Health IQ: Ozempic faces lawsuit; is radon in your home?

Why Ozempic’s maker is being sued

Novo Nordisk, the company behind Ozempic, is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit.

The proposed national lawsuit alleges the pharmaceutical company does not make the “dangerous side effects” of Ozempic more prominent for health-care providers and patients.

The alleged side effects include stomach paralysis and gallbladder disease, according to the lawsuit.

“It’s filed as a national class on behalf of all Canadians that have taken Ozempic,” said Jill McCartney, a lawyer and partner at Siskinds, the London, Ont.-based law firm behind the litigation.

“Part of manufacturing a drug is there’s a duty to warn of the risks. The manufacturer failed to adequately warn about the risks associated with taking the drug.”

Ozempic was approved by Health Canada in 2018 as a medication to treat diabetes. But it has been used off-label for weight loss.

In an email to Global News on Tuesday, a spokesperson for Novo Nordisk said the company stands behind the safety of Ozempic “when used by appropriate patients consistent with the product labelling and approved indications.”

Read more about the proposed class-action suit here and what the plaintiff alleges happened to her while taking Ozempic.

Radon may be lurking in your home — and it could cause cancer

As the weather turns colder and Canadians seek warmth and shelter indoors, health experts are warning about radon — a subtle yet potentially dangerous gas that can build up in households, especially during the winter months.

“Radon is a naturally occurring gas found in the soil all across Canada. It moves up and into the air around us and it’s invisible. You can’t smell or taste it,” explained Pam Warkentin, the executive director of the Canadian Association of Radon Scientists and Technologists (CARST).

The radioactive gas is also the leading cause of lung cancer in Canada for non-smokers, according to the Canadian Cancer Society. This is because it builds up to hazardous levels indoors, especially in poorly ventilated areas, experts warn.

According to Health Canada, around seven per cent of homes across the country have high levels of radon. But this also differs across the country, as some regions have higher amounts of uranium (where radon comes from) in underlying rock and soil.

Because the gas can go unnoticed in homes, offices and schools, Warkentin recommends people invest in a radon detector, a vital tool that can accurately measure radon levels and provide early warning of potential health risks.

Read more about these detectors and how a B.C.-based oncologist and lung cancer survivor discovered radon in his home.

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Cocaine use on the rise in Canada

— WHAT EXPERTS ARE SAYING —

The use of the stimulant drug cocaine is increasing in Canada and it may be contributing significantly to accidental drug toxicity deaths in Canada, according to federal data.

New data released by Statistics Canada on Wednesday showed that cocaine levels measured in the wastewater of some Canadian cities continued to increase from January 2020 to May 2023.

The use of cocaine among all the cities where wastewater surveillance was done was highest in Prince Albert, Sask., with 1,633 milligrams of cocaine per capita detected daily so far this year. Of the seven municipalities mentioned in the StatCan report, Metro Vancouver (1,062 mg) and Toronto (1,001 mg) had the lowest daily use of cocaine per capita.

Cocaine is a stimulant drug that can be snorted and injected, while crack is a version of cocaine that is typically smoked.

It can have several damaging mental and physical effects, including short-term symptoms like panic, dizziness, vomiting and tremors, as well as longer-term consequences such as depression, extreme mood swings, sleeping problems, severe chest pain, difficulty breathing and heart problems.

Roughly half a million people in Canada reported using cocaine over the past year, the United Nations Global Report on Cocaine published in March said.

This data comes as the country continues to grapple with an opioid overdose crisis that has killed thousands of Canadians.

So far this year, nearly half of accidental apparent opioid toxicity deaths also involved a stimulant, the Public Health Agency of Canada said in a September report.