Cole was a former Meridian High School standout and top New York Mets baseball prospect when he was killed on March 31, 2001. According to the plaintiffs’ lawsuit, Cole was driving home to Mississippi on I-10 after spring training in Port St. Lucie, Florida, when the fatal accident occurred. Just south of the Florida-Georgia line, Cole veered to avoid colliding with another vehicle, causing his own vehicle to roll over more than three times. Cole was thrown from the Explorer because of a defective safety belt, the lawsuit asserted. He later died at a Florida hospital.

Cole’s 17-year-old cousin Ryan Cole survived the crash with serious injuries. The jury awarded him $1.5 million in compensatory damages.

The lawsuit blamed Brian Cole’s death on a defective safety belt and also on the lateral instability of the Ford Explorer, a design flaw that allows the vehicle to roll over more easily than most other SUVs.

This trial was the Cole family’s third attempt to win an award against Ford. The two previous trials resulted in hung juries. The Jasper County jury returned with a $131 million verdict after the compensatory phase of the case. Ford settled for an undisclosed amount during the punitive damage phase.

Cole, a 1997 Meridian High graduate, was one of three Mississippi prep athletes to hit four home runs in a game, a state record. He was also an accomplished football player at Meridian High.

Mets officials said Cole was one of their top three prospects. The major league team projected he would be a starter for them at the start of the 2003 baseball season.

Ford severed a long-standing partnership with Firestone in 2001 after several tire blowouts triggered rollover accidents, causing numerous fatalities and injuries to drivers and occupants of Explorer SUVs.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Jury awards athlete’s family $131 million for defective seat belt, rollover

Occupational Safety and Health Administration inspectors found that the company knowingly neglected to protect its employees, who clean gun ranges, from dangerous overexposure to lead. The company also dispensed non-FDA-approved treatments for lead exposure to the employees without the proper medical supervision. OSHA cited E.N. Range with more than 50 violations with penalties totaling $2,099,600.

Lead is a dangerous neurotoxin that can impair the health and lives of people who are exposed to it. Repeated exposure to even small quantities of lead can make a serious impact on one’s health, causing brain damage, paralysis, kidney failure, and death.

“This company was well aware of what it needed to do to protect its workers from a well known hazard. It not only failed to provide that protection, it misled employees — most of whom had limited knowledge of English — into believing that it was providing them with appropriate medical treatment,” said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis. “Such a blatant disregard for the health of workers will not be tolerated under this administration.”

OSHA’s citations included 42 willful and serious violations of federal lead standards. Ironically, E.N. Range’s website says that the company is a “fully licensed and insured lead abatement and HAZMAT contractor protecting our customers from the significant liabilities and health risks associated with lead removal and other maintenance activities.”

Federal lead regulations also address the use of medicines with chelating agents, which are administered to reduce blood levels and protect the body against the effects of hazardous substances such as lead. OSHA found that E.N. Range doled out these non-FDA-approved medicines to its employees illegally. Their use is permitted only under medical supervision in a clinical setting.

“This is an egregious situation where the employer deliberately refused to provide the necessary protections to keep workers safe from overexposure to lead,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA Dr. David Michaels. “The company even knew its workers suffered from lead poisoning, yet avoided proper medical attention in favor of providing an unapproved and potentially unsafe treatment.”

OSHA’s citations allege that E.N. Range did not use engineering controls to prevent overexposure to lead, perform air sampling to determine the extent of its workers’ exposure, provide showers for workers who had been exposed to lead, or provide blood testing to exposed workers every six months, all of which are required by the lead standard.

The company also violated a respiratory protection standard by failing to provide medical evaluations and fit testing for respirators. OSHA also cited the company for failing to abate a previous violation discovered during an inspection last year. That violation charged the company with neglecting to implement a job rotation schedule to reduce lead exposures.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Miami company willfully overexposed its workers to toxic levels of lead

“SeaWorld recognized the inherent risk of allowing trainers to interact with potentially dangerous animals,” said Cindy Coe, OSHA’s regional administrator in Atlanta, Ga. “Nonetheless, it required its employees to work within the pool walls, on ledges, and on shelves where they were subject to dangerous behavior by the animals.”

On Feb. 24, a six-ton orca named Tilikum grabbed 40-year-old trainer Dawn Brancheau and pulled her under the water during what SeaWorld describes as a “relationship session.” Guests at the Orlando park observed the horrific incident while they were watching the show. Video footage shows the killer whale repeatedly striking and thrashing the trainer, and pulling her under water even as she attempted to escape.

The autopsy report says Ms. Brancheau died from drowning and traumatic injuries.

OSHA’s investigation found that Tilikum was one of three killer whales involved in the death of an animal trainer in 1991 at Sea Land of the Pacific in Vancouver, British Columbia. SeaWorld had forbidden trainers from swimming with Tilikum because of his dangerous past behavior, but allowed trainers to interact with the orca, including touching him, while the trainers were lying on the pool edge in shallow water.

The OSHA investigation also found that SeaWorld trainers had an extensive history of unexpected and potentially dangerous incidents involving killer whales at its various facilities, including its location in Orlando. Despite this record, management failed to make meaningful changes to improve the safety of the work environment for its employees.

“All employers are obligated to assess potential risks to the safety and health of their employees and take actions to mitigate those risks,” said Les Grove, OSHA’s area director in Tampa, Fla. “In facilities that house wild animals, employers need to assess the animals under their care and to minimize human-animal interaction if there is no safe way to reliably predict animal behavior under all conditions.”

OSHA gave Sea World the willful citation for exposing its employees to striking and drowning hazards when interacting with killer whales. The agency defines a willful violation as one committed with plain indifference to or intentional disregard for employee safety and health.

Sea World received a serious citation for exposing employees to a fall hazard by failing to install a stairway railing system on the front side, left bridge of the “Believe” stage in Shamu Stadium. Another violation cited the park for failing to equip outdoor electrical receptacles in Shamu Stadium with weatherproof enclosures.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › OSHA fines Sea World for safety violations after orca trainer’s death

Florida resident Teagan Marti was rushed to American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin, after the Terminal Velocity ride, billed as a one-of-a-kind experience in an “unattached, controlled freefall” failed to operate normally.

The ride hoists individuals on a platform one at a time to the top of a tall tower frame. At the top, a ride operator opens a hatch on the platform and suspends the rider in a harness. The rider is then dropped straight down to the net far below.

Authorities investigating the incident said the net that was supposed to break the girl’s fall was not suspended high enough off the ground to completely break her fall. Family members and park employees tended to the girl before paramedics arrived and airlifted her to the hospital. The exact nature of her injuries have not yet been made public.

Extreme World owner Bill Anderson said it was the first accident to occur in the 8 years ride has been operating. Whether Mr. Anderson meant the ride at his specific park or all models of the ride everywhere is uncertain. The Wisconsin State Journal says that there have been at least two other fall-related injuries on the same or similar ride in other parts of the country.

Mr. Anderson said the park would close on Friday but would reopen on Saturday. However, a notice on the park’s website said the park would remain closed.

“There are no words. We will do whatever the police ask of us as they investigate. We are praying for the girl and her family. The ride is closed. All media inquiries are referred to Chief Tom Dorner of the Lake Delton Police Department” the online notice says.

A spokesman for the Department of Commerce said that the ride was inspected on June 28 but no violations were found. He said the ride had been inspected every year since 2004 and only one violation was found in 2008, which was fixed. Investigators believe the accident was the result of a ride attendant’s oversight. Ride attendants are supposed to verify everything is in place for safe operation before the police say the proper protocol did not occur. The landing net was still on the ground when the girl was released and couldn’t be raised to the proper height in time to break her fall.

