2010 May Archive

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a warning to parents about problems with baby sling harness-like devices.

Seven infants have suffocated in the prone position in the sack-like bag. It attaches around the neck of the adult and rests around the stomach area in front of the adult where the baby lies prone. The baby sling will be the subject of a warning by the agency. “We know of too many deaths in these slings and we now know the hazardous scenarios for very small babies,” said Inez Tenenbaum, chair of the CPSC.

Seven infant deaths due to the defective child product have occurred in connection with baby slings over the last 11 years. Some of the deaths were ruled SIDS or Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS). Generally that means there is no explanation for the death. The concern is that infants four months old and younger do not have enough neck strength and when their head bends forward it may cut off their oxygen supply.

Two infants have suffocated in the Infantino baby sling, reports Consumer Reports. Among other products not to buy for your infants, Consumer Reports says avoid the co-sleeping devices, baby bath seats, and crib bumper pads. In addition to the disruption in oxygen, Consumer Reports says at least 22 injuries have been reported when the child falls out of the sling.

Toyota has agreed to pay the largest civil fine permitted for failing to notify the federal government about a dangerous pedal defect for almost four months. The fine – $16.375 million – is the largest ever assessed against an auto maker by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Toyota put consumers at risk with a failure to notify in a timely manner: “I am pleased that Toyota has accepted responsibility for violating its legal obligations to report any defects promptly. We are continuing to investigate whether the company has lived up to all its disclosure obligations.”

In February, NHTSA required Toyota to turn over more than 120,000 pages of company documents to determine if the company was dealing honestly with federal regulators investigating whether Toyota was following U.S. auto safety laws. It was through these documents that regulators determined Toyota knew it had a problem in September but did not issue a recall until late January.

It was the pedal problems that eventually led to Toyota and U.S. regulators recalling 2.3 million Toyota vehicles in the U.S. A sticky pedal problem in defective autos in Florida and throughout the nation is what led to sudden unexplained acceleration being linked to at least 100 deaths in the U.S.

Toyota could face additional fines. More than eight million Toyota vehicles worldwide have been recalled. Toyota could have contested the fine but opted to pay it.

Publix is selling a seasoning mix that may pose a health risk to consumers, according to this report. Publix has recalled four different types of seasoning mixes. The food flavorings are made by Nevada-based Basic Food Flavors of Las Vegas. The vegetable protein may have been contaminated with Salmonella, but no consumers have reported any injuries.

Hydrolyzed vegetable protein or HPV is found in the Publix Mushroom Gravy Mix, the Publix Meatloaf Seasoning, the Public Beef Flavored Stew Mix, and the Publix Au Jus Gravy Mix. Salmonella, the bacterial contaminant, can cause serious and fatal infections in young children or in people with a compromised immune system.

Salmonella, in otherwise healthy people can cause fever diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and abdominal pain. The Publix customer relations department can be reached at 800-242-1227 or online at www.publix.com.

Drew James consumed a lot of caffeine. Whether energy drinks, soda or sweet tea, the 19-year-old from Nassau County loved caffeine. In January after going to the movies with a friend, he collapsed at a friend’s home in Bryceville. According to www.jacksonville.com, he had consumed an energy drink on his way home. After drinking half of a can of Monster Nitrous, he fell backwards and began seizing. He never woke up. The medical examiner suspected drugs, and he found it of sorts. James had a heart thicker than the normal heart, according to the report. The leading theory behind his death is that the caffeine triggered his heart to beat irregularly. He had caffeine, nicotine and traces of marijuana in his urine. With the exception of the marijuana, they are all legal drugs.

Our hearts go out to the family members of James who lost this teen so young in life from a hazard that no one understood.

Liability Considerations
James’ mother, Cheryl, wants to require energy drink makers to list on the can the amount of caffeine in their products and to provide specific health warnings. Monster Nitrous advises people to “consume responsibly” by limiting themselves to three cans a day. The amount of caffeine is not listed. Mayo Clinic says that consuming two to four cups of coffee a day, or about 200 to 300 milligrams of caffeine, is not harmful. Double that can cause a fast or irregular heartbeat, headache and anxiety. A friend of the family writes to the news that the drugs were found in his urine, not his blood and had he been a regular consumer of marijuana it would have been in his blood. He had reportedly been drinking Red Bull on a regular basis, and this family friend writes that the medical examiner told Drew’s mother there were no underlying heart issues. The news doesn’t always get it right.

