Consumerist
inspections
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inspections
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inspections
health
Recalled Heparin Contaminant Confirmed, And Congress Grills FDA On Inspections
Researchers have identified the chemical in the contaminated blood thinner Heparin that killed 81 people in the U.S. and made patients here and in Europe sick:The researchers freeze-dried the heparin and used a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze its structure. In addition to a known impurity of heparin called dermatan sulfate, they found that contaminated lots contain a molecule that looks similar to heparin and showed it was almost certainly oversulfated chondroitin sulfate.
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lawsuits
Southwest Passengers Sue Over Missed Inspections
The AP is reporting that four Southwest passengers have filed a federal lawsuit alleging that Southwest broke its contract with passengers by skipping important safety inspections... over a period of six years. More »
rust
Toyota Announces Tacoma Buyback Program For Severe Rust Corrosion
If you own a Tacoma made between 1995 and 2000, Toyota would like to inspect it free of charge—and if the rust corrosion is severe enough, they will either repair the truck on their dime or buy it back as a vehicle in "excellent condition" no matter what state it's really in. Toyota announced this a little over a month ago and said thy would start sending letters to Tacoma owners in the weeks to come, so if you haven't received yours yet, be on the lookout for it. More »
airlines
Delta Canceling 275 Flights Through Friday To Complete Wiring Inspections
It's official—Delta has said they're canceling a total of 275 flights, or about 3% of their worldwide schedule (we don't know what the US percentage is), to complete inspections of wiring in 117 planes. To check whether your flight is impacted, visit this page on Delta's site. More »
airlines
Delta Says It May Cancel More Flights Today Over Inspection Issues
Delta will announce sometime today whether or not it will ground more of its planes to perform additional inspections, reports CNN. Yesterday, while American Airlines was grounding 200 of its planes for safety inspections, Delta also canceled an unnamed number of flights. Both airlines' renewed focus on safety inspections comes after reports that Southwest Airlines was caught flying planes that hadn't met inspection guidelines.More »
FAA orders more inspections of potentially sketchy older "Boeing 737 jetliners after numerous reports of fuel leaks caused by a potentially faulty bolt," says the Associated Press. [AP]
scandals
Did FAA Allow Southwest To Fly Unsafe Planes To Avoid Flight Disruptions?
Yesterday the FAA sought $10.2 million in civil damages from Southwest Airlines for neglecting to inspect the fuselages of 46 of its planes. In documents the FAA submitted to Congress, it alleges "the airline flew at least 117 of its planes in violation of mandatory safety checks" over a 30 month period. Southwest says its passengers were never in danger, and that it was an honest oversight that they caught on their own and revealed to the FAA—but (here's where it gets interesting) an FAA inspector has testified that Southwest continued to fly a plane after he discovered the failed inspections and notified them. Now the U.S. Department of Transportation and Congress are asking why the FAA didn't ground the planes as soon as they knew about the missed inspections, and a couple of FAA whistleblowers are leaking internal docs to the press. Only after the issue became public knowledge did the FAA seek civil damages.More »
quality control
Christmas Cracker Contains Dead Mouse
See, this is why we don't pull apart "crackers" on Christmas in the U.S.—a New Zealand woman found a dead, partially decomposed mouse in hers earlier this week during her family's Christmas celebration. "I had said to my granddaughter 'what's the smell' and we couldn't work it out until we pulled the cracker." Then: Merry Christmas! There's a dead mouse in yer lap! "It ruined my appetite for the rest of the day," she told her local paper. More »
toy safety
NJ Toy Inspectors Performing Spot-Checks At Retail Level
To pick up slack from the undersized/overwhelmed CPSC, states are stepping up to help increase toy safety locally. New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Vermont, Illinois and California have been taking "aggressive measures," from suing manufacturers to escalating state recalls to the federal level. Newsday describes how New Jersey worked with charities and educators during toy drives to make them aware of recalled toys. The state also assigned 15 state inspectors to a toy safety task force, and over the past month, the inspectors "fanned out across the state with assistance from county health department workers to test products and check for recalled toys. More »