Extreme World, which calls itself “the largest extreme sports park of its kind in the Midwest,” is currently in foreclosure and is scheduled to be sold at a Sept. 7 Sauk County Sheriff’s sale.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Girl survives hitting the ground in Wisconsin free-fall ride

According to the CDC, from 1992 to 2008, an annual average of 58 reported deaths occurred in the commercial fishing industry (128 deaths per 100,000 workers), compared with an average of 4 deaths per 100,000 workers among all U.S. workers – about 5,894 deaths total.

With the popularity of Discovery’s reality show Dangerous Catch, which chronicles the perils of several king crab fishing boats in the Bering Sea, many people might think that Alaska’s fishermen are most at risk. Fortunately, however, safety interventions introduced during the 1990s addressed the specific hazards of Alaska fishing, and the implementation of new rules and higher standards resulted in a significant drop in the state’s commercial fishing fatalities. The CDC says that similar safety interventions should be tailored to other fisheries across the country to help drive down the number of worker deaths.

Statistics show 504 commercial fishing deaths occurred in the United States from 2000 to 2009. While the Alaska region still had the highest total number of fishermen deaths (133, for 26 percent) in the nation, Gulf of Mexico shrimpers had the highest number of deaths per specific industry.

According to CDC records, 55 Gulf of Mexico shrimpers died in the last decade, followed by 44 in the Atlantic scallop industry; 39 Alaska salmon fishermen; 26 fishermen from each of the Alaska cod and Northeast multispecies groundfish industries; 25 West Coast Dungeness crabbers; 21 Alaskan sole fishermen; 18 Northeast lobstermen; 12 Bering Sea and Aleutian Islands crabbers; 11 Gulf of Mexico oystermen; 10 fishermen from each of the Alaskan halibut, West Coast tribal salmon, and Gulf Coast snapper and grouper industries; and 6 from the Atlantic snapper and grouper industry.

Reports show 261 deaths (52 percent) of the fatalities occurred after a vessel disaster such as a sinking, capsizing, or fire that caused the crew to abandon ship. One hundred and fifty-five deaths (31 percent) were caused by falling overboard. Fifty-one deaths (10 percent) resulted from an injury received on board the ship. Thirty-seven deaths (7 percent) occurred while diving or from onshore injuries.

While severe weather contributed to 61 percent of the 148 fatal vessel disasters, astonishingly, not one of the 155 crew members who died from falling overboard was wearing a personal flotation device (PFD), the CDC reported.

Much attention has been drawn to the Gulf seafood industry recently because of BP’s disastrous oil spill, which by latest estimates covers nearly 8,000 square miles. Shrimping season was about to begin when the Deepwater Horizon rig exploded and sank, making shrimpers one of the first casualties of the oil spill. There is no way to indicate how the oil spill will affect future fishing records. Thousands of fishermen on the Gulf Coast are either unemployed, contracted by BP to clean up and contain the oil spill, or too sick from the exposure to noxious fumes and petrochemicals to work, so the CDC and other government agencies may have to isolate the Gulf numbers in order to accurately figure fishing safety statistics in the future.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › In U.S. commercial fishing, Gulf Coast shrimpers have highest death rate

Take the coral snake. The brightly colored reptile slithers across Florida, Alabama, South Carolina, Louisiana, Texas and Arizona. Its bite is as toxic as a rattlesnake’s or cottonmouth’s, shutting down neuromuscular events in humans such as lung function. Without antivenom, coral snake victims die without artificial respiration. Only about 100 coral snake bites are reported each year, but because the reptile’s fangs are rear-facing, about 25 percent of those bites are dry.

The effects of coral snake bites are countered with Micurus fulvius, the only Food and Drug Administration-approved antivenom. For more than 40 years, it has been produced by Wyeth, now owned by Pfizer. Because coral snake bites are so rare, producing the antivenom is hardly a cash cow. Thus, Wyeth shut down its operation in 2003. In agreement with the FDA, the company produced a five-year supply, which theoretically would provide enough time for another drug company to fill the gap. However, no other drug company has jumped in the ring to manufacture the antivenom.

The vials of coral snake antivenom were set to expire in 2008, but the FDA twice approved extending the expiration date, first to 2009 and then to 2010. But after Oct. 31, there may be no commercially available antivenom left, according to an MSN report. The FDA has not extended the expiration date past 2010.

Scorpion stings are far more common than coral snake bites, but the entire state of Arizona has run out of its antivenom. And recently, Merck & Co., the only FDA-licensed producer of black widow antivenom, cut back on distribution because of a production shortage of the drug.

New scorpion and black widow antivenoms are in the works, and a Mexico drug manufacturer has a coral snake antivenom that the FDA has qualified for speedy approval in the U.S. However, gaining FDA approval on the coral snake antivenom costs millions of dollars that the drug company says it cannot pay.

The antivenom shortage is a situation the World Health Organization calls a “neglected public health issue.” And it seems a problem no one wants to deal with – unless they get bitten.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Unprofitable antivenom business leads to dangerous shortage

Fifteen days prior to the BP oil rig disaster, 29 miners were killed in a West Virginia coal mine explosion. That mine is owned by Massey Energy, another company with a long and troubled history of federal safety violations.

In testimony before a congressional panel on workplace safety, Barab said that these worker deaths have occurred “even as OSHA continues to deal with the ramifications of the 2005 fire and explosion at BP’s Texas City refinery that killed 15 workers and injured more than 170 others.”

Barab told the panel that all of these tragedies reveal that “the status quo is not working,” and that although many of the deaths don’t fall under OSHA’s jurisdiction, they nonetheless point to the fundamental problems in workplace safety “that OSHA must help address.”

“This cycle of workers being hurt or killed because their employers failed to implement well-known safety measures points out major deficiencies in chemical process safety management in the nation’s refineries and, quite possibly, to systemic safety and health problems in the entire petrochemical industry,” Barab said, providing examples of workplace deaths and injuries that occurred clearly because employers failed to enforce safety standards or were too slow to fix known problems.

“I have been deeply frustrated by these results,” Barab told the panel, explaining that more than a year ago, OSHA had sent a letter to every petroleum refinery manager in the country to inform them of frequently cited hazards.

“Yet, a year later, our inspectors are still finding the same problems in too many facilities,” Barab said. According to OSHA, “almost all of the catastrophic incidents that have killed so many workers were caused by failures that industry executives and facility managers knew how to prevent. They were repeats of earlier mishaps, from which lessons should have been learned.”

Barab said that the initiative to improve workplace safety had to start at the top with each corporation’s executive leadership. “Industry must do a better job of institutionalizing systems for learning from mistakes, so it does not continue to repeat the same mistakes at the expense of workers’ lives,” he added.

To read Barab’s full statement before the committee and his proposal for improving OSHA’s enforcement of safety regulations, click here.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › After 8 industrial worker deaths in 4 months, OSHA vows to do more

The CPSC collected samples from homes affected by the toxic drywall and submitted them to the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, California. Of the samples tested, the Berkeley lab found that the top ten sulfur-emitting drywall samples were all produced in China. Some of the samples tested had hydrogen sulfide emission rates 100 times higher than non-Chinese drywall samples.

Hydrogen sulfide is a gaseous compound that is known to cause metal corrosion.

“Homeowners who have problem drywall in their homes are suffering greatly”, said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum. “I appeal to these Chinese drywall companies to carefully examine their responsibilities to U.S. families who have been harmed and do what is fair and just.”

