Current Events

Altria Group Inc. (MO), Reynolds American Inc. (RAI) and other tobacco companies agreed with the U.S. on how they will publicize admissions that they deceived the American public on the dangers of smoking.

The companies and the Justice Department resolved that “corrective statements” will appear in the print and online editions of newspapers and on television as well as on the companies’ websites. Expanded information on the adverse health effects of smoking will appear on cigarette packages, according to the agreement filed yesterday in federal court in Washington.

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Lawsuits filed by victims of a 2011 Listeria outbreak that killed four New Mexicans and severely sickened a fifth raise questions about the effectiveness of food safety inspections required by many retailers.

The New Mexico victims were among 33 people killed nationally by bacterial infections linked to cantaloupes grown at a farm in Colorado, making it one of the deadliest outbreaks of food-borne illness in U.S. history.

A focus of the five New Mexico lawsuits, and dozens of others in the U.S., is a California food safety auditing firm, PrimusLabs, that gave the Colorado cantaloupe packing operation a score of 96 percent and a “superior” rating just weeks before the outbreak, the lawsuits contend.

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(CNN) -- For the makers of electronic cigarettes, today we are living in the Wild West -- a lawless frontier where they can say or do whatever they want, no matter what the consequences. They are free to make unsubstantiated therapeutic claims and include myriad chemicals and additives in e-cigarettes.

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Her first two laser hair-removal sessions went smoothly, but the third ended with burning pain that persisted for weeks, a 26-year-old Brooklyn woman recalled. Then the marks appeared: long red stripes along the backs of her legs. Over the next few months, the stripes turned dark brown.

“It was horrifying,” said the woman, who asked not to be identified in order to preserve her privacy. “It wasn’t something you would see on a normal person.”

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Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) lashed out against Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) for his opposition to the National Security Agency's controversial surveillance programs in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

King ripped into Paul for threatening to sue the Obama administration over the NSA's surveillance policies, saying the agency is "doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing."

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About 33,000 child safety seats are being recalled by Combi USA because the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says the restraining straps could break during a crash. The recall comes after the safety agency rejected Combi’s request that it be excused from a recall because the failure to meet the federal safety standard was “inconsequential to motor vehicle safety.”

Covered by the recall are Model 8220 Coccoro seats manufactured from January 2009 to December 2012; Model 8815 Zeus Turn seats built from July 2007 to March 2009 and Model 8336 Zeus 360 seats built from February 2009 to May 2012, according to a report posted on the agency’s website.

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People standing near someone using an e-cigarette will be exposed to nicotine, but not to other chemicals found in tobacco cigarette smoke, according to a new study.

E-cigarettes, or electronic cigarettes, create a nicotine-rich vapor that can be inhaled, or 'vaped.'

Researchers and regulators have questioned whether e-cigarettes are a smoking cessation aid or may lure more young people toward smoking, as well as what effects they have on health.

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Volvo is recalling 30,929 Volvo S60 vehicles in the U.S. because drivers may not be warned of low oil pressure, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall, which affects vehicles released for the 2011-2012 model years, won't begin until December 31.

Affected vehicles were produced from June 22, 2010 through May 14, 2012, according to the NHTSA.

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When Sheena Wilson, 45, underwent robotic surgery for a hysterectomy in May, she didn’t know the Intuitive Surgical Inc. (ISRG) system used by her doctor was previously tied to a variety of injuries for the same procedure.

Her rectum was badly burned in the operation, said Wilson, a mother of two from Parlin, New Jersey. Now she is on long-term disability, fearful of losing her job and facing a third corrective surgery, she said in a telephone interview.

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Genzyme Corp. has agreed to pay a $22.3 million settlement in a lawsuit in which two former sales representatives alleged that the company said a product called Seprafilm could be used in a type of surgery for which it was not approved.

The whistle-blower lawsuit was filed in Florida under the federal False Claims Act, which allows private citizens to file suit on behalf of the government and then share in any financial settlement, according to an article earlier this week in the Tampa Bay Times. Court documents allege that salesman encouraged doctors to use the product in a type of surgery for which it was not approved. Those doctors would then seek improper reimbursement claims.

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Sanofi (SAN) failed to win U.S. regulatory approval for its multiple sclerosis drug Lemtrada, denting the company’s ambitions of capturing a larger share of the $20 billion market for the disease.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said Sanofi’s Genzyme unit didn’t submit evidence from “adequate and well-controlled studies” showing that the benefits of Lemtrada outweigh its side effects, the Paris-based company said in a statement today. Sanofi disagrees with the conclusion and plans to appeal, the drugmaker said.

“We are extremely disappointed with the outcome of the review and the implications for patients in the U.S. suffering with multiple sclerosis who remain in need of alternative therapies,” Genzyme President David Meeker said in the statement.

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