Current Events

More than 650 medical device recalls encompassing 180 million units were recalled in the second half of 2016, some of the highest numbers seen since the turn of the century, notes a new industry report by Stericycle ExpertSOLUTIONS.

Some of the mistakes were basic. “Parts issues” and “mislabeling” were deemed responsible for just over 50 percent of the total units recalled in the fourth quarter of the year.

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Mercedes-Benz will recall roughly 1 million vehicles worldwide due to a fire risk involving a starter part. Of those 1 million vehicles, approximately 308,000 affected cars and SUVs are located in the U.S.

According to a regulatory disclosure filed by Mercedes, the fires stem from a flawed current limiter or fuse that can overheat and melt other parts after repeated attempts to start. The Detroit News reports that there have been 51 fires worldwide, and about 30 of those occurred in the U.
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FRIDAY, March 3, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- There's no evidence that a growing trend called whole body cryotherapy is effective, but it does pose a number of risks, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warns.

In whole body cryotherapy, people are placed in an enclosed space and exposed to vapors that reach ultra-low temperatures ranging from minus 200 to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit, typically for two to four minutes.

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A faulty traffic control system might have led vehicles to back up at a Metro-North crossing in Valhalla in February 2015, contributing to a crash that killed the driver of an SUV who had pulled onto the tracks and five train passengers.

Nestled in the 1,000-plus pages of documents released by the National Transportation Safety Board in the wake of the commuter train crash is an analysis of two traffic preemption systems — groups of sensors that respond to existing conditions and modify traffic light patterns in response — in place at the Commerce Street-Taconic State Parkway intersection, roughly 100 feet from the railroad crossing.

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DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co. on Thursday issued a safety recall for nearly 32,000 vehicles with faulty Takata airbag modules, a problem unrelated to the exploding Takata airbag inflators that prompted massive recalls across the industry.

The automaker said certain driver frontal airbag cushions installed in the vehicles may not inflate as intended. The issue stems from a misalignment of components within the airbag module, Ford said.

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BOSTON - A physician from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention vividly described the extensive damage to the brains and spinal columns of patients who were victims of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak.

Testifying in U.S.
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A multi-state cluster of at least 10 people infected with E. coli bacteria has been identified and public health officials are interviewing victims about possible foodborne sources.

As of this afternoon, patients had been identified in four states, said a spokeswoman with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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Takata has finally pleaded guilty to deceiving automakers about the safety of its airbags. Now automakers are disputing charges that they knowingly installed the defective airbags in their cars.

But what about the millions of U.S. consumers still waiting to replace or fix the potentially deadly Takata airbags?

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Juno Therapeutics Inc on Wednesday said it decided to shut down development of an experimental leukemia treatment from a highly promising new class of immunotherapy following an investigation into toxicity that led to a handful of patient deaths.

The drug, JCAR015, uses a technology known as CAR-T being pursued by other companies as well. CAR-T therapy removes a key component of the immune system called T cells from a patient's blood and re-engineers them to more efficiently attack cancer before returning them to the patient.

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Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp. has pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud, and agreed to pay $1 billion for concealing a defect in millions of its air bag inflators.

The decision played out in a federal courtroom in Detroit on Monday, following a deal with the U.S. Justice Department.
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