By Nate Seltenrich on January 15, 2020
Despite the efforts of Customs and Border Protection agents, counterfeiters are passing off ineffective refrigerator water filters to many thousands of consumers, who think they are buying the real thing. The fakes may not only be useless, but unsafe. Along with failing to do what they claim, counterfeits can introduce chemicals such as arsenic and octane, a petroleum-derived solvent, into users’ drinking water.
Posted in Recent Stories | Tagged Consumer product safety, Consumer Protection, Drinking Water, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Hillel Aron on January 8, 2020
With the U.S. increasingly dependent on foreign manufacturers for prescription and generic drugs, the Food and Drug Administration’s problem-plagued efforts to inspect overseas plants are under growing scrutiny.
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Consumer product safety, Food and Drug Administration, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Marjie Lundstrom and Eli Wolfe on December 19, 2019
With hundreds of fields reaching end of life each year, the artificial turf industry is under pressure to find a sustainable solution.
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged California, Environmental Protection Agency, Environmental Safety and Health, Government accountability |
By Hillel Aron on December 12, 2019
Air pollution is known to be a serious health risk – a cause of asthma, heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and a factor, according to the World Health Organization, in an estimated seven million deaths worldwide every year. A growing body of research suggests air pollution may also be harming our brains. In recent years, new areas of study have opened up into how air pollution might affect our minds and the way we think and feel. Epidemiologists and neuroscientists have found evidence linking long-term exposure
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Air Pollution, Brain, Environment, public health, research |
By Amy Martyn on December 11, 2019
Run-ins with job safety regulators are routine for Dollar Tree, the huge discount retail chain. A FairWarning investigation found that more than 150 company stores have been cited for safety violations since December 2015, despite a settlement with OSHA in which Dollar Tree agreed to pay $825,000 in penalties and clean up its act.
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Government accountability, labor laws, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Eli Wolfe on November 27, 2019
Fifteen years ago, the federal government said “no” to piracetam. The agency hasn’t changed its position. But piracetam is widely available—and hugely popular—as a supplement promoted as boosting cognitive ability. Unintimidated by FDA warning letters, sellers are advertising this forbidden ingredient in online bazaars.
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged FDA, Government accountability, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Hillel Aron on November 20, 2019
A rising tide of climate-related lawsuits across the U.S. could represent an important new front in the fight to limit harm from a warming planet, and force energy companies to foot the bill for measures to address it. But against the staunch opposition of energy producers and federal agencies also targeted in some of the suits, it’s uncertain how much impact the litigation will have.
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Air Pollution, Civil Litigation, Climate Change, Environment, ExxonMobil, Fossil Fuels, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Lawsuits |
By Rick Schmitt on November 14, 2019
To his supporters, former air marshal Robert MacLean personifies the best traits of whistleblowers, determined to expose the government’s dirty laundry, even at high personal cost. To critics, he’s an obsessive and even vindictive ex-federal employee who overstepped his bounds. Now he’s battling over the need for secondary barriers to keep would-be intruders from reaching the cockpit.
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Airline safety, Aviation Safety, Whistleblowers, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Myron Levin on November 6, 2019
In an age of distortion, propaganda and fake news, medical literature might seem to be a safe space for honest scientific inquiry, with no room for bias or spin. It isn’t so. Court proceedings, investigations and whistleblower accounts have revealed a long history of drug companies manipulating the literature to promote their drugs or disparage rival products–with the aim of getting doctors to prescribe more of their meds
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Adriane Fugh-Berman, Allergan, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Consumer product safety, Consumer Protection, Darren Taichman, FDA, Georgetown, GlaxoSmithKline, James Beck, Leemon McHenry, Merck, Pfizer, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, PharmedOUT, Product Hazards and Recalls, Sen. Charles Grassley, Stephen Braun, William Tierney |
By Amy Martyn on October 30, 2019
Without admitting liability, Toyota since 2014 has quietly settled 537 lawsuits blaming sudden unintended acceleration for crashes that caused deaths or serious injuries. Automotive safety advocates see the complaints as a sign that Toyota and federal regulators failed to properly address the root of the problem when they had the opportunity years earlier.
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Consumer product safety, Consumer Protection, Government accountability, Product Hazards and Recalls |
