FDA

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Feds Further Link Avandia to Heart Risk

FDA, Senate reports lambaste GlaxoSmithKline, want to yank drug

(Newser) - Some 800 people every month suffer heart attacks or heart failure because of the diabetes medication Avandia, according to government reports obtained by the New York Times . Under fire since 2007, the GlaxoSmithKline drug was linked to 304 deaths in the final quarter of last year and hundreds of thousands...

FDA: Don't Stick Burning Candles In Your Ears

FDA issues alert, launches crackdown on ear candles

(Newser) - Putting a paraffin or beeswax-soaked tube in your ear and lighting it is a bad idea despite what the makers of ear candles may tell you, the FDA warns. The candles—sold as treatments for ear wax buildup, sinus problems, and headaches—can be hazardous and the FDA believes there...

Banned From Using 'Light,' Big Tobacco Turns to Colors

Critics say 'Marlboro Gold' no better than 'Marlboro Light,' and sneakier

(Newser) - The tobacco industry has to remove words like “light” on its cigarette packaging come June, but what they plan to do instead—use colors—has health advocates just as piqued. “They’re circumventing the law,” a professor tells the New York Times of moves like Philip Morris’...

In Wake of Radiation ODs, CT Scans Get New Rules

New scanners will be preset, older ones will be retrofitted

(Newser) - CT scans will come with new safeguards ordered by the FDA yesterday, following accidental radiation overdoses last year at hospitals in California and Alabama. The agency is also looking at software fixes for existing equipment to reduce the possibility of unsafe dosage, reports the the Los Angeles Times , and encouraging...

FDA: Tylenol Maker Delayed Recall of Tainted Drugs

Regulator issues warning letter over moldy-smelling OTC products

(Newser) - The maker of Tylenol waited more than a year to recall products it knew were chemically tainted, the FDA alleged in a warning letter to the company today. The agency says McNeil Consumer Healthcare Products, a division of Johnson & Johnson, learned in 2008 that some batches of Tylenol, Motrin,...

Calls Brew for Labeling Sneaky Caffeine
 Calls Brew for 
 Labeling Sneaky Caffeine 
Ice Cream Keeping You Up?

Calls Brew for Labeling Sneaky Caffeine

Lack of info makes it tough to reduce consumption

(Newser) - The popularity of ice creams, yogurts, and even jelly beans with high caffeine levels is causing experts to call for labels listing how much a product contains. Manufacturers aren't currently required to disclose caffeine levels, and advocates for stricter labeling say this makes it difficult for people to cut back...

Probe of Radiation ODs Spreads to 4 Sites

Agency suspects brainb scan problem could be nationwide

(Newser) - The FDA has widened a probe into radiation overdoses received during brain scans to include four hospitals, and now suspects the problem could be nationwide. Three hospitals in Los Angeles County and one in Alabama are being investigated after patients received up to eight times the normal amount of radiation...

Vaccine Tested to Prevent E. Coli-Tainted Beef

Cattle vaccine could curb strain of deadly bacteria

(Newser) - New vaccines are being tested that could make tainted beef scandals a thing of the past. The vaccines—currently undergoing large-scale trials after decades of bureaucratic delays—make cattle immune to the strain of E.Coli that kills dozens and sickens thousands of Americans every year. Scientists believe the combination...

The Tuna on Your Plate May Be Endangered

(Newser) - You might suspect a sushi restaurant that doesn’t specify what sort of tuna you’re eating of trying to pawn off an inferior species. Not so. Researchers using novel DNA barcoding technology found that though nearly a third of tuna sold in 31 US restaurants was the prized—and...

Blindness Cure Could Be 1st Human Stem Cell Trial

Biotech firm aims to reverse macular degeneration

(Newser) - The first-ever clinical trials of stem cell treatment of humans could be under way early next year if a Massachusetts biotech firm wins FDA approval. Advanced Cell Technology yesterday applied for a license to use embryonic stem cells left over from IVF treatment, to aid people suffering from a rare...

FDA Demands Safety Data on Energy Drinks With Alcohol

Companies have 30 days to comply

(Newser) - The FDA has taken action against companies that make alcoholic energy drinks, giving the firms 30 days to provide evidence to support their claim that caffeine and booze are a safe combination. A group of concerned scientists have said there is no evidence to support the claim that the drinks...

Clove Cigarettes Banned: Enter Clove 'Small Cigars'

FDA, importer disagree over definition of a cigarette

(Newser) - For one California importer of smokes, an awful lot has come to rest on the precise definition of a cigar. After a ban on clove cigarettes went into effect last month, Kretek International slyly began importing Djarum-brand clove “small cigars." They're quite similar to Djarum’s clove cigarettes,...

FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye
FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye

FDA Ignored Data on Risky MRI Dye

Failed to single out role of GE dye, Omniscan, in onset of disease

(Newser) - In May 2006, Danish medical regulators came to GE with troubling findings. Twenty-five patients with weak kidneys had developed NSF, a rare and sometimes fatal disease, after undergoing MRIs, and all 25 had been injected with GE’s Omniscan dye. Since then, the GE dye, along with other so-called “...

Flavored Cig Ban Is Silly: Kids Don't Smoke Them

What's more, FDA's claims about teen smoking are preposterous: Chapman

(Newser) - The FDA is all over the map—and all wrong—with its ban on flavored cigarettes, writes Steve Chapman. The agency touts the move against the “gateway” tobacco products, saying it will break the cycle of addiction “for the more than 3,600 young people who start smoking...

Soda Drinker Finds Frog in His Throat

Hopping mad couple want apology, compensation from Pepsi

(Newser) - A Florida man who found a frog in his can of Diet Pepsi wants the company to jump forward with an apology, CNN reports. The man started gagging after taking a swig from the can, his wife says, and found something heavy remained inside the can after he emptied it...

FDA Cracks Down on Swine Flu Snake Oil

(Newser) - The hysteria over the swine flu pandemic has spawned its share of magic cures, and health authorities are busy combating the snake oil salesmen, the Financial Times reports. Nearly half of the warning letters sent by the FDA to manufacturers and retailers since May have been issued to those hawking...

After E. Coli Outbreaks, Food Industry Looks to Tracing Tech

Labeling system would pinpoint the source

(Newser) - In the wake of health scares like the 2006 E. coli outbreak traced to tainted spinach, the food industry is scrambling to reassure the public—and hoping to head off a congressional response, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Voluntary efforts are under way to make tracing easier. For example, one...

Houses Passes Sweeping Food Safety Bill

(Newser) - The FDA would gain broad new powers to oversee food safety under a far-reaching bill passed by the House yesterday, the Washington Post reports. The measure—representing the first major changes to food safety laws since the 1930s—would give the agency vastly increased oversight of the nation's food chain...

FDA Warns Against Steroid-Laced Supplements

(Newser) - The FDA has issued a serious warning urging consumers to steer clear of bodybuilding supplements advertised as containing steroid-like substances, the Los Angeles Times reports. The products are unapproved drugs, not dietary supplements as claimed, and adverse effects include kidney failure and major liver damage, officials warn.

Tylenol's Dangers 'Sneak Up on People'
 Tylenol's Dangers 
 'Sneak Up on People' 
ANALYSIS

Tylenol's Dangers 'Sneak Up on People'

Unknowingly mixing acetaminophen products may cause ODs

(Newser) - Experts say we needn’t be scared off by a panel’s push for limits on acetaminophen—but it’s important to take it in moderation, which can be harder than it sounds, writes Melinda Beck in the Wall Street Journal. “It’s sneaking up on people,” says...

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