Heparin Victims Testify on Hill

(AP) - Congress struck the US government's strongest anti-smoking blow in decades today with a Senate vote to give regulators new power to limit nicotine in cigarettes, drastically curtail ads, and ban candied tobacco products aimed at young people. Cigarette foes say the changes could cut into the 400,000 deaths every year caused by smoking and reduce the $100 billion in annual health-care costs linked to tobacco. More»

FDA traces tainted Chinese blood thinner that killed 81

(NEWSER) - The FDA has traced a contaminated blood thinner from a Chinese factory to 11 countries, the New York Times reports. Severe reactions to the contaminated heparin have been linked to the deaths of 81 Americans, but it wasn't immediately clear if the drug may have triggered fatalities in other countries. Chinese officials have denied that the contamination caused any deaths and have demanded to be allowed to inspect the US plant where the heparin was packaged. More»

Dems, GOP split over regulation

(NEWSER) - Lawmakers are debating how to regulate and oversee financial institutions to prevent another Bear Stearns near-catastrophe. But exactly what that solution should look like depends on who's doing the proposing. President Bush and Wall Street say that Washington's heavy hand could hamstring the industry’s ability to innovate, reports the New York Times. Democratic lawmakers contend it’s time to tighten controls to prevent future meltdowns. More»

FDA unsure if chemical was behind reactions to blood-thinner

(NEWSER) - The Food and Drug Administration has identified the extra ingredient found in samples of Baxter’s blood-thinning drug heparin, the Wall Street Journal reports today. Some batches of the drug—recalled in January after reports of allergic reactions—contained over-sulfated chondroitin sulfate, but it is not certain that was the cause of the hundreds of reactions or 19 deaths linked to Baxter’s product. More»

CBS interview highlights nationwide epidemic of preventable deaths

(NEWSER) - Dennis Quaid has gone on record about the frightening ordeal of his newborn twins receiving massive overdoses of blood thinners, and now he's going on 60 Minutes to ratchet up his information campaign. Quaid's interview, which will be broadcast tomorrow evening, uses his own harrowing story to highlight medical errors that kill 100,000 people a year in the US. "Our kids are bleeding from every place that they've punctured," he recalled. "It was blood everywhere." More»