Archive for 2009

Contaminated Chicken – Not a Paltry Affair

December 7th, 2009. By LucyC

Here’s some rather unappetizing news—just in time for the holiday season. The results of a study that will be published in the upcoming edition of Consumer Reports, were being floated around the Internet last week, results which show that two thirds of store bought chickens are contaminated with pathogens that could make you very ill.

Apparently we should be grateful for this statistic, because it is markedly better than that of two years ago when eight out of 10 chickens were found to be contaminated with bacteria, including salmonella and campylobacter. (Even the names sound awful.)

As most of us are no doubt aware by now given the seemingly endless number of food recalls, salmonella, campylobacter, E. coli, and Listeria monocytogenes, to name the more common pathogens, can make us seriously ill. Food poisoning is the collective and rather vague term for the litany of physical ailments that includes vomiting, diarrhea, kidney failure, paralysis, seizures, hearing and visual impairment, and mental retardation. Worse, people have been known to die from food poisoning. Goodness knows it sure feels like death is imminent when have it. 

Back to the study. The folks at ConsumerReports.org hired an independent lab to test 382 chickens that were purchased in the spring from over 100 supermarkets. Those stores included Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: campylobacter, chicken, Food Illness, Salmonella
Posted in Emerging Issues, Food Illness | No Comments »

James Woods and Hospital Settle Wrongful Death Lawsuit

December 3rd, 2009. By AbiK

After blogging about HAI’s (Healthcare Associated Infections) recently, and recalling some of the recent reports on MRSA, I was thinking about the James Woods trial–the one where his brother, Michael Woods, had gone to the emergency room at Kent Hospital in Rhode Island back in 2006 with a sore throat and vomiting; he wound up dying after a heart attack. The wrongful death lawsuit centered around James Woods’ charge that the hospital didn’t do enough to save his brother’s life.

Well, they’ve settled the lawsuit. Yes, the Woods family did get an “undisclosed” amount of money, but according to the Associated Press, they also got a belated apology from the hospital and an agreement from the hospital that a new institute, the Michael J. Woods Institute at Kent Hospital, will be created to to find ways to reduce human errors at hospitals.

According to AP, “The hospital agreed to invest $1.25 million over the next five years in the institute, which will look at how to reduce the risk of errors based on how humans actually do things, also known as human factors research. Its leadership will include a representative of Michael Woods’ family, as well as experts from inside and outside of the hospital.”

Tags: Hospital Error, James Woods, Wrongful Death
Posted in Drugs/Medical | 3 Comments »

Asbestos News Roundup: 12.3.09

December 3rd, 2009. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. 

Asbestos Fines

Washington, DC: OSHA issued citations to Cambria Contracting Inc, at the end of November for 11 alleged willful violations of the agency’s construction asbestos standard for failing to train and protect its workers at a jobsite in Buffalo, NY. The Lockport, NY-based demolition contractor faces a total of $484,000 in proposed penalties.

In October, OSHA cited Superior General Contracting of Cheektowaga, NY, for 10 alleged serious violations of workplace health standards at a jobsite in Amherst, NY. The contractor faces a total of $50,000 in fines for not providing all required safeguards for its employees who the agency says were exposed to asbestos-containing pipe insulation during a residential remodeling job. 

Specifically, OSHA found that the company did not monitor to determine asbestos exposure levels, use wet methods to clean up debris, provide HEPA vacuum cleaners to collect debris and dust, ensure the prompt cleanup and disposal of debris in leak-tight containers, ensure appropriate respirator use, require the use of protective clothing, perform all work in a regulated Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma
Posted in Asbestos Mesothelioma | No Comments »

Put the FDA in Charge of Homeopathic Products

December 3rd, 2009. By Hunter West

The Zicam issue brings to the fore yet another issue involving the mandate of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the federal health regulator that has jurisdiction over medical devices and medical drugs—and food. A wieldy mandate indeed and one that, due to funding and staffing issues, the agency has been hard-pressed to undertake effectively. 

That said, naturopathic products, natural-health potions and homeopathic elixirs do not fall under the FDA’s regulatory mandate for approval. 

Given the growing popularity of homeopathic products, the FDA’s mandate should be expanded. 

