FDA Weighs Mercury Use in Tooth Fillings

FDA to Review Science Behind Ruling on Mercury in Dental Fillings
© physorg.com Mercury in dental fillings Consumer and dental groups challenged the FDA's analysis that determined mercury released from fillings doesn't cause harm. Less than 18 months after concluding that mercury in dental fillings was not harmful to patients, the Food and Drug Administration is reviewing the scientific basis for its decision. A panel of outside experts will meet next week to consider challenges from four consumer and dental groups to the analysis that FDA used to jus...

FDA cracks down on illegal supplements
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on manufacturers of certain Weight Loss, body building and sexual enhancement supplements that contain potentially dangerous ingredients. The FDA said Wednesday that some manufacturers are deceptively labeling products to hide that they contain ingredients known to cause adverse health effects. Other supplements contain ingredients that should only be available by prescription. "These tainted products can cause serious adverse...

FDA cracks down on illegal supplements
The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on manufacturers of certain Weight Loss, body building and sexual enhancement supplements that contain potentially dangerous ingredients. The FDA said Wednesday that some manufacturers are deceptively labeling products to hide that they contain ingredients known to cause adverse health effects. Other supplements contain ingredients that should only be available by prescription. Dietary supplements can slip through the regulatory cracks because, u...

FDA cracks down on illegal supplements
WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is cracking down on manufacturers of certain Weight Loss, body building and sexual enhancement supplements that contain potentially dangerous ingredients. The FDA said Wednesday that some manufacturers are deceptively labeling products to hide that they contain ingredients known to cause adverse health effects. Other supplements contain ingredients that should only be available by prescription. Dietary supplements can slip through the regulato...

Michael Steele Faces Backlash From GOP
CBS News: In the wake of Michael Steele's Monday night announcement that, after much speculation to the contrary, he will be seeking re-election to chair the Republican National Committee (RNC), a number of influential Party Leaders made it clear that they would be actively seeking an alternative. Read the whole story: CBS News Get HuffPost Politics On Twitter and Facebook! Subscribe to the HuffPost Hill newsletter! Know something we don't? E-mail us at huffpolitics@huffingto...

Report: Katie Couric Could Bolt CBS Evening News For A Daytime Talk Show
Broadcasting & Cable’s Paige Albiniak reports, syndicators are very interested in negotiating a daytime TV deal for CBS Evening News anchor Katie Couric, “should renewing her contract with CBS not pan out.” Couric’s deal-which reportedly pays the former TODAY host $15 million a year-is set to run out next May. Sensing an opportunity “multiple syndicators” have approached Couric, Albiniak reports, to talk about “the daytime option.”...

Robert Gibbs Believes Congress will Read 1924-page Omnibus Bill; Gets Laughed At by Press Video 12/14/10
Here is video of White House Press Secretary telling the Press Corps that many members of Congress will be up late reading the 1924-page Omnibus Spending Bill between now and the 22nd or 23rd of December. CBS News’ Mark Knoller asked Gibbs if he really believed they would read that, and Gibbs responded that he “takes them at their word.” This drew laughter from the White House Press Corps. ...

End of Schwarzenegger era draws new media interest
When movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger became Governor of California seven years ago, the world's media descended on Sacramento to chronicle what they saw as a startling, only-in-California event. Dozens of television crews and newspaper reporters covered Schwarzenegger's election and inauguration - including those from Austria, his native country, and from as far away as Indonesia. By and by, global media interest in Schwarzenegger waned but as he enters the last days of his governorship, it's...

Scientists: Toxic toys need fresh solution
Published: Dec. 15, 2010 at 7:32 PM ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The U.S. government has recalled more than 17 million toys since 2007 due to high levels of lead in what researchers call a toxic toy crisis. Monica Becker, Sally Edwards and Rachel Massey say their report, published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology, says the trend raises concern about the problem of toxic substances in toys and other Children's products, many of which are made overseas. The substances include...

David Leonhardt: Obama-Care on Same Level as Civil Rights
David Leonhardt is not happy with a judge’s ruling a vital part of Obama-care - the individual Insurance mandate - is Unconstitutional. In his latest front-page “Economic Scene” column, “In Health Law, Old Arguments Get New Airing,” the paper’s neo-liberal conscience on economic matters compared conservative opposition to Obama-care not only to past opposition to Medicare, but to opposition to Civil Rights for black Americans. “We are agains...

Concerns over basic child surgery
Many English district general Hospitals can no longer provide basic surgery for Children, a review has found. Complex surgery for everything from Cancer to trauma care is increasingly being done in specialist hospitals. This leaves local Hospitals to concentrate on more minor issues such as Appendicitis, abscesses and hernias. But the report by the Royal College of Surgeons showed more than half of the 305 Hospitals in England no longer carried out basic emergency operations. All the Hospitals r...

Parents group criticizes heavy sexual content on TV
On a recent episode of the CBS comedy "Two and a Half Men," it is implied that Jake, the teenage son of Alan's character, is having Threesomes with some of his female classmates. Like everything else in the raunchy Sitcom, it is played for laughs and no actual sexual acts are depicted. Not laughing, though, is the Parents Television Council. The Los Angeles-based nonprofit media Watchdog group which has made a business out of monitoring television content, released a study Wednes...

FDA's decision on cancer drug means life or death for patients
By: By Dr. Robert Goldberg 12/14/10 8:05 PM December17th is D-Day for Breast Cancer patients. That's when the FDA is expected to announce whether it will rescind approval of Avastin for the treatment of late-stage breast Cancer. This decision will have consequences beyond the 17,500 Breast Cancer patients who are prescribed this drug annually. If the FDA denies Avastin, the agency will be allowing politics to trump good medicine. Avastin is a cutting-edge drug that staves off cancer by cutting...

