Biosite and FDA notified healthcare facilities and clinicians of the recall of Biosite® brand Triage Cardiac Panel
Biosite and the Food and Drug Administration have recently notified emergency room and hospital laboratory personnel of a Class 1 recall of the Biosite brand Triage Cardiac Panel. FDA defines a Class 1 recall as “the most serious type of recall and involves situations in which there is a reasonable probability that use of these products will cause serious injury or death. “
The Biosite ®Triage Cardiac Panel is a test used by hospitals and clinics to assist medical professionals in making the diagnosis of a heart attack. On April 27, 2009, the company sent an urgent recall notice to hospitals and clinics. Facilities were instructed to immediately stop using the tests, and to throw away all packages showing the recalled lot number. Using test kits from the defective lot may lead to false negative results in blood samples containing very low levels of the blood markers used to determine heart damage.
These inaccurate test results can possibly mean that heart attacks, especially in the early stages, were incorrectly diagnosed or missed completely as clinicians relied on incorrect test results as a part of making a correct diagnosis. The defective test kits might not have been sensitive enough to detect low levels of the blood markers to indicate that a person had a heart attack or other damage to the heart muscle.
Testing packets with the recalled lot number were sold to hospitals and clinics from January 24, 2009 through February 17, 2009. If you or a loved one has recently been treated for heart related chest pain or other heart related symptoms, and early signs of a heart attack were missed or incorrectly diagnosed, you may be entitled to compensation.
If you would like to view the complete recall notice, you may do so at:
http://www.fda.gov/medwatch/safety/2009/safety09.htm#Panel

Coal Power Plants Polluting Water, Causing Serious Health Risks

People who live near coal waste deposit sites may be at risk of suffering damaging health effects. This announcement was made recently by two environmental groups, the Environmental Integrity Project and Earthjustice, in a report which stated that coal waste has polluted water in at least 24 states and at more than 70 sites around the United States.

Coal waste, or coal ash, is a byproduct produced by coal-burning power plants, which constitute the majority of the power plants in the United States. These plants generally store coal waste in ponds or landfills. Often, the waste ponds and landfills have inadequate lining that allows chemicals from the waste to leach into drinking water.

Coal waste contains lead, arsenic, cadmium, cobalt and other harmful metals. These chemicals are known to cause cancer, liver damage, lung disease, gastrointestinal problems, birth defects, and a number of other serious injuries.

The highest risk of coal waste leaching into drinking water is near the sites of older coal waste storage facilities, as these landfills and ponds are more likely to lack liners or to have damaged liners.

Despite the toxic risks of coal combustion waste, there are no national standards for storing or disposing of it. Some states require companies that produce coal waste to obtain permits and other states monitor water for leached chemicals, however, regulations vary greatly from state to state. Even in states that do regulate coal waste, there is still a risk of leaching from older structures that have damaged liners or lack liners completely. A list of the 100 most polluting coal plants is available here.

In December, 2008, a dam at a coal plant in Harriman, Tennessee collapsed, releasing over one billion gallons of toxic coal waste over 300 acres of land, poisoning water with hazardous chemicals. While the risk of this type of disaster is serious, the risk of leaching from coal waste ponds and landfills is even more alarming, as it occurs constantly and is generally unmonitored.

Contaminated water has also been discovered recently in Crestwood, Illinois and Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, though the contaminated wells in those locations were polluted by sources other than coal waste storage sites.

See the following links for more information:

http://www.thesouthern.com/articles/2009/01/25/front_page/27857494.txt

https://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewnewspaged/articleid/2980037/pageid/2

Kidney failure associated with bowel cleansing medicines

Did you know that the medications used to cleanse your bowels before having a colonoscopy performed or other surgeries can cause you to go into kidney failure? These medications are known as Oral Sodium Phosphates; some of which are prescription medications and some of which are over-the-counter. The prescription products include Visicol and Osmo Prep and over-the-counter medications inlcude Fleet Phospho-Soda and Fleet Accu-Prep. Recently the FDA has issued black box warnings associated with many of these products. If you have taken one of these medications - Osmoprep, Visicol, Fleet Phosphosoda, or Fleet Accuprep - and have suffered kidney failure following your use of these medications, the attorneys at Schlichter, Bogard & Denton can assist you. For more information about the FDA's action involving these products, click here: http://www.fda.gov/consumer/updates/bowel_cleansers121608.html