“Many of our clients believed the FDA had evaluated Zicam before it reached the market,” said lawyer Robert Gordon, a partner with the New York law firm Weitz & Luxenberg. “In fact, Zicam products were not regulated or approved by the FDA because they were listed as homeopathic treatments that use natural ingredients. Mounting evidence from the scientific community is proving Zicam with zinc should never have been sold. Some trusting users are now paying a price with their health.”

The status quo only confuses the public. To be fair, nowhere on the labels for products such as Zicam does it say that the product carries FDA approval. And yet, when there is a problem with a product—homeopathic or otherwise—which agency undertakes the issue of the health alert?

The FDA. The latter is also involved in the negotiation and co-ordination of voluntary product recalls—as it was for Zicam—for products the FDA was not required to approve. That, together with the blurring of the lines between what is medicinal and what isn’t, leaves Joe Q. Public at a loss to explain just who is running the show.

The same holds true for dietary supplements and other weight-loss remedies that use natural ingredients. If it’s homeopathic, then a product does not have to satisfy the FDA before it goes to market.

But here’s the rub: various medicinal ingredients, either on their own or in concert with other ingredients, can elicit side effects and other dangerous risks. Hence the requisite testing required of the manufacturers, with the subsequent vetting through the FDA before the product is approved for sale.

However, just because an ingredient is listed as ‘natural’—a mineral, herb or otherwise—doesn’t automatically suggest it is safe. Natural products can hurt you too, if used in the wrong way and in misguided combination with either another product or in association with an incorrect indication.

People who have used Zicam nasal spray for colds have reported a loss of their sense of smell. Sometimes it is immediate. For others the loss occurred after prolonged use. Some had their sense of smell return after they stopped using Zicam. Others are fearing that their smell loss (and concurrent loss of the ability to taste food) may be permanent, and lawsuits have been launched.

All, because of zinc. Zinc on its own has a benefit to the human body. It’s actually integral, in proper balance with copper, to maintaining a healthy system. However, zinc up the nose is apparently a problem, as various studies and a flood of reports to the FDA now show.

Would this have happened, had this product been required to go through the rigorous FDA approval process?

The FDA is under the gun due to the perception of lax oversight. The agency’s critics cite too many close ties, funding and otherwise, with pharmaceutical companies that only serves to cloud its objectivity. Defenders of the FDA cite the fact that the agency has suffered through years of chronic under-funding and staff shortages and thus cannot hope to cope with a regulatory environment that now sees drugs and medical devices increasingly manufactured offshore.

And now this.

The FDA needs to promote to the American consumer that it does not have jurisdiction over homeopathic products—at least at the approval stage—and therefore the consumer cannot assume that a homeopathic product he is buying comes with the FDA stamp of approval.

Either that, or Congress needs to provide a massive funding and staffing boost to the FDA in order to undertake its current mandate, together with the adoption of a new mandate to regulate the homeopathic industry.

The FDHA—the US Food, Drug and Homeopathic Agency.

Has a nice ring to it.  

Tags: FDA, Homeopathic, Zicam
Posted in Drugs/Medical, Emerging Issues | 9 Comments »

Whistleblowers: Are You the Next Erin Brockovich?

December 2nd, 2009. By Kristine B

Okay, so Erin Brockovich isn’t the only whistleblower in US history. But, thanks to that oh-so-memorable movie, a lot of people consider her to be the most famous whistleblower. Much like the movie about her ordeal showed, the path to becoming a whistleblower is often long, complex and filled with confrontation (including some memorable Oscar-worthy scenes). Many potential whistleblowers may not know all the protections available to them. So, this week Pleading Ignorance looks at complex world of whistleblowers. 

What is a Whistleblower?

Aside from the obvious (that’s right, a person who blows a whistle IS—technically—a whistleblower) a whistleblower is a person who reports that an organization of which he is a part of is involved in misconduct. Frequently, the organization is an employer, but it doesn’t have to be. The whistleblower reports the misconduct to a person or entity that has the power to take corrective action against the unethical organization. 

In a nutshell: Person A works for Company B, which is involved in illegal activity. Person A reports Company B’s activities to Entity C. Entity C then takes action against Company B for its illegal activity. In some cases, Person A then gets a movie made about her life. (Note: this Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Pleading Ignorance, Qui Tam, Whistleblowers
Posted in Pleading Ignorance | No Comments »