According to the CPSC, the most toxic drywall samples came from:

• Knauf Plasterboard (Tianjin) Co. Ltd: (2 samples, year of manufacture 2005)
• Taian Taishan Plasterboard Co. Ltd.: (4 samples, 2006)
• Shandong Taihe Dongxin Co.: (3 samples, 2005)
• Shandong Chenxiang GBM Co. Ltd. (C&K Gypsum Board): (1 sample, 2006)

At the U.S.-China Strategic and Economic Dialogue meetings in Beijing May 24-25, U.S. officials pressed the Chinese government to facilitate a meeting between CPSC and the Chinese drywall companies whose products were used in U.S. homes, and which exhibit the emissions identified during the testing procedures. The Strategic and Economic Dialogue represents the highest-level bilateral forum to discuss a broad range of issues between the two nations.

To date, CPSC has spent over $5 million investigating the toxic drywall’s chemical nature and chain of commerce.

Homeowners and contractors who suspect the toxic drywall is present in their homes should consult the identification protocol established by CPSC and the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

The same agencies also issued remediation guidance to assist homeowners who are affected by the drywall problem.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › CPSC names Chinese companies responsible for toxic drywall

Ken Sobel, a civil attorney and a member of the Florida Justice Association’s Board of Directors, recently wrote an editorial for South Florida’s Sun-Sentinel, calling attention to a number of bills pending in the Florida legislature that favor corporate interests at the expense of public safety and taxpayer money.

According to Sobel, in the bills currently being considered by the Florida legislature, “corporate responsibility gets reduced, people get injured, and the state’s tax payers are being called upon to pay for the increased medical expenses that will follow.”

One such bill would legalize the pre-incident release forms parents sign so that their children can participate in certain activities. If the bill passes, parents will be stripped of their right to take legal action and seek compensation in the event their children are injured, even if negligence is clearly a factor.

As Sobel says, “consider the carnival operator who, shielded from liability, doesn’t check the rollercoaster cables as often or the go-kart operator who doesn’t check for broken lug nuts on the cars’ wheels.”

“Even summer camps that hire known pedophiles will be exempted from accountability. When these amusements hurt Florida’s children, who will pay to take care of them? More often than not, our tax dollars will foot the bill in the form of Medicaid,” Sobel added.

Other profits-over-safety legislation would give car companies such as Toyota and others lots of incentive to make their cars less safe. One bill would allow the inclusion of standard safety devices in automobiles, such as airbags, to effectively preempt the consumer’s right to be compensated in the event he or she is injured, even when the safety device proves to be defective.

Another bill would allow businesses to stop implementing safety protocols, such as regular floor sweeps and inspections, presumably so they can save money.

In tough economic times, everyone, including companies, craves the security a little extra money can bring. But some legislators have been fooled into believing that the benefits businesses receive by being let off the hook in matters of safety and liability will somehow trickle down to the consumer in the form of jobs and job security. Unfortunately, excusing companies from liability only allows companies to harm and kill everyday Americans with impunity, and in the end the American government and taxpayer are stuck with the bill.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Public health and safety often sacrificed for pro-business legislation

The case, which was tried in U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Louisiana, New Orleans, will help determine the scope and outcome of pending and future litigation involving homes ruined by the drywall.

Thousands of homeowners throughout the U.S. but mostly in Florida and other Southern states allege that the drywall installed throughout their homes, imported from China during the last building boom, emits a sulfuric odor indicative of toxic, corrosive gases.

In addition to making occupants ill with a range of mostly respiratory ailments, the fumes corrode copper and other metal present in air conditioning units, household fixtures, appliances and electronics.

Judge Tallon said that Taishan Gypsum must pay to “remove all drywall in their homes, all items which have suffered corrosion as a result of the Chinese drywall and all items which will be materially damaged in the process of removal.”

The typical cost of such an undertaking, which will involve stripping every wall and ceiling down to the bare studs and replacing all damaged appliances and electronics, will cost about $232,000 on a $350,000 home, according to the judge’s estimates.

More than 2,100 homeowners have filed lawsuits in federal court claiming that their homes and/or health have been damaged by the sulfuric drywall.

Three separate cases have been scheduled in Florida state courts in June and seven are pending in Virginia state courts. According to some legal estimates, the number of lawsuits could climb to as many as 40,000.

Taishan Gypsum, a state controlled operation of the Chinese government, never responded to the filings and did not defend itself. The company could be covered by government immunity, in which case plaintiffs may have a difficult time receiving any money awarded to them.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Judge awards plaintiffs $2.6 million in first Chinese drywall trial

After he had a few drinks at the party, Joshua climbed a tree and ended up falling 30 feet to the concrete driveway below. Joshua spent the next three months at the hospital in a coma. Doctors told Joshua’s parents that their son would be in a vegetative state if he were able to live at all.

Now, almost miraculously, Joshua has set out on a 500-mile journey from his home in St. Augustine, Florida, to a rehabilitation facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, pedaling a specially designed bicycle with the help of his father, Harold Lawrence. The purpose of their journey is to draw attention to the debilitating effects that a traumatic brain injury can have on an individual.

Joshua has a limited range of motion, impaired speech, and can’t walk unaided, but he has a determined spirit and a drive to push himself that outshines his difficulties.

Joshua and his father travel 20 miles each day, carrying an important message for young people they meet along their path.

“Every choice you make in life matters. Every choice you make has positive or negative circumstances,” Lawrence told Florida’s First Coast News.

Lawrence says it’s vital that people seek medical attention if ever they experience a bump or a jolt to the head. Even relatively minor bumps can pose great dangers to the brain’s function and development.

“So often in the United States when we hear the word concussion we don’t worry about it. But it is a brain injury and we would urge you to see a doctor. It can cause damage a few days later that can last a lifetime,” Lawrence told First Coast News.

The father and son team also carry a message for the family and friends of traumatic brain injury victims: don’t ever abandon them, because they need you. Lawrence said it breaks his heart when he sees brain injured patients abandoned by the people they love.

Instead, Lawrence said, visit them and spend time with them. “It may be uncomfortable for you but think about the people who are alone.”

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › father and son hit the road to raise brain injury awareness

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission says it has received close to 2,000 reports of drywall ruining electrical wiring, air conditioner coils, fixtures, and appliances because it emits corrosive sulfuric fumes. Homeowners affected by the Chinese drywall also report a variety of respiratory health problems and a constant foul odor that makes their homes unlivable.

The web site assimilates information from four government agencies involved in the investigation and handling of the toxic drywall problem. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) are collaborating with the CPSC in disseminating important information to the public. The web site includes a standardized form consumers may use to report suspected toxic drywall problems directly to the CPSC.

According to the drywall web site, the CPSC has received reports and complaints from 30 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. In addition to the reports received by the CPSC, a number of complaints have been submitted to state and local authorities. Based on customs records, authorities estimate 500,000 pounds of drywall entered the U.S. from China during the building boom – enough drywall to use in 100,000 homes.

The CPSC is conducting an ongoing investigation to determine the origins and scope of the drywall problem. According to the agency, one of the biggest challenges “has been figuring out how much problem drywall there is in any house, given that it is already installed, likely painted and may not be clearly marked. The drywall could fill the home or be just a few sheets.”

The vast majority of the toxic drywall was installed in Florida homes (69 percent), followed by Louisiana (18 percent). Homes in Alabama, Mississippi, and Virginia were also heavily affected.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › CPSC info center helps consumers living with toxic Chinese drywall

Customs records indicate that as much as 250,000 tons of plentiful, cheap, and unsafe drywall entered American ports from China during that period, subsequently finding its way into an estimated 100,000 American homes.

