Stories about Food and Drug Administration
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Maine doctors, grocers battle over selling energy drinks to minors
AUGUSTA, Maine — Representatives from the grocery and beverage industries squared off against three medical groups Monday as the Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee heard testimony on a bill that would bar energy drink sales to minors. The committee was considering a bill sponsored by Rep. Katherine Cassidy, D-Lubec, ...
More contaminated drugs found, but Ellsworth hospital says its medication still safe
Federal regulators have detected contamination in two more drugs made by a Massachusetts pharmacy tied to a deadly meningitis outbreak, but neither medication made its way to Maine, except in a topical form still considered safe. Regulators announced Thursday that they had found bacterial contamination in preservative-free betamethasone, an injectable ...
Vet biotech aims at generic pet medicine market
PORTLAND, Maine — As Jean Hoffman’s cat, Dude, got older and more infirm, she began to see some of the failings of the veterinary medicine sector and opportunities to both help and build a business. Hoffman had spent her career in the pharmaceuticals industry, both human and animal. As Dude ...
Distance from farm to plate increases chance of food illness
By Mary Clare Jalonick, Associated Press on Oct. 02, 2011, at 7:23 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Outbreaks of listeria and other serious illnesses linked to tainted food are becoming more common, partly because much of what we eat takes a long and winding road from farm to fork. A cantaloupe grown on a Colorado field may make four or five stops before it reaches ...
Expert calls for farm-animal prescriptions to stem drug resistance
By Elizabeth Lopatto, Bloomberg News on Sept. 21, 2011, at 4:59 a.m.
CHICAGO — American farmers would be forced to get prescriptions for livestock antibiotics, under a plan developed in Denmark and promoted by infectious disease doctors as a way to stem a rising tide of drug-resistant infections. Healthy livestock routinely get antibiotics in the United States to promote growth and prevent ...
Engineered salmon meets opposition in Congress
By Mary Clare Jalonick, The Associated Press on Sept. 12, 2011, at 5 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress are pushing to stop the Food and Drug Administration from approving genetically engineered salmon, saying not enough is known about a fish they say could harm fishery businesses in coastal states. It appeared last year that the FDA might approve the engineered salmon quickly. But ...
Regulators struggle over controls for often-abused hydrocodone
By Chris Hawley, The Associated Press on Aug. 22, 2011, at 2:53 p.m.
NEW YORK — It is the nation’s second-most abused medicine, linked to murders, celebrity overdoses and a rising tide of violent pharmacy robberies. But since 1999 federal regulators have put off deciding whether to tighten controls over hydrocodone, the addictive narcotic that is the key ingredient in Vicodin and other ...
Maine gets $2.1M to fight underage smoking
The Associated Press on July 07, 2011, at 7:23 p.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine is getting a $2.1 million, three-year grant to crack down on the sale of cigarettes to minors. Maine’s attorney general says the formal announcement of the funding from the Food and Drug Administration will be made Monday at the Calumet Club in Augusta, where a forum ...
Feds wonder whether tiny materials play big health role
By Darryl Fears, The Washington Post on June 10, 2011, at 5:35 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Federal regulators announced Thursday two actions that will aim to clarify the role that extremely small materials can play in items such as cosmetics and food production and packaging. The Environmental Protection Agency said that it will seek to determine whether nanomaterials in pesticide products can “cause unreasonable ...
E. coli outbreak points to gaps in US food system
By LAURAN NEERGAARD, The Associated Press on June 02, 2011, at 10:31 p.m.
WASHINGTON — The nasty form of E. coli hitting Europe points out gaps in the U.S. food safety system that raise concern that similar outbreaks might happen here. It’s impossible to test for every illness-causing form of E. coli, even the kinds we already know about. Today, the food industry ...
Maine AG seeks end to new high-alcohol drink Blast
The Associated Press on April 22, 2011, at 9:24 a.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The attorneys general in Maine and 16 other places want Pabst Brewing Co. to stop selling or change a new drink called Blast by Colt 45 because of its high alcohol content. The carbonated malt beverage was introduced this month and comes in fruit flavors in brightly ...
