Tag: safety

People Taking Medical Advice from AI Chatbots Are Ending Up in the ER

The growing reliance on AI-powered chatbots for medical advice has led to several alarming cases of harm and even tragedy, as people follow potentially dangerous recommendations from these digital assistants.

The New York Post reports that in recent years, the rise of generative AI chatbots has revolutionized the way people seek information, including health advice. However, the increasing reliance on these AI-powered tools has also led to several disturbing instances where individuals have suffered severe consequences after following chatbots’ medical recommendations. From anal pain caused by self-treatment gone wrong to missed signs of a mini-stroke, the real-life impact of bad AI health advice is becoming increasingly apparent.

One particularly shocking case involved a 35-year-old Moroccan man who sought help from ChatGPT for a cauliflower-like anal lesion. The chatbot suggested that the growth could be hemorrhoids and proposed elastic ligation as a treatment. The man attempted to perform this procedure on himself using a thread, resulting in intense pain that landed him in the emergency room. Further testing revealed that the growth had been completely misdiagnosed by AI.

In another incident, a 60-year-old man with a college education in nutrition asked ChatGPT how to reduce his intake of table salt. The chatbot suggested using sodium bromide as a replacement, and the man followed this advice for three months. However, chronic consumption of sodium bromide can be toxic, and the man developed bromide poisoning. He was hospitalized for three weeks with symptoms including paranoia, hallucinations, confusion, extreme thirst, and a skin rash.

The consequences of relying on AI for medical advice can be even more severe, as demonstrated by the case of a 63-year-old Swiss man who experienced double vision after a minimally invasive heart procedure. When the double vision returned, he consulted ChatGPT, which reassured him that such visual disturbances were usually temporary and would improve on their own. The man decided not to seek medical help, but 24 hours later, he ended up in the emergency room after suffering a mini-stroke. The researchers concluded that his care had been “delayed due to an incomplete diagnosis and interpretation by ChatGPT.”

These disturbing cases highlight the limitations and potential dangers of relying on AI chatbots for medical advice. While these tools can be helpful in understanding medical terminology, preparing for appointments, or learning about health conditions, they should never be used as a substitute for professional medical guidance. Chatbots can misinterpret user requests, fail to recognize nuances, reinforce unhealthy behaviors, and miss critical warning signs for self-harm.

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Deadly Illegal Alien Truck Driver Failed CDL Test 10 Times

The illegal alien truck driver responsible for a fatal crash earlier this year in Florida failed his commercial drivers’ license (CDL) test in Washington a staggering 10 times within a two-month window.

Between March and May 2023, Harjinder Singh, an illegal alien from India, tested 10 times to try to obtain a CDL license to drive trucks in the state of Washington. He failed every single time, according to Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin and the Florida attorney general’s office. 

Yet, insanely, not only did the state of Washington eventually give Singh a CDL license anyway, but the state of California also gave him one. And therefore Singh was driving a truck in Florida and made an illegal U-turn in August, causing a deadly crash that claimed three lives.

Melugin added additional details on just how utterly irresponsible were the Washington and California authorities who gave Singh the CDL license: “Additionally, I’m told Singh also failed his air breaks knowledge test twice, and that the Washington company that provided Singh’s behind the wheel CDL training attested he could speak English proficiently, when he couldn’t.”

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier is continuing to investigate Singh, who pleaded not guilty last month to the three counts of vehicular homicide and immigration violations. “The FL AG’s office also sued California and Washington via SCOTUS last week, asking SCOTUS to prevent both states from issuing CDLs to illegal immigrants, and accusing both states of not complying with federal safety and immigration status requirements when issuing CDLs,” Melugin added.

In fact, California’s insistence on issuing licenses to illegal aliens in spite of the illegality and new Trump administration rules about English proficiency has claimed at least six lives within the last couple of months. Jashanpreet Singh, yet another illegal alien from India, was driving under the influence in a semi-truck this week in California when he caused a fiery crash that also killed three people. Both Singhs should never have been allowed to be licensed truck drivers in the United States, but the Biden administration and California Democrats ensured they could.

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Is Your Medication Made in a Contaminated Factory? The FDA Won’t Tell You.

They were the sort of disturbing discoveries that anyone taking generic medication would want to know.

At one Indian factory manufacturing drugs for the United States, pigeons infested a storage room and defecated on boxes of sterilized equipment. At another, pathogens contaminated purified water used to produce drugs. At a third, stagnant urine pooled on a bathroom floor not far from where injectable medication was made.

