Food And Drug Administration U S

Retired real estate developer Don Earl wasn't interested in playing detective when his cat, Chuckles, died in December of sudden and mysterious kidney failure. Earl, a resident of Port Townsend, Wash., said he suspected he knew what happened to his 6-year-old orange-and-white longhair when he heard reports of thousands of similar dog and cat illnesses last winter and the recall of tens of millions of containers of pet food. But his cat's food never made the list.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday approved a bold deep-brain implant that promises to ease the uncontrollable tremors experienced by thousands of patients with Parkinson's disease and an equally disabling disorder called "essential tremor." The deep-brain stimulator, which has been available in Europe for several years, has enabled many patients to once again eat, drink, write and perform an array of daily living activities by themselves, said Dr. Michael J.

A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle. Members of the coalition are threatening to file a lawsuit or to push for federal legislation establishing such a ban if the FDA doesn't act to do so in the coming months.

Regulators have warned Trimedyne Inc. to correct alleged deficiencies in the manufacture of its surgical lasers. On April 7, the federal U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued the Irvine company a warning letter alleging that it had failed to report information involving injuries to individuals treated with its laser systems and that it hadn't established procedures to make sure its products conform to specifications.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, reversing an earlier decision to regulate all genetically altered animals, announced on Tuesday that it sees no need to scrutinize a tropical zebra fish bioengineered to glow red and headed for sale in pet stores next month. A Texas-based company and a pair of tropical fish farms in Florida plan to market the trademarked GloFish beginning Jan.

The Food and Drug Administration, responding to concern about dangerous side effects in drugs it approved for use by millions of consumers, said Tuesday that it would create a safety board to better protect the public. The Drug Safety Oversight Board, staffed primarily by FDA and other government scientists but receiving help from outside experts as well, will focus on spotting and responding quickly to signs of problems with drugs that have been approved for market.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited Apria Healthcare Group Inc. once again for improper procedures in filling patients' oxygen canisters with liquid gas from a supply tank. On Sept. 4, federal inspectors found improperly calibrated equipment, insufficient record keeping and inadequate supervision at the home health care company's branch in Harriman, Tenn., according to a warning letter that the agency made public Tuesday.

ADD corn oil to the list of foods that the Food and Drug Administration says might be healthful. Last month, the agency said corn oil manufacturers could claim that their product might reduce the risk of heart disease, even while acknowledging that there is little scientific evidence to support the link. Called a "qualified health claim," these bragging rights raised more than a few eyebrows among nutritionists. "It's hilarious," says Marion Nestle, professor of nutrition at New York University.

When famed Houston surgeon Michael E. DeBakey went to Congress in 1963 to peddle the notion of an artificial heart, he was warmly received by two key committee chairmen, Sen. Lister Hill and Rep. John E. Fogarty. Hill's father was a surgeon and had named him after the famous physician, Joseph Lister. Fogarty also had a deeply personal interest in cardiac research: He was slowly dying from heart disease.

The government issued a new safety warning Friday for a skin patch containing a potent painkiller that has been implicated in hundreds of deaths, saying the patch poses unique risks that doctors and patients often fail to understand. The Food and Drug Administration said the widely used fentanyl patch was being wrongly prescribed by doctors and being misused by patients unaware that something as routine as taking a hot shower while wearing the patch could trigger a potentially fatal overdose.

Louisiana lawmakers Tuesday threatened the Food and Drug Administration with budget consequences if the agency followed through on a plan to ban Gulf Coast oysters harvested during warm weather that are not treated with antibacterial technology. Industry advocates said that the FDA's plan would imperil 3,500 Gulf Coast oystering jobs by imposing heavy technology costs, and that the 15 annual deaths attributed to eating untreated raw oysters were not excessive considering the volume consumed.

In an attempt to reduce the deaths and serious health problems caused by misuse of medication, the Food and Drug Administration is trying to identify the most serious threats and find ways to avoid them. About 1.5 million preventable "adverse drug events" occur in the United States every year, according to a 2007 study by the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences. Aside from the toll on health, the errors cost an estimated $4 billion a year, the study found.

A fight is brewing over the practice of feeding chicken feces and other poultry farm waste to cattle. A coalition of food and consumer groups that includes Consumers Union and the Center for Science in the Public Interest has asked the Food and Drug Administration to ban the practice. McDonald's Corp., the nation's largest restaurant user of beef, also wants the FDA to prohibit the feeding of so-called poultry litter to cattle. Members of the coalition are threatening to file a lawsuit or to push for federal legislation establishing such a ban if the FDA doesn't act to do so in the coming months.

Allergan Inc., maker of wrinkle treatment Botox, is challenging the government's ban on marketing off-label uses for pharmaceuticals. In a lawsuit filed Thursday, the Irvine company argued that it should be allowed to give doctors information about using Botox for treatments not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, including bladder problems, muscle spasms and headaches. Botox is approved by the FDA for use cosmetically as a wrinkle treatment and medically for eye-muscle disorders, excessive underarm sweating and cervical dystonia in adults, which causes abnormal head positions and neck pain.

Two of the three largest U.S. tobacco companies sued Monday to block marketing restrictions in a law that gives the Food and Drug Administration authority over tobacco, alleging the provisions violate their right to free speech. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., maker of Camel cigarettes, and Lorillard Inc., which sells the Newport menthol brand, filed the suit in District Court in Bowling Green, Ky., with several other tobacco companies. It is the first major challenge of the legislation, which was enacted in June.

Farming and ranching representatives appeared before a congressional panel Thursday to express concern that a major bill pending in the House could unnecessarily complicate the marketplace without improving food safety. Amid recent health scares involving cookie dough and pistachios, the Obama administration has pledged to modernize the food safety system. Lawmakers are considering the Food Safety Enhancement Act of 2009, aimed at broadening the Food and Drug Administration's powers.

In a historic shift in public health policy, Congress is poised to give the federal government sweeping new authority to regulate the manufacturing of cigarettes and other tobacco products. The legislation, long resisted by the tobacco industry, could allow consumers to see for the first time what chemicals and other additives tobacco companies put in their products.

The Food and Drug Administration announced Wednesday that it would allow 17-year-olds to buy the emergency contraceptive pill Plan B without a prescription, signaling a major shift in the agency's approach to what has been a polarizing debate on reproductive rights.

Peanut Corp. of America, the company that produced the contaminated peanut butter now being widely recalled, lied to Food and Drug Administration investigators about shipping batches of the food known to be tainted with salmonella bacteria, the agency said Friday. The company had previously told the FDA that some lots of peanut butter had initially tested positive for the bacterium, then were retested and found to be negative before they were shipped.

Members of a Senate panel rebuked federal health and food safety regulators Thursday for slow intervention in the nation's peanut-borne salmonella outbreak, demanding that officials find ways to cooperate when responsibility is split among different agencies. "All of this happened because of a failure -- the failure of our government to prevent unsafe food from entering the food chain," Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.