By Steven DiJoseph

Regardless of which dictionary you choose, the definition of “strategy” is about the same: a careful plan or method; a clever stratagem; or the art of devising or employing plans or stratagems toward a goal (http://aolsvc.merriam-webster.aol.com/home-aol.htm).

Not every plan, no matter how well-conceived or carefully formulated, adopted as a “strategy” is successful, however. Thus, history is littered with strategies gone wrong, failed strategies, and strategies that were stubbornly adhered to even as it became clear they were not working.

Thus, there comes a defining moment when every “strategy” either shows itself to be worthy of that label or not. Simply stated, once a strategy fails, it s no longer a strategy at all.
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The Food and Drug Administration has announced that it’s Office of Criminal Investigation (OCI) has been successful in obtaining a sweeping conviction in a massive medical products diversion scheme that defrauded Medicaid and Medicare programs of some $45 million. http://www.fda.gov/bbs/topics/NEWS/2006/NEW01360.html

The convictions were obtained through the efforts of the U.S. Attorneys Office for the Southern District of Georgia in conjunction with the Internal Revenue Service — Criminal Investigation Division, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and that State of Florida Attorney General’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit, as well as the FDA’s OCI, and followed a six-week trial in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia.
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The data recorded by video cameras and other sensors, placed in 100 motor vehicles for more than a year, spoke for itself. Even brief portions of the video played on last night’s national and local news programs were startling and showed actual accidents and near-accidents during or immediately following periods of driver inattention.

Some 241 drivers were taped as they operated the specially equipped vehicles in all types of driving situations. The remarkable video record showed drivers doing everything from eating, drinking, talking on cell phones, and putting on makeup, to looking away, retrieving objects, adjusting audio equipment and selecting and changing CDs. One driver was actually shown driving off the road as he fell asleep at the wheel.
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission has announced the voluntary recall of some 290,000 EVAC-U8â„¢ and EVAC+â„¢ Emergency Escape Smoke Hoods manufactured in Canada by Brookdale International Systems Inc., of Vancouver, British Columbia. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately.

Although no injuries have been reported, the “emergency escape smoke hoods could fail to work properly, exposing the user to harmful carbon monoxide which could seriously compromise their ability to escape the fire threat.”
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Hewlett-Packard Company of Palo Alto, California, have announced the recall of approximately 16,000 (worldwide) HP and Compaq Notebook Computer Batteries (about 4,100 in U.S.) manufactured in China. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately.

An internal failure can cause the battery to overheat and melt or char the plastic case, posing a burn and fire hazard.
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By Steven DiJoseph

In less than two weeks, Bausch & Lomb has taken quite a tumble from one of the most respected companies specializing in consumer eye-care products to one that has been rocked by a major embarrassment and potential liability for injuries involving its popular contact lens solution, ReNu With MoistureLoc.

The 153-year-old company based in Rochester, New York, had gradually become a highly visible and respected healthcare brand worldwide with annual revenues of over $2 billion from sales in over 100 countries where it employs some 13,700 people. Currently its core businesses include soft and rigid gas permeable contact lenses, lens care products, and ophthalmic surgical and pharmaceutical products.
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The Consumer Product Safety Commission and Saroj International Inc., of Vernon, California, have announced the voluntary recall of some 4,000 Eusonic Hair Dryers in the U.S. (!4,000 of the dryers were sold in Mexico). Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately.

Although no injuries have been reported, the recalled hair dryer’s power cord does not have an immersion protection plug. Therefore, if the hair dryer falls into water during use, it can pose a shock and/or electrocution hazard.
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Although the mention of bubonic plague strikes fear in the hearts of most people, the disease is not contagious and can be treated with antibiotics. It is the more serious and deadly pneumonic plague, into which bubonic plague can change if left untreated, that has the potential to wipe out entire populations of people.

Thus, health officials were quick to identify, isolate, and treat the first case of bubonic plague in Los Angeles in over 20 years.
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Mercury is a poisonous neurotoxic heavy metal that has been linked to a host of serious medical conditions in humans and animals. Some forms of mercury such as methylmercury, which is found in some fish, are dangerous to humans.

Exposure to excessive amounts of mercury has been linked to damage to the nervous system; kidney damage (changes in kidney function); damage to developing fetuses; tremors; loss of sensation; irritability; skin rashes; eye irritation; and memory problems.
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According to a published report on telegraph.co.uk (Telegraph Group Limited), a 60 year-old patient at Doncaster Royal Infirmary in South Yorkshire (UK) “died in a fireball after lighting a cigarette while wearing a highly flammable skin ointment.”

Although few additional details have been released by either hospital officials or the South Yorkshire Police, it appears that the man was being treated for an undisclosed skin condition when he stepped outside onto a fire escape to have a cigarette.  Shortly thereafter he was engulfed in flames. He was reportedly transported to the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield where he died of his injuries.
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