A new analysis by the Dartmouth Medical School questions the benefits of a widely accepted sepsis treatment called tight glucose control.  This treatment is used for patients not only with sepsis, but also with other critical illnesses.  The Dartmouth researchers are concerned the treatment not only might not help such patients, it could cause harm.

Tight glucose control involves nurses testing patients’ blood-sugar levels hourly, and, if required, adjusting intravenous insulin drips.  The treatment began being heavily promoted by medical groups such as the Surviving Sepsis Campaign back in 2004.  That promotion was prompted on one study, which took place in Belgium that indicated that critical-care patients often had high blood sugar that could lead to fatal complications. (more…)

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), in cooperation with the two firms named below, today announced a voluntary recall of two defective consumer products:  IMS Car Chargers and Sears Coffee Makers.

International Merchandising Service Inc. (IMS), of Fullerton, California is recalling about 210,000 IMS Car Chargers Used with Power System Plus 3 Million Candlepower Spotlights. The car charger is incompatible with the spotlight’s battery, which can cause it to overcharge inside of a vehicle and pose a fire or burn hazard to consumers.  To date, IMS received two reports of incidents of spotlights overheating while being charged with the car charger. (more…)

A probe into auction rate securities sold by Fidelity Investments is concentrating on the discount broker’s relationship with investment bank Goldman Sachs, The Wall Street Journal is reporting.  Investigators with the New York attorney general’s office are trying to determine if Fidelity’s close ties with Goldman Sachs gave it an incentive to sell the now-illiquid securities.

Auction rate securities are long-term corporate bonds, municipal bonds and preferred stock on which the interest rates are reset periodically based on bids submitted through securities firms. Generally, rates are reset every seven, 14, 28 or 35 days. Because they can be sold during weekly or monthly auctions, banks and brokerages often touted auction rate securities as short-term investments or cash equivalents. Unfortunately, because of the credit crises, the market for auction rate securities crashed earlier this year. Thousands of investors have been bewildered to find out that the investments they were sold as cash equivalents are now illiquid. (more…)

Newsday is reporting that Senator Charles Schumer—Democrat-New York—asked the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) yesterday to “perform a thorough inspection of lead contamination at Island Trees High School in Levittown, New York.”  According to Schumer, “Our children’s health must be the top priority and I will push the EPA to do a top-to-bottom inspection and cleanup.”  A representative of Schumer’s said a call was made to the EPA’s regional office after school board trustee Joseph Buda contacted them about the contamination. Schumer’s office expects a response from the EPA today; tomorrow is the school district’s monthly board meeting.

In 2003, the district became aware of lead contamination at Island Trees in 2003, after state environmental officials notified it about high levels of lead related to an old rifle range.  The following year, in 2004, the district received notices of violation from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for “improperly dumping untreated sand from the rifle range into the tunnels housing the high school’s heating and ventilation systems.”  At that time, the school was ordered to remediate the property and a cleanup was conducted in 2006. (more…)

The reluctance of some mothers to allow their young daughters to receive Gardasil has more to do with concerns over the vaccine than their attitudes toward premarital sex, a small study has found.  The study, conducted at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) at Galveston, was partially funded by Merck & Co., the maker of Gardasil.

Gardasil was approved by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) in June 2006. At the time of its approval, Merck said that clinical trials had proven the vaccine to be between 90-100% effective in preventing the transmission of some strains of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) that cause cervical cancer. Shortly after its approval, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) issued a recommendation that all young girls between the ages of 11 and 12 receive the Gardasil vaccine. (more…)

A faulty iPod is being cited as a possible suspect in a house fire that occurred in Canada over the weekend. Just last week, Apple offered to replace lithium batteries in some of its iPod Nano devices following reports that they had caught fire while charging.

Apple’ offer came after Japanese officials said they were investigating two more reported iPod Nano fires in that country. Apple blamed the fires on defective batteries from a single supplier. The Japanese ministry had also received a similar report of another iPod Nano fire last March. In all of the fires, the iPods began to overheat while they were being recharged. (more…)

Federal lawsuits involving the contraceptive device NuvaRing have been consolidated by the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation.  The consolidation means that all NuvaRing cases now pending in federal court, and those filed in the future,  will be heard in the Eastern District of Missouri before Judge Rodney W. Sippel.

NuvaRing, made by Organon International, is a transparent, flexible vaginal ring that provides month-long birth control by emitting a continuous dose of estrogen and progestin for 21 days.  But since NuvaRing hit the market in 2001, it has been the subject of many lawsuits related to blood clots. It’s also been blamed for 12 deaths nationwide. (more…)

The Oklahoma State Department of Health (OSDH) has just confirmed that the number of people hospitalized as part of that state’s growing “severe illness outbreak” has now reached 38; dozens more have reported being sick.  Yesterday we reported that one man—26-year-old Chad Ingle—died as a result of the outbreak, which has yet to be identified.  Ingle was discharged from Tulsa’s St. Francis Hospital last Friday after becoming sick on Wednesday, he returned to the hospital the following morning when his condition worsened; he died soon after.

OSDH officials continue to investigate the source of the outbreak and if it is related to E. coli bacteria.  OSDH did confirm that many of those who fell ill ate at the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove.  Despite this, OSDH maintains that it is still to soon to confirm the source.  Meanwhile, Country Cottage passed a weekend inspection, according to health officials.  The restaurant voluntarily closed yesterday.  The ill come include residents from the Bixby, Broken Arrow, Locust Grove, McAlester, Peggs, Pryor, Sand Springs, and Tulsa areas in Oklahoma. (more…)

Byetta has been implicated in six deaths, four more than federal regulators reported last week.  The additional deaths were revealed late yesterday during a conference call conducted by Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co, the co-marketers of the diabetes drugs.  The companies did report the other four deaths to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA), but the agency did not make those fatalities public in last week’s announcement.

No definite relationship between Byetta and the additional deaths has been proved, Amylin Chief Executive Officer Dan Bradbury said during the call yesterday.  All of the deaths involved patients with pancreatitis, but according to a report in “US News and World Report”, the FDA did not include the four revealed yesterday in its earlier announcement because they involved a milder form of the disorder. (more…)

In Canada, the death toll from listeriosis has risen to 12 and there are also another 26 confirmed cases of food poisoning linked to deli meats produced at a plant owned by Maple Leaf Foods Inc.  Officials are saying that there are also another 29 suspected cases of listeriosis and Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz said the government expected more cases in the near future. Five other people who died and were tested had the E. coli bacteria in their system, but the causes of their deaths are still under investigation, said Canadian Food Inspection Agency spokesman Mark Raizenne.

Maple Leaf Foods is one of Canada’s largest meat processors and has reported that it hopes to reopen its Toronto plant today.  That plant is linked to the E. coli outbreak and has been closed for testing and massive sanitization since it recalled about 220 products made at that plant.  That recall is one of the largest food recalls to occur in Canada.  Health officials said they will test and hold all meat produced at the Toronto plan until they are satisfied it is not contaminated.  “The timeframe really isn’t theirs. It belongs more to the (Canadian Food Inspection Agency),” Ritz said.  Direct costs to Maple Leaf, as a result of the outbreak and recall, currently total about C$20 million ($19 million US dollars). Chief Financial Officer Michael Vels said that reimbursing customers for returned products, cleaning the plant, and other direct expenses will cost the company C$20 million before taxes. (more…)