Panel acts to save positions for oversight of Maine shellfish industry
By Mal Leary, Capitol News Service on April 17, 2011, at 10:55 a.m.
AUGUSTA, Maine — The Appropriations Committee has given initial approval to a plan that shifts resources within the Department of Marine Resources to keep three positions filled in the agency to meet federal health inspection standards. “This meets the need of keeping these marine scientist positions funded,” said Rep. Windol ...
Blue Hill voters approve self-governance ordinance, $1.7 million budget
BLUE HILL, Maine — Voters breezed through most of the warrant articles at the annual town meeting Saturday, and when they finished they had approved a $4.4 million school budget and a $1.7 million municipal budget. They paused along the way to discuss several articles and for the annual turkey ...
Jackson Lab announces breakthrough in glaucoma research
BAR HARBOR, Maine —- With the help of a new genetic analysis technique they have developed, researchers at The Jackson Laboratory say they can detect and treat the early stages of glaucoma in mice. The finding is significant, according to lab officials, because up until now the loss of eyesight ...
FDA cracks down on unapproved cold, allergy drugs
By Rob Stein, The Washington Post on March 03, 2011, at 6:41 a.m.
WASHINGTON — Federal health officials Wednesday announced a crackdown on the sale of prescription cold, cough and allergy products that had never been proven to be safe and effective. About 500 products that had never been formally evaluated by federal regulators will be removed from the market, the Food and ...
BPA: What’s all the flap?
By Georgia Clark-Albert, Special to the NEWS on Feb. 26, 2011, at 11:18 a.m.
Bisphenol A, better knows as BPA, has received considerable attention in the media in recent years and in Maine in the past week. You may be thinking this really doesn’t have a lot to do with you, or with nutrition. Well, if you heat anything in the microwave, or use ...
Salmonella-tainted eggs linked to US failure to act
By Lindsey Layton, The Washington Post on Dec. 11, 2010, at 8:38 a.m.
Public health officials closed the books this month on an outbreak of Salmonella illness that had sickened more than 1,900 people since May and led to the largest recall of eggs in U.S. history. Two Iowa egg farms drew most of the blame, triggering a congressional investigation, a federal criminal ...
FDA panel approves wider use of Lap-Band for weight control
By Rob Stein, The Washington Post on Dec. 04, 2010, at 6:30 a.m.
WASHINGTON – A federal advisory panel panel Friday endorsed a company’s request that a device used for weight-loss surgery be permitted to be used on people who are slightly less obese, a crucial step toward making the already increasingly popular procedures available to many more patients. The 10-member Food and ...
Listeria found at Texas produce plant
on Nov. 04, 2010, at 6:56 a.m.
Betsy Blaney Associated Press SAN ANTONIO — Federal health officials found the listeria bacteria at a San Antonio food processing plant that Texas authorities have linked to four deaths from contaminated celery, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday. The federal agency said it found the pathogen in multiple locations ...
Maine to get $382,521 in drug settlement
The Associated Press on Oct. 01, 2010, at 11:24 a.m.
Maine has joined with other states and the federal government to reach an agreement in principle with Novartis.
Police find body believed to be that of missing Glenburn teen
Items found, authorities pursuing leads in search for Glenburn teen
LePage hopes to eliminate income tax by end of second term
Woman accused of criminal mischief, disorderly conduct outside Bangor nightclub
Ignore LePage politics, get to root of DHHS funding needs
Basketball season never ends for Worcesters of Washburn, a family of 1,000-point scorers
UMaine narrows candidate list, hopes to name men’s hockey coach next week
Eastport teen notches first ‘Bandolero’ racing victory
Not even chemotherapy could quell Maine woman’s longing to be in the kitchen
Keyboardist Ray Manzarek of The Doors dies at age 74
Penobscot Theatre Company ends season with whirlwind production of ‘Around the World in 80 Days’
From a mountaintop…of sorts