Studies of the contaminated drywall have found potentially dangerous levels of strontium sulphide, which releases hydrogen sulphide fumes when exposed to moisture and humidity.

Homeowners affected by the drywall find that it imparts their houses with a constant sulfuric stench, severely corrodes copper wiring, plumbing, and air conditioner coils, and causes a range of ailments such as headache, sore throat, dry or burning eyes, coughing, wheezing, sinus irritations and respiratory infections.

A report by the Los Angeles Times claims that some of the drywall contains phosphogypsum, a radioactive substance that is banned from construction use in the United States but legal in China for nearly a decade.

“Copies of Chinese customs reports obtained by The Times, along with interviews, indicate that drywall made with phosphogypsum was shipped to the U.S. in 2006 by at least four Chinese-based manufacturers and trading firms,” the LA Times report said.

The report also said that construction industry specialists are “troubled” by the widespread use of the contaminated drywall “and the possibility it was exported, especially in light of recent incidents in which other Chinese imports such as pet food, toys and candy were found to be contaminated with toxic or unsafe substances.”

The arrival of so many tons of toxic drywall to the U.S. threatens an already weakened economy and the public health more than one might assume. An excellent report by National Public Radio tells the story of Luis Gonzalez, a Florida police officer whose family is being forced into bankruptcy because toxic Chinese drywall has made their home unlivable, unsellable, and too expensive to repair. Their home, like so many others, has become a toxic asset, a hot potato that neither they nor their bank wants to be left holding.

“We’re going to have hundreds if not thousands of foreclosed homes that have this defective condition,” an attorney for the Gonzalez family told NPR. “The banks don’t want that, the government doesn’t want that, and these victims don’t want that. So, we need to make sure that this safety net is fixed.”

Reports by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission underscore the enormity of the problem Chinese imports present to the health and security of this country. Of the 15,000 different product types under its jurisdiction, the CPSC calculates a 101 percent increase in consumer product imports over the last ten years, with 42 percent of these products arriving from China. The total value of Chinese imports quadrupled from 1998 to 2007.

And, while only 44 percent of all consumer products sold in the U.S. were imports, they accounted for more than 75 percent of the CPSC’s product recalls.

In fiscal year 2007, the agency announced 473 recalls of which 389 (more than 82%) were of Chinese-made products.

At this rate, the CPSC’s regulatory and safety inspection process will have to take stronger measures to ensure that such large quantities of defective and dangerous merchandise never reach our shores in the first place. While recalls are relatively easy for toys and bikes and other transportable items, how can tons of sheetrock that has already been installed, taped, and painted in homes be effectively recalled? And who is going to cover the mortgage on thousands of empty homes while Chinese manufacturers remain unresponsive and unaccountable to the charges of homeowners, builders, and the American judicial system?

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Toxic drywall: new meaning for the term China Syndrome?

Chinese drywall

U.S. District Judge Eldon Fallon told the Mitchell Company that he would issue a preliminary default judgment against Taishan if it did not file an appearance by September 24. “I will set it for a hearing, you can present any evidence and I’ll issue a judgment, a monetary judgment on that,” Fallon told an attorney for The Mitchell Co. The judgment allows the trial to proceed without a defense.

Taishan and other Chinese drywall manufacturers face more than 150 lawsuits from individuals and companies who allege the wallboard emits sulfuric gases and causes respiratory distress, nose bleeds, headaches, and other health problems in addition to corroding air conditioning components and electrical wiring, all of which caused property values to plummet.

7.5 million pounds or more of Taishan drywall entered the United States through Florida and New York ports during the building boom of 2006-2007, according to shipping records. Most of the drywall ended up in Florida homes.

The American Association for Justice hopes to make it easier for Americans to hold foreign companies accountable for negligence and personal injury caused by their products. The association has advocated for passage of the 2009 Foreign Manufacturers Legal Accountability Act, which would mitigate the ability of foreign companies to export defective and harmful products to the U.S. with impunity. The bill is currently pending in a Senate committee.

“Taishan Gypsum profited from a product they sold here in the U.S. that has now proven to be defective, costing millions of dollars in damage, decreased property values and countless health problems. The ruling today shows the company has turned their back, hoping U.S. consumers, home builders and insurance companies will pick up their tab,” AAJ President Anthony Tarricone said in a statement.

Taishan Gypsum is operated by the Chinese government.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Trials to proceed against unresponsive Chinese drywall company

The recalls include horizontal and vertical blinds and cellular shades made by Vertical Land Inc. of Panama City Beach, Florida. Approximately 15,400 horizontal blinds manufactured by Vertical Land were found to lack inner cord stop devices that prevent the inner cords from forming an exterior loop in which children can become entangled and suffocate. About 16,400 vertical blinds and 800 cellular shades featuring freely hanging loop chains and cords that pose a similar risk to children have also been recalled.

The CPSC reported one incident in which a 4-year-old girl from Pensacola was strangled after becoming entangled in the loop of a vertical blind.

The blinds were sold in Vertical Land stores in Panama City and Pensacola, Florida from 1992 to 2006. Consumers may contact Vertical Land at (800) 423-8653 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

Lutron Electronics Co. Inc. of Coopersbrg, Pennsylvania is recalling about 245,000 custom-ordered and professionally installed Roller Shades whose looped bead chains become a strangulation risk when not properly secured to the wall or floor. The shades were sold at specialty dealers and Expo Design Centers nationwide from January 2000 through April 2009. Customers who own one or more of the recalled blinds should contact Lutron at (866) 793-4270 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.lutron.com/cordedshades

Victoria Classics of Edison, New Jersey recalled about 163,000 Thermal Sailcloth and Matchstick Bamboo Roman Shades. The recalled units have an exposed cord on their window-facing sides – a design defect that poses a strangulation risk to young children who. According to the CPSC, the shades were sold in Target stores nationwide and online through Target.com from September 2008 to June 2009. Consumers who believe they own one or more of the recalled units should contact Victoria Classics toll-free at (800) 583-9845 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET daily or visit the firm’s Web site at www.victoriaclassics.com.

Pottery Barn Kids / Williams-Sonoma, Inc. of San Francisco, California, is recalling about 85,000 Roman shades because of strangulation hazards. The CPSC said there have been six reports of children becoming entangled in the exposed inner cords on the back of the shades. Two of the incidents required the use of scissors to free the children. The children received minor injuries.

The shades were sold through Pottery Barn Kids catalog and website from January 2003 through May 2007 and cost from $30 to $60. Consumers who own one or more of the shades should contact the manufacturer anytime for more information toll-free at (800) 492-1949 or visit the company’s Web site at www.potterybarnkids.com.

One near strangulation of a 2-year-old by found hanging from a looped bead chain prompted IKEA Home Furnishings of Conshohocken, Pennsylvania to recall approximately 120,000 MELINA Roman blinds, which were sold in IKEA stores nationwide from August 2006 through June 2008 for between $20 and $40. All consumers who suspect they may own one of the recalled blinds should call IKEA toll-free at (888) 966-4532 anytime or visit the firm’s Web site at www.ikea-usa.com. Consumers who do have one or more of the recalled products should immediately stop using them and return them to any IKEA store for a full refund.

