“It’s premature to say this is catastrophic,” said Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry, ” I will say that this is very serious,” quoted the Washington Post, as more oil leaked from the site of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) estimated Wednesday night that up to 5,000 [...]

U.S. District Judge Eldon E. Fallon has awarded over $164,000 to a family in a defective Chinese drywall case. The home was ruined by the tainted drywall, wrote the Associated Press (AP) . The ruling was made yesterday by the same judge who previously awarded $2.6 million to plaintiffs in the first Chinese drywall lawsuit [...]

After an aerial bird’s eye view of thick reddish-orange streaks of oil covering a massive area in the Gulf of Mexico, Florida governor, Charlie Crist, says: Not now, no way, writes the Associated Press (AP). The massive oil spill from last week’s blast and collapse of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig was a sobering experience [...]

Southwest Floridians were wondering why strong odors of color crayons were wafting about late Monday night. Some described the smell as melting plastic or lamp oil. Complaints and concerns came from Cape Coral to Everglades City and everywhere in between. Strong winds from the west since Sunday could connect the odor to the massive oil [...]

Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry, the Coast Guard’s on-scene coordinator for the Louisiana oil spill disaster, indicated a “controlled burn” will be implemented to contain the massive oil spill inching closer to ecologically sensitive Louisiana coastal areas. Admiral Landry said previously, “We fully understand there are benefits and trade-offs,”quoted The New York Times. The spill [...]

Today, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) issued a warning concerning faulty components in 14 models of external defibrillators, manufactured by Cardiac Science Corp.of Bothell, Wash. External defibrillators send an electric shock to the heart to restore normal heart rhythm during sudden cardiac arrest. But according to the FDA, 280,000 external defibrillators used worldwide in [...]

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand wants uncontaminated food on every table..something presently lacking. The Senator hopes U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack will classify six more strands of E. coli dangerous adulterants. This would require USDA testing in the same manner the most common form, E.coli O157:H7, is now tested. In addition to [...]

Effective May 1, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is changing the way its experts review and discuss information and data regarding medical devices before approving for the general market. The changes resulted from numerous related advisory panel meetings: In 2008, there were 10 meetings covering 14 major topics; in 2009, 17 meetings on 20 [...]

A Texas widow, whose husband died in a 2003 Toyota roll over accident, wants a federal court to reopen a liability lawsuit against Toyota Motor Corp. after allegations from the automaker’s former in-house attorney, Dimitrios P. Biller, that ‘relevant information during discovery’ was routinely withheld. Raida Hindi hopes a  judge will sanction Toyota and force [...]

Industry and science often do not agree. Such is the case with bisphenol A (BPA), the controversial plastic hardener, deemed by scientific studies to cause a myriad of troubling health effects. Now, various influential business groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the massive food industry, are threatening to curtail support from a pending [...]