilization procedure that could be done in a doctor’s office in just 10 minutes.

Now, 13 years later, thousands of women who claim they were seriously injured by the implant are urging the Food and Drug Administration to take the device off the market and to warn the public about its complications.

Read more.

Trinity Industries has received a Justice Department subpoena seeking more than a decade’s worth of records on its guardrail products, the company disclosed late Wednesday.

The Justice Department is pursuing a criminal investigation into Trinity and its dealings with the Federal Highway Administration over the the company’s ET-Plus guardrail system, according to people familiar with the matter.

Read more

Black & Decker agreed to pay a $1.58 million penalty to settle allegations the company purposely didn't report safety issues with its cordless electric lawnmowers, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and U.S. Department of Justice said on Wednesday.

The settlement, in which the company admits no wrongdoing, prompted an almost-unheard-of rebuke from the head of the CPSC, calling into question Black & Decker's safety record and willingness to look out for its customers. This is the fifth time in the past 19 years that the company has been penalized for failure to report product defects and safety problems as required under federal law, the CPSC said.

Read more

Ford issued four new recalls today, involving almost 600,000 vehicles in North America, in a week where safety officials are highlighting the need to ensure recalls are issued and vehicles fixed in a timely manner.

Ford's latest recalls include about 520,000 vehicles to fix steering gear bolts as well as smaller actions to address parking lights, fuel pumps and heat shields. One accident and no injuries are attributed to the problems cited in the recalls.

Read more

As early as the 1920s highway agencies across the country started developing guidelines for uniform traffic signs. During that time—and pretty much ever since—the conventional thinking concerning nighttime visibility has been brighter is better.

That is because nighttime sign visibility has been lacking that of daytime sign visibility.

Read More.

WASHINGTON — General Motors is recalling 1,207 2004 Buick Regal, Chevrolet Impala and Chevrolet Monte Carlo sedans due to a fire risk, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The valve cover gasket may leak," said NHTSA in its recall summary. "The leaking engine oil can drip onto the hot surface of the exhaust manifold, increasing the risk of a fire."

Read More.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning companies to stop selling dietary supplements that include a stimulant known as DMBA, the latest in a series of moves to clamp down on potentially dangerous weight-loss and body-building products.

In an April 24 letter to one manufacturer, 1ViZN LLC, the agency noted that its product Velocity listed AMP as a dietary ingredient. AMP is also known as 1,3-Dimethylbutylamine, DMBA, 2-amino-4-methylpentane and methyl-2-pentanamine.

The FDA said it considered Velocity adulterated because there is not enough information to provide reasonable assurance that DMBA is safe.

Read More.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. said it will pay $2.37 billion to resolve U.S. lawsuits accusing the company of hiding its Actos diabetes medicine’s cancer risks.

Takeda will put the money into a settlement fund if 95 percent of those with claims against Asia’s largest drugmaker agree to join the accord, Takeda officials said in a statement.

Read More.