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Abbott Must Pay $495 Million in Premature Infant Formula Trial, Jury Finds
A jury on Friday found that Abbott Laboratories’ (ABT.N) specialized formula for premature infants caused an Illinois girl to develop a dangerous bowel disease, ordering the healthcare company to pay $495 million in damages.
The verdict in St. Louis, Missouri state court comes in the first trial against the company out of hundreds of similar claims over the formula pending in courts around the country, which Reuters viewed via Courtroom View Network.
Illinois resident Margo Gill, who brought the case against Abbott, alleged that the company failed to warn that its formula could cause a potentially deadly disease called necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in premature babies. The jury awarded her $95 million in compensatory damages and $400 million in punitive damages.
The jury verdict was not unanimous and was supported by 9 of the 12 jurors in the case. To return a verdict in a civil case in Missouri, three-fourths of jurors must agree.
More Ground Cinnamon Recalled for Lead Contamination
ALB Flavor brand cinnamon powder is being voluntarily recalled because it may be contaminated with elevated levels of lead, according to the Food and Drug Administration.
The cinnamon product, distributed by ALB-USA Enterprises of the Bronx, New York, was sent to retailers in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan and New York. The cinnamon is branded under the ALB Flavor name and is packaged in a plastic bag with a net weight of 100 grams. It features a brown carton packaging with an image of cinnamon powder and two cinnamon sticks centered at the bottom, the FDA said. Consumers are urged to stop using it and return to the store for a refund.
The recall, which was issued Friday, follows a separate alert from the FDA last week about an additional cinnamon product sold in the U.S. that has been contaminated with lead.
That alert involved ground cinnamon, sold as El Servidor and distributed by an Elmhurst, New York, company of the same name.
Cancer Warning as Pesticides as Bad as Smoking, Scientists Claim
Exposure to agricultural pesticides could be as bad as tobacco smoke for increasing our risk of certain cancers, a study has found. However, while these findings are thought-provoking, some experts have described the findings as misleading.
In the U.S., roughly 1 billion pounds of conventional pesticides are used every year to control weeds, insects and other pests, the United States Geological Survey reports. These chemicals can linger on our fruit and vegetables and seep into our waterways, meaning that many of us are ingesting them in small quantities on a regular basis.
The health impacts of these chemicals depend on the type of pesticide. Some, like the legacy pesticides organophosphates and carbamates, have been associated with neurological disorders and hormonal disruptions. Others have been flagged for their potential to increase our risk of cancer.
“Our study showed the strongest association between certain patterns of pesticide use and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma,” the researchers write. “The effects of pesticides on these cancer types were more significant than the effects of smoking.”
Public Asked to Support Petition to Stop EPA From Allowing ‘Forever Chemicals’ (PFAS) Use in Pesticides
Beyond Pesticides is asking the public to support a petition to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), filed by environmental and farm groups, to require the agency’s pesticide registration program to ban PFAS (so-called “forever chemicals”) as pesticide ingredients and all their uses that result in contamination of pesticide products.
The petition, submitted by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) on behalf of 12 other petitioners, asks EPA to: “(1) ban PFAS as pesticide ingredients; (2) adopt a broad definition of PFAS chemicals that reflect the current scientific understanding of the class of chemicals; (3) prohibit the use of PFAS-containing containers for pesticide storage; (4) mandate reporting of PFAS contamination from pesticide registrants; and (5) prevent future contamination by requiring pesticide manufacturers to submit data specific to PFAS before future registrations can be approved.”
PFAS — per- and polyfluorinated substances — is a group of nearly 10,000 highly persistent, human-made toxic chemicals. A commentary released last week in Environmental Health Perspectives, Forever Pesticides: A Growing Source of PFAS Contamination in the Environment, “explore[s] different ways that PFAS can be introduced into pesticide products, the extent of PFAS contamination of pesticide products, and the implications this could have for human and environmental health.”
The petition addresses the fact that EPA continues to register hundreds of PFAS pesticide ingredients. In addition, the agency has allowed the ongoing use of pesticide storage containers treated with PFAS, despite its own findings that these containers leach the chemicals into pesticide products — which are then dispersed into the air, water, and soil. PFAS persistence is due to a fluorine-carbon atom bond being among the strongest ever created.