Hopefully it won’t take losing another child for consumers to understand that there is a danger with highly caffeinated drinks. Many people occasionally suffer from irregular heartbeats that are undiagnosed. Caffeine can interrupt the regular heart rhythm, yet the product is sold right next to juices and water, has no FDA review, and the manufacturer has a responsibility to not just make money, but to better warn the public. In 2008, a group of scientists also called on the FDA to better regulate energy drinks because of the potential dangers. A Florida personal injury attorney and investigator can protect your rights when a dangerous and defective product is on store shelves. Cheryl James just wants the age limited raised to 21 for the drug, caffeine, just like the drug, alcohol is restricted to someone who is older. It sounds reasonable.

7-year-old Kristen Spears was born with cerebral palsy. Her limbs would be contracted and spastic and Spears would receive large doses of Botox to relax her limbs. Spears died November 24, 2007, allegedly as a result of the Botox injections. Now a Texas jury says the drug maker adequately warned about Botox dangers, according to a Los Angeles Times article.

Allergan, maker of Botox, was accused of being liable in the death of Spears who died of respiratory failure and pneumonia. Lawyers for the family said that Allergan did not adequately warn doctors about using the higher doses sometimes used in pediatric cerebral palsy cases. This case was closely watched as it’s the first time the botulinum toxin-based drug is accused of contributed to a death. Botox is best known for smoothing out wrinkles, but doctors sometimes prescribe it “off label” to be used in children with limb spasticity.

The jury took two days to decide that although Botox did pose a risk of substantial danger that regular customers would not know about, Allergan did not breach its duty to warn of those dangers. They never got to decide whether Botox contributed to her death after finding the warnings were adequate. Essentially they decided that Kristin died from the progression of her disease.

The FDA is stretching its new regulatory muscle over tobacco. An advisory panel will soon take a look at the safety of menthol flavorings added to cigarettes. The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, approved in June 2009, gives the FDA the regulatory oversight to ban certain products, limit additives and revisit promises by Big Tobacco such as the word” light” or “low tar” to promote some cigarettes. Menthol is used to give menthol cigarettes the slightly minty taste.

About 1 million Americans, primarily African-American, smoke menthol cigarettes marketed under the brand names, Newport, Marlboro Menthol, American Spirits Menthol, Consulate and Camel Menthol.

This is just the first of two meetings over menthol additives in cigarettes. A summer follow-up will focus on industry research and documents. The FDA will likely launch health efforts to dispel the myth that menthol cigarettes are more healthy and medicinal than regular tobacco cigarettes in order to reduce the health disparities among different ethnic communities.

Pharmaceutical Giant, AstraZeneca LP and AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals LP has been fined $520 million by the Food and Drug Administration for marketing the anti-psychotic , Seroquel, for uses not approved by the FDA, according a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announcement.

The off-label uses include promoting Seroquel to psychiatrists and doctors to treat aggression, Alzheimer’s disease, post-traumatic stress disorder, mood disorder, and sleeplessness, among other uses. Consumers and Jacksonville product liability attorneys are concerned that these are not conditions included in the drug’s product label because they are not approved by the FDA. As such, they are not areas that are supposed to be covered by Medicaid, Medicare and TRICARE programs as well as the Department of Veterans Affairs, Bureau of Prisons and Federal Employee Health Benefits program, according to Health and Human Services.

AstraZeneca is accused of targeting doctors who typically do not treat bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. Instead, doctors convinced to use the drug were treating the elderly in nursing homes and treating children and adolescents.

The company is accused of promoting the unapproved uses in company-sponsored medical education programs. It also encouraged doctors by paying them to speak to other medical experts promoting the drug’s use and recruited doctors to author articles actually ghostwritten by AstraZeneca writers. The articles were then used to promote Seroquel, a violation of the federal Anti-Kickback Statute, according to the Department of Justice. The federal investigation was initiated by a whistleblower lawsuit. Because it is a federal action, the whistleblower shares in the recovery, in this instance $45 million.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is recalling all the Claire’s kid jewelry known as “Best Friends” because of high levels of the toxic metal, cadmium, found in the jewelry, some up to 10,000 times what was expected. The investigation however was not started by the CPSC, but by the Associated Press. More jewelry recalls of children’s trinkets should be expected. The jewelry was made in China and investigators are visiting the 10 busiest ports, shooting x-ray beams into the jewelry to see if it contains cadmium.

The “Best Friends” jewelry is sold exclusively at Claire’s, which has 3,000 stores in the U.S. and in Europe.

