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"Dangerous Products" archive

Tuesday 3 October

Medtronic Receives Warning Letter from FDA (08:11) - Medical device manufacturer Medtronic has received a warning letter from the FDA after it failed to publish a post market report concerning its stent graft AneuRx. The device was approved in 1999 and is used to treat aneurysms. The reporting... | 0 Comments

Thursday 7 September

Mercury Fillings Come Under Scrutiny (14:25) - Consumer groups have demanded that dentists stop using a mercury-laden amalgam to fill tooth cavities. The FDA has promised to take the matter under consideration for further review. The FDA asked the panel to weigh in on whether the study... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 23 August

Big Tobacco: 50 Years of Lies and Deception (06:40) - Federal Judge Gladys Kessler called it racketeering. I'll call it lying and deception. For more than 50 years big tobacco companies have been telling our grandparents, our parents, and now ourselves that smoking is cool and essentially harmless. Finally, a... | 0 Comments

Tuesday 22 August

Big Tobacco: David vs. Goliath No More (10:33) - For years now, victims of the powerful tobacco companies have suffered in silence because they were unable to pursue claims against the makers of the cancer sticks. Now, all that has changed. A recent US District court ruling coupled with... | 0 Comments

Monday 14 August

Boston Scientific Assumes Burden from Guidant (11:52) - According to a recently published article in the Wall St. Journal, Boston Scientific now faces approximately 550 lawsuits regarding problems with its implantable heart defibrillators. According to the article, about 72 product-liability class-action suits and about 477 individual suits are... | 0 Comments

Thursday 10 August

Taser Settles Lawsuits (08:58) - In a significant reversal of its previous public stance, Taser International, Inc. has decided to settle the lawsuits against it for $20 million. The settlements would eliminate cases pending before the US District Court in Arizona and the Delaware Chancery... | 0 Comments

Thursday 3 August

Ford Truck Fire Danger (10:02) - Last fall, Ford Motor Co. recalled 3.8 million of its vehicles due to faulty parts. Now, the auto manufacturer has announced that it will have to recall an additional 1.2 million trucks, vans, and SUVs. This is the largest auto... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 2 August

Some Docs Say Hydrogen Peroxide Better Than Multipurpose Contact Lens Solution (10:48) - Admittedly, it's not as convenient as using a contact lens solution that cleans, stores, and rinses your contact lenses, but hydrogen peroxide is being touted as a potenitally safer method of maintinaing eye health. When the crisis over ReNu with... | 0 Comments

Friday 28 July

Iowa Prof. Says She Told Bausch & Lomb About Problems with ReNu Two Years Ago (10:07) - When the contact lens solution, ReNu with MoistureLoc debuted on the market in November 2004, University of Iowa clinical professor wanted to test the product's effectiveness. What she found led her to call the company and tell them about its... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 26 July

Bausch & Lomb Faces More Issues (09:37) - It had seemed to the casual observer that Bausch & Lombh had seen the worst of the bad press surrounding the recent fusarium keratitis outbreak. However, the Wall St. Journal reported today that doctors and eye clinicians had known nine... | 0 Comments

Sunday 7 May

Florida Legislature Takes Up the Taser (10:15) - Now that the most recent session of the Florida Legislature is history, it's interesting to note that the Florida Legislature passed a bill restricting the use of Taser stun guns to situations in which subjects are resisting and pose a... | 1 Comments

Friday 14 April

Bausch & Lomb Facing Investigation Into its ReNu Contact Lens Solution (08:18) - Bowing to public pressure, Bausch & Lomb will take out ads today in the nation's leading newspapers asking people not to use their eye contact solution ReNu with MoistureLoc until an investigation into its safety is completed. The unprecedented move... | 0 Comments

Tuesday 14 March

Study Finds Implanted Defibrillators May Help More Men than Women (10:10) - Implanted devices designed to shock the heart into a normal rhythm may not be as effective in women as they are in men, researchers said on Monday. Researchers at Hartford Hospital in Connecticut and the University of Connecticut evaluated five... | 0 Comments

Thursday 9 March

Taser in Texas (07:03) - There's an excellent feature article published in the Fort Worth weekly concerning the controversial Taser stun gun. The article recounts the instances in which a Taser is used. One of the most compelling aspects of the article is the individual... | 0 Comments

Thursday 2 March

In Wake of Taser Death, Community Leaders Want Police Chief Fired (05:58) - In the wake of Samuel Hair's death in Fort Pierce, local community leaders are calling for the resignation of police chief Eugene Savage. They're also calling for the firing of the police officer who fired the taser shot that killed... | 0 Comments

Friday 24 February

Ft. Pierce Man in Critical Condition after Being Tasered (06:21) - A 48-year-old Fort Pierce man is in critical condition after police shocked him with a Taser gun. Investigators said the man asked police to take him to a mental facility. Police say he had been shocked twice in the leg.... | 0 Comments

Thursday 23 February

FDA Sends Violation Notice to Guidant (10:55) - Heart device maker Guidant Corp. said Thursday that the Food and Drug Administration found a deficiency in how the company is identifying quality problems at its St. Paul, Minn. cardiac rhythm management plant.... | 0 Comments

Friday 27 January

Female Taser Victim on Videotape (10:17) - A 22 year old female was tasered during a routine traffic stop. The police video shows the woman prior to the shooting as she was talking on her cellphone. The police officer tasered her for not complying with his request... | 0 Comments

Sunday 22 January

Georgia County Blames Taser for Death (18:55) - Gwinnett County (GA) attorneys are blaming Taser International in the death of a jail inmate who died after being repeatedly shocked with a stun gun. The county, which has been sued by the family of Frederick Williams, filed a cross... | 1 Comments