Cannabis Science Signs Lease for New 6,600 sq. ft. Corporate Headquarters and Laboratory Facility
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo., Dec. 14, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Cannabis Science, Inc. (OTC Bulletin Board: CBIS) a pioneering U.S. Biotech company developing pharmaceutical cannabis products, is pleased to announce it has signed a lease for a new corporate headquarters as its new base of operations in Denver, Colorado. The 6,600 sq. ft. core facility at 2422 S. Trenton Way, Unit H will be dedicated to housing executive offices, administrative personnel, as well as the Lab Division core of operations for...

Consumer Updates - Tainted Products Marketed as Dietary Supplements
3) Call 1-888-603-9606. Passcode is "FDA1" Replays are generally available one hour after a call ends. To view slideshow with captions, click the full screen icon , then select "Show Info" in the upper right corner. On Dec. 15, 2010, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) took new steps aimed at keeping consumers safe from harmful products that are marketed as dietary supplements and that contain undeclared or deceptively labeled ingredients. FDA has found that these products...

Artificial Sweeteners
What are artificial sweeteners and how are they regulated in the United States? Artificial sweeteners, also called sugar substitutes, are substances that are used instead of sucrose (table sugar) to sweeten foods and beverages. Because artificial sweeteners are many times sweeter than table sugar, smaller amounts are needed to create the same level of sweetness. Artificial sweeteners are regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The FDA, like the National Cancer Institute (NCI),...

Saccharin Saga: EPA Finally Agrees It's Not Hazardous
Back in the 1970s, the Food and Drug Administration sought to ban the sale of the artificial sweetener saccharin on the precautionary grounds that some studies had found that it increased the risk of Bladder Cancer in rodents. It took an act of Congress to prevent this ban. From Nexis, a 1977 Associated Press story sums up what was happening: President Carter signed Legislation Wednesday postponing for 18 months the Food and Drug Administration's proposed ban on the use of saccharin as an artif...

`Fat` versus `obese'
Nearly ten percent Unemployment is nothing to write home about, but hey, it means at least nine out of ten workers have a job. The statistic gets much, much worse for certain demographics. Take black workers: 16.0% unemployment. Construction... Will FDA's tough stance on Obesity drive developers away? The LA Times took the temperature of some of the leaders in the Obesity and weight-loss field and found they were running a high fever when it comes to the FDA's review of new drugs designed to sp...

Finally, The Black Scourge Of Four Loko Is Off The Nations Store Shelves
Our long national nightmare is over. An alcopop that’s built up a cult following is being removed from US stores in its current form today on the orders of the Food and Drug Administration. The passing of the popular drink has been mourned with almost religious fervour by its fans. But it will now disappear in its current formulation Four Loko has as much caffeine as a large coffee and is about three times as alcoholic - at 12% - as average-strength beer. There were reports tha...

The FDA Finally Reveals How Many Antibiotics Factory Farms Use
© Cistal These cattle are eating more than grain - Antibiotics are routinely part of their feed. Animals in factory farms get daily doses of antibiotics, both to keep them alive in their stressful, unsanitary conditions and to make them grow faster. What's the annual volume of antibiotic use on factory farms? The question is a critical one, because the practice has given rise to a novel strain of antibiotic-resistant staph (MRSA), known as ST398, that's widely present in our vast hog and ...

Consumer Updates - Hidden Risks of Erectile Dysfunction
Men looking online for "dietary supplements" to treat erectile dysfunction (ED) or enhance their sexual performance should beware: these products may contain Prescription Drugs or other undisclosed ingredients that can be harmful. "The number of these problematic products available on the Internet appears to be increasing," says Michael Levy, director of the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Division of New Drugs and Labeling Compliance. The division is part of the Office of Compliance (OOC) ...

Public Health Focus - Update on Caffeinated Alcoholic Beverages
Since issuing the Warning Letters, the FDA has had discussions with all four companies. As a result of those discussions, significant progress has been made. Phusion Projects has advised the FDA that it has ceased producing caffeinated alcoholic beverages, is no longer shipping such products, and expects to have all of its caffeinated alcoholic beverages off retail store shelves by December 13. Phusion Projects is the maker of Four Loko. United Brands has informed FDA that it has ceased shippin...

Alcopop dubbed ‘blackout in a can’ removed from US stores today
An alcopop that’s built up a cult following is being removed from US stores in its current form today on the orders of the Food and Drug Administration. The passing of the popular drink has been mourned with almost religious fervour by its fans. But it will now disappear in its current formulation Four Loko has as much caffeine as a large coffee and is about three times as alcoholic - at 12% - as average-strength beer. There were reports that students were becoming dangerous...

U.S. Marshals Seize FDA-regulated Food Stored at Rodent-Infested Warehouse in New Mexico
Source: U.S. Food and Drug Administration U.S. Marshals Seize FDA-regulated Food Stored at Rodent-Infested Warehouse in New Mexico Silver Spring, Md., Dec. 13, 2010 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- U.S. Marshals, acting under a court order sought by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, today seized chili pods, ground chili, crushed chili, and other chili products located in the rodent-infested food warehouse owned by Duran and Sons L.L.C. in Derry, New Mexico. The New Mexico Environment Department ...

FDA: Dec. 17, Countdown to a Death Panel for Breast Cancer Drug Avastin
In a few days the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to release its final decision on whether or not 17,000 women across the country will have the same access to the Breast Cancer drug Avastin that they now have. Several congressmen, thousands of doctors and patients, and many Small Government Activists stand against this perceived example of ObamaCare-like Rationing. As I reported last week, with this Avastin situation five Congressmen have become alerted to the threat that governm...