Product Liability

The federal government is issuing a warning about public pools this summer. About 314 million visit pools in the summer months and in a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) weekly report, CDC researchers find that one out of every eight pools inspected in 13 states two years ago had to be closed for serious code violations.

The violations included improper pH levels and disinfectant which can cause norovirus, Shingella and gastroenteritis. It should come as no surprise that child care facility pools had the highest number of closings at 17.2%. Bacterial contamination came from dirty diapers, poor hygiene, and people swimming who are ill or fail to rinse their bodies before getting into the pool.

Hotel and motels had closures at 5.3% and apartment/condo pools at 12.4%.

CDC has some safety tips among them – don’t swim if you have diarrhea and don’t drink pool water. Shower with soap before entering the pool or using the bathroom or changing diapers. Check diapers often. Wash your children thoroughly including wiping their bottoms with soap and water before they go swimming.

As for what you can do on your own – you can use a test strip to test the pool water quality on your own. Check the latest pool inspection results and know the pH levels and chlorine levels from the latest test. The pH measures the relative acidity or alkalinity of the pool water. pH is measured on a scale of 1 to 14 where 1 is extremely acidic and 14 is extremely alkaline. A pH reading of 7.0 is neutral - below 7.0 is acidic - above 7.0 is alkaline.

Toyota is vowing to win back customers “at all costs” to reverse the tide of plummeting sales and an unprecedented series of safety recalls. Automotive News reports the automaker will offer the best extended new car warranty in the industry and offer a warranty for used vehicles as well. Customers will be offered cash to buy a Toyota vehicle and dealers will get help from Toyota on their overflow inventory and in dealing with repairs outside of those covered by the various recalls.

Toyota has already fallen to third behind Chevy and Ford among truck sales and 80,000 automobile sales will be lost this year.

Last fall, Toyota recalled more than five million Toyota and Lexus models following complaints of unintended acceleration caused by floor mats trapping accelerator pedals. In January, another 2.3 million cars were recalled because of unintended acceleration. This time though it was blamed on a sticky gas pedal. The more recent recalls have included the Prius hybrid and the Tacoma pickup, affecting about 8,000 four-wheel trucks that will be fixed for a defective front drive shaft.

Personal Injury Claims
We certainly hope that you or a loved one has not experienced a runaway Toyota. A few individuals have lived to tell about it and even experienced drivers who tried everything in their power to stop the vehicle, could not. As a result, there are individual lawsuits and class action lawsuits that have been filed against Toyota. Unfortunately, sometimes that is the only thing that will get the automakers ear and attention. While automakers typically try to block class actions, Toyota will not have much opportunity this time around. A suit has already been filed in federal court in Florida on behalf of over 5 million Toyota owners who have had their vehicles recalled. A lawsuit in Texas alleges a woman was killed in a December accident driving a 2009 Corolla.

It is very likely that Toyota will have to settle rather than try each case individually in open court. Expect charges of wrongful death, breach of warranty, fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment, and breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing. As more information comes forward about what Toyota knew and when it knew it, expect more accusations of a cover-up. Then the question arises, why leave other similar vehicles that do not have a brake over-ride system unrecalled?

If you own a Toyota, you would be well-advised to contact a Florida auto product liability attorney, even if you have not been involved in an accident, to stay up to date with your rights, the possible diminished value of your car, and the latest news on this huge defective product action.

The national Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is telling consumers to put a full line of Hydroxycut products back on the shelf in a recent addition to their online consumer safety resource site.

The FDA has established a link between these products and a range of liver conditions, including several fatalities, according to an internal Web page urging consumers to stop using Hydroxycut products. The list includes caplets and tablets for fat burning, carb control and other dietary uses. The FDA qualifies their warning with the disclaimer that there is not yet any specific links and that some of the associated conditions are relatively rare. However, the recall stands as a needed safety measure for stopping the sale of these products while officials conduct further assessments.

Read the rest »

It looks like trouble for pharmacy company Matrixx Initiatives: A Federal Food and Drug Administration warning has SEC officials looking into reports over a drug called Zicam that could be responsible for an unintended side effect called “Anosmia.”

For the uninitiated, anosmia refers to a loss of the sense of smell. According to an original Wall Street Journal story cited by several online news sources, the FDA received over 100 reported incidents involving anosmia in Zicam users, prompting the issuance of an “alert” to the public regarding the Zicam products used for controlling symptoms of the common cold.

