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August 29, 2008 |
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The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has ordered retailers to stop selling bassinets that have been linked to two infant deaths, the Washington Post reported Friday. The "close-sleeper/bedside sleeper" bassinets were made by Simplicity Inc. of Reading, Penn. The agency's safety alert was prompted by the death of a 6-month-old Kansas girl, who died from strangulation Aug. 21 after getting caught in the product's metal bars, the newspaper said. In September 2007, a 4-month-old Missouri infant became entrapped in the metal bars and died, the CPSC said. |  |
Some 900,000 of the 3-in-1 and 4-in-1 convertible bassinets may be in circulation. Their metal bars are spaced farther apart than 2 3/8 inches, which is the maximum allowed by federal law, the agency said. This warning does not cover bassinets produced recently that have fabric permanently attached over the lower bar, the CPSC added.
The agency issued the warning after SFCA, the company that bought now-defunct Simplicity's assets earlier this year, refused to issue a recall, the Post reported. The warning was issued under sweeping new authority granted the agency by a two-week-old law called the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.
While the agency has the authority to mandate a recall, doing so generally takes some time. As a result, most product recalls are voluntarily issued by the manufacturers or distributors, the Post said.
An attorney for SFCA said his company was cooperating with the government. Because it had merely purchased Simplicity's assets, SFCA didn't "take on the legal responsibility for the products," the newspaper reported.
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New York City's HIV Infection Rate 3 Times U.S. Average
People in New York City are contracting HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, at three times the U.S. average, the Associated Press reported.
According to the city's health department, nearly 4,800 people in New York acquired HIV in 2006, or about 72 of every 100,000 residents, the wire service said. That compares to a national rate of about 23 per 100,000.
Local health officials cited the city's large populations of gay men, blacks, and other groups that tend to have above-average incidence of HIV infection.
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Almost 1,000 People Died From Katrina: Study
Some 986 deaths in Louisiana were caused directly or indirectly by Hurricane Katrina, making it the deadliest hurricane to hit the U.S. Gulf Coast in 80 years, new research timed to the storm's third anniversary finds.
Study authors were from the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals, and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a news release, they said the leading cause of death was drowning (40 percent), followed by injury and trauma, then heart conditions.
Almost half of the victims were 75 or older. Eighty percent of the deaths occurred on the day of the storm -- Aug. 29, 2005.
"What we learned from Hurricane Katrina is that disaster preparedness efforts must focus on evacuating and caring for vulnerable populations -- particularly the elderly -- including those in hospitals, nursing homes and private residences," said lead study author Joan Brunkard of the CDC.
The study was published on the Web site of the American Medical Association's journal Disaster Medicine and Public Health Preparedness.
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Dangerous Drinking Binges Mark 21st Birthdays
College students surveyed about 21st birthday celebrations had an average of 12 drinks for men and nine for women, a University of Texas study reported by USA Today found.
Twelve of 152 students polled at the Austin campus said they had had 21 or more birthday drinks.
The consequences of extreme partying didn't end at the bar, the researchers said. Fifty-four percent of the students cited nasty hangovers. And of the 44 percent who said they blacked out, 22 percent discovered later that they had had sex, 22 percent had gotten into a fight or argument, and 39 percent couldn't explain how they had returned home, the newspaper reported.
The researchers said they knew of no national studies of 21st birthday celebrations, but cited a few studies on other campuses that had uncovered similar behavior.
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Clinical Trial Ended for Prostate Cancer Vaccine
Biotech startup Cell Genesys has ended a clinical study of its prostate cancer vaccine GVAX due to a rise in deaths among users of the vaccine compared with those taking another drug, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
"What we do not know is the reason for the imbalance in deaths," Cell Genesys CEO Stephen Sherwin was quoted as saying. He labeled the interim trial results "very disappointing and surprising news."
The Phase III trial of the vaccine had begun in 2005. Of 408 people with spreading (metastatic) prostate cancer who participated in the trial, 114 had died. Sixty-seven of those deaths involved people using GVAX and the chemotherapy drug Taxotere, while the other 47 deaths involved people taking Taxotere and the corticosteroid prednisone, the newspaper said.
Another trial, which will continue, uses GVAX by itself. Participants in that trial are said to be generally healthier than those in the discontinued study, the Chronicle reported.
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Published on: 08/29/2008
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