Lewis Hyman Inc. of Carson, California is recalling about 4.2 million roll-up blinds and 600,000 Roman shades. According to the CPSC, the ¼” Oval Roll-up Blinds pose a strangulation risk because children can become entangled in the lifting loops if they should slide off the blinds. The Woolrich Roman Shades have an exposed inner loop on their window-facing sides, in which young children can easily become entangled.

According to the CPSC, the blinds were responsible for the deaths of a one-year-old boy from Maine who became entangled in the lift cord loop after it fell into his portable crib. A 23-month old Arkansas boy also died after his head and neck became entangled in the exposed inner cord of a Roman shade.

For additional information, contact Lewis Hyman toll-free at (877) 354-5457 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. PT daily, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.lewishymaninc.com.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › deaths and strangulations prompt series of shade and blind recalls

Cartons of the lettuce were shipped in bulk “naked” (without packaging), tied with a printed twist tie, or bagged. The lot code on the suspected lettuce is 531380. The lettuce was provided to retail stores, food service companies, and wholesale customers.

According to Tanimura & Antle, the lettuce was harvested between June 25 and July 2. The recall applies to lettuce sold prior to July 23. Despite the lettuce being past its shelf life, the company issued the recall nonetheless with “an abundance of caution.” No illnesses have been reported as a result of eating the lettuce.

“We will continue to review opportunities for improvement,” the company said in a release. “Although the recalled product is well beyond the 14-16 day shelf life, we are voluntarily issuing this recall because we want to ensure that we minimize even the slightest risk to public health.”

Tanimura & Antle is working with the Food and Drug Administration to notify the public about the contaminated lettuce.

Additional information about the recall can be obtained by going to the company website or calling 1-877-827-7388.

According to company records, the lettuce was shipped to the following states: Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › California grower recalls salmonella contaminated lettuce

The recalled products include brown gravy, brown gravy with mushrooms, brown gravy with onions, turkey gravy, pork gravy, country sausage gravy, country style gravy, Alfredo sauce mix, Cajun gumbo mix, and Hollandaise sauce mix manufactured by Sauer under the Sauer’s, Gold Medal, and Piggly Wiggly brand names.

According to the FDA, the recalled products include non-fat dry milk made by the Plainview Products Cooperative, which recently recalled its instant dry milk and other products because of salmonella contamination.

The recalled products are packaged in foil packets or plastic jars. Cartons of the mixes were shipped to retail stores in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, Mississippi, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Florida, and Pennsylvania.

Salmonella bacteria cause serious and occasionally fatal illness in people with weakened immune systems, young children, and elderly people. Healthy people infected by Salmonella bacteria typically experience fever, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain. The bacteria may also enter the bloodstream and cause infected aneurysms and other arterial infections, endocarditis, and arthritis.

The FDA has not received any reports of Salmonella infection associated with this recall.

Consumers who have any of the recalled products may return them to the store of purchase for a full refund. They may also call the C.F. Sauer Company at 1-800-688-5676 between 8:00 am and 4:30 pm Eastern.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › FDA announces recall of contaminated gravy and sauce mixes

According to reports by CNN, 18-year-old Yorelle Haroush is leaving her aunt’s $1.2 million home in Parkland, Fla., northwest of Fort Lauderdale, because, she says, the home’s drywall emits gasses that are taking a toll on her health. It’s a claim the family’s doctor backs up.

“I said, ‘you can’t stay there anymore, because you’re sick every minute,’” Dr. Ross Nochimson, who has treated the family for years, told CNN. “They’re sick on a weekly basis. Ear aches, sore throat. I give them something, and they’re sick again.”

Dr. Nochimson recommended the remaining 5 family members also vacate the house.

“Before they bought this house, they weren’t calling every week with allergies and sore throats and ear aches and coughing,” Dr. Nochimson told CNN. “I don’t know what more I can do for them,” he said.

100 miles west, in the town of Estero just outside of Fort Myers, Alana and Joe Consolo also had to abandon their house because its ceilings and walls were made of drywall from China. According to a CNN report, the couple said they were experiencing headaches and respiratory problems. The Consolos first started to notice a problem with their new home when the smoke detectors kept sounding for no apparent reason. Opening the detectors up revealed that the copper wiring inside had turned black.

Lennar Homes, the company that built the Consolos’ home, is in the process of removing all of the Chinese drywall from the walls and ceilings of the house. It is also providing a rental house for the family until the renovation is completed, but the Consolos aren’t sure they will return home. The value of the property has plummeted, in part thanks to the economy but also because, the Consolos believe, the house now has the drywall stigma attached to it.

According to the CNN report, Lennar Homes has identified some 80 homes in which Chinese drywall was used. The company is willing to completely gut and rebuild the homes, including replacing all the tarnished copper and wiring, at no cost to the owners.

“They’re doing what’s responsible, we believe,” Alana Consolo told CNN.

The company is filing a lawsuit against the drywall’s Chinese manufacturers and American suppliers.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Families flee homes containing Chinese drywall

Stupak’s bill comes after an influx of low-grade, allegedly toxic drywall manufactured by Chinese company Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co. Ltd found its way into thousands of homes in Florida and several other states.

Although the problem is likely to be widespread, with cases of caustic drywall being reported as far away as British Columbia, the epicenter of the problem appears to be in southern Florida, where the housing market has already been crippled by the credit crisis and slow economy.

By prohibiting the importation of poor building materials, Stupak hopes that the U.S. could stave off future construction disasters, which can jeopardize the safety of Americans while ruining their health and bank accounts.

“Americans expect structural building materials to be safe and effective,” Stupak said in a statement online. “Industry testing and recent media accounts indicate much of the building materials pouring into the United States from overseas, particularly from China, are unsafe and unreliable.”

The bill also raises concerns that customs inspectors do not have the authority to reject shoddy imports such as Chinese steel, and thus no assurances can be made that those materials will not end up in construction and infrastructure.

Stupak contends that China’s rapidly growing steel exports have dire consequences for American steel makers and industries that use steel. “Currency manipulation and policies by the Chinese government have encouraged sub-standard Chinese steel to flood the U.S. market.

Independent laboratory tests have confirmed that significant quantities of Chinese steel do not meet high-strength requirements,” said a statement on Stupak’s website.

“This junk should be turned around and shipped right back to China,” Stupak said. “CBP made it clear in our discussions that they lack the authority to reject a product so I have introduced legislation to give the agency the authority to reject and not offload sub-standard building materials in the United States.”

“A cheaper product does not save money when that product creates costly health and safety hazards for Americans,” Stupak added. “Federal law should ensure whether it is food, drugs, toys or building materials that the products imported into this country are held to the same rigorous health and safety standards as American-made goods. If not, then that product should never be allowed to enter our country.”

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Bill seeks to ban importation of substandard building materials

The drywall problem began when the building boom and Hurricane Katrina created a shortage in some building materials, which led some building supply distributors to import several millions of tons of drywall from China. The drywall contains extremely high amounts of sulfuric compounds, which emit a gas that is highly corrosive to some metals, such as those used in air conditioning coils and wiring. The fumes also smell bad and leave many people with headaches, nosebleeds, and respiratory problems.

The enormity of the problem has Floridians pressuring the government for answers and action. Today the Senate approved $2 million to fund an investigation of the Chinese drywall problem.

At today’s Senate hearing on the matter, Bill Nelson (D-Fla) eyed the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in hopes of bringing some relief to Floridians struggling who are with the problem. Many people in Nelson’s state have left their homes, complaining of any number of ailments linked to the toxic drywall. Nelson proposed that FEMA provide temporary shelter for displaced homeowners until the problem could be fixed.

