Defective Products Archive

Chinese Drywall: Happy New Year!

September 6th, 2009. By AbiK

You can either choose to look at it as glass half-full, or glass half-empty. I’m betting that folks who’ve been living in the hell known as Chinese drywall have been looking at it as glass all-the-way empty and are somewhat numb by now to any developments in this story.

The latest is that now we have a target date for the inaugural Chinese drywall case going to court: January 2010.

U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon told lawyers this week that he’s looking for them to select six plaintiffs whose cases will begin to be heard early next year. For anyone who’s been keeping Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chinese drywall
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Flies, Frogs or Rodent Hair in food? Here’s what to do…

September 4th, 2009. By AbiK

The recent news of frog (toad?) remains in Fred DeNegri’s Diet Pepsi sounded less than appetizing. But I imagine “alarming” would be the more appropriate word for it if you were sitting in Fred’s shoes sipping back that fizz-laden refresher and…WHAM! Frog in your face!

Most of us (ok, me) would’ve hurled the can across the lawn and screamed a few high-pitched obscenities. But, let’s step back a moment—just what are you supposed to do? Who do you call? How do you call Pepsi (or its bottler) to task? The DeNegri’s had enough sense to do the right thing, but many of us don’t.

Here’s a little primer on “who you gonna call?” when something’s in your food or drink that shouldn’t be… Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FDA, food safety, Pepsi
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Hopping Mad at Pepsi Over Frog in Can

September 4th, 2009. By Hunter West

Amy DeNegri is hopping mad at Pepsi. You would be too, if you found the remains of a disemboweled frog (or perhaps a toad) in your can of soda. Imagine the feeling, the taste, and the horror of popping open a can of something that has been hermetically sealed so that not even an organism can get in, let alone a frog, and finding more than you bargained for? 

That’s what happened to Amy’s husband. Fred cracked open a fresh can of his favorite refreshment in the backyard while tending the BBQ. Something any of us would do. And no one would expect what greeted Fred when he took that long, first swig. 

What did it taste like? He didn’t say. But it was bad enough that he gagged. You would too, given that the Diet Pepsi he took into his mouth had, for an incalculable period of time, been working to corrode and decompose a frog that had somehow wandered or was pushed into the can.  Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Frog, Pepsi
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Chinese Drywall not radioactive after all

August 24th, 2009. By AbiK

We recently posted about some early news reports that indicated Chinese drywall could potentially be radioactive—luckily for folks who’ve been suffering through the defective drywall debacle, the US Environmental Protection Agency and the Florida State Department of Health—both of whom were asked to test the drywall by the US Consumer Safety Commission—found no unusual levels of radioactivity in the drywall.

According to The Miami Herald (8/22/09), traces of radioactive material were found, but they were not at levels that would be any higher “than found in the natural environment”.

Good news, but perhaps a moot point anyway if you’ve already been forced out of your home.

Tags: chinese drywall
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Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act: Yeah, right

August 13th, 2009. By AbiK

So Senators Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Jeff Sessions (R-AL) introduced a bill calling for new legislation regarding products that are manufactured abroad—and found to be defective or cause injury here. No doubt the impetus for their bill has been the Chinese drywall situation. Let’s face it, for those who’ve been affected by the defective drywall, it’s been an uphill battle to get accountability where it belongs—upstream in the supply chain to where the drywall was manufactured: China.

Oh sure, there’s been cooperation with Chinese officials. And everyone’s got studies going on to determine the root cause of the rotten egg smell and the corrosion of air conditioning coils and all. But here’s the thing—who’s going to pay? And on that note, not only is no one eager to raise their hand and shout, “Me, Me, Me—I’ll pay!”, everyone also knows it’s a prayer in you-know-what to try and enforce payment—especially if it’s supposed to be coming from China. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chinese drywall
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