Consumer Awareness

Keurig, a company best known for manufacturing easy-to-use, single cup coffee makers, has recalled approximately 6.6 million MIMI Plus Brewing Systems made between 2009 and 2014 in the United States, according to USA Today. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission divulged that the recalls were a response to consumers reporting burn injuries, USA Today reported. In total, Keurig had received 200 reports of hot water spewing out of the brewer, including 90 reports of burn-like…

In the aftermath of the record setting number of recalls of General Motors, consumers must be skeptical whenever purchasing a used car, according to CBS News. The National Traffic Safety Administration estimated that one in every four recalled cars are never properly repaired, posing a serious danger to those who purchase used cars with defective parts, CBS News reported. In 2013 alone, 3.5 million used cars needing recall repairs were put up for sale on…

A study of telephone calls to poison control hotlines revealed that between 2002 and 2012, a child was subject to an out-of-hospital medication mistake approximately every eight minutes, Reuters reported. The number of mistakes marks an increase from previous years for every medication outside of cough and cold medicines, according to The Huffington Post. The reduction in errors pertaining to cough and cold medication is attributed to a prolonged educational campaign aimed at parents decreasing…

The total number of General Motor vehicles recalled in 2014 has climbed to 13.5 million across 29 models, according to the New York Times. GM attributes the latest recalls to its “new standards,” which were put in place after the manufacturer was heavily criticized for failing to act to correct a problem pertaining to faulty ignition switches in many of its models. GM reportedly has been aware of these defects for almost a decade, which…

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned that the general statement that “taking an aspirin a day” may help to prevent heart attacks may not be true for everyone, and it can even cause some dangerous side effects, according to its website. On Monday, the FDA announced that it would not be granting Bayer Corp. its requested approval of listing aspirin as one of the drugs known to combat heart attacks and strokes, according…

Johnson & Johnson has temporarily suspended its international sale of its power morcellators following an April 17 advisory from the Food and Drug Administration warning that their use to remove fibroids from the uterus has a risk of worsening hidden cancer, according to Reuters. The company says that it will attempt to resume sale once their role in fibroid treatment is further investigated and understood by the medical community, Reuters reported. Laparoscopic power morcellation is…

Democratic Senators Edward Markey (MA) and Richard Blumenthal (CT) urged the Department of Transportation to take action to ensure that owners of the estimated 2.6 million recalled GM models to cease driving them until they are repaired, according to Reuters. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, who has been investigating the failure of GM to take action to combat the defects, has authority to pursue recalls of vehicles deemed as unsafe, but they cannot force…

A proposal by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is expected to significantly revise nutrition labels for the first time in 20 years, according to a report by The Wall Street Journal (“Food Labels Set for New Look,” Feb. 27, 2014). In a story by Thomas M. Burton and Annie Gasparro, it was reported that the Obama administration is looking for food labels to have larger-font calorie counts and more realistic portion sizes so that…

In response to criticism stemming from a failure to properly investigate complaints of ignition switch failures in many of their models, General Motors has hired a private investigator to determine if the company failed to adequately respond to the dangerous condition. The New York Times reported that over the last 11 years, GM has received more than 260 complaints of cars spontaneously shutting down while drivers were on highways, in city traffic, and even on…