“I don’t want words, I want action,” a frustrated Nelson told a panel of consumer advocates and health officials. “It’s been way too slow, but I think we are all in the harness pulling in the same direction.”

To help Florida residents who are affected by the drywall problem, the Florida Department of Health has devoted a section of its website to the matter. http://www.doh.state.fl.us/ teaches visitors what signs to look for should their homes be affected by the corrosive drywall. The website also provides the latest news on the subject and allows consumers to file complaints.

Sources: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/business/chinese-drywall-hearing-052109,0,309519.story

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Floridians press Congress for help with Chinese drywall problem

When we last reported on the drywall problem back in February, lawsuits against the drywall manufacturers and suppliers were just beginning to appear. Now, according to some estimates, the number of cases could pile up to 75,000 or more nationwide.

The toxic drywall is allegedly made of fly ash, a waste byproduct of power plants, and contains sulfur compounds that impart a foul smell to homes, corrode air conditioning coils and electrical wiring, and cause a spectrum of respiratory health problems and other ailments.

In Florida, more than 150 lawsuits representing some 15,000 plaintiffs have been filed throughout the state from Miami to Pensacola.

The U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation Solution is holding a hearing next week in Louisville, Kentucky, to decide whether the cases filed in the federal court system should be consolidated into a single case with a single judge.

The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation will hold the first Senate hearing on the drywall matter next Thursday morning. Part of the hearing will be devoted to determining whether the drywall is a serious health threat. Knauf Tianjin, the German-Chinese manufacturer, admits the wallboard can have a bad smell but insists that it poses no health risks to humans. Many people have fled from their homes, however, claiming that their houses were making them sick.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has asked Congress for $2 million to fund its investigations of the drywall problem. According to the News-Press of Ft. Meyers, Florida, authorities from the Environmental Protection Agency, Centers for Disease Control, and the Florida state Health Department are in southwest Florida this week touring some of the homes tainted by Chinese drywall.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Chinese drywall problem more widespread than originally thought

Company documents showed that crash testing revealed that although the Pinto’s gas tank was positioned according to industry standards at the time, in the Pinto it was situated in such a way that studs protruding from the rear axle would puncture the gas tank in the event of a crash. Test results showed that fuel leaks were common in the Pinto in any of the other four basic crash types – frontal, side, rear and rollover. In particular, more than one quarter of all rear impacts produced a fuel leak that could result in a fire and a fatality. Out of 11 test crashes, only three cars survived, and they had the fuel tanks modified prior to testing.

Ford had a decision to make. Its car was in compliance with industry standards of the time, so it was not breaking any laws. But its own research had proved the car was unsafe, and even deadly.

The manufacturer implemented a now-notorious “cost-benefit analysis,” estimating a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved figure of $200,000 “cost to society” for each estimated fatality, versus an estimated $11 per vehicle production cost to modify the design and location of the fuel tank. Figures showed the repairs for a projected 11 million cars and 1.5 million light trucks that also featured the faulty tank design would cost the company $137 million.

Ford estimated “benefits” resulting from design modification would include the prevention of 180 burn deaths, 180 serious burn injuries and 2,100 burned vehicles, at a savings of $200,000 per death, $67,000 per serious injury and $700 per injury. Total benefit was estimated at $49.5 million.

Because the estimated cost of repairs was about 2.5 times the estimate of the resulting benefits, Ford chose to do nothing, putting its profits above the value of human life.

This is not the first time such cold-blooded calculations have been revealed in the auto manufacturing industry. Last year, we brought you a very similar story that revealed how automobile manufacturer General Motors, in 1973, determined the cost of repairing its automobile design to prevent fuel-fed fires would cost more than compensating families who lost loved ones in a crash. As a result, they decided not to make fundamental changes to the location of the fuel tanks in their cars to protect consumers, choosing instead to gamble on the likelihood of fire deaths from crashes.

The memo, dubbed the Ivey Memo for its author, engineer Edward C. Ivey, was buried by GM until 1998, when it finally came to light during a Florida trial involving two children who burned to death when the station wagon in which they were riding caught fire after a crash.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Ford memo: the smoking gun

The lawsuit alleges that the manufacturers used fly ash, a waste byproduct of Chinese power plants, in making the drywall. The drywall emits “one of several sulfur compounds including sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide,” the suit claims. In addition to imparting homes with a foul smell, investigators believe the sulfuric drywall emissions cause respiratory health problems and a range of other ailments including headaches, dry eyes, and nosebleeds. While the immediate health risks appear to be minor, nobody knows what the long-term affects of exposure to the substance are.

The sulfuric emissions have also been found to corrode air conditioning coils and wiring. Some of the Florida homeowners with suspect drywall complained of having to replace their air conditioning units multiple times because of corrosion. Corroded wires put homes at serious risk for electrical fires.

Some 550 million pounds of drywall have been imported from China since 2006 – enough to construct 60,000 average-size houses. One brand of drywall is particularly suspect: Knauf Plasterboard Tianjin Co., Ltd. (KPT). That manufacturer typically stamps its name on the drywall, thereby making it the most identifiable. In the spring of 2006, the Port of Tampa received more than 16 million pounds of KPT drywall, which is enough to make nearly 2,000 homes.

Many suppliers imported drywall from China during the building boom and in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which strained the domestic supply.

The class action lawsuit names the Knauf Group, PKT’s parent company; Banner Supply, a Miami-based materials supply company; and Rothchilt International, Ltd. , an export company in China. Legal experts believe many more lawsuits will follow.

Sources:

http://www.consumeraffairs.com/

http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090201/ARTICLE/902010371

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Toxic Chinese drywall used in many Florida homes

Traumatic brain injuries (TBIs)

Educating the public about TBIs has become more urgent in Florida, where there has been an upward trend in the number of brain injuries occurring statewide. In 2005, approximately 93,000 TBIs occurred in Florida, resulting in more than 71,000 emergency room visits and 18,000 hospitalizations. 8,200 people suffer from long-term disabilities resulting from TBIs.

Sadly, as WCTV in Tallahassee points out, these numbers do not include Floridians in the armed forces returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. For them, blast-related brain injuries are considered the “signature wound.” Florida is also home to a large number of veterans, making it even more imperative to educate the public.

Domestically, most TBIs occur as a result of falling and striking the head (about 28%), motor vehicle accidents (about 20%), and accidental blows to the head, such as sports injuries, (about 19%).

One speaker, Thom DeLilla, who is the Bureau Chief of the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program at the Florida Department of Health, is also a TBI survivor. DeLilla received traumatic brain and spinal cord injuries in a diving accident nearly 40 years ago.

“The general public does not recognize or understand the magnitude of the issue, including the incidence, causes and impact of traumatic brain injury,” he said. “More needs to be done to educate our communities about traumatic brain injuries, how these injuries can be prevented, what actions to take when a head injury occurs, and what programs and services are available to help,” DeLilla said.

Frank L. Toral, president of the Brain Injury Association of Florida and a legal advocate for brain injury survivors and their families, warned that even mild brain injuries can have painful and long-lasting effects on victims and those around them.

“I have personally seen the devastating impact that even mild brain injuries have on a person’s ability to relate to their loved ones, carry on a conversation with family, maintain gainful employment and overall quality of life,” Toral said.

The press conference was sponsored by the Brain and Spinal Cord Injury Program of the Florida Department of Health, the Brain Injury Association of Florida and the WellFlorida Council, a nonprofit organization that raises awareness of health issues throughout the state.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Florida press conference raises awareness of traumatic brain injuries

Rachel A. Jollimore was a passenger in the vehicle when the driver swerved to avoid hitting a tree, causing the Rhino to roll over on its side. Jollimore was pinned underneath the UTV, the website Ocala.com reported. Jollimore and the driver were riding the UTV through a field in Silver Springs when the accident occurred.

