General Mills has announced that it’s recalling 5 million Totino’s and Jeno’s frozen pizzas due to a possible contamination with E coli bacteria. E.coli O157:H7 is a potentially deadly bacteria that can cause bloody diarrhea and dehydration. It is especially dangerous for the young, elderly or those with weak or compromised immune systems. The recall involves 8 different types of Totino’s pizza and 3 types of Jeno’s pizza. The pizzas in question had pepperoni or pepperoni and a combination of other toppings on them.
It’s beginning to seem that each day there’s a new food group being recalled for either E coli or salmonella contamination. In this instance, all those who ate the contaminated pizza recovered. However, both E coli and salmonella poisoning can be fatal. Each recall involves food that has already made people sick. At some point, the federal government has to be proactive and catch these contaminated foods before they hit store shelves. Unfortunately, there’s no way for the consumer to be sure if the food they’re consuming is safe. That’s not a good situation when going to the supermarket or the grocery store can be a dangerous adventure.

Father Donald McGuire was Mother Teresa’s confessor, spiritual director to her order of nuns, the Daughter of Charity AND a sexual predator who preyed on unsuspecting, innocent teenage boys. The Jesuits knew about this abusive priest since 1969 and left him to prey on young boys. He raped and ruined the lives of countless young children for decades, all the time professing to spread the Gospel. The Jesuits’ internal documents tell the story of abuse and cover-up better than any district attorney’s file. The church continued to leave him alone because he was popular and raised money for the Jesuits. Finally, he faces serious jail time for his criminal behavior and his victim/survivors stand ready for the moment in which they can face their accuser and reclaim their lives. I say, good for them!

Zyprexa has been approved by the FDA for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Yet, the Eli Lilly drug has been used for “off label” issues since it first was introduced. This is a direct result of Eli Lilly’s overly aggressive marketing campaign. The pharmaceutical company has made a ton of money on Zyprexa at the expense of the consumer, so much that it can afford lawsuits and still turn a handsome profit. Lilly has done its homework. What’s a few nuisance lawsuits when it’s hauling in $13 billion in sales. So what if patients are likely to develop diabetes. It’s all about the profits.

In a late Halloween day recall, the Centers for Disease Control has issued a recall of fake Halloween teeth that contain excessive amount of lead. The teeth, sold as Ugly Teeth, have been sold for the past year and sales exceed tens of thousands of product. Once again, the product was manufactured in China. According to a story in the NY Times, the lead discovery was made by a chemistry professor at Ashland University in Ohio. The fake teeth contained 100 times the amount of lead considered safe for public use.
On the same day, the CDC also announced a toy recall of products sold by Toys R Us. The recall included four Elite Operations toy sets: the Command Patrol Center, the Barracuda Helicopter, the Super Rigs set and a three-pack of eight-inch figures. These toys were also manufactured in China.

When the popular Medtronic Sprint Fidelis defibrillator was voluntarily withdrawn from the market, some industry officials praised the medical device maker for proactively removing a potentially dangerous product from the market. Two weeks later, Medtronic’s decision is coming under scrutiny. The Sprint Fidelis problem surfaced in January 2007 after pacemaker patients began complaining of multiple electrical shocks. Their cardiologists checked hospital records and notified Medtronic of the problem. On March 21, 2007 Medtronic sent a “Dear Doctor” letter stating that the company had received reports of fracture rates in the Sprint Fidelis 6949 and that a limited number of doctors had experienced fracture problems. The Medtronic letter intimated that the fractures were a result of improper procedure on the part of the doctors. However, some cardiologists disagreed with Medtronic’s insinuation. Notably, Dr. Robert G. Hauser, who had been instrumental in triggering the Guidant pacemaker recall, and Linda Kallinen, Minneapolis Heart Institute’s director, combed the data and found similar fractures in the leads of the Sprint Fidelis defibrillator.
It’s disturbing to note that Medtronic had known that the fractured lead wires had been linked to 5 deaths since August 2006 but failed to act until the situation became a crisis in October 2007.

Cellcept, a drug used in heart, liver, and kidney transplant patients, has been linked to miscarriages and birth defects in female users of child-bearing age, according to the FDA. Cellcept, an immunosuppressant drug, already carries a black box warning is designed to keep the immune system from attacking the new organ. Roche, the manufacturer of Cellcept, has sent a letter to health officials, urging women to obtain a negative pregnancy test prior to beginning a regimen of Cellcept.

Another food item has been recalled due to improper labeling of the product’s ingredients. This time the culprit is Bell’s Fishery of Michigan. Their Whitefish pate has been recalled because the product’s label failed to disclose that the pate contains milk, soy, and egg products. For someone who has an allergy to one or all of these ingredients a mistake like this can be deadly. This type of food problem is as dangerous and worrisome as the food contamination recalls we seen with contaminated spinach, lettuce, and peanut butter.

The FDA has publicly criticized Aventis, the manufacturer of the antibiotic Ketek for not taking action about safety reports it had concerning the risk of serious liver damage. The critical letter was posted on the FDA website. Ketek was approved for use in 2004. The doctor who signed up the most patients for clinical trials plead guilty to fraud. Ketek’s problems come in the midst of an increasing awareness of how drug companies sometimes hide unfavorable data from consumers and health officials in order to increase profits.

Citing the risk for heart attacks, the FDA is pushing Glaxo Smith Kline, the maker of Avandia, to put the strongest possible warning on its Avandia labels. Avandia already carries a black box warning for heart failure. The new warning would be more serious in that it would warn doctors and consumers about the potential risk for heart attacks. An FDA analysis of multiple studies found that Avandia poses a 38% increase in the risk of ischemic incidents. An ischemic event occurs when blood flow is cut off from the heart resulting in subsequent heart attacks.

Five years ago, the federal government decided to increase safety measures concerning the manufacture and processing of foods. Yet, the procedures are not working as had hoped. In the last month, Topps Meat Co. went out of business after its ground beef patties were found to be contaminated with the deadly e coli bacteria. Previous food contamination cases involved spinach, lettuce, and ice cream. This has led some industry analysts to conclude that the new safety measures enacted five years ago are not being enforced in all food processing plants. This poses a serious threat to consumers and their health as well as consumer confidence in the grocery market.