Current Events

Two new studies have found that far more kids are using electronic cigarettes than previously reported, raising fears that the products could hook another generation on nicotine even as cigarette use is falling.

About 25% of high school students in Connecticut and 29% of teens in Hawaii have used e-cigarettes, according to separate studies. About 18% of the Hawaii teens and 12% of the Connecticut high school students had used e-cigarettes in the past month. Both studies were done in 2013.

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Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV (FCA) more than doubled its number of vehicles recalled to replace Takata Corp. (7312) air bags, a week after a U.S. regulator criticized the carmaker for failing to take more aggressive action.

Chrysler said it will replace front passenger-side Takata air-bag inflators in 357,933 vehicles, including some models of the Dodge Ram pickup truck and the Chrysler 300 sedan, in a Dec. 10 notice posted on the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s website. The company had said Dec. 3 it would add only 149,150 older model Dodge Ram pickups to its recalls.

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For nearly two decades, Takata has struggled to tame an inexpensive but unstable compound thought to play a central role in airbag ruptures that are linked to at least five deaths and dozens of injuries.

As far back as June 1995, a patent application filed by Takata expressed concern over using the compound, saying that it was so vulnerable to temperature changes that its casing, under excessive pressure, “might even blow up,” a review of patent documents by The New York Times found.

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Many of the physicians and other experts who sit on FDA advisory panels to review medical devices have financial ties to manufacturers, but the regulator has failed to disclose the relationships, according to an analysis of corporate, state and federal data by The Wall Street Journal.

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Despite large declines in smoking rates, cigarettes still cause about one-third of cancer deaths in the United States, according to a new study.

"Our results indicate that cigarette smoking causes about three in 10 cancer deaths in the contemporary United States. Reducing smoking prevalence as rapidly as possible should be a top priority for U.S. public health efforts to prevent future cancer deaths," researchers from the American Cancer Society wrote.

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Antipsychotic drugs have helped many people with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. But for older people with Alzheimer's or other forms of dementia, they can be deadly. The Food and Drug Administration has given these drugs a black box warning, saying they can increase the risk of heart failure, infections and death. Yet almost 300,000 nursing home residents still get them.

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Stryker Corp. (SYK)’s OtisMed unit pleaded guilty to selling devices used in knee-replacement surgeries in September 2009 without regulatory approval and will pay more than $80 million to resolve the case.

OtisMed will pay a fine of $34.4 million and forfeit $5.16 million in a criminal case, while paying a civil fine of $41.2 million. The company pleaded guilty today in federal court in Newark, New Jersey, where former Chief Executive Officer Charlie Chi also pleaded guilty. Stryker bought OtisMed Corp. in November 2009.

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Chrysler said Wednesday it is expanding a recall for air bags made by Takata from two states to seven but the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration quickly criticized the expansion, saying it falls short of the agency's request.

The Auburn Hills automaker is offering to replace passenger-side air bag inflators in an estimated 149,150 older model pickup trucks in seven U.S. states and five territories to address concerns about improper air bag deployment.

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WASHINGTON - Honda told a House subcommittee Wednesday it will expand its regional recall of possibly faulty Takata driver-side airbags to a nationwide recall.

Yet Takata told the same House panel it won't comply with a direct demand to initiate such a recall, issued by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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Infections and other medical errors that harm patients in hospitals have declined significantly, the Obama administration said Tuesday, hailing the progress as a sign that new efforts to improve patients' safety are bearing fruit.

From 2010 to 2013, so-called hospital-acquired conditions declined 17%, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services.

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