Current Events

In 2011, when the U.S. Food and Drug Administration first warned of a link between breast implants and a mysterious new cancer, it said the risk was vanishingly rare, far less than one in 500,000. Allergan, an implant maker, declared, “A woman is more likely to be struck by lightning than get this condition.”

Now, seven years later, the scientific consensus is that implants with textured surfaces – not ones with smooth surfaces – cause the disease, called breast implant-associated anaplastic large-cell lymphoma.
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NEW YORK (Reuters) - Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) is facing government probes into its use of low-income housing tax credits, and has also set aside $8 million to compensate borrowers who were incorrectly denied mortgage modifications under a federal assistance program, the bank said in a regulatory filing on Friday.

The new disclosures add to Wells Fargo’s numerous regulatory penalties, private lawsuits and remediation efforts. Most stem from a sales practices scandal that has touched on all of the bank’s major business units.

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Just when you thought it was safe to go back to salad, federal food safety inspectors are warning of another potential cyclospora contamination, this time affecting salads and wraps sold by Trader Joe’s, Walgreens and Kroger.

The new recall, which the Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service issued this week, does not affect the Kroger-owned Mariano’s grocery chain, company spokesman Jim Hyland said Wednesday.

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The “safety and effectiveness” of procedures promising to treat vaginal conditions related to menopause is unclear, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Monday.

Health care providers using lasers and similar devices for vaginal dryness, and pain during sex or urination are not using those medical devices for their intended use, the FDA says. Since December of 2015, Deborah Kotz, a press officer with the FDA, said the agency has received a dozen reports of complications related to these procedures.
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In Virginia, 19-year-old Bailey Belcher was driving home when he noticed smoke coming out of his mother’s Kia Soul. He pulled over and got out of the car.

Five minutes later, the entire car was engulfed in flames. Without explanation, the family says that the car had been reduced to a skeleton of its former self. But the dealer is still billing them for monthly car payments.
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(UPDATED 7:15 p.m.) A chopped romaine recall by Fresh Express, Salinas, Calif., for cyclospora concerns has led Caito Foods LLC, Indianapolis to pull 25 deli salads and wrap products from retailers.

The list of products includes Caesar salads with chicken, cobb salads, taco salad and chicken Caesar wraps.
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Medical errors have become an accepted if unfortunate part of medical care, but physicians may greatly underestimate how much they contribute to the problem.

"The average clinician is making a lot of mistakes that they are unaware of," says Dr Art Papier, a dermatologist and medical informatics specialist. How many doctors fall into this category?

A new Netflix Original documentary sheds light on a topic that’s opaque to many: the medical device industry in America.

The film, called The Bleeding Edge, claims that the way medical devices make it to the U.S. market is lax and potentially dangerous. The filmmakers interview doctors and patients who say they’ve been personally harmed by an array of devices—including cobalt-based hip replacements, vaginal mesh and robotic surgery devices—and who feel that the guardian group of the medical device industry, the U.
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The seven companies targeted by the F.D.A. for promoting dangerous uses of laser treatments for women included Inmode, Sciton, Alma Lasers, Thermigen, BTL Aesthetics, BTL Industries and Cynosure, which makes the MonaLisa Touch.Cynosure
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Monday announced that it had warned several companies to stop marketing laser devices for procedures billed as “vaginal rejuvenation,” saying they were dangerous and deceptive treatments.
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Members of a family who lost nine relatives after a tourist boat sank in a Missouri lake filed a $100 million lawsuit on Sunday, saying that the accident was predictable and could have been avoided. They are represented by a lawyer who has sued operators of similar boats in the past and has called for them to be banned.

Seventeen people died earlier this month when the duck boat, which was modeled after amphibious vehicles used in World War II, took on water during a storm on Table Rock Lake in Branson, Mo. Fourteen people on the boat survived.

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The number of people who have become sick from eating McDonald's salads has grown dramatically in the latest count from health officials.

The number of illnesses linked to Cyclospora-tainted greens from the chain has risen to 286 in 15 states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday. Eleven of them were hospitalized.

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