In February of 2007, the FDA warned the country about Salmonella-tainted peanut butter distributed by food conglomerate, ConAgra Foods. However, the Salmonella-tainted Peter Pan and Great Value peanut butter may have gone unreported by the CDC for months. As a result, hundreds, possibly thousands of people have been sickened by a company with a history of producing tainted foods.

Besides the recent recall of Peter Pan Peanut Butter, ConAgra faced another governmental recall in August 2002 when their Greeley, Colorado beef plant produced meat contaminated with E-coli. Around 19 million pounds of tainted beef were recalled. E-coli, an intestinal bacteria, causes symptoms such as abdominal pain, severe cramping, bloody diarrhea, and vomiting. About 5 to 10 percent of infected individuals go on to develop Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome which can lead to kidney failure and death. One person was reported to have died in Ohio after eating the contaminated meat.

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A New Jersey jury has awarded $2.62 million in damages to a patient who needed to have his colon removed after taking the drug Accutane. The case was the first of more than 400 suits pending against Roche Holdings AG, the manufacturer of Accutane acne medication. The verdict, issued on May 29, could be ominous news for Roche, as many legal analysts believe it portends more findings against the company.

Andrew McCarrell, the plaintiff in the case, developed Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) after taking Accutane for four months in 1995. In addition to having his colon removed, McCarrel also had most of his rectum removed and had to wear a colostomy bag for years. He recently had surgery that rid him of the colostomy bag, but the 36-year-old software manager testified that he still suffers from severe, chronic diarrhea.

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Not long after expanding the recall of the Bard Composix Kugel Mesh Patch, the FDA issued a warning letter to Davol Inc., the patch’s manufacturer, citing serious regulatory problems with quality assurance systems used in the manufacture of the Kugel patches, as well as its Salute Reusable Fixation devices. The letter, which was dated April 24, 2007, came after the FDA conducted an inspection of the company’s Cranston, Rhode Island headquarters. The inspection took place from January 23 through March 13, 2007.

Problems with the Kugel Hernia Mesh Patches first came to light in 2005. At that time, the FDA issued a Class I recall of the Bard Composix Kugel Mesh X-Large Patch because the memo recoil ring that opened the patch could break. When the ring broke, patients experienced bowel perforations and other serious problems. A Class I recall means that the recalled product poses a serious danger to patients still using it. The FDA warned doctors to quite using the patch. The FDA also warned patients who received the patch to seek medical attention if they experienced unexplained fever, persistent abdominal pain, or tenderness to the incision site. In April 2006, the patch Class I recall was expanded to the “mid-line” size of the patch. The recall was expanded for a third time in February of 2007 to include the large size patch.

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Facing at least 400 consumer lawsuits over last year’s recall of Renu MoistureLoc contact lens solution, as well as possible class action lawsuits by shareholders, Bausch & Lomb posted a disappointing financial report last month. The earnings report, which is for the first quarter of 2006, was filed late, in part because the company needed time to assess the financial losses caused by the recall. According to the report, the Renu MoistureLoc recall reduced Bausch & Lomb’s first quarter 2006 net income by $19.6 million dollars.

Bausch & Lomb’s troubles began in 2006, when Renu MoistureLoc was linked to Fusarium Keratitis, a rare eye infection that has the potential to cause blindness. The company pulled MoistureLoc from Asian markets in February 2006, and did the same in U.S. in April, before finally issuing a worldwide recall on May 15, 2006.

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Tyson Fresh Meat, Inc. can be added to the list of food manufacturers who have had to recall E. Coli tainted products. On Friday, the company issued a recall of 40,000 pounds of beef in 12 states. The company decided to take this action after samples tested at its Texas plant revealed E. Coli contamination.

The ground beef has a sell-by date of June 13, and was sold in prepackaged trays. The recalled meat was sold at Wal-Mart stores in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. The products involved in the recall include: 1.5 lb and 1.33 lb trays of “Angus Steak Burger All Natural 85/15 patties” and 2.25 lb and 5.5 lb trays of “73/27 All Natural Ground Beef, Carne Molida Des Res”. Each label bears the number “Est. 244S” inside the USDA inspection mark.

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This week, cases of the dangerous food-borne illness e-coli were reported in several states, including California, Arizona and New York. At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control revealed that incidences of salmonella linked to contaminated Peter Pan and Great Value brands of peanut butter were far more wide spread than previously thought. These revelations, coming as they do on the heels of recent scandals involving tainted spinach and poisoned animal foods, have many Americans questioning the safety of the nation’s food supply.

Late last month, the CDC reported that confirmed cases of salmonella caused by the Peter Pan and Great Value brands of Peanut Butter had grown by nearly 200 since the agency’s last report in March. The CDC now puts the number of individuals sickened by the peanut butter at more than 600 in 47 states. The toll also included 2 deaths. However, because not all cases of salmonella are reported, some believe these numbers could be much higher. It could be some time, if ever, before the full scope of the problem becomes apparent.

