The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced last week that parents should not feed milk or formula mixed with SimplyThick to premature babies. The agency said it has received reports that 15 infants who had been given the product developed a “life-threatening intestinal condition.” The FDA releases a statement saying it is investigating reasons why SimplyThick made the children sick, and strongly recommends not giving the product to babies who are younger then 37 weeks old.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has begun investigating potential fuel tank problems in Ford F-150 trucks that could affect more than 2.7 million vehicles. The agency said “the steel straps holding up the truck’s gas tank can rust and break, possibly causing a fuel spill and fire.” Ford has received 243 reports of tanks falling from the trucks and two fires starting as a result.

A committee within the F.D.A. has advised the agency to denounce its marketing approval of the popular cancer drug Avastin for treating breast cancer because “new trials showed no apparent benefit from the drug.” The committee found that new trials of the drug, which is combined with the breast cancer drug paclitaxel to treat metastatic breast cancer, actually showed that survival rates decreased slightly for women due to complications from the drugs. If the F.D.A. decides to follow the committee recommendation, it would not affect marketing of the drug for brain, lung, colon and kidney cancer.

One of the nation’s leading brain imaging centers at Columbia University has be temporarily shut down after F.D.A. investigators found that the center “injected mental patients with drugs that contained potentially dangerous impurities.” The Kreitchman PET Center came under fire from the F.D.A. in December 2008 for violating federal regulations, and the agency raided the labs in January 2010 when the center failed to fix its lax quality control and sloppy procedures for formulating drug injections. To perform certain scans, doctors must first inject patients with a radiotracer, but if the tracer contains too many unknown chemicals, the injection may have harmful affects on the body. The F.D.A investigation found that “at least 10 batches of drugs had been released and injected into human subjects with impurities” above federal regulatory levels since 2007.

A voluntary recall of of 82,000 drop-side cribs has been issued by Pottery Barn due to the high risk that a child may become stuck within the frame and suffocate. This is the 12th recall of such cribs and the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission reports that 32 children have died since 2000. The CPSC has also proposed a nation-wide ban on the product and may also require stronger mattresses to be installed in all cribs.

A Food and Drug Administration official last week harshly criticized a major clinical trial for the popular diabetes drug Avandia, saying that the drug maker ignored numerous cases of patients suffering heart problems during the trial. The examiner said he found a dozen instances that point to Avandia causing heart attacks and strokes in patients, which seconds the criticism of many of the drug’s critics. A panel will meet next week to decide if a recommendation should be made to the FDA that Avandia be withdrawn from the market.

High levels of the toxic metal cadmium have forced Wal-Mart stores across the country to pull its Miley Cyrus line of children’s jewelry from the shelves. The Associated Press reported earlier this week that Wal-Mart received information about the high cadmium levels in February, but continued to sell the product. In April, company officials said they were testing all incoming products, but would not test items already on the shelves because “it would be too difficult.” USA Today is reporting that the retailer finally did pull the jewelry because of the AP report.