Contamination News and Research

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Heparin shortage, infusion therapy firm intros MaxPlusClear

Maximus, a business unit of leading infusion therapy firm Medegen Inc., has introduced its MaxPlus Clear positive displacement connector for use in patient care.

10 Mar 2008

Discovery of new species of bacteria that can live in hairspray

Scientists in Japan have discovered a new species of bacteria that can live in hairspray, according to the results of a study published in the March issue of the International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary Microbiology.

10 Mar 2008

New malaria drug also treats toxoplasmosis

A new drug that will soon enter clinical trials for treatment of malaria also appears to be 10 times more effective than the key medicine in the current gold-standard treatment for toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a related parasite that infects nearly one-third of all humans—more than two billion people worldwide.

6 Mar 2008

MIT cell-based sensor technology quickly detects airborne pathogens

Researchers at MIT Lincoln Laboratory have developed a powerful sensor that can detect airborne pathogens such as anthrax and smallpox in less than three minutes.

6 Mar 2008

DuPont and USDA ARS to collaborate on new E. coli test in beef

DuPont and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) are teaming up to find new ways to detect an E. coli strain in beef that, even in low concentrations, can cause severe illness.

21 Feb 2008

Massive beef recall in the U.S. of meat for school lunch programs

A slaughterhouse in the United States has been accused of mistreating cows and forced to recall 143 million pounds of beef, the biggest beef recall yet in U.S. history.

18 Feb 2008

Fake antimalarial drugs analysis highlights threat to global health

A unique collaboration between scientists, public health workers and police has led to the arrest by the Chinese authorities of alleged traders of fake anti-malarial drugs in southern China and the seizure of a large quantity of drugs.

13 Feb 2008

Bioniche receives funding to scale-up E. coli O157:H7 vaccine production

Bioniche Life Sciences Inc. has announced that it has secured a $5 million commercial loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) in support of the scale-up of vaccine production at its Belleville, Ontario facility.

8 Feb 2008

FDA warns public of contaminated pre-filled syringe flushes

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced a nationwide recall of all lots of heparin and saline pre-filled flush syringes manufactured by AM2 PAT, Inc., of Angier, N.C. Two lots have been found to be contaminated with Serratia marcescens, a bacterium that can cause serious injury or death.

28 Jan 2008

Climate change will have a huge impact on human health

Climate change will have a huge impact on human health and bold environmental policy decisions are needed now to protect the world's population, according to the author of an article published in the BMJ today.

25 Jan 2008

Nitrogen fixation process in plants to combat drought in various species of legumes

The regulation of the biological fixation of nitrogen in hydric stress conditions varies with the different species of legume plants studied.

24 Jan 2008

FDA warns on green bean and garbanzo bean contamination

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that New Era Canning Company, New Era, Mich., is expanding its product recall because of potential Clostridium botulinum (C. botulinum) contamination to all canned green beans and garbanzo beans distributed by the company nationwide over the last five years.

21 Jan 2008

Latest U.S. food scare E. coli and 188,000 pounds of ground beef

In the latest food scare in the United States fears of contamination with the Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria has prompted the recall of more than 188,000 pounds of ground beef products.

16 Jan 2008

Contaminated milk responsible for three deaths and a miscarriage

The latest incident in the United States involving bacteria-contaminated milk has claimed the lives of three elderly men and caused at least one pregnant woman to miscarry since last June.

9 Jan 2008

Everyone carries at least 1 type of pesticide

A study carried out by researchers from the Department of Radiology and Physical Medicine of the University of Granada, in collaboration with the Andalusian School of Public Health (Escuela Andaluza de Salud Publica), found that 100% of Spaniards analyzed had at least one kind of persistent organic compound (POC's), substances internationally classified as potentially harmful to one's health, in their bodies.

7 Jan 2008

Model developed that predicts molecular response of living cells to genetic or environmental change

Scientists at the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB), in collaboration with researchers from New York University (NYU), have developed a model which rapidly characterizes and accurately predicts the molecular-level, mechanistic response of a free-living cell to genetic and environmental changes.

28 Dec 2007