Personal Injury Archive

Sex Toys Need to Be Safe

December 31st, 2009. By Hunter West

It’s a titillating subject to be sure and one that would be expected to serve as the butt of many a joke in the locker rooms of the nation. The fact remains, however that sex toys comprise a legitimate product component in the retail industry—and like any product that is used for the purposes to which they were designed, it needs to be safe. 

It may not be. 

Earlier this month in Canada (known affectionately as the Great White North where it gets so cold in the winter that residents alternate between outdoor sports and the indoor variety with their…well…never mind), a Liberal Member of Parliament issued a communiqué to the Canadian Health Minister with regard to sex toys manufactured with the dreaded bisphenol A (BPA) and phthalates. 

The latter are chemicals used to make plastic sex toys soft and flexible. 

All playfulness aside, the safety concern for sex toys is not unlike previous health issues that have surfaced over the chemical’s use in things such as baby bottles, the lining of food cans and Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: BPA, Health Canada, Phthalates, Sex Toys
Posted in Personal Injury | 3 Comments »

Button Batteries Bad for Babies and Kids in General

December 14th, 2009. By LucyC

Just a heads-up as Christmas is around the corner…a warning was issued today about those ubiquitous button batteries—you know—the little round guys that power everything from alarm clocks to greeting cards to cameras.

Dr. Sam Daniel who works out of the Montreal Children’s Hospital, in Quebec, Canada, told the media that if kids ingest these batteries, it’s serious. “Button batteries in the wrong place can be potentially fatal or can cause long term damage. If you child ingests a button battery, it is a medical emergency your child needs to be seen immediately, ” he told United Press International (UPI) in an earlier interview.

I don’t know about you, but I can barely hold on to one of these little batteries long enough to get it into my camera, so the battery drops to the floor—then the phone rings—and half an hour later I’ve completely forgotten about the battery, which is now lying in wait for a small, curious pair of hands to grasp and see where it fits—the mouth maybe?

According to Dr. Daniel, these batteries can, not surprisingly, cause serious health problems if they’re swallowed.

“At The Montreal Children’s Hospital we treat approximately 12 children a year who have ingested button batteries and we tend to see a spike in the numbers around the holiday season. The average age is between 1 and 2,” Dr. Daniel told UPI. “It doesn’t take long for the battery to start corroding in as little as three hours, significant damage can occur.”  Yikes!

So, if your little one has chowed down on a button battery, a trip to emergency is likely a very good idea. (How is it that they won’t eat their vegetables but they will eat your batteries?) The long-term complications can include tracheostomy—tube or gastrostomy—tube dependence, vocal paralysis, hearing loss or nose deformity.

I’m also going to keep an eye on my dog…

Tags: Lithium Batteries
Posted in Personal Injury | No Comments »

Landmark Ruling Awards Florida Smoker $300 Million

November 21st, 2009. By Hunter West

Fort Lauderdale, FL: A landmark ruling by a jury in Fort Lauderdale late Thursday could set the stage for additional personal injury lawsuits after a Florida woman was awarded $300 million in a tobacco lawsuit. Provided the verdict survives an assumed appeal by defendant Philip Morris, the award represents the largest single award to an individual suing a tobacco company.

Lucinda Naugle was 20 when she started smoking, a habit she maintained for 25 years before finally quitting at the age of 45. Now 61, Naugle suffers from severe emphysema and requires a lung transplant she can’t afford.

If she lives long enough to see an end to the appeal process, Naugle would have more than enough to fund her surgery. The sister of a former Fort Lauderdale mayor was awarded $56 million in compensatory damages and $244 million in punitive damages. Following three hours of deliberation after a three-week trial, the jury assessed liability to Naugle at 10 percent, whereas Philip Morris was saddled with 90 percent.

Altria Group, the parent company of Philip Morris based in Virginia, indicated that it would appeal the verdict. A spokesperson called the Florida rules “fundamentally unfair and unconstitutional.”

Lawsuits against tobacco companies are not unique, especially since 1998 when the seven largest tobacco companies agreed to fork over $206 billion in a master settlement agreement with 46 states.

Florida was one of those states. However, what sets Florida apart is a major legal ruling three years ago that makes it easier for individuals to sue tobacco companies, by way of the lowering of the burden of proof.

In 2006 the Florida Supreme Court rejected a class-action verdict and an award totaling $145 billion to plaintiffs, stating that plaintiffs would have to litigate individually. However-and this is the important caveat-the court dictated that plaintiffs would not be required to prove some key elements that had been upheld in the first stage of the class action: namely that nicotine is addictive, that smoking causes diseases and that cigarette companies fraudulently withheld those facts.

“That makes Florida unique,” said Clifford Douglas of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network, in comments published yesterday in the New York Times.

Naugle’s legal counsel told the New York Times that 25 additional cases would go to trial in Florida next year. In all, more than 9,000 people from the former class action have filed individual lawsuits in various Florida courts. Approximately 4,000 of those cases were filed in federal court and have been stayed pending a review scheduled for early next year.

A tobacco analyst for Morgan Stanley said that the tobacco industry could afford several hundred million dollars a year in legal losses. “That is a financially manageable issue,” David Adelman said.

Tags: Altria Group, Clifford Douglas, David Adelman, Lucinda Naugle, Morgan Stanley, Philip Morris, University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network
Posted in Personal Injury | No Comments »

Pet Turtles, Salmonella and the Ban No One Knows About

October 30th, 2009. By Hunter West

There’s a ban on small pet turtles? 

Really? 

Okay, so the ban is only on pet turtles less than four inches in diameter. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) enacted the ban after reports surfaced that children were putting the cute little things in their mouths. However, it wasn’t a choking hazard that seemed to drive the ban. 

No, it was the fact that children became sick after coming into contact with their pet turtle in such an intimate fashion. 

Sick with salmonella from turtles.  

Turtles carry salmonella, it seems—originating in their feces, according to a recent MSNBC report. So children, by placing the baby turtles in their mouths, were coming into direct contact with salmonella. 

So they were banned 34 years ago. 

Just the small ones, mind you. In 1975.

Oh, you didn’t know either? Join the club. Few consumers know about the ban—and fewer vendors appear to be enforcing the ban, or complying with it. According to MSNBC small turtles Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: FDA, Salmonella, Turtles
Posted in Food Illness, Personal Injury | 1 Comment »

Mesothelioma Treatment: How do you get there?

October 21st, 2009. By AbiK

I just read a post by a blogger named Deon Scott. He posts about asbestos a fair amount—you could say it’s his passion, though I’m sure he’d rather have a different passion: his father suffered and died from asbestos mesothelioma.

Deon posted recently about air transportation for mesothelioma patients—and it caught my eye. While asbestos exposure, and subsequently asbestos mesothelioma years later, can occur almost anywhere, it’s likely that it is more prevalent in areas where big manufacturing is. And often those areas are more rural or remote—not right near a big city—and particularly not near some of the larger and more well-known medical facilities that may be able to provide more treatment options for mesothelioma patients.

Given the statistics on mesothelioma—the American Cancer Society put the estimate for new mesothelioma cases in 2008 at 2,000 – 3,000 with an average survival rate of less Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma, Corporate Angel Network
Posted in Asbestos Mesothelioma, Personal Injury | 5 Comments »