Read the rest »

Along with the national agencies that regulate auto product liability, smaller local partners also keep an eye on automobile safety standards. One such local agency is the Automotive Product Liability Resource Center (APLRC.com), located in sunny Santa Barbara, CA.

The goal of APLRC.com is to persuade the automobile manufacturers that it is more cost-efficient to manufacture safer automobiles than to pay the high costs of product liability litigation. To that end, the agency serves as a nationwide collaboration of attorneys, experts and victims to increase successful plaintiff verdicts in automobile safety lawsuits.

Read the rest »

Because of the May 1 recall of the popular diet supplement Hydroxycut, Farah & Farah, P.A., created Hydroxycut-RecallAttorneys.com as an internet resource for those injured by Hydroxycut side effects.
Discover the latest news about Iovate products affected by the recall and stay informed with updates about the potential and documented side effects of Hydroxycut.

According to the FDA, over 20 cases of liver damage have been reported among users of the diet supplement. These reports of liver damage lead the FDA to call for a recall of the product and an urgent plea for consumers to stop taking Hydroxycut products.

Read the rest »

California is the latest state to notice wallboards that are emitting a noxious sulfur or rotten egg smell from this defective product. It’s a problem that originated in Florida, where high humidity is causing people to move out, their electronics and appliances to corrode, and people coughing and concerned about their health.

There may be 65,000 homes nationwide that were built with substandard wallboard during the building boom. A German manufacturer, Knauf, apparently used contractors in China to create the wallboard. No one has established that the smell is hazardous to your health, but it sure is consistently corroding wiring across the country.

A number of lawsuits are underway in Florida, the most recent filed in Miami claiming that a rotten egg small is corroding wiring in homes and electronics. A Florida product liability class-action has been filed on behalf of residents here. Plaintiffs want to repair the homes or replace them, and to receive relocation costs, as well as to be reimbursed their personal property and for medical monitoring.

Medical monitoring is the only way to know whether we have more than a massive inconvenience here.

The wallboard in question reportedly reacts in high humidity and isn’t that what Florida is known for?  The builders in question Lennar Corp, a major builder in Florida appears to be cooperating to the best of its ability, but it’s a terrible problem for all around. If you have any questions regarding this faulty drywall or any other defective or failing products, please contact the experienced Florida personal injury attorneys at Farah and Farah.

You know the Vytorin commercials – comparing eating fettucini alfredo with your Uncle Alfredo – both are sources of high cholesterol, the ads said. Food and family are both to blame.

Now the lawsuits against the drug are piling up higher and Merck & Co and partner, Schering-Plough Corp have to answer questions to the Justice Department about whether the promotion of Vytorin made false claims. Read the rest »

Consumers might want to check their children’s candies this Halloween since melamine contaminated chocolates have found their way into Canada from China.

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says it’s taking aggressive action to inspect food, candy and other imports from China.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has pulled Sherwood’s Milk Chocolate Pirate’s Gold Coins made in China because they tested positive for melamine, an industrial chemical that humans do not need to consume.

It’s the same chemical that has sickened 50,000 Chinese children that we heard very little about during the Summer Olympics in China.

The gold coins are distributed through Costco in Canada.

Sherwood Brands, the maker, is based in Rockville, Maryland, also makes lollipops, bubble gum and other confections made in China which say “may contain milk”. The company has not returned media calls.

The National Confectioners Association reports that less than one percent of candies sold in the U.S. are imported from China, but this guy, Mike Mozart, says he’s found a bunch of candy from China this season and he’s made a Youtube video to tell everyone about it.

Don’t worry - the FDA says it’s conducting testing of imported foods.

Well, you probably should worry. Check your children’s candy to see if any is made in China. If it is- throw it away- no questions asked!

An 8-month-old child has died after becoming entrapped and suffocating in a Delta Enterprise Co. drop side crib, so nearly 1.6 million cribs are being recalled.

The death was due to a safety peg that was not installed. This allowed the crib locks to become disengaged and detach creating a hazardous gap. That apparently led to the entrapment and suffocation of the baby. And there was another baby reported to have died, but there are no details.

The Delta Enterprise Corp. of New York cribs are manufactured in Taiwan or Indonesia and have the drop side hardware design. The model numbers are listed on the Consumer Product Safety Commission web site.

Unfortunately many cribs are never recalled, but remain in people’s homes, in day care centers or are resold in second-hand stores. Read the rest »