About 350,000 Chinese-made toys that were used as part of a summer reading program were recalled because they contained led. The small bendable toys were packaged as “Paws, Claws, Scales, and Tails” and were distributed in 48 states. The toy recall came 13 months after an Indiana woman alerted the Consumer Protection Safety Commission (CPSC) that the toys contained lead. The toys contained 6 1/2 times the federal allowable lead limits.
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Safety concerns over drug-coated stents used for angioplasty procedures began are nothing new. Fear of blood clots and other complications associated with these stents began to surface shortly after the new devices came to market. However, two recent developments have doctors and patients contemplating if the devices should be used at all. Data presented at a recent European cardiology meeting has convinced some researchers that drug-coated stents do increase the risk of blood clots. And just yesterday, Boston Scientific admitted that their Taxus drug-coated stent increases the risk of blood clots, but denied these clots increased the risk of heart attack or stroke. Admitting that Taxus stents cause blood clots, but not heart attacks or strokes has left many medical professionals quite confused, since it is widely known that blood clots can cause both of these life threatening conditions.
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Bisphosphonates, a class of medications used to treat osteoporosis and advanced cancers that have spread to the bone, have been linked to osteonecrosis of the jaw (ONJ), a condition that denotes the death of jaw bone tissue. Popular bisphosphonates include Fosamax, Boniva, Zometa and Actonel. These drugs have become some of the most widely prescribed medications throughout the world. Merck’s Fosamax recorded sales of $3.2 billion in 2005 and over 22 million prescriptions written in the United States alone, according to IMS Health. It is estimated that over 2,400 Fosamax patients have reported serious jaw bone problems, including osteonecrosis of the jaw, since 2001.
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According to the Ukrainian Observer, bottles of ReNu with MoistureLoc contact lens solution are still on the shelves of drugstores in the Ukraine. ReNu with Moisutreloc was removed from most major markets earlier this year after the solution was linked to fusarium keratitis, a serious fungal infection that can cause blindness. In the United States, hundreds of lawsuits have been filed against Bausch & Lomb on behalf of users of ReNu with Moistureloc that developed serious eye infections.
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The researchers, in this study, compared obstetrical factors in 65 pregnant women who died following delivery between 1996 and 2000 and 10,244 control subjects who safely delivered in 1998. The analysis found that women who delivered by c-section were 3.6-times more likely to die than those who delivered vaginally. Medical malpractice, Anesthesia complications, puerperal infection, and venous thromboembolism were all factors into the increased mortality rate.
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