By Jessica Roberts on December 17, 2010
A proposed massive overhaul of auto safety laws spurred by Toyota’s sudden-acceleration problems now appears at risk of dying in the current lame-duck session of Congress, the Los Angeles Times reports. The legislation, S.3302, has 23 major provisions that would create new safety standards, increase fines against automakers for violating federal rules and put an…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety |
By Jessica Roberts on December 17, 2010
Air quality regulators in California have approved a ground-breaking carbon trading market, the centerpiece of the state’s ambitious global warming law to slash carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The move, the Associated Press reports, was approved late Thursday in a 9-1 vote by the California Air Resources Board after it heard testimony from more…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure |
By Jessica Roberts on December 17, 2010
A presidential commission has concluded there is no need to impose new regulations or to create new regulatory agencies for the controversial new field known as synthetic biology, The New York Times reports. The panel on Tuesday released released its first report on synthetic biology, the field of creating new organisms through the synthesis and…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health |
By Jessica Roberts on December 16, 2010
Honda Motor Company announced the recall of 1,355,217 Honda Fit cars globally from model years 2007 and 2008 because of a “potential loss of low-beam headlight functionality.”
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Jessica Roberts on December 15, 2010
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has issued a warning that children younger than 10 years old who accidentally ingest Tessalon liquid cough capsules may be at risk for serious side effects or death. The agency said that Tessalon, also known as benzonatate, is approved to treat cough symptoms in patients 10 and older but…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Jessica Roberts on December 15, 2010
A Massachusetts jury has found the Lorillard Tobacco Co. liable, and awarded $71 million in compensatory damages, in the death of a Boston woman who said that, at age 9, she received free samples of Newport cigarettes in a marketing campaign that targeted black children. The case, the Associated Press reports, is thought to be…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Smoking and Tobacco Industry |
By Jessica Roberts on December 14, 2010
Chinese authorities are searching for a factory boss who is believed to have enslaved mentally disabled workers, forcing them to labor long hours without pay, according to Chinese media reports cited by Reuters. The factory boss, who ran a construction materials operation in China’s western Xinjiang province, is said to have hired about a dozen…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Workplace Safety and Health |
By Jessica Roberts on December 14, 2010
Older patients with arthritis who take narcotic or opioid-based painkillers appear to face a higher risk for bone fractures, heart attacks and death, compared to those using other, non-narcotic painkillers, according to a study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “Doctors should not assume that opioids are a safer alternative,” to other painkillers, Dr….
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Jessica Roberts on December 13, 2010
The Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific evidence behind its pronouncement last year that dental fillings containing mercury do not harm patients, the Los Angeles Times reports. The review this week by an FDA advisory panel is focusing on amalgam, a silver-colored material considered the cheapest and longest-lasting dental filling, but one that…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health |
By Jessica Roberts on December 13, 2010
In a new indication of the pervasiveness and hazards of secondhand smoke, a study published in the journal Pediatrics has found that children living in apartment buildings have higher levels of a nicotine byproduct in their blood than youngsters who reside in detached single-family homes. As The Boston Globe reports, the study found that 85…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Smoking and Tobacco Industry |