Jollimore says that she has been considerably impaired since the July 2007 accident. “I have to watch what I do. I can’t pick anything up heavy. I can bend, but I have a limited ability. I can’t sleep on my stomach,” she told Ocala.com

Jollimore has filed suit against Yamaha, a manufacturing division of Yamaha, and the Ocala dealer that sold the Rhino, alleging that the vehicle possesses a number of design flaws that make it unsafe, including high center of gravity, narrow track width, narrow wheels and tires, and side-by-side seating, all of which contribute to the vehicle’s propensity to roll over in certain conditions.

The suit is one of the latest in a growing number of lawsuits against Yamaha throughout the country. About 200 lawsuits involving the Rhino UTV have been filed to date in both state and federal courts.

Dozens of deaths in the United States have been attributed to Rhino accidents.

Yamaha has issued safety notices in the past and recommends users take certain precautions while riding in a Rhino, but the UTV is not bound to any current federal regulations because it belongs to a new breed of off-road vehicles.

“When there is no standard in place, we have to basically determine if there’s a substantial risk of injury and death, and there’s a hurdle there that has to be met,” Jay Howell of the Consumer Product Safety Committee told the Wall Street Journal.

Regulations for consumer products often come into being long after a product has hit the market. Products with no safety regulations or other protective standards may cause harm to consumers, resulting in injury reports and attracting the attention of the manufacturers and regulators – a process that is often driven by law firms representing consumers who were injured by the product.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › FL woman suffers head injuries in ATV wreck

So how much do you think your life is worth? $100M? $20M? $420? According to a 1973 General Motors memo, the value of your life is $200,000. Evidently, GM saved over $250M by letting a few hundred people burn to death in their cars.

For nearly 30 years, automobile manufacturers have skirted the issue of fundamental design flaws that make cars prone to catch fire when involved in a crash. Engineers know how to relocate fuel tanks to make them less likely to leak or suffer punctures, but manufacturers have never been held responsible for ensuring their vehicles are safe.

It is estimated that 20,600 passenger cars catch fire in accidents each year, killing 1,100 people and seriously injuring 3,200. General Motors, in the now-infamous 1973 “Ivy Memo,” estimated that there were “a maximum of 500 fatalities per year in accidents with fuel fed fires where the bodies where burnt.”

Rather than immediately approaching its engineers to redesign a safer automobile, the memo sets out a calculation to determine which would cost less – a human life, or a new design. GM figured it would cost around $8.59/vehicle to protect fuel tanks in crashes. Then, mechanical engineer Edward C. Ivey, author of the memo, calculated a value of $200,000 for each human life lost in an automobile fire. By figuring the amount of GM cars currently on the road, Ivey reasoned it would save GM about $6.19/vehicle or $253,790,000 to simply let the people burn up.

GM took Ivey at his word, and made no significant changes in the design of its automobiles to protect the fuel tanks, buried the memo and began lying about its knowledge of its fuel tank hazards. Meanwhile, GM fuel tanks continued to rupture in roadway crashes, resulting in horrific deaths.

The memo finally came to light in 1998 when a Florida judge ordered it into evidence in a case in a case involving two children who burned to death in 1991 when a small utility trailer ran into a 1983 Oldsmobile station wagon at low speed and punctured its fuel tank.

It is only by bringing this information to public attention, and holding automobile manufacturers up to public scrutiny, that any significant changes will ever take place.

And, in case you’re wondering – you’re “worth more” today. $200,000 in 1973 is equivalent to $1,013,428.57 in 2007.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › How much is your life worth?

The investigation revealing the valve stem defects resulted from a lawsuit filed by the widow of Robert Monk, of Orlando, Fla., who was killed last November when the right rear tire of his 1998 Ford Explorer failed, causing a rollover crash, Lawyers USA reports. Although the tires on Monk’s vehicle had been inspected two months prior to the accident, a large strip of the tire came off while he was driving on the highway, according to his attorney. This is a result of underinflation, which allows the metal rim of the tire to dig into the rubber.

Dill Air Control Products of Oxford, N.C., the U.S. distributor of the valve stems, notified the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration of the potential problem as a result of the Florida lawsuit. In May, the company issued an advisory to tire retailers about problems with surface cracks on the outside of the valve stem near the rim hole, and asked retailers to return all valve stems manufactured in 2006 and to inspect valve stems installed from September 2006 through June 2007.

Because of the large number of valve stems in circulation, they could be on any number of automobiles and are extremely difficult to track, according to the Lawyers USA report.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › Deadly crash spurs tire valve recall

WASHINGTON – Within days of Hurricane Katrina’s landfall in August 2005, frantic officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency ordered nearly $2.7 billion worth of trailers and mobile homes to house the storm’s victims, many of them using a single page of specifications.

Just 25 lines spelled out FEMA’s requirements, with little mention of the safety of those to be housed. Manufacturers produced trailers with unusual speed. Within months, some residents began complaining about unusual sickness; breathing problems; burning eyes, noses and throats; even deaths.

Today, industry and government experts depict the rushed procurement and construction as key failures that may have triggered a public health catastrophe among the more than 300,000 people, many of them children, who lived in FEMA homes.

Formaldehyde — an industrial chemical that can cause nasal cancer, may be linked to leukemia, and worsens asthma and respiratory problems — was present in many of the FEMA housing units in amounts exceeding the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommended 15-minute exposure limit for workers, the limit at which acute health symptoms begin to appear in sensitive individuals.

Weak government contracting, sloppy private construction, a surge of low-quality wood imports from China and inconsistent regulation all contributed to the crisis, a Washington Post review found. But each of the key players has pointed fingers at others, a chain of blame with a cost that will not be known for years.

Already, 17,000 plaintiffs who lived in FEMA units have alleged damaging health consequences, from respiratory problems to dozens of deaths and cancer cases, in a federal class-action lawsuit naming 64 trailer makers and the federal government. Many of the plaintiffs were drawn from the roughly 350,000 people who unsuccessfully filed claims against the Army Corps of Engineers over the levee breaches that flooded New Orleans.

The CDC reported this month that Hurricane Katrina led to increased complaints of lower-respiratory illnesses among 144 children studied in Mississippi, but it found no difference between those who lived in FEMA housing and those who did not. However, the CDC said the findings could not be generalized beyond the sample, and the agency is conducting a broad, five-year study of the storm’s health impact on children across the Gulf Coast area.

“I still can’t believe that we bought a billion dollars’ worth of product with a 25-line spec. There’s not much you can do in 25 lines to protect life safety,” said Joseph Hagerman, a Federation of American Scientists expert who is leading a $275 million effort, funded by the Department of Homeland Security, to develop new emergency housing. “There’s over 20,000 parts in these homes.”

Substandard wood products
FEMA, for its part, faults manufacturers of the trailers, which are wheeled, and the mobile homes, which usually sit on concrete pads. Some trailer makers used cheaper, substandard wood products in the rush to meet production targets, increasing emissions of the cancer-causing chemical, according to industry officials and analysts.

Companies say that federal guidelines were inconsistent and that they relied on suppliers to deliver quality materials. In turn, wood suppliers blame cheap, high-formaldehyde-emitting plywood imports that flooded the U.S. market during the recent housing boom.

