Melamine has been detected in a sample of U.S.-made infant formula, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) announced yesterday.  Though melamine-tainted formula has sickened tens of thousands of children in China, the FDA maintains the amount found in the U.S.-made baby formula poses no danger.

Melamine is an industrial chemical that is used to make plastics, fertilizer, and fire retardants. In recent years,  a number of Chinese manufactures have been involved in scandals involving melamine tainted food.  In those cases, melamine was added to products in order to make it appear they contained higher levels of protein. (more…)

Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved what the LA Times called “a tough new rule” against lead in the air.  But the paper is now reporting that federal documents confirm that the Bush administration amended the rule quietly, releasing a number of lead polluters from the rule and weakening the monitoring of factories producing lead emissions.

Exposure to lead in children and unborn children can cause brain and nervous system damage, behavioral and learning problems, slowed growth, hearing problems, headaches, mental and physical retardation, and behavioral and other health problems.  Lead is also known to cause cancer and reproductive harm and, in adults, lead can damage the nervous system.   (more…)

A study in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives is reporting that boys born to women who have been exposed to hairspray in the workplace may experience an increased risk of being born with hypospadias, a genital defect, according to the BBC.

Imperial College London scientists looked at women who gave birth to baby boys who were born with hypospadias, a defect in which the urinary tract is below the penis, said the BBC.  The study found that  hairspray exposure more than doubled the risk of this defect.  NHS.UK noted that hypospadias is one of the most common genital birth defects in baby boys, affecting approximately one in 250 baby boys born in the United Kingdom. (more…)

According to a study published in a recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine, the diabetes drug rosiglitazone maleate—also known as Avandia—may increase the risk of certain cardiovascular events.

The study, which was conducted by Dr. Wolfgang Winkelmayer of Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and colleagues,  involved patients aged 65 and older who had taken either Avandia or Actos (pioglitazone hydrochloride) for one year. Both Avandia and Actos belong to the same class of diabetes drugs.  Both now contain warning labels about using the medications in patients with existing heart failure. (more…)

It seems that Medicaid has paid nearly $200 million in the past four years alone for medications that, while covered under the plan, have not been reviewed for safety and efficacy, according to Reuters.

The Associated Press (AP) reviewed government data and found that Medicaid covered close to $198 million in costs from 2004 and 2007 for over 100 drugs that never received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval.  And, while the FDA says it is working to remove unapproved drugs from the market, there are some federal laws which enable Medicaid to provide coverage for them. According to the AP, Medicaid officials admit knowledge of the problem, but need congressional assistance since Medicaid and the FDA are part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Worse, says the AP, millions of nonMedicaid patients are taking some of these medications and dozens of deaths have been linked to them. (more…)

Sports broadcaster Tim McCarver is just the latest angry investor to file a claim against Regions Morgan Keegan over its failed bond funds.   According to the  New York Post, McCarver is seeking $1.25 million in damages because of the losses he suffered when the Morgan Keegan funds crashed in 2007.

Regions Morgan Keegan is facing an avalanche of arbitration claims over  the failed bond funds. Plaintiff’s lawyers say 1,000 to 1,500 arbitration cases ultimately could be filed against Morgan Keegan. (more…)

A prominent Harvard psychiatrist may have  promised that his work at a psychiatric research institute would promote the off-label pediatric use of Risperdal in a bid to convince Johnson & Johnson to fund the facility, The Boston Globe reported today.  The revelations come from emails and other documents released in a lawsuit involving Risperdal and other atypical antipsychotics.

Risperdal wasn’t approved for use in children until 2007. However, it is known that doctors prescribed the drug off-label for thousands of children years before that.  While off-label prescribing is legal, drug companies are legally barred from marketing off-label uses.  But according to The Boston Globe, the companies often skirt that prohibition by paying  respected “opinion leaders” – usually top experts in their field – to discuss their off-label prescribing experiences at “educational” talks or meetings. (more…)

Federal heath regulators are warning that some Asian people treated with the drug phenytoin  may be at risk for serious skin reactions, including Stevens Johnson syndrome (SJS) and toxic epidermal necrolysis (TEN).  Fosphenytoin sodium (Cerebyx), a prodrug that is converted to phenytoin after administration, was also included in the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) warning issued yesterday.

Phenytoin is an antiepileptic drug. Aside from seizures, it is an option in the treatment of trigeminal neuralgia as well as certain cardiac arrhythmias. In the US, phenytoin is marketed as Phenytek and Dilantin (including Dilantin Kapseals, Dilantin-125 and Dilantin Infatabs). (more…)

Paxil and Prozac, two popular antidepressants, have been linked to heart birth defects by a new study.   According to an article published in the November issue of The British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology, the risk for such birth defects was the highest among Prozac users who also smoked during their pregnancy.

For the study,  researchers from Israel, Italy and Germany looked at the pregnancy outcomes of  2,191 women.  Of those, 410 had taken Paxil during their pregnancy, while 314 had taken Prozac.  The remaining 1,467 had no exposure to either antidepressant. (more…)

Although it cannot confirm a source at this time, ThePacker.com, has issued an article stating that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and  the California Department of Public Health officials are looking into possible links to an E. coli outbreak in Ontario.  The two groups are allegedly conducting farm investigations and according to ThePacker.com article,  Romaine lettuce may be at the root of the contamination.

“We are following up on information from Canada about a potential link to romaine,”  Ken August, a public information officer for the California Department of Public Health, told ThePacker.com.  As of last week, 30 confirmed cases of E. coli O157:H7 were a match to the DNA fingerprint involved in the outbreak.  At that time, cases were only seen in Niagara, Halton, Guelph, and Waterloo,ThePacker.com said. (more…)