But when the Food and Drug Administration released the grim inspection reports and hundreds of others like them, the agency made a decision that undermined its mission to protect Americans from dangerous drugs.

Instead of sharing the names of the medications coming from the errant foreign factories, the FDA routinely blacked them out, keeping the information secret from the public. That decision prevented doctors, pharmacists and patients from knowing whether the drugs they counted on were tainted by manufacturing failures — and potentially ineffective or unsafe.

“Is there some quality issue? Is there a greater difference in potency than expected? Is there a contaminant? I don’t know,” said Dr. Donna Kirchoff, a pediatrician in Oregon who has spent hours trying to find out where certain drugs were made for patients reporting unexplained reactions.

There’s no specific requirement that the FDA block out drug names on inspection reports about foreign facilities. Still, the agency preemptively kept that information hidden, invoking a cautious interpretation of a law that requires the government to protect trade secrets.

It’s part of a decades-long pattern of discounting the interests of consumers who want to make informed choices about the drugs they take — even as 9 out of 10 prescriptions in the United States are filled with generics, many from India and China.

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FDA Stayed Silent As Internal Reports About Potential Tylenol Risks Piled Up

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) defied the advice of its own drug safety experts to warn pregnant women about Tylenol for nearly a decade, internal reports and presentations obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation reveal.

FDA rank-and-file scientists repeatedly recommended the agency release information about Tylenol in pregnancy across three scientific reviews conducted in 2016, 2019, 2022 and two memos, one from the FDA’s maternal health division in 2016 and one from the FDA’s urological health division in 2017.

The scientific literature posits many plausible drivers of autism, the most well-established of which are genetic, and the FDA drug safety experts acknowledged that the research linking the condition to Tylenol is far from ironclad.

Still, as alarm bells rang within FDA headquarters and the boardrooms of Tylenol’s manufacturers, pregnant women heard nothing from either the government or the manufacturers about the potential risks until the September announcement by President Donald Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

FDA leadership declined to update its webpage about over-the-counter painkillers in pregnancy, repeatedly falling back on language first issued in January 2015. But that statement simply acknowledged that “FDA is aware of concerns” about Tylenol and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), citing just one scientific paper.

At the urging of Trump and Kennedy, FDA finally released a nuanced statement in September cautioning pregnant women about Tylenol while acknowledging that aspirin, ibuprofen and high fevers all pose their own risks. That move was first recommended by an FDA drug safety expert nine years earlier.

The DCNF obtained the FDA documents from the law firm Keller Postman LLC, which brought a class action lawsuit against Tylenol maker Kenvue, a legally independent spinoff of Johnson & Johnson. The personal injury law firm, which often brings class action lawsuits, obtained the documents from FDA via the Freedom of Information Act.

Tylenol, a brand name for acetaminophen, first received FDA approval in 1955 before modern drug laws tightened clinical trial requirements in 1962.

Some experts argue that neurological damage occurs due to a toxic byproduct of acetaminophen called NAPQI. Babies and children with autism may struggle to metabolize the drug, resulting in higher levels of NAPQI, which kills cells.

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Cruz introduces bill to advance nuclear fuel recycling, research, safety

An advocate for developing nuclear energy in his home state, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has proposed a bill to advance nuclear fuel recycling, including research over its feasibility and safety.

The Advancing Research in Nuclear Fuel Recycling Act of 2025, cosponsored with Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, would require the U.S. Department of Energy to analyze the costs, benefits, and risks of recycling spent nuclear fuel compared to interim storage solutions.

“Spent nuclear fuel has the potential to dramatically increase America’s energy, economic, and national security,” Cruz said. “Domestic recycling can reduce the space we need for spent nuclear fuel, enhance energy independence, reduce our dependence on imports, and broaden the supply of rare elements and isotopes used in medicine and advanced technologies.

“Recycling solutions will also reduce the burden on individual states from nuclear waste accumulation, and accelerate progress on nuclear energy, which is our nation’s cleanest baseload energy source. I’m proud to work with Sen. Heinrich on this legislation and I urge my colleagues in the Senate to pass this bill.”

The bill would direct the DOE to analyze the “practicability, potential benefits, costs, and risks, including proliferation, of using dedicated recycling facilities to convert spent nuclear fuel, including spent high-assay low-enriched uranium fuel, into useable nuclear fuels, such as those for commercial light water reactors; advanced nuclear reactors; and medical, space-based, advanced-battery, and other non-reactor applications,” according to the bill language. Recycling would involve taking spent fuel already being held in storage sites nationwide to use as fuel or input for advanced nuclear reactors, existing reactors, or commercial applications, according to the bill language.

