Product Contamination

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing. The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable.

Chinese police detained at least five parents for 24 hours to block a news conference at which they planned to publicize the plight of their children, who are suffering from kidney stones as a result of drinking tainted baby formula. The parents were seized about 11:30 p.m. Thursday and taken to a hotel often used by police as a temporary detention center on the outskirts of Beijing.

Ayurvedic medicines -- herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years in India and increasingly popular in the West -- are frequently contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published today. A fifth of the nearly 200 concoctions tested contained levels of the toxic metals that, if taken at the maximum recommended doses, would surpass California's safety guidelines. Dr. Robert Saper, a Boston University professor of family medicine who led the study, said the findings should spur the Food and Drug Administration to start clamping down on the largely unregulated world of pills, herbs and powders classified as dietary supplements.

Barring a reprieve, regulations set to take effect next month could force thousands of clothing retailers and thrift stores to throw away trunkloads of children's clothing. The law, aimed at keeping lead-filled merchandise away from children, mandates that all products sold for those age 12 and younger -- including clothing -- be tested for lead and phthalates, which are chemicals used to make plastics more pliable.

More than three-quarters of all the paper money in Los Angeles has some amount of cocaine or some other drug stuck to it, according to a federal appeals court decision that vividly illuminates how extensively the drug trade touches mainstream commerce. On the average, of every four bills in circulation in Los Angeles, more than three have traces of cocaine or another illicit drug stuck to the paper, according to the U.S.

An Orange County man who said he unknowingly ate a Hershey's bar infested with worms, webbing and insect eggs filed a lawsuit this week against Hershey Foods Corp. and Thrifty Payless Inc. Neil Gregory bought the candy bar on Oct. 18 from a Thrifty store in Buena Park and took several large bites while driving away, according to the complaint filed in Orange County Superior Court.

The Food and Drug Administration reported Saturday that it is investigating how two syringes got into separate cans of Diet Pepsi. The first syringe was discovered by an elderly couple Wednesday in Tacoma. The second was found Friday by a woman in Federal Way, a suburban city between Seattle and Tacoma. The can opened Friday had been sealed six months before the other one was sealed, said Susan Herbert, a spokeswoman for Alpac Corp., the regional Pepsi bottler and distributor.

Diane Brahams was flummoxed as she stood near the toy-car aisle at a Culver City Toys R Us on Thursday. What would be a safe present for her grandnephew who is almost 3 and loves cars? Not long ago, Brahams wouldn't have thought the paint on a modern, name-brand toy would be a threat. But with this week's recall of nearly 1 million playthings from Mattel Inc.'

Trucks carrying Coca-Cola Co. products to market today will resume deliveries in Belgium and Luxembourg, ending one chapter in the recent health scare that eventually spread to a handful of other European markets.

A 22-year-old woman has sued the Pepsi Cola Co. and a grocery store chain, alleging that a can of Pepsi she bought contained a decaying rat. Maria Del Consuelo Lazaro's lawsuit filed Friday in Orange County Superior Court claims that, while visiting family in Buena Park in July, she took a drink of Diet Pepsi that she had bought at an Albertson's only to spit out some strange matter.

Tests on bottled water turned up a variety of contaminants often found in tap water, according to a study released Wednesday by an environmental advocacy group. The findings challenge the idea that bottled water is purer than tap water, the researchers said. All the brands in the study met federal health standards, but two violated a California standard, said the Washington-based Environmental Working Group.

Ayurvedic medicines -- herbal mixtures dating back thousands of years in India and increasingly popular in the West -- are frequently contaminated with lead, mercury or arsenic, according to a study published today. A fifth of the nearly 200 concoctions tested contained levels of the toxic metals that, if taken at the maximum recommended doses, would surpass California's safety guidelines. Dr. Robert Saper, a Boston University professor of family medicine who led the study, said the findings should spur the Food and Drug Administration to start clamping down on the largely unregulated world of pills, herbs and powders classified as dietary supplements.

California's attorney general has filed suit against four manufacturers, including Whole Foods Market Inc., accusing them of failing to label soap products that contain a potentially cancer-causing chemical. The suit, filed by Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown in Alameda County Superior Court late last month, didn't name the specific body washes, gels and liquid dish soaps that allegedly contain 1,4-dioxane.

PetSmart Inc., Petco Animal Supplies Inc. and five other companies won preliminary court approval of a $24-million settlement of consumer lawsuits for selling melamine-tainted pet food. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Noel Hillman in Camden, N.J., tentatively settles about 100 suits in the U.S. and Canada. A final approval hearing is set for Oct. 14.

Panamanian investigators asked health authorities to track down patients whose names appeared on 6,000 bottles of medication contaminated with a chemical commonly found in antifreeze. The bottles were handed over to the government two years ago when at least 116 people died after using poisonous cough syrup, antihistamine tablets, calamine lotion and rash ointment made at a government laboratory. The medicines were found to be contaminated with diethylene glycol. Investigators gave the Health Ministry a report on the 6,000 bottles in hope of determining how the patients were affected and whether they still needed treatment, the attorney general's office said.

The scope of concerns about the possible ill effects of a contaminated blood thinner from China grew significantly Tuesday as federal regulators urged makers of many kinds of medical devices that contain the drug to test their supplies. The products to be tested cover a spectrum of equipment and uses.

Preliminary results from the first complete inspection of American seafood processing facilities ever conducted by the federal government reveal that as many as 20% of the samples analyzed showed evidence of microbiological contamination, decomposition and filth, The Times has learned. The as-yet unpublished findings, by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly created Office of Seafood in Washington, indicate that the seafood industry has yet to solve a host of product safety problems.

Demonstrating that reports of its impending demise were exaggerated, juice maker Odwalla Inc. on Tuesday reported a $4.8-million loss for its first fiscal quarter but also revealed a surprisingly strong balance sheet. The Half Moon Bay, Calif., company said sales rose 14% in the quarter ended Nov. 30 to $14.1 million. In the first fiscal quarter of 1996, the company reported a loss of $120,000 on sales of $12.4 million.

French, Danish and Italian authorities began recalling batches of heparin or its active ingredient that may be contaminated, becoming the latest countries to remove from shelves a blood thinner associated with at least 19 deaths. "It's a precautionary measure right now," Martin Harvey-Allchurch, a spokesman for the European Medicines Agency, said. The suspect ingredients were reportedly from China, he said. There have been no reports of related fatalities in Denmark or Italy, he said.

The investigation into a blood thinner suspected in some 19 U.S. deaths is now focusing on the possibility that raw biological ingredients were contaminated even before they reached a factory in China, manufacturer Baxter Healthcare Corp. said Friday. That raises the prospect that the problem could have occurred somewhere along a supply chain that includes layers of middlemen and originates in pig farms. Heparin, a generic medication, is derived from a substance in the lining of pig intestines.