Current Events

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives transportation committee and another key Democrat asked the Transportation Department’s inspector general on Tuesday to examine key decisions made by the Federal Aviation Administration in certifying Boeing’s 737 MAX jet for use.

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The Food and Drug Administration is taking another look at breast implants because of renewed safety concerns.

Reports from thousands of women that breast implants are causing problems like debilitating joint pain and fatigue, claims long dismissed by the medical profession, are receiving new attention from the Food and Drug Administration and researchers.

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In the wake of two fatal crashes of Boeing’s new 737 MAX 8, the Federal Aviation Administration faces growing criticism for delegating much of the safety certification of the aircraft to the aerospace company itself.

As The Seattle Times reported Sunday, some of the agency’s own engineers complained they were pressured to hand off too much safety analysis to Boeing on a new flight control system for the MAX, and that system is suspected of playing a role in both October’s Lion Air crash and the Ethiopian Airlines crash March 10.

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A study published Monday in the American Heart Association journal Circulation found an association between people who consume sugary drinks and an increased risk of death.

The observational study found adults who consumed more than two sweetened drinks a day had their risk of death increase by 21 percent over adults who drank less than one sweetened drink a month. For women, their risk increased by 25 percent, while the risk for men was up 12 percent.

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Families of schoolchildren gunned down in the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre can sue Remington Outdoor Co Inc, a Connecticut court ruled on Thursday, in a setback for gun makers long shielded from liability in mass shootings.

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(Reuters) - A California jury on Wednesday awarded $29 million to a woman who said that asbestos in Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-powder-based products caused her cancer.

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(Reuters Health) - Mothers who smoke during pregnancy are more than twice as likely to have babies die suddenly in their sleep as women who avoid tobacco, a U.S. study suggests.

More than 3,700 U.S. infants up to 12 months old die each year of sleep-related causes like sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) or accidental suffocation and strangulation in bed or other unknown causes, researchers report in Pediatrics. Smoking has long been linked to an increased risk of these fatalities, known as sudden unexpected infant death (SUID), but the current study offers fresh evidence of how much cutting back or quitting might help improve babies’ survival odds.

The Food and Drug Administration announced a sweeping plan on Friday to review and address the safety of surgical staplers, including a new examination of seven years’ worth of hidden reports highlighted Thursday in a Kaiser Health News investigation.

In a letter sent to health care providers Friday, the FDA said it will convene an advisory meeting on the safety of the devices and signaled that it might reclassify surgical staplers to put them under tighter control. The agency also said it plans to issue proposed recommendations to companies that make the devices, which are used in countless surgeries.

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The NHTSA on Tuesday said that Audi will recall 74,881 vehicles over a fault fuel rails may leak and lead to a fire.

The recall covers certain 2015 through 2018 model year Audi A8, A7, A6, and Q7 crossover SUV, according to documents filed with the NHTSA in January. The fuel rails in certain Audi vehicles may have been improperly welded, the automaker said after conducting an internal an engineering analysis. Variations in the welding process may cause fuel to leak in the end cap area over time, though the amount of fuel will be very low, per the brand. Owners may notice a fuel odor if the problem exists.

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Zoll Medical Corporation, which received FDA clearance a few years ago for both home and hospital versions of its wearable defibrillator LifeVest, is now dealing with a range of lawsuits and FDA actions over problems with the device. At least two people have died because their vests failed to activate due to an electrical problem, the FDA reports, while local media in Pittsburgh reports that other patients are having the opposite problem, with burns and rashes caused by the device activating erroneously.

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The drugmaker Eli Lilly will begin selling a cheaper version of its most popular insulin, Humalog, in an effort to head off criticism about the rising costs of prescription drugs, the company said Monday.