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Free cosmetics available at many department stores

January 21, 2009

Free upscale mascara, perfume and body lotion will be available in some Houston department stores on Tuesday in what is no doubt the sweetest smelling national class-action lawsuit settlement ever.

 

A 2003 California lawsuit filed against department stores and cosmetics manufacturers alleged the businesses conspired to keep prestige cosmetics prices high. The case settled and though no wrong doing was admitted, the result was a $175 million giveaway in which each eligible consumer gets one free piece of make up or fragrance worth from $18 to $25.

 

The stores in Houston that will set up a giveaway table near their cosmetics counters Tuesday morning are Macy’s, Dillard’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom and Saks Fifth Avenue.

 

Read Article: Houston Chronicle

 

Drug Making’s Move Abroad Stirs Concerns

In 2004, when Bristol-Myers Squibb said it would close its factory in East Syracuse, N.Y. — the last plant in the United States to manufacture the key ingredients for crucial antibiotics like penicillin — few people worried about the consequences for national security.

 

“The focus at the time was primarily on job losses in Syracuse,” said Rebecca Goldsmith, a company spokeswoman. But now experts and lawmakers are growing more and more concerned that the nation is far too reliant on medicine from abroad, and they are calling for a law that would require that certain drugs be made or stockpiled in the United States.

 

“The lack of regulation around outsourcing is a blind spot that leaves room for supply disruptions, counterfeit medicines, even bioterrorism,” said Senator Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, who has held hearings on the issue.

 

Read Article: New York Times

 

MRSA rising in kids’ ear, nose, throat infections

Researchers say they found an “alarming” increase in children’s ear, nose and throat infections nationwide caused by dangerous drug-resistant staph germs. Other studies have shown rising numbers of skin infections in adults and children caused by these germs, nicknamed MRSA, but this is the first nationwide report on how common they are in deeper tissue infections in the head and neck, the study authors said.

 

These include certain ear and sinus infections, and abcesses that can form in the tonsils and throat. The study found a total of 21,009 pediatric head and neck infections caused by staph germs from 2001 through 2006. The percentage caused by hard-to-treat MRSA bacteria more than doubled during that time from almost 12 percent to 28 percent.

 

“In most parts of the United States, there’s been an alarming rise,” said study author Dr. Steven Sobol, a children’s head and neck specialist at Emory University.

 

Read Article: Washington Post

 

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