The bill also would direct the DOE to investigate the risks of aqueous (PUREX and its derivatives) recycling processes with the practicability, potential benefits, costs, and risk of non-aqueous (such as pyro-electrochemistry) recycling processes.

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Cheryl Hines says she is ‘very worried’ about husband RFK Jr’s safety amid political tension

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.‘s wife Cheryl Hines admitted she is fearful for her husband’s safety following the assassination of Charlie Kirk.  

Hines opened up to Fox News about marrying into the Kennedy family and touched on the importance of acknowledging differing political viewpoints, revealing she worries about her husband’s safety. Her memoir “Unscripted,” which in part reveals her life with Kennedy, will be released Nov. 11.

“I am very worried,” Hines told “Jesse Watters Primetime.” “It can’t be, ‘Because you don’t think like me, I hate you.’ That’s what it feels like sometimes.”  

She reflected on how her husband, a previous Democrat turned independent, and President Donald Trump had a number of similar goals and decided to collaborate, placing Kennedy “in the middle of a Republican administration.” 

“If someone didn’t vote the same way you voted, instead of saying, ‘Oh, you’re stupid, you don’t know what you’re doing!’ — ‘Why did you vote for this person?’ or ‘Why do you believe this, about this issue?’ Then, really let it in what their response is, because maybe you’ll start to understand each other more.”  

Hines explained that the “Make America Healthy Again” movement is about a lifestyle, rather than making sure every decision one makes in their daily habits is perfect. 

While Hines said she is as MAHA as her husband, she will indulge in certain foods he will not.   

“Overall, going through the days, you’re trying to make the healthiest choices and you’re trying to do what’s best for your body to keep you healthy,” she said. “That’s basically it.”

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California Governor Vetoes Ban on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Cookware

California’s Gov. Gavin Newsom halted legislation that would have banned “forever chemicals,” known as PFAS, from several products in his state. 

The legislation, which Newsom vetoed on Oct. 13, would have prevented the sale of cookware, cleaning products, dental floss, children’s products, food packaging, and ski wax containing the chemicals. 

Cookware with harmful substances would have been banned starting in 2030, and the other products in 2028. 

“Forever chemicals” is the nickname given to the group of chemicals called PFAS, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, which are synthetic and used widely in products, including non-stick, waterproof, or heat and stain-resistant items.

When announcing the veto, Newsom voiced concern about the availability of cookware if the ban were put in place.

“The broad range of products that would be impacted by this bill would result in a sizable and rapid shift in cooking products available to Californians,” he said.

“I appreciate efforts to protect the health and safety of consumers, and while this bill is well-intentioned, I am deeply concerned about the impact this bill would have on the availability of affordable options,” he added.

Dr. Anna Reade, director of PFAS advocacy with Natural Resources Defense Council, criticized Newsom for his decision in an Oct. 13 statement, saying, “By vetoing SB 682, Governor Newsom failed to protect Californians and our drinking water from toxic forever chemicals.”

According to Reade, the policy would have aligned with California with other states that have decided to phase out PFAS from these consumer products.

“Now, California is a laggard. It’s unfortunate that misinformation and greed by some in the cookware industry tanked this policy.

“But people are increasingly aware of the health and pollution risks associated with forever chemicals and are demanding PFAS-free alternatives for their homes and families.”

PFAS can stay in soil and water for centuries, and there has been a link found between the chemicals and health problems, including some cancers, and changes in immune and hormone systems.

However, those in opposition to the legislation said it wasn’t a clear-cut support of PFAS. 

The California Manufacturers and Technology Association stood against the legislation, saying, “We support targeted efforts to address harmful PFAS chemicals.”

However, the association said, the bill “continues an overreach by banning broad categories of PFAS used safely in cookware and by establishing unworkable standards for sectors like cleaning products.”

“SB 682 fails to distinguish between harmful PFAS and inert, stable fluoropolymers like PTFE, which are FDA-approved for food contact and used in medical devices,” it said.

“These materials do not pose environmental or health risks and have been safely used for decades.”

The association continued, saying that because the bill bans the distribution of affected products, it could push manufacturers to relocate logistics operations out of state, “costing California jobs.”

Similarly, the Cookware Sustainability Alliance said, “The fluoropolymers used by our industry, primarily polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), do not have the same characteristics of nonpolymeric PFAS of concern, which should be the focus of environmental and public health policy.”