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GlaxoSmithKline, maker of the popular diabetes drug Avandia, came under fire on Capital Hill yesterday, as one prominent researcher testified that he was threatened with legal action when he raised concerns about the drug’s safety as far back as 1999. At the same hearing, a member Congress berated the company’s CEO for what he called an “absurd” warning regarding the drug’s dangers to patients with heart failure buried within the product’s label.

Stephen Lynch, (D-Mass), who sits on the House Oversight Committee, questioned why a statement cautioning physicians not to prescribe Avandia to patients with a history of congestive heart failure was not mentioned until page 15 of the products label.

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Evidence is mounting that rescue workers at the World Trade Center were exposed to high levels of toxic dust and chemicals that have resulted in serious health problems. In the months and years following the terrorist attacks, Ground Zero responders and their advocates have insisted that many who worked at the site were suffering from chronic respiratory illnesses as a result of this exposure. Now, several studies have validated these claims.

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Eli Lilly today announced a settlement in roughly 18,000 lawsuits related to its schizophrenia drug Zyprexa. The new agreement may cost the pharmaceutical giant up to $500 million, bringing the total overall price tag of their Zyprexa settlements to approximately $1.2 billion. The drug has been repeatedly linked to an increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and high blood-sugar levels. More than a thousand cases remain pending, and various civil and criminal investigations will still proceed.

The Zyprexa (olanzapine) controversy returned to the news last month when the New York Times, citing thousands of internal Lilly documents and emails, accused the company of questionable, unethical, and possibly illegal marketing of the drug. The Times claimed that the drug maker intentionally downplayed Zyprexa’s risks of obesity and increased blood sugar and also claimed that Lilly encouraged unapproved (off-label) use of Zyprexa, which is approved only for the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Zyprexa has been prescribed to around 20 million patients during the past decade, and last year’s sales of the popular medication reached $4.2 billion. In June of 2005, the company settled approximately 8,000 lawsuits to the tune of $700 million, or almost $90,000 per claim. The new agreement works out to less than $30,000 per claim. A warning about the risks of high blood-sugar levels was added to Zyprexa’s label in 2003, a factor that may have led to the relatively reduced settlement and that may help Lilly fend off further legal action. “The change in Zyprexa’s label in September 2003, as ordered by the federal Food and Drug Administration, makes less viable, on statute of limitations grounds, such future cases,” noted supervising Judge Jack Weinstein.

In spite of the agreement, the company continues to stand behind its product: “While we remain confident that these claims are without merit, we took this difficult step because we believe it is in the best interest of the company, the patients who depend on this medication, and their physicians,” said Sidney Taurel, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly and Company. “We wanted to reduce significant uncertainties involved in litigating such complex cases. Our decision to resolve the claims does not change the fact that Zyprexa has and will continue to improve the lives of millions of patients around the world who are suffering from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”

American Foods Group ground beef, recalled last month amid fears that it was tainted with E. coli bacteria, may be implicated in the death of a Kentucky woman.  Vickie Shelton, 47, died last Monday afternoon at Central Baptist Hospital in Lexington after being admitted with symptoms consistent with E. coli poisoning.  Now, health officials in Knox County, Kentucky are trying to determine if American Foods Group ground beef played a role in Shelton’s death, and they are testing samples of ground beef Shelton had reportedly consumed prior to becoming sick.  At least two other instances of E. coli poisoning have been tied to the American Foods Group ground beef recall.

The American Foods Group ground beef recall was issue on November 24, 2007.  The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) deemed the recall a Class I action, with health risks listed as “high.” The American Foods Group recall involved ground beef distributed to stores in Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Ohio, Tennessee, Wisconsin and Virginia.  The E. coli contaminated ground beef was produced at the American Foods Group meat packing plant in Green Bay, Wisconsin on October 10.  The products where distributed for further processing and repackaging, so the tainted ground beef will not bear the processor’s establishment number.  As the use-by date for products subject to this recall may have expired, consumers can contact their retailers to ask if they received any of these products and if so, consumers are urged to look in their freezers for these products and return or discard them if found.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control, E. coli is responsible for sickening 73,000 people every year, and of those, 60 will die from the disease. E. coli is marked by the sudden onset of stomach pain and severe cramps. This is followed by diarrhea that is watery and bloody. Sometimes there is vomiting, but there is no fever. While most people will recover completely, E. coli poisoning can be very dangerous for children, the elderly and anyone with a weak immune system. In some cases, E. coli will cause a disorder called hemolytic uremic syndrome, which can be life-threatening.

E. coli tainted meat has become a major health problem, as the number of outbreaks and meat recalls blamed on this deadly bacteria have reached record levels in recent months. So far this year, there have been dozens of recalls of E. coli contaminated meat, more than double what they where in 2006. Often, the slow action by meat processors, the USA and other agencies charged with protecting the US food supply allows E. coli contaminated foods to sicken thousands of people across the country.