FDA to Expand Review of Chemical Preservatives Used in Food
The Food and Drug Administration is planning to expand its review of food additives beyond artificial dyes, targeting preservatives and chemicals used as whitening agents and dough conditioners.
The agency will issue an updated list of chemicals that it will evaluate, including the common preservatives butylated hydroxytoluene, or BHT, and butylated hydroxyanisol, or BHA. Azodicarbonamide, or ADA, a whitening agent used in cereal flour and as a dough conditioner, will also be on the list, the agency said in a statement.
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USA Today
23 minutes ago
- USA Today
Hunter Biden blames dad's disastrous Trump debate on Ambien. What is it?
Could Ambien be the reason behind former President Joe Biden's widely criticized debate performance against Donald Trump last year? Hunter Biden thinks so. During a more than three-hour interview on the YouTube show Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan that aired on July 21, Hunter Biden said his dad was experiencing effects from the prescription sleep aid while debating now-president Trump. "I know exactly what happened in that debate," Hunter Biden said in a three hour-plus interview on the YouTube show Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan that aired July 21. "He flew around the world ‒ basically the mileage that he could have flown around the world three times. He's 81 years old. He's tired as s--t. They give him Ambien to be able to sleep. He gets up on the stage, and he looks like he's a deer in the headlights, and it feeds into every f---ing story that anybody wants to tell." Biden isn't the only public figure to blame regrettable behavior on Ambien. Years ago, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's daughter Kerry Kennedy blamed Ambien for a drugged-driving incident, for which she was acquitted in 2014. In 2018, comedian Roseanne Barr said she was "Ambien tweeting" when a racist tweet of hers about Obama White House aide Valerie Jarrett led to the cancelation of her ABC sitcom. But what exactly is Ambien − and how does it affect the human body? Here's what to know about the prescription sleep aide. What is Ambien? Ambien, also known by its generic name, zolpidem, is a prescription medication used to treat insomnia by helping individuals fall asleep quicker and stay asleep. The Food and Drug Administration has expressed concern over how Ambien can impair activities, such as driving, especially into the morning hours. "Patients with high levels of zolpidem can be impaired even if they feel fully awake," the FDA wrote in a fact sheet about the medication. A year ago: The Biden-Trump debate rematch that changed the election Joe Biden, now 82, and his former White House aides have previously blamed the president's busy schedule for his poor debate performance on June 27, 2024, but have not publicly mentioned Ambien. A representative for the former president did not respond to a request from USA TODAY about Hunter Biden's remarks about the sleeping drug. What are the side effects of Ambien? Ambien's side effects include nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps and diarrhea. The medication can also cause abnormal thinking and changes in behavior: "Some of these changes may be characterized by decreased inhibition ... similar to effects produced by alcohol," the FDA-approved labeling says. Confusion and aggressiveness are also listed side effects. "Visual and auditory hallucinations have been reported as well as behavioral changes such as bizarre behavior, agitation and depersonalization," the label adds. Previously: Hunter Biden says Joe Biden was taking Ambien before disastrous debate against Trump The label also warns against a possible worsening of depression or suicidal thinking. Impairments to alertness, motor coordination and vision have also been reported. Complex sleep behaviors, during which a person engaged in activities while not fully away, such as sleepwalking, sleep-driving and sleep-cooking, have also been associated with Ambien, the American Addiction Centers reports. Additionally, the drug has been linked to amnesia. What have others said about Ambien? After Barr's comment about "Ambien tweeting," Sanofi, a pharmaceutical company that makes Ambien, tweeted in response: "While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication." Ambien was also one of the drugs found in Tiger Woods' system after police found him asleep in his car in the middle of a highway. Other Ambien users have reported a variety of side effects, including sleepwalking, binge eating and even driving at night without realizing or remembering the incidents. Ambien maker to Roseanne: Racism is not a side effect of our drug Janet Makinen, one of the lead plaintiffs in a 2006 class-action lawsuit against Ambien maker Sanofi-Aventis' U.S. division, alleged she 'ate hundreds of calories of food, including raw eggs, uncooked yellow rice, cans of vegetables, loaves of bread, bags of chips and bags of candy' while on the medication, according to an amended complaint in the lawsuit filed in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit also alleged that fellow plaintiff Christina Brothers, a financial analyst, remembers taking Ambien one night in May 2005 and waking up 'on the concrete floor of a jail cell.' The parties agreed to a stipulated dismissal in 2007 because differences in factual issues and the women's injuries made it impossible for the case to be certified as a class-action lawsuit on behalf of other Ambien users. Contributing: Joey Garrison and Ashley May
