Articles

RACHEL’S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY By Peter Montague, Editor A medical report in 1998 estimated that adverse reactions to prescription drugs are killing about 106,000 Americans each year — roughly three times as many as are killed by automobiles.[1] This makes prescription drugs the fourth leading killer in the U.S., after heart disease, cancer, and […]

In February, 1994 Baxter Healthcare Corporation withdrew from world markets Gammagard®, an immunoglobulin administered intravenously to those with acquired or congential immune disorders, after 112 people in the U.S. were reported having symptoms of hepatitis C, the most fatal form of the this liver disease. Also withdrawn at the same time was a companion drug, […]

Manufacturers of consumer products, as of January 1, 1991, are required to report to the Consumer Product Safety Commission settlements in cases involving “grievous bodily injury or death” caused by defective products. The new legislation, 15 U.S. C. 2084, is an important advancement for consumers, since former regulations were vague and easily avoided. Previous rules […]

BY Peter Montague RACHEL’S ENVIRONMENT & HEALTH WEEKLY U.S. EPA [Environmental Protection Agency] published a report in 1998 saying that 100% of the outdoor air in the continental U.S. is contaminated with eight cancer-causing industrial chemicals at levels that exceed EPA’s “benchmark” safety standards.[1] Alaska and Hawaii were excluded from the analysis for lack of […]

The “Harvard Nurses Study,” officially titled Silicone Breast Implants and Connective Tissue Disease, was conducted by researchers at Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. The study, first presented at the October 1994 meeting of the American College of Rheumatology and published June 22, 1995 in […]