The trade off between safer eggs and the risk of a deadly salmonella outbreak is just pennies a dozen, according to a in-depth look at the industry by P.J. Huffstutter in the Los Angeles Times. Slightly stricter guidelines in California have helped egg producers avoid bacterial contamination in recent years, but in an industry where the bottom line reigns supreme, tighter rules have caught on in only nine of the 50 states.

A simple solution to a lethal problem could come with the stroke of a pen -- and save lives.  It remains out of reach because the Food and Drug Administration's unwieldy review process.  Gardiner Harris of the New York Times investigates something  basic and alarming -- the misconnection of plastic tubes that are used to deliver medicine, anaesthetic, and other vital substances to patients in America's hospitals.  The tubes are often very similar, and can easily be fitted into many different devices.  The result can be painful and sudden death when medical workers make errors and connect the wrong tubes -- liquid food can be inserted into a vein, and air bubbles can end up in people's blood streams.

Illinois so far has sidestepped major problems with the national outbreak of salmonella-tainted eggs that were made in Iowa.  The Washington Post’s David Brown reports that salmonella-tainted eggs produced by Wright County Egg in Galt, Iowa have sickened 1,200 people nationwide. The company has initiated a recall of 380 million eggs, but the worst could be still to come:

When the people whose very livelihood depends on the government say they don't trust the government, we've got a lot to worry about. David A. Fahrenthold and Juliet Eilperin report in the Washington Post that Gulf Coast shrimp fishermen, told by the Obama administration that they can start shrimping today and that their catch is safe, are wary of fishing again in spite of government reassurances.

The Food and Drug Administration will now inspect more medical devices that are similar to devices already approved by the agency. Deborah L. Shelton of the Chicago Tribune details how the new rules stem partly from a case that involves Dr. Patrick McCarthy, a cardiac surgeon at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Here’s why industry self-policing doesn’t work when it comes to dangerous chemicals. Last month the Environmental Working Group found that those shiny grocery and gas station receipts contain high levels of the chemical, bisphenol A ("BPA"), which is absorbed into our skin.  The Food and Drug Administration is already considering whether to regulate BPA found in plastic food containers – including baby bottles – but only after a public outcry.

Federal regulators are on the verge of approving the world's first 'Frankenfish' -- genetically modified Atlantic salmon engineered to grow from fingerling to filet in half the time.  According to Les Blumenthal of McClatchy Newspapers, "if the Food and Drug Administration approves it, the salmon would be the first transgenic animal headed for the dinner table."

Some 4,200 bags of spinach, possibly tainted by E. coli, were recalled by California-based Ready Pac Foods Inc. yesterday, after federal labs detected the bacteria in a random sample test, according to the Associated Press. The source of the contamination is unknown.

Instead of just product recalls, how about a new approach to consumer safety that provides incentives and penalties to companies based on how well they protect the public safety? Getting people to return defective and dangerous products takes much more than simply issuing a recall notice, reports Lyndsey Layton of The Washington Post.   The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Food and Drug Administration, two agencies that are involved with product recalls, face a significant problem: thousands of Americans buy everything

Gardiner Harris reports in the New York Times that the Food and Drug Administration is pushing to limit the use of antibiotics in animal feeding "in hopes of slowing the growing scourge of killer bacteria."  However, as Harris notes, "[i]n the battle between public health and agriculture, the guys with the cowboy hats generally win."