Raytheon has inspected wells in the Azalea neighborhood and plans to do more testing in the wake of class action lawsuits and a report due to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection on May 31. In spite of Raytheon’s continued insistence that there is no danger to human health as a result of the toxic plume, the DEP has contacted six residents in the Azalea neighborhood and advised them against using their irrigation wells until after the DEP reviews Raytheon’s findings at the end of the month.
In the meantime, our class action lawsuit investigation into Raytheon’s toxic spill and subsequent neglect will continue. Besides the obvious health concern, many residents affected by the Raytheon groundwater contamination are worried about plummeting property values and the stigma associated with living in or next to toxic waste caused by Raytheon.

According to the Wall St. Journal, Pfizer is starting to settle lawsuits against its painkilling drugs Celebrex and Bextra. While the numbers are not yet official, one attorney told the Journal that he was offered $200,000 per client for his Bextra clients while he was offered $40-50,000 per client for his Celebrex cases.
Pfizer appears to be handling their cases differently than Merck whose product Vioxx is in the same class of painkilling drugs. All are classified as Cox-2 inhibitors which have come under intense scrutiny because they’ve been linked to an increased risk of heart attack and stroke.

Merck & Co. has received a warning letter from the FDA concerning issues with manufacturing standards at its West Point Pennsylvania facility. The facility in question manufactures vaccines and was cited by the FDA for numerous deviations in its laboratory procedures. The FDA noted that Merck’s lab procedures were not scientifically sound when it came to assessing the “strength, quality and purity” of products manufactured at the West Point, Pa. facility. Merck has failed to evaluate the stability of certain vaccines such as measles, mumps, and rubella over a number of years.
Merck’s latest issues comes in the wake of Congressional testimony slamming the FDA and fellow pharmaceutical giant Baxter for its failure to safeguard its heparin supply. The tainted heparin, imported from China, has been linked to 81 deaths in the USA.
Recently, the FDA has come under increasing fire from Congress as the safety and quality of pharmaceuticals has been criticized.