Ethylene Oxide/Sterigenics Updates

Articles Tagged with product liability

Hair-relaxer-Photo-244x300Hair relaxers are the latest beauty products to come under fire because of their link to potentially dangerous health effects. New scientific evidence has emerged that suggests that the long-term use of hair relaxers is linked to increased rates of uterine cancer. More specifically, a groundbreaking new study from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) has shown that women who use chemical hair straightening or relaxing products regularly are at a higher risk for developing uterine cancer than those who do not use these products. This study along with an earlier NIH study linking hair relaxer use to ovarian cancer are the reason women are filing hair relaxer lawsuits.

NIH Study Links Hair Relaxers to Uterine Cancer

 Uterine cancer is the 4th most common type of cancer in women, and Black women are twice as likely as white women to develop uterine cancer during their lifetime. The new study from the NIH may partly explain why. The study, published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute in October of 2022, found that women who used hair straightening products in the previous 12 months were more likely to be diagnosed with uterine cancer than women who had never used hair relaxers. And the risk increased with more frequent use. Women who used hair relaxers 4 times in the previous 12 months were more than twice as likely to develop uterine cancer.

toddler-with-toys-2-300x200Keeping children safe and protected from hazards is a top priority for parents. Unfortunately, many toys on the market pose a danger to children. As a result, every three minutes in the U.S., a child is brought to an emergency room with a toy-related injury. Regardless of the severity of the risk they pose–from minor to serious injury or even death–it is unacceptable that dangerous toys are being sold and marketed to children. Playtime should be a safe time for all children. Luckily, there is a non-profit that is solely focused on keeping children safe and educating the public about toy safety. W.A.T.C.H., World Against Toys Causing Harm Inc., releases a yearly list of the most dangerous toys. The toys included on the list this year may pose a choking hazard or cause lacerations, impact injuries, eye injuries, or other injuries, so it is best to avoid them. Below you will find the ten toys that made the list and why W.A.T.C.H. considers them unsafe:

  1. Calico Critters Nursery Friends from Epoch Co. This toy poses a choking hazard due to its small parts.
  2. Missile Launcher from Toysmith. This toy can cause eye and facial injuries.

newborn-220142_1280-1024x682Graco has issued a recall of approximately 51,000 of their infant inclined sleepers because they pose a suffocation risk. While no deaths have occurred with the Graco infant inclined sleepers, there have been a number of infant deaths linked to other, very similar products. The inclined sleepers that are being recalled by Graco have been sold as accessories to the following Graco playards:

  • Pack ‘n Play Day2Dream Playard with Bedside Sleeper
  • Pack ‘n Play Everest Playard

The US Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) continues to provide very valuable information about consumer products which are recalled for the threats they pose to the health of their users, and perhaps others.

For example, CPSC reports that, over just the last two weeks, tens of thousands of products have been recalled. Do you have any of these in your home or office?

·Arctic Cat Snowmobiles (impact hazard)

Last week a jury in Philadelphia found Johnson & Johnson guilty of designing dangerous pelvic mesh and hit the company with a $20 million verdict for injuries blamed on the dangerous pelvic mesh implant. Transvaginal mesh has also been the subject of lawsuits across the country as these mesh implants have caused pain, bleeding, and significant injuries.

What is Surgical Mesh?

Surgical mesh is a medical device that is used to provide extra support when repairing weakened or damaged tissue. Most surgical mesh devices are made from synthetic materials or animal tissue.

boy-1252771_1920.jpgIs your child mesmerized by the new “fidget spinners” being sold almost everywhere as a “stress reliever”?

I must admit that I don’t understand how these gadgets actually reduce stress, but a report out of Texas warns us that the fidget spinners may also be dangerous. More specifically, they may be a choking hazard for children.

Recently, the mother of 10-year-old Britton noticed her daughter choking in the back seat of the family’s car. Mom’s quick work to help her daughter, plus the efforts of ER docs at the local hospital, identified the culprit as a bearing from the fidget spinner with which Britton had been playing. The bearing had lodged itself in young Britton’s esophagus.

A St. Louis jury just ordered Johnson & Johnson to pay $120 million to a woman who claimed her ovarian cancer had been caused by her 40+ years of the company’s talcum powder products. The most significant part of the award is the $110 million in punitive damages the jury assessed. Obviously, the jury believed the plaintiff’s claims that J&J knew of the cancer risks of its products, but continued to make and sell them anyway, without warning to users.

Many in the public will focus on this part of the award, and decry the “runaway” jury system, believing this kind of money to be a “windfall” to the plaintiff. But a punitive damages award of this size says that the jury–which by law defines what is reasonable, and reckless, behavior in society–was mad at J&J, and wanted to tell the company, and other companies like it, that you cannot treat people this way. You cannot know that your products create serious health risks for your customers, but keep them in the dark about it. And so the jury sent its message in the only terms that J&J and companies like it understand: money. A lot of money.

Will J&J now think twice before it puts a dangerous product on the market? If so, then the jury and its huge punitive damages award has saved lives and done its job.

Co-authored by Cassidy Carroll of The Collins Law Firm, P.C.

A little over a week ago, the Missouri Circuit Court announced that, Johnson & Johnson, the world’s largest maker of health-care products must pay $72 million to the family of a woman claiming the company’s talcum powder caused her fatal ovarian cancer. For the first time, monetary compensation was awarded in response to Johnson & Johnson’s failure to warn consumers of the cancer-causing potential of its talcum-based products decades ago.

Currently, Johnson & Johnson is facing 1,200 lawsuits claiming that studies on talcum-based products, such as Johnson’s Baby Powder and Shower-to-Shower products, have shown a link between talcum and ovarian cancer. In 2013, a North Dakota federal jury found that the use of Johnson & Johnson’s talcum-based body powder contributed to a woman’s developing ovarian cancer, but awarded no damages.

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