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States Go It Alone On ‘Forever Chemicals’ As EPA Delays Federal Action

States are taking action to protect agriculture and waterways from harmful “forever chemicals” as they await federal regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Critics say this has resulted in inconsistent and inadequate regulations exposing much of the country’s soil, air, and water to contamination by the chemicals.

According to the EPA, it is working through a very complex problem concerning a huge category of chemicals.

“The agency is committed to working closely with our partners to take a fresh look at the risks and the tools available to support our rural and agricultural communities on this issue,” the EPA told The Epoch Times in a statement.

At issue are perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS). PFAS are a group of more than 14,000 chemicals that have been used in stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick cookware, food packaging, and firefighting foams since the 1940s because of their resistance to heat, oils, stains, grease, and water.

However, they do not degrade naturally and are almost impossible to destroy, earning them the “forever chemicals” appellation. According to the EPA, PFAS have been linked to cancer, reproductive issues, immune disorders, reduced vaccine response, hormonal issues, and weight gain.

In the early part of the 1970s, PFAS chemicals began to show up in soil to which biosolids had been applied.

Dredged as sludge from the bottom of wastewater treatment tanks and treated to reduce or eliminate harmful substances, biosolids have been sold or given to farmers as a low-cost fertilizer for more than 50 years.

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Self-Monitoring Blood Glucose Meters Recalled Due to Potentially Defective Displays: FDA

Florida-based Trividia Health Inc. is recalling a limited number of blood glucose meters because of potentially defective liquid-crystal displays that could affect product performance, the company said in an Oct. 7 statement published by the Food and Drug Administration.

The recall applies to Trividia’s True Metrix self-monitoring glucose meters that are co-branded under the Good Neighbor Pharmacy brand. The affected items belong to lot number KD0746, printed on the side of the product box. They were manufactured on Sept. 4 and sold between Sept. 8 and 16 across the United States.

“It is possible that the LCD display for the affected products may show partial or missing numerical segments or characters or show ghosting (fading) of numerical segments or characters,” the company said. “As a result, it is possible that users could misinterpret a test result or experience a delay in obtaining test results. For users with low glucose (hypoglycemia), this could result in a delay in treatment or therapy decisions.”

According to Trividia, it has so far not received any reports of people suffering injuries as a result of using the recalled products.

The company said it was sending notifications to customers, including pharmacies, to inform them of the issue.

“If you have an affected Product, the Trividia Health Customer Care Department will help with return and replacement information,” it said.

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Aluminium in Vaccines Is Harmful

It has been surprisingly difficult to get an answer to a simple and highly relevant question: Is aluminium in vaccines harmful? After having studied the best evidence we have, the randomised trials, in great detail, I conclude that the answer is yes. 

Like lead, aluminium is a highly neurotoxic metal. We will therefore expect vaccines containing aluminium adjuvants to cause neurological harms if the aluminium enters the nervous system in neurotoxic amounts. 

The aluminium in the adjuvant is important for eliciting a strong immune response in non-live vaccines and their efficacy is related to their toxicity at the injection site.1-3 Immune-reactive cells engulf particles of aluminium adjuvant and distribute their load throughout the body, including to the brain, where they are killed, releasing their contents into the surrounding brain tissue where they can produce an inflammatory response.

The precise mechanism of action is not so important, but the data we have on the harms are, and they have been systematically distorted. 

False Information from the European Medicines Agency (EMA)

In October 2016, my research group complained to the European Ombudsman about the EMA’s mishandling of their investigation into the suspected serious neurological harms of the HPV vaccines.4 In his reply to the Ombudsman, EMA’s Executive Director Guido Rasi stated that the aluminium adjuvants are safe; that their use has been established for several decades; and that the substances are defined in the European Pharmacopoeia.5,6 

Rasi gave the impression that the aluminium adjuvants in the HPV vaccines are similar to those used since 1926. However, the adjuvant in Gardasil, Merck’s vaccine, is amorphous aluminium hydroxyphosphate sulfate, ‎AlHO9PS-3 (AAHS), which has other properties than aluminium hydroxide, the substance Rasi mentioned. Moreover, its properties are not defined in the pharmacopoeia. AAHS has a confidential formula; its properties are variable from batch to batch and even within batches. The harms caused by the adjuvant are therefore likely to vary. When we investigated whether the safety of AAHS has ever been tested in comparison with an inert substance in humans, we were unable to find any evidence of this. 

Rasi mentioned that the assessment of the evidence for the safety of the adjuvants had been performed over many years by the EMA and other health authorities, such as the European Food Safety Authority, the FDA, and the WHO. 

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