The Environmental Protection agency calls the metal, which is found in batteries, a probable human carcinogen. A buildup can affect the kidneys and bones. This is the third recall of cadmium coated kids jewelry and this one was initiated after the CPSC’s own tests confirmed what AP had found.

What can parents do? Claire’s says you can bring back the $12 bracelets for a full refund or replacement. There are such things as a cadmium test kit, but like a lead test kit, you need to know what you are doing. Parents are the best advocates for their children and can make things happen faster than any government agency by complaining to the giant retailer that they want their children’s jewelry scanned for unwanted metals before it is sold to innocent children.

Claire’s also took four months before it agreed to pull items from the shelves, saying it still believes they are safe. How about better safe than sorry? In fairness to Claire’s, there is no federal standard for cadmium and Claire’s says it would like some clearer standards to follow. No standards set and no retailer taking the lead to keep kids safe. Guess who has fallen between the cracks? Fortunately, a watchdog press took up where others failed.

Legislation is brewing in the Senate in the form of the Safe Kids Jewelry Act (S. 2975), which was introduced last February by a number of Senators. While it is stuck in committee you can go to Open Congress online and vote whether you support this bill. If you or a loved one has been injured by a defective product, a Jacksonville defective product attorney can be your best advocate to help you right a wrong and compensate you for the harm created by others.

Today an increasing number of healthy people are using drugs without a prescription to make them smarter. It’s called Neuroenhancement and 60 Minutes reports that college students are using prescription medication, Adderall and Ritalin, usually given for attention deficit disorder, to help them cram before finals. Based on a CBS News report, Students at the University of Kentucky were interviewed by Katie Couric and one student said, it’s so commonplace, “Why wouldn’t you do it?”

Adderall, along with Ritalin, seem to increase mental focus to make it easier to do boring work. Alan DeSantis, a communications professor at U KY decided to study Adderall after being baffled by his students’ casual use of the drug. In a survey of 2,000 students, he found that 34% of undergraduates had taken attention deficit drugs without a prescription.

The longer they are in school, the more the drug use climbs with about half of juniors and seniors taking stimulants. Among those in the sororities, the numbers are about 80 percent. Where do they get them? From kids who are legitimately prescribed Adderall. They are prescribed a pill a day or 30 a month but rarely take one every day. Instead, they sell the extra pills for about $5 each.

Martha Farah, a psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, says she’s troubled by the use of drugs on campus, but she believes it will one day be as common as cosmetic surgery to neuroenhance your brain with medication. Others believe it’s irresponsible. Dr. Nora Volkow of Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York is testing stimulants, in this case Ritalin. She is also the director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. She says they are in the same class of drugs as cocaine and are addictive and can cause heart problems and the long-term effect is still unknown but can include psychosis. But the problem isn’t going away. Last year, 60 Minutes reports 2 million prescriptions of the stimulant, Provigil, were filled and the Air Force has approved it for fighter pilots on extended combat missions. Soon see more and potent drugs to boost your brain power. Most people are okay with it, concludes one student.

Rollovers are a common everyday hazard of our larger vehicles, particularly SUVs, which have a higher center of gravity than your typical car. Almost every day we write about an SUV that has rolled off the road and landed on its roof. Whether in an SUV or a car, we often find that the occupants of the vehicle were not protected by the roof, which crashes in and injures passengers often by causing traumatic brain injuries.

You would think that a roof would be built strong enough to resist caving in, but the only federal standard an automaker must meet is that the roof needs to be a 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle. A Jere Beasley Report story reminds us that this is a standard that was passed in 1971.

Automakers have the option to design stronger roofs, but many only meet the minimum standard which is not strong enough to protect your family members inside a vehicle. Here is how roof strength is tested. A car is put on its roof and the weight equal to 1.5 times the weight of the vehicle is applied. If the roof crushes less than five inches, it passes the standard. If your head had to resist five inches of pressure, it would not pass any standards either. Things are getting better though. In 2009, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration decided to double the roof strength for cars and light trucks. That will be phased in by the 2012 models.

Soon you will have even stronger vehicles to choose from. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety will be adding a new roof rating system on its Web site that is displayed such as strength-to-weight ratio of 2.5, which means that four times the weight is put on the vehicle on its roof before a 5 inch crush occurs. Don’t assume more expensive cars are the ones with the stronger roofs. An inexpensive car can have a strong roof. If you are curious, anything less than a 2.5 strength-to-weight ratio is not a safe vehicle. A 3.25 would be much better.