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Asbestos News

Lawmakers Weigh Asbestos Lawsuit

Nearly two years after asbestos-related legislation faltered, despite Gov. Rick Perry slipping over a brass rail to try to save it, a Senate panel Monday opened debate afresh. Senate Bill 15 would require plaintiffs who claim they became sick from asbestos to present detailed medical evidence before filing a suit. More >>

W.R. Grace Indicted in Libby Asbestos Deaths

W.R. Grace & Co. and seven of its current or former executives have been indicted on federal charges that they knowingly put their workers and the public in danger through exposure to vermiculite ore contaminated with asbestos from the company's mine in Libby, Mont. More >>

Right to Sue For Asbestos May End

South Mississippi shipyard workers exposed to asbestos soon could see their right to sue taken away by Congress, with all asbestos injury compensation claims referred to a $140 billion national trust fund. More >>

Plaintiffs Ordered to Prove Residence

Three Mississippi judges have ordered more than 13,000 asbestos plaintiffs to prove they either live in Mississippi or were injured here — or their claims will be dismissed. More >>

More Asbestos News >>

Agent Orange News

Judge Dismisses Agent Orange Lawsuit

A federal judge on March 10, 2005 dismissed a lawsuit by some 4 million Vietnamese claiming that U.S. chemical companies committed war crimes by making Agent Orange for use during the Vietnam War. More >>

Vietnamese Sue Over Agent Orange

About 100 Vietnamese citizens have joined in a class-action lawsuit against more than 30 chemical companies, seeking compensation for exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. More >>

Legacy of Agent Orange

Columbia University Health Sciences Newsletter in vivo, published an issue about Agent Orange. According to the article, Mailman School of Public Health researchers have created a geographic information system (GIS) that lets researchers calculate the relative exposure opportunities of the troops to military herbicides, including Agent Orange. In the process of compiling data for the GIS, the researchers discovered that at least twice as much dioxin—the toxic contaminant in the herbicides—was dropped during the war than was previously thought. More >>

More Agent Orange News >>

Unsafe Drugs News

Dutch Researchers have Linked a Group of Rheumatoid Arthritis Drugs to Skin Problems

Humira (adalimumab), Remicade (infliximab), and Enbrel (etanercept) are mentioned in the study, which appears in the journal Arthritis Research and Therapy. More >>

J&J Adds Warning About Deaths in Reminyl Patients

Johnson & Johnson has added a new warning to the label of its Alzheimer's treatment, Reminyl, about two studies that included the deaths of 13 patients who took the drug and one who took a placebo, the company and U.S. regulators said on Friday. The deaths "were due to various causes that could be expected in the elderly population" such as heart attacks and strokes, and the findings were "highly discrepant" with other studies of Reminyl, the company said in a letter to physicians. More >>

Johnson & Johnson Changes Alzheimer's Drug Name to Avoid Confusion

New Jersey-based Johnson & Johnson will change the name of the Reminyl drug, used to treat Alzheimer's disease, to avoid confusion with another drug used to treat diabetes. More >>

FDA Issues Warning on Drug Use by Elderly

Elderly patients with dementia were significantly more likely to die prematurely if taking certain anti-psychotic drugs, the government said Monday in an advisory to health care workers and patients. More >>

Smart Drug for Lung Cancer May be Pulled From Market

Two years ago, enormous fanfare greeted the drug, Iressa, which zipped through the government approval process to become the first so-called smart drug for lung cancer patients. Such drugs home in on tumors, in contrast to many chemotherapies and radiation treatments that destroy healthy cells along with cancerous ones, often causing debilitating side effects. More >>

Study Casts More Doubt on OTC Pain Meds

Smokers who regularly took certain popular pain killers cut their risk of developing oral cancer but increased their chances of dying from heart-related problems, according to a study that raises fresh questions about the long-term use of Advil, Motrin and Aleve. The findings add to the suspicion that the heart risk extends beyond medications like Bextra, Vioxx and Celebrex to the larger family of pain relievers known as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, or NSAIDs. These include brands of ibuprofen and virtually all other over-the-counter pain pills except acetaminophen or Tylenol. More >>

FDA Asks Pfizer to Pull Bextra Off Market

The government said Thursday it has asked Pfizer Inc. to withdraw the painkiller Bextra from the market because it increases the risk of heart attack and stroke. Regulators also want all other anti-inflammatory drugs in the same class to carry the strongest safety warning possible. More >>

Pfizer Suspends Bextra Sales in U.S., Europe

Pfizer Inc. on Thursday agreed to suspend sales and marketing of its arthritis drug Bextra at the request of U.S. and European drug regulators, who said the risks outweigh the drug's benefits. More >>

FDA Seeks Drug-Warning-Label Authority

The Food and Drug Administration asked Congress for authority to dictate label changes for drugs to end the type of haggling with pharmaceutical companies that delayed warnings to Vioxx users about potential heart problems. More >>

US FDA Official Promises Early Drug Risk Warnings

U.S. regulators are moving to get drug safety warnings to patients and physicians earlier, which should limit prescribing and cut the number of dangerous side effects, a top U.S. Food and Drug Administration official told Congress. More >>

MS Drugs Linked to Problems

Biogen Idec told doctors that Avonex, an MS drug it manufactures at its facility in Research Triangle Park, was linked to severe liver damage. The same day, GlaxoSmithKline announced that the Food and Drug Administration had told the company to stop testing its experimental MS drug on patients. More >>

Safety Concerns Grow Over Pharmacy-Mixed Drugs - Patients Taking Medicines for Asthma, Emphysema are Said to be at Risk

The firms, called compounding pharmacies, make a wide variety of drugs, from dermatological treatments to injectable painkillers. While compounding technically violates federal drug law because pharmacies produce drugs without FDA approval, regulators have long allowed it because “the vast majority of pharmacies … provide a valuable medical service,” Steven Galson, the FDA's acting director for the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, told Congress in 2003. More >>

More Unsafe Drug News >>

Welding and Parkinson's News

Welders Show Elevated Rate of Parkinson Symptoms

Welders may have a higher-than-average rate of Parkinson's disease symptoms, the results of a new study suggest. More >>

Judge Declares Mistrial in Lawsuit by Welder

A hung jury this week ended the trial of what attorneys said was the first lawsuit of its kind in Texas. More >>

Parkinson's Lawsuits

December 2003 - After a jury awarded $1 million to Illinois man who said he developed Parkinson's disease from years of breathing fumes from welding rods, Cleveland has become the focal point of more than 100 similar lawsuits. More >>

More Welding and Parkinson's News >>

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