Current Events

The ink was barely dry on the government’s $25 billion mortgage settlement with the nation’s biggest banks earlier this year when scam artists seized on the opportunity.

In Alabama, struggling homeowners received calls promising them cash payments from the settlement, if only they would provide the routing number to their bank accounts. In Illinois, they were told they qualified under the settlement for a loan refinancing, but only after they paid a hefty upfront fee. In California, the attorney general herself received a call claiming that she was eligible for aid from the settlement.

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The peanut butter recall that started this past weekend with a salmonella-linked product sold at Trader Joe’s has now been expanded to dozens of peanut, cashew and almond butters, according to producer Sunland Inc.

The New Mexico-based company manufactured and packaged the Trader Joe’s Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter that regulators have since connected to 29 salmonella illnesses in 18 states, including California.

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Stryker Corp. (SYK) stopped selling three versions of its Neptune Waste Management System after two people were harmed, one fatally, using the devices that were sold without formal clearance by U.S. regulators.

Stryker initiated a Class 1 recall, the most serious device withdrawal, on June 5 after two reports of serious injury from the products used to collect fluid waste during surgery, the Kalamazoo, Michigan-based company said today in a statement. In one instance, a patient’s passive chest drainage tube was hooked to the Neptune 2 System, a high-vacuum, high-flow device. The patient died, Stryker said.

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The Trader Joe’s grocery chain has voluntarily ordered the recall of its Creamy Salted Valencia Peanut Butter at its stores nationwide because of potential salmonella contamination.

“If you purchased this product, please do not eat it,” the Monrovia-based company said in a prepared statement. “We encourage you to return the product to any Trader Joe's for a full refund or dispose of it.”

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The Obama administration wants consumers to report medical mistakes and unsafe practices by doctors, hospitals, pharmacists and others who provide treatment.

Hospitals say they are receptive to the idea, despite concerns about malpractice liability and possible financial penalties for poor performance.

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The Food and Drug Administration plans to announce Wednesday that it is working toward a proposal that would limit the amount of arsenic in rice, a staple of the American diet that has long been identified as a leading dietary source of the toxin.

The announcement is set to coincide with the release of a Consumer Reports study that analyzed more than 200 samples of roughly 60 rice products — from bulk rice to baby foods to instant cereals — and found that nearly all of them contained the “in­organic” form of arsenic that’s known to cause bladder, lung and skin cancers.

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The FDA is investigating a possible risk of heart failure linked to Mirapex, a drug used to treat Parkinson's disease and restless legs syndrome.

Officials say recent studies suggest a potential raised risk of heart failure with the use of Mirapex, but further review of research is needed.

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More than 150 scientists and 50 farmers came out this week in support of stricter limits on antibiotics used in animal agriculture as part of a broader effort to tackle the "health crisis" caused by growing antibiotic resistance. 

Earlier this year, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration finalized a voluntary guidance for farmers on the "judicious" uses of antibiotics in agriculture and asked veterinary drug makers to voluntarily phase out medically important drugs from being available over the counter -- but public health advocates have not relented in their calls for stronger action on the issue. According to the most recent estimates, 80 percent of all antibiotics sold in the United States are used to raise food animals and many of these drugs are the same ones used in human medicine. 

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H&M is recalling 2,900 children's water bottles due to a possible risk of choking.

The water bottle's spout can break off, posing a choking hazard to children.

H&M said Tuesday that it has received one report of the spout breaking off in a child's mouth. No injuries have been reported.
 

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Seven babies died after being fed an additive used to help thicken infant formula or breast milk, U.S. regulators said.

The deaths were among 21 premature infants and one born full-term that developed inflamed intestines after they were given SimplyThick, the Food and Drug Administration said in a consumer update today. The product is a thickening gel designed to help premature babies swallow food and keep it down, said Benson Silverman, director of FDA’s Infant Formula and Medical Foods Staff.

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They are known as Water Balz, and at first glance they look like marbles: small and spherical, brightly colored. But these balls are made of superabsorbent polymer, and they are capable of rapidly expanding to the size of a racquetball when doused in water.

This unusual feature has made Water Balz a popular toy. But it is also the very feature that has prompted some pediatricians to warn parents that the toys can pose a unique hazard to small children.  

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