Current Events

In April this year, Katie Herzog checked into a Boston teaching hospital for what turned out to be a nine-hour-long back surgery.

The 68-year-old consulting firm president left the hospital with a prescription for Dilaudid, an opioid used to treat severe pain, and instructions to take two pills every four hours as needed. Herzog took close to the full dose for about two weeks.

Then, worried about addiction, she began asking questions. "I said, 'How do I taper off this? I don't want to stay on this drug forever, you know? What do I do?' " Herzog says, recalling conversations with her various providers.
Read more . . .

DETROIT — A new report on recalls of potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators shows that automakers have replaced only 43 percent of the faulty parts even though recalls have been under way for more than 15 years.

The report, issued Friday by an independent monitor who is keeping tabs on the recalls, also shows that auto companies are only about halfway toward a Dec. 31 goal of 100 percent replacement of older and more dangerous inflators.

Read more . . .

Want a Nicki Minaj-sized butt?  Steer clear of silicone.

The FDA just released a warning against using injectable silicone for contouring, enhancement and plumping, cautioning that the polymer can cause serious damage.

“Silicone spreads and migrates easily inside the body, which may worsen adverse events and make surgical attempts to remove the silicone oil more difficult or impossible,” the FDA said in a statement.

Read More

NTSB POUNDS AMTRAK SAFETY CULTURE: Amtrak had a “deficient” safety culture marked by a hyper-focus on following rules and marred by a silent acceptance of workarounds that enabled one of its trains to crash into an active work zone last year near Philadelphia, killing two track workers and injuring dozens, NTSB determined Tuesday. It was altogether a jarring assessment of the company’s safety posture at the time of the collision, with investigators discovering more than two dozen unsafe conditions revealing an inconsistent safety vision across layers of Amtrak’s corporate structure.

Read More

An autopsy confirmed a 12-year NFL veteran had chronic traumatic encephalopathy, just as a brain scan four years before his death had indicated, a breakthrough researchers hope will help in their quest to diagnose the disease in the living.

“Our impression has been (CTE) is a very unique pattern” in the scans, said Julian Bailes, co-director of NorthShore University HealthSystem in Evanston, Ill., which has been working with scientists at UCLA to do PET scans of the brains of hundreds of former football players and military members. “This is the first to have that brain specimen correlation.

Read more . . .

The Food and Drug Administration issued a strong warning Tuesday to consumers to stay away from the herbal supplement kratom, saying regulators are aware of 36 deaths linked to products containing the substance.

Consumers are increasingly using the supplement, which comes from a plant in Southeast Asia, for pain, anxiety and depression, as well as symptoms of opioid withdrawal. The herb also is used recreationally because it produces symptoms such as euphoria.  Proponents say it is a safe way to deal with chronic pain and other ailments, and some researchers are exploring its therapeutic potential, including helping people overcome addictions.

Read more . . .

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Volkswagen AG (VOWG_p.DE) confirmed on Tuesday it has agreed to pay $69 million to settle New Jersey state diesel emissions claims, one of the last major outstanding diesel legal issues the German automaker faced in the United States.

Read More

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The head of the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board criticized Amtrak’s safety record at a hearing on Tuesday on a fatal 2016 crash and said the railroad failed to use critical safety equipment that could have prevented the incident.

Read more . . .

Desiree Ford rubbed the pain cream on her skin and immediately wanted to wash it off.
“Whoa ... time for a shower, this lotion is making me feel weird,” she texted a friend.
Read more . . .

It was just before 10 one August morning in 2016 when Keller resident Brian Steinborn discovered his 4-year-old daughter Olivia in bed, her body cold, skin blue and vomit on her face.
He and his wife, Juli Treadwell, had managed only a few hours of sleep the night before.

Read More

Colgate-Palmolive Co. agreed to settle a lawsuit claiming its talcum-powder products caused a Pennsylvania woman to develop mesothelioma, a fatal lung disease tied to asbestos exposure.

New York-based Colgate-Palmolive moved to resolve Carol Schoeniger’s lawsuit to avoid a trial in a New Jersey state court, according to court filings. Financial terms of the deal weren’t made public.

Read more . . .