Product Hazards and Recalls
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 Christopher Jensen on February 20, 2018
In recent years, Polaris Industries, the leading producer of off-road vehicles, has recalled hundreds of thousands of its trail machines due to a fire danger. The hazard is linked to at least three deaths and three dozen injuries ranging from minor scrapes to limbs burned so badly amputation was required. Despite the string of recalls,…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Rick Schmitt on January 18, 2018
Sales of most corded window blinds and shades – products blamed for the strangulation deaths of more than 300 U.S. infants and toddlers since 1981 — will come to an end late this year. The decision last week by the window covering industry to quit selling the items in the U.S. and Canada is a…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Consumer Protection, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Myron Levin on January 16, 2018
In the early 1970s, a Johnson & Johnson official posed a question that haunts the company today. If Johnson’s Baby Powder contained asbestos at a level of, say, 1 percent, how much of the cancer-causing substance would a baby inhale when dusted with the powder? The executive’s handwritten memo reached what, at the time, may…
Posted in FairWarning Investigates | Tagged Air Pollution/Toxic Exposure, Environmental Safety and Health, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Paul Feldman on December 7, 2017
The era of driverless vehicles appears to be rapidly approaching, raising a bevy of urgent questions about how to prevent the emergence of new hazards on the nation’s roads. So, how much preparation have federal transportation authorities carried out to meet the challenge of the advent of self-driving cars and trucks? Not nearly enough, according…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Consumer Protection, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Stuart Silverstein and Myron Levin on November 21, 2017
In a matter of days, the American tobacco industry will begin publicly admitting some ugly truths about its dark history and the health effects of smoking. The tobacco giants will launch a court-ordered national advertising campaign to end a massive fraud and racketeering case that the federal government brought against the industry nearly two decades…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Consumer Protection, Product Hazards and Recalls, Smoking and Tobacco Industry |
By Myron Levin on November 16, 2017
A California jury today rejected claims that Johnson & Johnson and its talc supplier were responsible for the deadly cancer of a woman who blamed her illness on breathing asbestos fibers from contaminated body powders. On a 9-3 vote, the jury in Pasadena absolved J&J of negligence in the sale of Johnson’s Baby Powder and…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Consumer Protection, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Myron Levin on October 23, 2017
Overriding a huge jury verdict against Johnson & Johnson, a Los Angeles judge has ordered a new trial in the case of an ovarian cancer victim who claimed she contracted the disease through longtime use of the company’s talc powders for feminine hygiene. The ruling voids the August award of $417 million in compensatory and…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Consumer Protection, Environmental Safety and Health, Pharmaceutical Industry and Drugs, Product Hazards and Recalls |
By Paul Feldman on September 28, 2017
More than one in every four vehicles being sold by used car giant CarMax are under recall for safety flaws, including some with potentially deadly defects, according to a survey by auto safety groups. The safety groups, which are waging a court battle to revamp used car sales practices, say the survey underscores the need…
Posted in FairWarning Reports | Tagged Auto and Highway Safety, Consumer Protection, Product Hazards and Recalls |