Why Are Rates of Colon Cancer Surging Among Young Adults?
Recent studies have repeatedly indicated a growing surge in rates of colon cancer in young individuals. A ground-breaking study published a few years ago in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute found that individuals born between the years of 1981 to 1996 faced nearly twice the risk of colorectal cancer in comparison with those born in the 1950s. A more recent study also found that for patients younger than 50 years of age, the incidence of colon cancer has increased by nearly 2% for tumors in the colon and the rectum.
In 2022, the British Medical Journal published an article discussing the frank association between ultra-processed foods and colorectal cancer risk. The results of the study were stunning; the authors write, “High consumption of total ultra-processed foods in men and certain subgroups of ultra-processed foods in men and women was associated with an increased risk of colorectal cancer.” Specifically, the study found that men in the highest quartile of processed food consumption had nearly a 29% higher risk of developing cancer. Additionally, higher consumption of meat/poultry/seafood-based foods were also found to be associated with higher risk.
The association of the cancer with younger adults, especially those born between the 1980s to early 2000s, is more evident in light of this context. Undoubtedly, this time period was also marked by rising rates of obesity, processed foods, the use of additives in consumable goods and the rise of fast food. The World Health Organization explains that in 2022, nearly 2.5 billion adults aged 18 years and older were found to be officially “overweight.” This number correlates to 43% of adults, and more shockingly, reflects a dramatic increase in obesity rates from 1990, when only 25% of the same population was considered overweight. The rate has nearly doubled in just 30 years.
Bird Flu Infects Three More Colorado Poultry Farm Workers
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment on Thursday announced three additional human cases of bird flu among poultry farm workers, bringing the total number of confirmed human cases in the U.S. this year to 13.
The three new cases involved poultry farm workers who were killing infected chickens at a Weld County egg farm, the health department said. The workers are experiencing mild illness and have been offered antiviral drugs, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in a statement.
Since April, four dairy farm workers and nine poultry farm workers have been infected with the virus in Colorado, Michigan and Texas.
Could Cow Vaccines Help Halt the Spread of Bird Flu in U.S. Herds? Experts Are Divided
With the number of U.S. dairy herds infected with H5N1 bird flu rising almost daily, fears are growing that the dangerous virus cannot be driven out of this species. That belief is amplifying calls for the development of flu shots for cows.
Multiple animal vaccine manufacturers are reportedly at work trying to develop such products. And the U.S. Department of Agriculture is eagerly encouraging the effort, detailing in a notice last week what kinds of evidence would be needed to win licensing approval for cow vaccines.
But a number of scientists question whether investing too heavily in this strategy is a wise approach at this point, given that there remain many outstanding questions about whether vaccinating cows would be an effective way of stopping the spread of the virus in cattle in the first place.
Some wonder whether farmers will be willing to absorb the costs of vaccines to prevent an infection they don’t currently view as a serious threat to their operations, or whether they would agree to the stringent post-vaccination surveillance that must go hand-in-glove with any attempt to use vaccines to solve this vexing problem.
Australian Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Claiming Bayer Weedkiller Causes Blood Cancer
An Australian judge on Thursday dismissed a class action lawsuit claiming Bayer‘s (BAYGn.DE) Roundup weedkiller can cause a type of blood cancer, a ruling the company said it would seek to leverage in similar cases being fought in the United States.
More than 1,000 people had joined the lawsuit, claiming Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, caused their non-Hodgkins lymphoma (NHL).
Justice Michael Lee of Australia’s Federal Court said in his ruling he had reviewed three types of scientific studies — epidemiological, animal studies and mechanistic evidence —- that looked at the links between glyphosate and lymphoma and was not satisfied there was sufficient evidence that the chemical caused the cancer in humans.
Bayer, a German chemicals and pharmaceuticals company, has long maintained that Roundup and glyphosate are safe. It has been battling lawsuits over Roundup in the United States since it bought the product’s owner Monsanto in 2018. It still faces more than 50,000 outstanding Roundup claims there.
It has prevailed in 14 of the last 20 U.S. trials but racked up a string of losses in late 2023 and early 2024, with more than $4 billion in damages awarded. Some of the amounts awarded have since been reduced but the string of wins for plaintiffs shattered investor and company hopes that the worst of the Roundup litigation was over.