food safety
FDA Is So Underfunded It Can't Protect Consumers
Today, an advisory panel to the FDA will present its findings developed over the past year. The result is "a scathing review of the state of the FDA" that says it's "so underfunded and understaffed that it's putting U.S. consumers at risk in terms of food and drug safety." More »
government
White House Is Proposing Its Own Version Of Product Safety Plan
Today the White House will announce its own plan for how to tighten the country's slack product safety practices. The proposal is being offered as an alternative to the one Congress has come up with, which the White House—along with industry trade groups and Consumer Product Safety Commission head Nancy A. Nord—think is too mean to manufacturers.The White House version suggests stationing inspectors in other countries to inspect goods before they are shipped to U.S. shores, because "with $2 trillion in imports annually, inspections at the ports had become ineffective." We're not sure how the math works on that one—unless sharks or pirates consume large amounts of imports during transit, the same number of goods leave foreign ports and arrive at ours, and having inspectors all in one place where they can work together, instead of spread out in each foreign country, seems a more efficient use of resources. But we're probably just stupid from too much lead. More »
food safety
Russia has banned the import of chicken and pork from 30 U.S. facilities in the wake of a midsummer audit. Russia has not disclosed what, if anything, the audits uncovered, according to a concerned spokesman from the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.
Russia Bans Import Of U.S. Chicken, Pork
Russia has banned the import of chicken and pork from 30 U.S. facilities in the wake of a midsummer audit. Russia has not disclosed what, if anything, the audits uncovered, according to a concerned spokesman from the USA Poultry and Egg Export Council.All of the banned poultry plants were major suppliers of U.S. poultry to Russia and are some of the most efficient facilities in the country, the export council said.More »
food safety
House Investigators: The Chinese Government Can't Protect Its Own Citizens, Let Alone Ours
Investigators from the House Energy and Commerce Committee spent two weeks snooping around China and probably haven't eaten since. Their investigation revealed a tattered regulatory framework, unable to protect Chinese citizens, let alone foreigners. Among the disturbing facts uncovered: More »
unlikely plans
Robots And Science Will Keep Our Food Safe
The Administration envisions a future where science and technology keep our food supply safe and secure. The multi-agency working group tasked with improving food safety has yet to agree on final recommendations, but both interest groups and the Administration seem dead set against new inspectors. Instead, the working group wants to build upon the current system of random inspections to better target potential dangers among the $2.2 trillion worth of goods imported each year. More »
recalls
E.Coli Kills Topps Meat Company
Seventeen days after Topps launched the second largest meat recall in U.S. history, the 67-year-old company announced that it's going out of business. Topp's COO told American Agriculturist:"In one week we have gone from the largest U.S. manufacturer of frozen hamburgers to a company that cannot overcome the economic reality of a recall this large... We want to thank our loyal employees and customers who have supported us throughout the 67 years in which Topps Meat has been in business," D'Urso said. "Topps has always prided itself on providing the utmost quality and safety and never had a recall in our history until now. This has been a shocking and sobering experience for everyone."More »
food safety
Meat Industry Showing Signs Of Larger Problems
This summer, almost 6 million pounds of beef were recalled due to E. coli contamination. Last week, almost 22 million pounds of frozen hamburger meat were recalled after reports surfaced of E. coli infections. It was the biggest meat recall in 10 years, and "the American Meat Institute (AMI) says it noticed a slight rise in positive E. coli tests by the government this summer," says a USA Today article. In fact, 2007 is the first time in 3 years that the rate of positive USDA sample-tests have gone up. At the same time, the Chicago Tribune reports that in July, a congressman from Minnesota slipped a special measure into the 2007 farm bill that would reduce the need for federal inspections for small meat producers. More »
news from the swamp
