Health Highlights: May 22, 2015

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Here are some of the latest health and medical news developments, compiled by the editors of HealthDay:

FDA: Inadequate Testing, Cleaning at Jeni’s Ice Cream Plant

There was inadequate cleaning and testing at Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams plant in Columbus, Ohio before listeria was detected in some of its ice cream, a Food and Drug Administration investigation found.

Jeni’s recalled all of its products last month and conducted intensive cleaning before starting to make ice cream again and re-opening its shops last Friday, the Associated Press reported.

No illnesses have been reported in connection with the recall.

After a Freedom of Information request, the AP obtained the results of the FDA investigation. It found that Jeni’s did not have an adequate sampling and testing program and was not sufficiently sanitizing some surfaces, including floors.

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DEA Arrests 48 in Raids Targeting Illegal Sales of Prescription Painkillers

Forty-eight people, including seven doctors, were arrested in four Southern states as part of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s largest operation against illegal trafficking of prescription drugs.

Wednesday’s raids came after a 15-month investigation that focused on the illicit sale and distribution of prescription painkillers such as oxycodone and hydrocodone, and the tranquilizer Xanax, The New York Times reported.

The 48 arrests in Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi were in addition to 230 other arrests made during the investigation of pharmacists, doctors, street-level dealers and others, DEA officials said.

Among those arrested and charged Wednesday were two doctors in Mobile, Ala. who ran two pain clinics and also owned a pharmacy, and an Arkansas pharmacist who used fake prescriptions to sell 93,000 hydrocodone pills for about $500,000 in 2013, The Times reported.

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Climate Change a National Security Threat: Obama

Climate change is a threat to national security, President Barack Obama says.

On Wednesday, he told cadets at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut that people who deny climate change are putting at risk the nation and its military, and that failure to take action on climate change would be “dereliction of duty,” the Associated Press reported.

Climate change and rising sea levels would hamper the readiness of U.S. forces and could increase social tensions and political instability worldwide, the president warned.

“Denying (climate change) or refusing to deal with it undermines our national security,” Obama said, the AP reported.

“Make no mistake, it will impact how our military defends our country,” he added. “We need to act and we need to act now.”

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