By Paul Feldman on April 19, 2018
Dicamba, an herbicide sold by agribusiness giants Monsanto, BASF and DowDupont, doesn’t just kill weeds. Last year, according to a University of Missouri survey, dicamba damaged an estimated 3.6 million acres of soybeans across 25 states when it drifted from farms planted with seeds genetically engineered to resist the chemical onto regular soybean fields. That…
Posted in Recent Stories | Tagged Environmental Safety and Health, Food Supply |
By Myron Levin on April 11, 2018
A New Jersey jury today ordered Johnson & Johnson and its main talc supplier to pay $80 million in punitive damages to a mesothelioma victim who claimed he contracted the asbestos-related cancer from years of using Johnson’s baby powder. Capping a 2½-month trial just blocks from Johnson & Johnson’s world headquarrters in New Brunswick, N.J., the…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Christopher Jensen on April 2, 2018
Polaris Industries has agreed to pay $27.25 million – a record penalty – to settle charges that it failed to immediately notify federal officials about a fire hazard on its recreational off-highway vehicles that regulators have linked to at least one death and more than 180 fires. The federal Consumer Product Safety Commission, in announcing…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Consumer Protection, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Paul Feldman on March 29, 2018
Editor's note: See clarification at the end of the story.
In its newsletters and magazines, in congressional testimony and on its website, AARP warns seniors about deceptive direct mail and other dubious marketing come-ons as part of its mission to protect members from financial abuses. But the huge advocacy group’s own aggressive efforts to coax seniors to join or renew their memberships also have drawn…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Consumer Protection, financial abuse |
By Christopher Jensen on March 12, 2018
Traffic safety measures ranging from seat belt and drunk driving enforcement to design standards for cars and trucks “averted a public health disaster” by preventing about 5.8 million deaths in the U.S. from 1968 through 2015, according to a new study. The analysis found that without federal and state policies, traffic deaths annually would “likely…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Gadgets and Distracted Driving |
Few Signs of Coal Revival Despite Trump Administration Support
By Paul Feldman on March 8, 2018
Despite the Trump Administration’s ardent support of coal over renewable energy, the percentage of U.S. electricity from renewable sources continued its gradual rise in 2017. Wind, solar and hydroelectric energy accounted for 16 percent of power production during President Trump’s first year in office, up from 13 percent in 2016 and nearly double the level…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged climate, coal, energy |
By Paul Feldman on February 28, 2018
The increasing use of smartphones and recreational marijuana may be contributing to a surge in the numbers of pedestrians killed in traffic crashes, according to a new analysis. The report by the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that pedestrian fatalities totaled about 6,000 in 2017, roughly the same as the year before, when the official…
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving |
By Paul Feldman on February 6, 2018
The victims include a Bible college student in Iowa who was bicycling home from work, a 13-year-old Michigan boy riding in his older sister’s car and a Minnesota school bus driver picking up the morning newspaper in front of his home. All were killed in recent years by distracted drivers who had been texting or…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving |
By Paul Feldman on January 22, 2018
Amid a resurgence in U.S. traffic fatalities now taking roughly 100 lives a day, an advocacy group today issued a report card identifying states that do the most, and least, to improve highway safety.
Posted in FairWarning Reports, Recent Stories | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Cell Phones, Gadgets and Distracted Driving |
