Articles Posted in Product Liability

We’ve written before about recalls and how to keep yourself and your loved ones informed and safe. Now we’ve come across an article in the Chicago Tribune about BMW, which has announced a major recall–nearly 1.3 million vehicles worldwide–because of a defect that could cause vehicles to fail to start and perhaps even catch fire.

The problem seems to be a battery cable cover, which may be incorrectly connected in some vehicles. BMW says they are unaware of any owners who have reported injuries due to the defect, but the maker is still recalling all 5- and 6-series autos built between 2003 and 2010. Owners can take vehicles affected by the recall to a BMW dealer or shop for repairs, free of charge.

BMW isn’t the only manufacturer to recall autos this month. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) maintains a current auto recall list that owners may want to check. After a quick look, we found Toyota, Land Rover, Hyundai, Subaru, Volvo, GM and even Porsche among the makers on the list this month. The list is updated daily. Owners may also want to consider signing up for personalized recall notices from the NHTSA, which allows users to choose specific auto makers and models.

Deaths related to tobacco have nearly tripled over the past decade, according to a new report led by the World Lung Foundation (WLF) and American Cancer Society.

The report also charges that tobacco companies have tried to interfere with efforts to increase public awareness about the dangers of tobacco products.

According to the report, deaths from tobacco are on the rise in poorer and developing areas–such as China, Africa and the Middle East. Almost 80 percent of tobacco-related deaths are people in such areas. In Turkey, smoking related illnesses are responsible for 38 percent of all male deaths, the WLF reports. In China, tobacco kills 1.2 million people each year, according to the report. That number is estimated to reach 3.5 million by 2030, the report says.

Buckyballs and Buckycubes are strong, small, rare earth magnets that are marketed as desk toys for adults that are fun to fidget with and have been known to relieve stress. However, according to a press release by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), children are swallowing these magnets, and the consequences are severe.

When the small magnets get in the hands of a child and they are swallowed, the magnets can attract to each other causing damage to the intestinal walls. The result can be serious injuries, such as small holes in the stomach and intestines, intestinal blockage, blood poisoning and even death. Surgery is most likely required to remove the magnets or small pieces of magnet.

The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that a 3-year-old Oregon child underwent surgery to remove 37 magnets the girl had swallowed and snapped together inside her stomach, resembling a bracelet. She is expected to recover after repair to the tears in her lower intestine and stomach. Last year, a sixth-grader in California underwent surgery after swallowing eight of the magnets.

A recall announced Thursday in the U.S. and Canada affects more than 30 million propylene gas cylinders used for welding, soldering, brazing and cutting.

The gas cylinders, carrying the product names Map Pro, Propylene and MAPP Gas Cylinders, are manufactured by Worthington Cylinders Wisconsin, LLC, of Chilton, Wisc.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says the seal on the cylinders can leak after torches or other fuel-consuming equipment are disconnected from them, posing a fire hazard.

Recently, three United States Senators introduced legislation to amend the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) post-market watch of medical devices. Currently, the FDA may approve moderate-risk devices through the 510(k) process as long as the product is found to be similarly safe and effective as another product that is already on the market. This is considered a fast-track approval process.

However, the new bill would allow the FDA to require companies to submit post-market information in order to gain approval for moderate-risk medical devices. Furthermore, the FDA could order companies to administer additional safety studies after devices are approved.

Under the proposed legislation, the FDA would also be required to evaluate recalls and decide whether they were executed effectively.

South Carolina has become the 28th state to ban synthetic marijuana marketed as bath salts. Some, including many youths, snorted, injected, and smoked the so-called bath salts. The bath salts have gained national attention after deaths, hospitalizations, and a federal Drug Enforcement Administration ban on some of their ingredients.

South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control (DHEC) has labeled the salts as a schedule 1 drug, meaning possession or sale can subject users or sellers to arrest.

The banned bath salts, unlike the salts actually used for bathing, are labeled as bath salts to avoid attention from legal authorities. The salts contain various combinations of methylenedioxypyrovalerone, mephedrone, and methylone cannaboids. Traditional bath salts sold in grocery stores and malls do not contain these controlled substances.

In 2004, a 16-year-old girl got the pocket of her coat caught on a bolt protruding from the drive shaft of an auger-like post-hole digger operated by her stepfather. Her arm wrapped around the auger resulting in the loss of her arm.

A New York jury hearing the case in State Supreme Court decided the manufacturer of the digger, Ford New Holland (now known as Case New Holland) sold a defective product and awarded the now 21-year-old girl $8.8 million. The jury placed 35% of the blame on Case New Holland and 30% each on Peter A Smith, the owner of the digger and the person who loaned the digger to the stepfather, and on SMC Corp. from Sioux Fall, S.D., the company who assembled the digger.

The bolt that caught on the girl’s coat was supposed to be covered by a shield, but the shield broke and was removed by Smith, the owner of the digger, in 1999. The lawsuit alleges the shield was always inadequate and there is nothing to support the fact it was ever tested.

Bloomberg reports Caterpillar has paid more than $9 million in one of last year’s largest product liability verdicts.

The 41-year-old worker was using a Caterpillar Wheel Tractor 623 G Scraper in August 2006 when the machine “suddenly and without warning began dramatically bouncing up and down.” The bucking caused the man’s seat to fail and slammed him against the machine’s frame causing spinal injuries and a punctured lung. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.

The lawsuit claims Caterpillar was aware of the tractors’ defects that made them move erratically, but did nothing to fix them. The jury found both Caterpillar and Holt Texas Ltd., the dealership that sold the scraper to the man’s employer, liable for actual and punitive damages.

An Omaha retailer, Hayneedle, Inc., is being sued by the parents of a 1-year-old boy who was allegedly asphyxiated in a crib accident, reports BostonHerald.com.

The Sacramento Kings are suing two U.S. based distributors and the Italian manufacturer of the Gymnic Plus Ball for at least $4 million reports news10.net.