A lawsuit was filed against two northern railroad companies this week by the family of a Chicago woman who was hit by a train and killed. Katie Ann Lunn died in the train accident earlier this year when an Amtrak train hit her SUV, which was stopped on the tracks…
In treating diabetes, it might not matter much whether the Food and Drug Administration halts sales of the drug Avandia. An FDA committee of outside experts met last week to provide advice on whether any regulatory action — from stronger warnings to removal — is needed. The FDA has the…
The trouble started in April 2009, when nurses, Anne Mitchell and Vickilyn Galle, sent an unsigned letter to the Texas Medical Board outlining concerns about Dr. Rolando G. Arafiles Jr., including his alleged use of herbal remedies and attempt to use hospital supplies to perform at-home procedures. Arafiles filed a…
A San Mateo County jury has ordered Caltrans and a northern California woman to pay $12.2 million to a 21-year-old girl who suffered permanent brain damage during a car accident in 2006. Gada Hassan hit Emily Liou with her car while Liou was crossing the street at a cross walk…
Patients undergoing arthroscopic shoulder surgery have received pain pumps to assist in their recovery. Now a new study suggests these pumps may deliver too much medicine, destroying cartilage and leading to a condition known as Postarthroscopic Glenohumeral Chondrolysis. A study by The American Journal of Sports Medicine identified intra-articular pain…
The New York Times (7/16, B2, Jolly, Harris) reports that UK pharmaceutical maker GlaxoSmithKline announced on July 15 that “it would take a second-quarter charge of $2.36 billion related to legal cases involving its drugs Avandia [rosiglitazone] and Paxil [paroxetine].” This announcement comes one “day after an American medical advisory…
A Texas natural gas producer’s decision to voluntarily disclose the chemicals it injects into the ground could prompt other drillers to do the same, and pave the way for regulators to require such disclosure. But Range Resources Corp.’s move also reflects the desire of industry to get out ahead of…
An FDA panel has made a recommendation to the agency that the controversial diabetes drug Avandia should either be taken off the market or its sales should be severely restricted. Avandia and its maker, GlaxoSmithKline, have recently come under fire for trial results that reveal that patients taking Avandia are…
Sugar Land-based Imperial Sugar has reached a settlement with federal regulators seeking to fine the company for safety violations after a 2008 explosion at its Georgia refinery killed 14 workers near Savannah, GA. The Feb. 7, 2008, explosion killed 14 workers and injured 36. Investigators determined that dangerous levels of…
TXI will permanently shut down its four oldest, highest-polluting cement kilns in Midlothian and will stop burning hazardous waste as fuel, the company said Tuesday. The Dallas-based company’s announcement ends an environmental battle that has raged in North Texas for decades. Midlothian became a center for the cement industry because…