Federal safety regulators are warning parents about some toy dart gun sets that have killed two children. About 1.8 million of the dart gun sets, which were sold at Family Dollar Stores, are being recalled today.

According to the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), these toys have already killed a 9-year-old boy in Chicago and a 10-year-old boy in Milwaukee. Both were chewing on the one-inch, soft-plastic darts, which slipped into their throats. The small suction cup part of the dart cut off their breathing. (more…)

It seems the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was not undergoing inspection as much as the federal Mineral and Management Services (MMS) said it should. The agency had mandated inspections once a month, but according to the Associated Press, that rarely happened. In fact, the frequency of the agency’s inspections of Deepwater Horizon also fell dramatically over the past five years.

The Associated Press has tried to ascertain how often MMS inspectors had visited Deepwater Horizon prior to last month’s explosion, but numbers from the agency keep changing. At first, officials said 83 inspections had been performed since the rig arrived in the Gulf 104 months ago, in September 2001. They then revised that number to 88. The number of more recent inspections also changed — from 26 to 48 in the 64 months since January 2005. (more…)

A congressional panel is opening an investigation into McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s recent recall of children’s over-the-counter medicines.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is investigating conflicting accounts of what prompted the recall, as well as McNeil’s handling of consumer complaints. It wants to look at a chronology of events leading up to the recall, as well investigation reports from both McNeil and the Food & Drug Administration (FDA). It also plans to ask the FDA for its procedures governing routine inspections of over-the-counter drug makers and recalls. (more…)

BP will soon attempt to move a huge steel and concrete containment dome into place on the ocean floor in an attempt to stop one of leaks spawned Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The dome, one of two planned for the stricken well, should be in place by Monday – but there are no guarantees it will work.

Crews have been able to stop one of three leaks responsible for the oil spill. But that has not slowed the flow of oil, and more than 200,000 gallons of crude a day continues to gush from the well. (more…)

Serious deficiencies at a McNeil Consumer Healthcare manufacturing facility in Pennsylvania could have caused bacterial contamination of raw materials in dozens of children’s over-the-counter medicines that were recalled last week, according to a report from the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA).

McNeil said it is making all efforts to correct the problems its Fort Washington, PA plant and has shut down production of 50 over-the-counter medications made at the facility. The FDA will follow up on the corrections and will make a decision then as to whether it should take further action against McNeil. (more…)

A little progress has been made in containing the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Associated Press is reporting that BP has managed to cap one of three leaks that lay 5,000 feet below the ocean’s surface. Unfortunately, the report said that would not slow the overall flow of oil from the well.

For once, weather does seem to be cooperating with cleanup and containment crews. The better weather will allow crews to begin a controlled burn of certain parts of the spill today. According to the Times, the weather is expected to hold the spill off shore for at least the next few days. However, there are concerns that the slick could come in contact with the Gulf Loop Current. If that happens, the oil spill could make its way to the Florida Keys into the Atlantic Ocean. (more…)

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) is making Baxter International recall its Colleague infusion pumps. According to the agency, the Colleague Infusion Pump recall order is based on Baxter’s longstanding failure to correct many serious problems with the devices, including battery failures and software errors.

The FDA believes there may be as many as 200,000 Colleague infusion pumps currently in use. Baxter Colleague infusion pumps have been associated with 56,000 complaints of injuries, deaths and malfunctions from 2005 to 2009, the agency said. (more…)

Federal health regulators have warned that a class of prostate cancer drugs called Gonadotropin-Releasing Hormone (GnRH) agonists have been associated with a small increase in the risk of diabetes, heart attack and strokes.

Prostate cancer is the second most common type of cancer among men in the U.S. This year an estimated 203,415 new cases of prostate cancer will be diagnosed and about 28,372 men will die from the disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (more…)

BP has still not been able to stop oil from gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, two weeks after the deadly explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

Crews in Louisiana have finished building the first of three massive steel and concrete containment domes the company plans to lower in place over one of the three leaks on the ocean floor. BP expects to load the dome aboard a ship tomorrow for transport to the site. BP also has started drilling a relief well that could cap the oil spill, but that effort will take up to three months to complete, Reuters said. (more…)

More than 40 over-the-counter children’s medications are being recalled by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a division of Johnson & Johnson because of manufacturing deficiencies which may affect quality, purity or potency.

According to the recall notice, some of the children’s drugs included in the recall may contain a higher concentration of active ingredient than is specified; others may contain inactive ingredients that may not meet internal testing requirements; and others may contain tiny particles. While the potential for serious medical events is remote, consumers who have purchased these recalled products are advised to discontinue use. (more…)