The Consumer Product Safety Commission has fined Kohl’s Department Stores, Inc., Maran, Inc., K.S. Trading Corp. and Hill Sportswear, Inc. for selling children’s sweatshirts and jackets with drawstrings, which pose a risk of strangulation resulting in serious injury or death. Kohl’s received the largest fine of $425,000. Thousands of these garments were sold between 2003 and 2008. Parents should remove the drawstrings from these garments and return them to the place of purchase or contact the manufacturer, Hill Sportswear of Paramount, CA for a full refund. Recalled items were sold under the Hill Sportwear, Seattle Cotton Works, Squeeze Kids Girls and Raw Blue Sportswear brands. (09/08) AP

The Food and Drug Administration issued warnings against using Clarcon products because they contain unsafe levels of bacteria. Some of the bacteria in these products may cause serious infections of the skin requiring surgery, and may result in permanent injuries. (7/5) LA Times

Ross Stores, Inc. of California, and two other firms have agreed to pay $1.3 million in penalties for failing to promptly report safety issues with children’s sweat shirts. Drawstrings around the neck and waist areas of the sweat shirts can get caught in nearby objects and cause children to be trapped or strangled. (8/5) AP, CPSC

More than 200,000 pairs of women’s and children’s shoes sold at Wal-Mart have been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission.  Children can choke on decorative wheels that detach from red plastic shoes with a fleece lining, made to resemble those worn by characters in the movie Cars. The high heels on the recalled women’s shoes can easily break and detach posing a risk of falling for those wearing them. Los Angeles Times

The United States Chemical Board issued a report Wednesday citing a closed valve as the probable cause of an explosion that killed one employee and injured six others at the Goodyear Houston Chemical earlier this year. The husband of the worker killed in the explosion blamed the incident on budget cuts that reduced the number of supervisors. The continuing investigation will now focus on management, inspection, training and emergency procedures at the plant. Ruth Rendon, Houston Chronicle 08/20/2008

The residents of the small town of Somerville, Texas are struggling with a public health crisis. An unusually high number of people are dealing with aggressive cancers, birth defects and other serious diseases and illnesses. The culprit, many residents contend, is the sprawling wood treatment facility in Somerville, which experts say is one of the industry’s worst polluter of toxins. To read more, click the highlighted title. http://news.dallasobserver.com/2007-12-06/news/american-toxic/

Two years after Merck pulled the painkiller Vioxx from the market, 10 personal injury lawsuits have reached a verdict, with mixed results. After a large multi-million verdict in the first trial in August 2005, the majority of cases (approximately 60/40), have been favorable to Merck. Nearly 20,000 cases are still pending, and obviously some format needs to be created in order to move these cases more rapidly.

In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Arctic Cat Inc., of Thief River Falls, Minn., is voluntarily recalling about 50,500 Arctic Cat Snowmobiles.

The steering shaft used on certain 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006 Arctic Cat snowmobiles can fail at the steering shaft/steering arm attachment. This could cause a loss of steering control of the vehicle, and result in injury or death. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml06/06580.html

While Insurance Companies Abdicate Their Safety Responsibilities

Senior citizens across the country have suffered tremendously as a result of defective and dangerous products and practices. Many of these products and practices were made safer only after the families of sick and injured seniors filed lawsuits against those responsible.

Insurance companies have callously abdicated their loss prevention responsibilities. With their vast resources and influence, insurance companies should be controlling and minimizing hazards that cause injury and death to seniors. For example, they should be disclosing information about hazards to those responsible for ensuring safety and to the public, and using their own rating functions to penalize insureds who do not improve safety. But even repeated litigation arising from well-known and identical hazards has not prompted the insurance industry to insist on the elimination of avoidable dangers for seniors. Instead, these companies are using their resources in a malevolent campaign to restrict the rights of sick and injured seniors who suffer malnourishment in nursing homes and other devastating harms. As the following examples show, the lives of countless other seniors and many millions of dollars in future health care costs have been saved as a result of lawsuits. Laws that make it more difficult for seniors and their families to sue (so-called “tort reform”) would be devastating for our nation’s seniors.

• A 78- year-old woman, admitted to a nursing home for short-term hip and wrist rehabilitation, died after suffering severe pressure sores, malnourishment and dehydration. As part of the settlement, the company changed its patient monitoring and care procedures in each of its 65 nursing homes.
• A 72-year-old man contracted a bacterial infection from a fellow patient after undergoing knee replacement surgery; his leg lost all mobility. This lawsuit and similar cases caused health care facilities around the country to be more attentive to infection control.
• A 63-year-old Alzheimer patient was strangled to death by the restraints in her bed rails while sleeping. As part of the settlement, the nursing home agreed to numerous operational reforms, while the bed rail manufacturer agreed to warn its customers about the dangers of entrapment.
• A 79-year-old woman was crushed to death after a Home Depot forklift operator knocked lumber and other merchandise stacked several feet above her. After the case settled, Home Depot announced plans to change its merchandise-stacking policies.
• A 79-year-old nursing home patient suffering from Alzheimer’s disease drowned in a bathtub after being left unattended. As a result of this lawsuit, the nursing home installed safety strips in bathtubs and exercised closer supervision of its elderly patients.An 81-year-old woman died after taking the anti-arthritis drug Oraflex- manufactured by Eli Lilly. As a result of this lawsuit, Lilly and its executives were held criminally responsible for mislabeling and failing to report fatal side effects and illnesses related to the drug.
• An 80-year-old was legally blinded in her left eye when a twist-off aluminum cap blew off a plastic two-liter Diet 7 Up bottle and struck her in the eye. As a result of lawsuits, the company converted to using plastic pre-formed caps that greatly reduced the likelihood of caps blowing off and added a specific warning on the bottles. (Source: Center for Justice and Democracy)

Foreseeable means, could a reasonable person foresee the possibility of an accident arising from a particular condition? In many cases, especially with businesses, there is a duty to inspect your property periodically to make sure there are no dangerous conditions and, if such conditions are found, to eliminate them.