I don’t report every recall I hear about, but this one involves lots of products, and a potentially serious consequence.
Following a dozen reports of children’s fingertips being amputated by the hinge mechanisms in their strollers, Maclaren USA today announced it is recalling about one million of its products. Models being recalled include Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, TechnoXLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno and Easy Traveller. The strollers were sold at Babies “R” Us, Target, and other retailers from 1999 through this month. The recall is voluntary.
The company is advising anyone who has one of these strollers to stop using it immediately and contact them for a free repair kit. Call 877-688-2326 or visit www.mclaren.us/recall for information.
Few diseases strike terror into the hearts of Americans the way cancer can. And a report released yesterday by the American Institute for Cancer Research suggests one way that a growing number of people can help prevent it: Maintain a healthy body weight.
Even as the new H1N1 vaccine has revived fears about vaccine safety, one more study was released last week showing that use of the mercury-based preservative thimerosal in shots does not translate into elevated mercury levels in children’s blood.
Women who are pregnant and have significant symptoms of depression could be at greater risk of complications from the flu, an Ohio State University study released yesterday suggests. Researchers had 22 pregnant women complete questionnaires about their depressive symptoms, then took blood samples after the women had received flu shots. They found the women with the most severe symptoms of depression had double the response to the vaccine as those who weren’t depressed.
A pair of studies out this week on keeping those extra pounds at bay offer some standard – and sometimes surprising – advice.
While concern over the H1N1 pandemic flu floods the media, the vaccine supply is coming in at a relative trickle. Over the weekend, President Barack Obama declared the H1N1 pandemic a national emergency. And this morning Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius made the rounds on network news programs to try and reassure the public that vaccine is on the way.
Giving preventive doses of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol, to dampen infants’ fever after immunizations could keep the body from producing a full immune response to the vaccines, a study from the Czech Republic found.
Think you might be coming down with the flu? Turn to your doctor for help, not the Internet. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday warned against buying products over the Internet that claim to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure H1N1 influenza. These drugs, they say, could be contaminated, or have too little or too much of the active ingredient.
Sleeping with a parent on a bed or sofa – especially if that parent had been drinking – puts babies at increased risk of dying of SIDS, according to a British study reported in BMJ. 