Fox News
24 minutes ago
- Fox News
Federal judge blocks Trump administration from defunding Planned Parenthood
A judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from stripping Medicaid funds from Planned Parenthood after Congress and President Donald Trump agreed to partially defund the nonprofit through passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. Judge Indira Talwani of the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts said in her order partially granting a preliminary injunction that the bill unconstitutionally punishes Planned Parenthood member organizations that do not provide abortions. The injunction will risk "at most minimal harm—financial or otherwise—to" the Trump administration while the lawsuit proceeds," Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote. Talwani's order arose from a lawsuit brought by Planned Parenthood, the nation's largest abortion vendor, over the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a massive budget bill that passed Congress this month with no Democrat support. Trump signed the bill into law on July 4. A provision in the bill stripped Medicaid funding from Planned Parenthood, which the nonprofit said could force it to close about 200 of its 600 facilities and deprive about half of its customers, more than one million people, of services that do not include abortion. Planned Parenthood attorneys noted in court filings that Medicaid does not cover abortion. The attorneys argued that cancer and sexually transmitted infections would go undetected, especially for low-income people, and that more unplanned pregnancies would occur because of a lack of contraception access. They said the consequences of losing Medicaid funding "will be grave." Department of Justice (DOJ) attorneys had previously argued in court filings that the purpose of the budget provision was to stop "federal subsidies for Big Abortion" by freezing federal funds for certain Medicaid recipients who provide abortions. Weakening Planned Parenthood has been one of the pro-life movement's leading priorities since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Talwani granted a temporary restraining order two weeks ago in favor of Planned Parenthood. The judge initially offered no explanation for her decision, a move that led to widespread backlash among Republicans who described it as judicial overreach. Days later, Talwani offered more context in a subsequent order. The preliminary injunction will leave in place the pause on defunding Planned Parenthood indefinitely, but the Trump administration is likely to appeal the order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit. DOJ attorneys had previously argued to the court that blocking a measure that was passed by Congress and signed by the president was an extraordinary move and unjustified. "Beyond the futility of the claims on the merits, Planned Parenthood fails to demonstrate imminent irreparable harm to justify an injunction, asserting only classically reparable economic injury and irrelevant potential harm to patients, who are third parties not before this Court," DOJ attorneys wrote.
Associated Press
24 minutes ago
- Associated Press
Planned Parenthood wins partial victory in legal fight with Trump administration over funding cuts
BOSTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood won a partial victory Monday in a legal fight with President Donald Trump's administration over efforts to defund the organization in his signature tax legislation. A provision in that bill would end Medicaid payments to abortion providers for one year. But U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani in Boston granted a preliminary injunction Monday that, for now, blocks the government from cutting Medicaid payments to Planned Parenthood member organizations that either don't provide abortion care or didn't meet a threshold of at least $800,000 in Medicaid reimbursements in a given year. It wasn't immediately clear how many Planned Parenthood organizations and clinics would continue to get Medicaid reimbursement under that decision and how many might not. The lawsuit was filed earlier this month against Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. by Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its member organizations in Massachusetts and Utah. A Planned Parenthood spokesperson said its lawyers were still examining the order and would release a statement shortly.