Friday 13 January

Law Enforcement and Advocacy Groups Debate Taser Use (17:37) - After calling for a ban on Taser guns in law enforcement for two years, a national civil rights group said Friday more dialogue is needed to encourage more responsible use of the weapon. The Southern Christian Leadership Conference is now... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 11 January

Medical Examiner: Taser Contributing Factor in Lee County Death (10:36) - According to a Medical Examiner's report, the Taser stun gun contributed to the death of a Lee County man in 2004. Bryon Black, 39, of Ft. Myers, died after being hit by the Taser and pepper spray as police were... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 28 December

FDA Places Curbs on Guidant (13:36) - The Food and Drug Administration released a warning letter yesterday it had sent ot Guidant Corporation restricting the ability of the company to win approval for some new medical products. The reason for the restriction stemmed from Guidant's inability to... | 1 Comments

Thursday 8 December

Police Officers Argue, One Gets Tasered (13:32) - Police Officer Ronald Dupuis was charged with assault and battery against a fellow police officer after firing a taser gun at her after an argument. A police report indicates that Dupuis and his partner, Prema Graham, began arguing after Dupuis... | 1 Comments

Monday 21 November

Autistic Man Killed by Taser (21:55) - A man with autism is dead after a scuffle with northwest suburban police, who used a Taser gun in a struggle to subdue him. The man had just bitten his caregiver at a group home in Des Plaines. CBS 2's... | 0 Trackbacks | 2 Comments

Wednesday 19 October

Influential Police Research Group Urges Limits on Taser Use (08:06) - According to an article published on October 19, 2005 in The NY Times, the influential Police Executive Research Forum urged restrictions on taser use in the wake of 140 deaths of people being taken into custody. The group suggested that... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Tuesday 18 October

Taser International Changes Its Marketing Language in Wake of Criticisms and Probes (22:11) - This story ran on September 28, 2005 in Forbes Magazine: Taser International Inc. has voluntarily changed some of its broad safety claims and limited its use of the word "non-lethal" in an effort to appease Arizona officials concerned about possibly... | 0 Comments
Torture by Taser (21:43) - This week a committee of Florida legislators is discussing police use of Taser guns manufactured by Taser International. The weapon has been marketed by its manufacturer as a non-lethal way to subdue people. However, there is mounting evidence to the... | 0 Trackbacks | 1 Comments

Saturday 15 October

Guidant Reports Six More Defibrillator Failures (09:59) - Guidant Corp. told U.S. regulators that it learned of six additional failures of implantable heart defibrillators since issuing a July notice about the devices used to regulate cardiac rhythms. The failures occurred in the Contak Renewal and Renewal 2 brand... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Friday 23 September

FDA Says Defibrillator Defects Increasing (10:14) - The number of defects present in implantable defibrillators is rising at a dangerous pace, according to joint research Harvard Medical School and the Food and Drug Administration. The study suggests that the recent recalls by defibrillator manufacturers such as Guidant,... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments
Guidant Issues Pacemaker Alerts (10:06) - Guidant Corp. warned doctors Thursday of more problems with some of its pacemakers, saying at least 10 people have been hospitalized because of flaws in some essential functions. The alert involves Guidant's Insignia and Nexus lines of pacemakers. The NY... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Monday 19 September

Medtronic to Release Malfunction Data Beyond FDA (09:37) - Medtronic, the nation's biggest manufacturer of heart devices, has said that it was considering making available to doctors and patients some of the datat concerning product malfunctions that until now only provided to federal regulators. Currently, manufacturers of devices like... | 0 Comments

Friday 16 September

FDA Will Report on Defribillators (19:39) - The FDA is expected to release a new study showing that implantable heart defibrillators have been malfunctioning at an increasing rate. The study found that defibrillator malfunctions were directly responsible for 61 confirmed deaths. This study will be released in... | 0 Trackbacks | 0 Comments

Friday 22 July

Guidant Recommendations Make Matters Worse (21:22) - The Wall St. Journal is reporting that Guidant Corporation admitted Friday that one of the recommendations it made to physicians in June may make make the pacemaker problems worse and increase the risk to patients. Last month, Guidant issued safety... | 0 Comments

Wednesday 6 July

FDA Says Guidant Defibrillator Evaluation to Take Weeks Not Months (14:09) - An FDA evaluation of the five Guidant defibrillators pulled from the market last month will take weeks not months. Guidant pulled the five defibrillators off the market after safety concerns arose. Daniel Schultz, director of the Center for Devices and... | 0 Comments

Tuesday 21 June

Defibrillator Patients Face Tough Choices (14:42) - The recent news that Guidant defibrillators may malfunction during life critical moments has given heart patients pause. The highest rate of malfunction among Guidant machines is the Ventak Prizm 2 DR (Model 1861)with 28 reports of short-circuiting including one resulting... | 0 Comments

Saturday 18 June

Consumer Safety Alert: Heart Device Manufacturers Decide for Themselves When and If to Tell Public About Faulty Devices (17:19) - According to a June 14th article in the NY Times, heart device manufacturers make their own decision when and if to inform the general public and doctors if a potentially life saving heart device like a defribrillator is faulty. There... | 0 Comments
At FDA's Urging, Guidant Recalls 29,000 Heart Devices (17:06) - Guidant Corporation is recalling 29,000 heart devices because of flaws that may cause them to malfunction when they are supposed to deliver a potentially life saving electrical shock to the heart. The three defibrillator devices manufactured by Guidant came under... | 0 Comments