By Patrick Corcoran on May 9, 2011
Despite an unprecedented effort to crack down on threats to the safety of the food supply, contamination scandals abound in China. As The New York Times reports, ever since melamine-tainted milk sickened about 300,000 infants and killed at least six in 2008, China’s government has worked to modernize its regulatory regime to protect the nation’s…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Food Supply |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 6, 2011
The Government Accountability Office has no bone to pick with the way the nation’s school meals program inspects ground beef for food-borne illnesses. In a new report, the GAO says that the U.S. Department of Agriculture actually calls for the raw meat for school children to be tested more thoroughly than is required for the…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Food Supply |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 6, 2011
Despite widespread concerns about the potential influence of drug and medical device company money on doctors, societies that represent specialists continue to take in lots of Big Pharma cash. As ProPublica reports, the Heart Rhythm Society provides a leading illustration of the practice. It pulls in millions off of its role as the gatekeeper between…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Medical Errors, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 6, 2011
Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan has called for the closing of a controversial nuclear plant about 120 miles southwest of Tokyo until improvements are made to protect the facility and the surrounding region against the risk of an earthquake and tsunami. As Agence France-Presse reports, the Japanese government wants the operator of the Hamaoka nuclear…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 5, 2011
Barely a year after the nation’s deadliest coal mining accident in four decades, the industry is calling for relaxing federal regulatory procedures to exempt mines with good safety records from routine workplace inspections. As the The Charleston Gazette reports, a representative from the National Mining Assn. suggested the idea at a Wednesday hearing of the…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 5, 2011
Men stricken with prostate cancer before the age of 65 often might be better off undergoing surgery to remove the prostate gland rather than waiting to see how the disease develops. As the Associated Press reports, a study led by Swedish researchers has found that the so-called “watchful waiting” approach — which calls for holding…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Medical Errors |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 4, 2011
The frequency of heart bypass surgery has plummeted in recent years, a product of Americans leading healthier lifestyles and doctors adopting other treatments for blocked arteries. As HealthDay News reports, a study to be published in the Journal of the American Medical Association finds that the number of heart patients who received bypass surgery dropped…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Medical Errors, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 4, 2011
A coal mine explosion in northern Mexico has killed five workers, and another another nine are trapped and feared dead. As the Associated Press reports, Mexican authorities had hoped to fly in Chilean experts who worked on the rescue of 33 trapped miners last year. But after rescuers discovered the first five bodies and saw…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Workplace Safety and Health |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 4, 2011
Five years after BP pipelines dumped more than 5,000 barrels of crude over Alaska’s North Slope, the company has agreed to pay $25 million in civil penalties. As the Associated Press reports, the fine is the largest per barrel civil penalty ever issued for an oil spill. Still, it stands to be dwarfed by what…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health |
By Patrick Corcoran on May 3, 2011
Florida has long been known as a retiree haven, with a thriving assisted living industry. But, as the Miami Herald reports, because of cruel managers and regulatory failures, what goes on inside some of the state’s assisted living facilities serving the elderly, as well as the mentally ill, can be terrifying. The Herald dug up…
Posted in Warning Wire | Tagged Medical Errors |
