In its most recent recall, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with Hewlett Packard, today announced a voluntary recall of its HP Fax 1010 and 1010xi machines because an internal electrical component failure can cause overheating of the product, which poses a risk of burn or fire.

About 367,000 units—and an additional 84,000 units sold outside of the U.S.—which were imported by Hewlett-Packard Company of Palo Alto, California, have been recalled.  To date, Hewlett-Packard has received three reports of overheating including two in the U.S. resulting in minor property damage. No injuries have yet been reported. (more…)

The maker of CellCept, Swiss Drug Maker Roche, has informed healthcare providers that it has modified the “Warnings” and “Adverse Reactions” sections of the CellCept prescribing information to include information on its association with several cases of Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy (PML).

CellCept—generically known as mycophenolate mofetil—is part of a class of drugs called immunosuppressants and was approved in 1995 to prevent rejection of solid organ transplants, including kidney, heart, and liver. When CellCept is used  with cyclosporine and corticosteroids, it greatly reduces the patient’s immune system from attacking the transplanted organ. As with all immunosuppressants, CellCept carries certain risks, including development of lymphoma and other malignancies and is also linked to an increased risk of developing opportunistic infections and sepsis. (more…)

A little over 59,000 people have registered for the Vioxx settlement, and plaintiffs who submitted paperwork early could start seeing initial payments soon.  Meanwhile, two big Vioxx settlement deadlines are on the calendar for next week.

Vioxx was approved for use in 1999, and quickly became a blockbuster for Merck, with annual sales of $2.5 billion. The Food & Drug Administration ordered the painkiller off the market after an analysis of patients using Vioxx linked the defective drug to more than 27,000 heart attacks or sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. from 1999 through 2003. (more…)

Recently, the parents of nine-year-old Hannah Poling won a government settlement out of a federal fund that compensates those injured by vaccines.  In this case, US officials acknowledged that the immunizations worsened an underlying disorder that led to Hannah’s autism-like symptoms.  The Polings said five simultaneous vaccinations administered in July 2000 led to Hannah’s autistic behavior.  Hannah was about 18 months at the time.  Government officials won’t say why they conceded this case, but did say those with pre-existing injuries can obtain compensation under the program if they establish that their underlying condition was “significantly aggravated” by a vaccine.

Hannah has a disorder involving her mitochondria—the energy makers of cells—which can be present at birth from an inherited gene or acquired later in life and impairs cells’ ability to use nutrients, often affecting brain functioning that can lead to delays in walking and talking.  According to Hannah’s father, either she was born with the disorder and the vaccines caused a stress that worsened the condition or thimerosal caused the mitochondrial dysfunction.  Since 2002, the preservative thimerosal has been removed from shots recommended for young children, except for some flu shots. (more…)

Federal regulators are mulling over new rules for approving diabetes drugs.  The new regulations the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is considering include requiring that new diabetes drugs have a positive impact on cardiovascular disease and life span.   The push for new rules comes a little over a year after a study found that Avandia - a popular diabetes drug marketed by GlaxoSmithKline - raised cardiovascular risks and probably did little to improve the life span of the people taking it.

Avandia has been a subject of controversy since May 2007, when an analysis of 42 clinical trails published by the Cleveland Clinic showed that patients taking the drug had a 43-percent higher risk of having a heart attack. In June 2007, Congress held hearings to discuss the FDA’s handling of its safety issues. At those hearings, it was revealed that in 2005 GlaxoSmithKline had informed the FDA of a study it had conducted that produced similar results. However, both the agency and the manufacturer felt that more investigation was needed before conclusions could be made about Avandia’s possible safety issues.  Thus, the public was not made aware of the Avandia heart attack risk until the publication of the Cleveland Clinic article. (more…)

In 2002, engineers from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) privately warned nail gun makers that the nail gun industry’s efforts to reduce the rising number of injuries with its tools wouldn’t really work; this, according to recently disclosed federal documents.

For some reason, the CPSC engineers’ views, warnings, and requests for additional study of nail guns safety features, were not addressed or disclosed publicly to US consumers.  Meanwhile, thousands of workers and home consumers continued to buy or rent nail guns at giant hardware stores nationwide during the country’s most recent housing boom.  Because of this, those sent to hospitals—both workers and home consumers—with hand, foot, knee, and head injuries that were caused by air-powered nail guns climbed to 42,000 in 2005, up significantly from 12,982 in 2000, according to federal hospital injury data. (more…)

At least one person plans on filing a lawsuit after falling ill from eating tainted meat. Zachery Everhart become sick with E. coli in the recent and ongoing multi-state outbreak of E. coli poisoning after consuming tainted meat that generated from Kroger’s Grocery. A raw beef sample sold at Gahanna’s Kroger Marketplace tested positive this week for E. coli O157:H7. Everhart’s attorney plans to file a product liability claim against Kroger and its beef supplier. Everhart said that he wants his medical bills paid for and is looking to send a message to those who sell, prepare, and process ground beef to pay closer attention to how they clean the food they sell. “It was very painful, actually severe abdominal pains for probably a duration of four days,” Everhart said.

Meanwhile, it was only after health department announcements that a two-state E. coli outbreak was linked to its tainted beef did Kroger’s Grocery finally issue a recall, despite that all evidence for days prior was pointing to its meat as having poisoned dozens. All those stricken have been infected with the same strain of E. coli as that found in the contaminated Kroger meat and include at least 14 hospitalizations, with one patient developing hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a type of kidney failure. (more…)

Tomatoes might not actually be the culprit in a multi-state outbreak of Salmonella that has sickened more than 800 people.  What’s worse, whatever is making people sick could still be sitting on grocery store shelves - putting even more consumers at risk.

For the past several weeks, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) has warned consumers to stay away from raw red plum, red Roma, or round red tomatoes or any products containing them unless they are known to have come from a geographic area cleared of any connection to the outbreak.  But on Friday, David Acheson, associate commissioner with the FDA said that of 1700 domestic and international tomato samples collected for investigators so far, none has tested positive for Salmonella St. Paul - the strain of bacteria tied to the outbreak. (more…)

Scientists have still not been able to say whether or not cell phone use increases the chances of developing cancer or health problems. The uncertainty over the health effects of cell phone use has created a great deal of controversy, and has left both consumers and medical professionals confused over the possible hazards of these now ubiquitous devices.

Earlier this year, an Australian neurosurgeon published a paper on the Internet saying cell phone use “has far broader public health ramifications than asbestos and smoking.” The doctor, Vini Khurana, analyzed data from more than 100 studies, and concluded that most weren’t long enough to uncover a risk of brain cancer and that children haven’t been adequately studied (more…)

The US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in collaboration with the two companies cited below, has issued recalls on yet another crib and another toy helicopter.

In the first recall, approximately 1,200 full size 2nd Nature Built to Grow cribs, made in Slovenia by Stanley Furniture Company Inc. of Stanleytown, Virginia, are being recalled because the cribs fail to meet federal safety standard for crib dimensions.  According to the CPSC, “When the mattress support is in the middle setting, the space between the mattress and the crib could be too wide, posing an entrapment hazard to infants.” (more…)