R. David Paulison, who became acting FEMA administrator two weeks after the storm hit the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, 2005, acknowledged missteps but said changes are needed far beyond his agency. “We’re taking all the darn heat. . . . You would think that I ordered them with extra formaldehyde so they didn’t rot or something,” he said.

“The manufacturers have been skating by on this thing,” he said, noting that many trailers bought by FEMA were on sale to consumers. “This is bigger than FEMA. This is bigger than FEMA,” he said, repeating for emphasis.

A price has already been paid by trailer residents such as Nicole Esposito, 25, a full-time warehouse worker in Slidell, La. She first noticed her toddler’s symptoms after moving into a FEMA trailer in April 2006: an endless series of coughs, colds, sinus infections, earaches and pink, crusty eyes. Treatments and antibiotics had no effect, and soon Alexa, now 4, and later her newborn sister, Alyssa, now 16 months old, regularly needed atomizers to help them breathe.

Last August, doctors said they suspected the cause was exposure to formaldehyde, and told the single mother to leave her trailer at once. “My girls, they could have all these problems the rest of their lives,” Esposito said, her voice breaking, “. . . and the doctors still don’t know any more.”

Hasty decisions
On Sept. 4, 2005, one week after the storm, Paulison’s predecessor, Michael D. Brown, declared that FEMA was “pulling out the stops” to find housing for 237,000 Katrina evacuees who were staying in shelters, the largest internal displacement of Americans since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s.

The price of haste was, inevitably, waste. FEMA bought $762 million worth of mobile homes, most of them unusable in coastal flood zones under FEMA rules because they could not be moved quickly in case of another storm. After an intervention by then-Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R), FEMA spent $249 million to lease cruise ship cabins, which evacuees largely refused to use.

FEMA bought 21,300 mobile homes and 33,100 trailers off dealers’ lots for $1.4 billion using one page of specifications, according to interviews and documents provided by the agency. It paid manufacturers $931 million to produce an additional 76,800 trailers using eight pages of custom requirements, again with limited safety standards and no mention of formaldehyde.

Paulison said FEMA incorporated applicable federal codes in ordering the mobile homes. Regarding trailers, which are not subject to federal regulation, those sold to the public and to FEMA in the past produced few complaints, he said. “We bought them in good faith, just like we have for the last 20 years.”

The largest housing orders were filled by Fleetwood Enterprises and Gulf Stream Coach. FEMA’s $520 million order from Gulf Stream, the largest from any builder, exceeded the company’s reported 2004 recreational vehicle sales and was its first direct federal contract.

Formaldehyde is a colorless gas present at background levels in nature but emitted from the resins and glues used in many construction components, including particleboard flooring, plywood wall panels, composite wood cabinets and laminated countertops. Emissions are greatest in warm weather and when trailers are newly constructed, the conditions experienced by Katrina victims on the Gulf Coast.

But manufacturers did not discuss, nor did FEMA ask, if it would be safe to house evacuees in trailers for 18 months or more with such materials. “They did not,” Paulison said. “I don’t think they were asked, either.”

A spokeswoman for Fleetwood, based in Riverside, Calif., whose subsidiaries produced 10,600 trailers and 3,000 mobile homes for FEMA, said the company did not discuss the formaldehyde issue with the agency. “You know, when something hasn’t been a problem, you often don’t suddenly consider that it will be. I don’t believe that anybody expected these people to stay in the trailers as long as people have stayed in them,” Kathy Munson said.

Fleetwood said its trailers, which were built with only higher-quality, low-emitting wood products that the company said met federal standards for mobile homes, had the lowest levels of formaldehyde, with only 10 percent exceeding the CDC benchmark. Gulf Stream’s trailers had the highest levels, with more than 50 percent topping the CDC standard.

‘Relied on the representations’
Gulf Stream’s lawyers said in a letter to congressional investigators that the company mostly met a “longstanding policy” to buy components that comply with mobile home standards, but it acknowledged exceptions. They said the firm “did not conduct any testing on components or parts” but instead “relied on the representations” of its suppliers about their quality.

Brian Delaney, a Gulf Stream spokesman, said he could not respond to questions, citing in part litigation. Among other companies whose trailers tested high in the CDC study, Keystone RV declined to comment. Forest River referred questions to the industry’s trade group, the Recreation Vehicle Industry Association.

Dave Hoefer Sr., chairman of Pilgrim International, said the pending lawsuits limited what he could say, but he pointed out that FEMA specifications prompted his company to put in fewer sidewall openings than usual, which may have restricted ventilation. He said his company had never received a complaint about formaldehyde and used its usual materials to build Katrina trailers.

An industry association spokesman, Robert Feldman, said symptoms may be caused by mold, Katrina-related chemical spills, smoking or local climate factors. “There may be a rush to conclude formaldehyde is the issue when in fact the results seem to suggest the answer is a little more complex,” he said.

However, others said that in 2005 and 2006, much of the nation’s hardwood plywood came from Asia and was high in formaldehyde. China’s share of the North American market has grown from 4 percent to nearly 40 percent since 2001, according to the Hardwood Plywood & Veneer Association, which represents North American producers.

“The most likely source of formaldehyde in the Katrina trailers and in all travel trailers are composite wood products . . . [and] the most likely source for those materials are imported products,” primarily from China, said Elizabeth Whalen, director of corporate sustainability for Columbia Forest Products, of Portland, Ore., the association’s largest U.S. plywood manufacturer.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) demanded a U.S. trade investigation after domestic producers complained in 2006 that containers of imported hardwood plywood reeked of formaldehyde, products advertised as having low formaldehyde emissions were falsely labeled and sample tests showed levels much higher than allowed in federal housing.

“There’s no real enforcement authority by the government,” said Gail Overgard, vice president of Timber Products in Springfield, Ore.

Little regulation
No binding safety standard exists for formaldehyde in any U.S. homes, even though the chemical was classified as a human carcinogen by the World Health Organization in 2004 and is deemed a probable carcinogen by the U.S. government.

But early this year, the CDC reported that 41 percent of the trailers it tested in December and January had levels of formaldehyde greater than 100 parts per billion, the level that the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health recommends as safe for 15 minutes of exposure by workers.

California health regulators estimate that lifetime exposure to formaldehyde at 100 parts per billion increases cancer risk by 50 cases per 100,000 people.

“Even at levels too low to cause . . . symptoms, there could be an increased risk of cancer,” the CDC reported in February. Because the tests were done in winter, they understated exposure levels during warmer months, the agency said.

J. Joe Donaldson, president of the Mississippi chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said that “pediatricians along the Gulf Coast . . . all reported epidemic problems with asthma and respiratory symptoms . . . covering the time of the hurricane, and, although it’s diminished over time, it’s ongoing. I personally believe that formaldehyde did play a significant part in the problem.”

Despite its hazards, the chemical’s presence in homes has largely escaped regulation. In 1985, after consumer complaints and lawsuits, Washington imposed a limit on the amount of formaldehyde emitted by plywood and particleboard in mobile homes — but did not restrict how much of that wood can be used.

The Housing and Urban Development office that enforces those rules has a small budget of $6 million and a staff of 13 based only at headquarters. Robert Wilden, who directed the office in the 1980s and 1990s, said in an interview that while the industry “benefits from minimal regulation,” it lobbied for cuts in the office’s budget.

When HUD set the formaldehyde limit for wood in mobile homes 23 years ago, it said it anticipated that the resulting ambient air levels would be less than 400 parts per billion, or quadruple what the CDC says is problematic. The RV industry association points out that, according to the CDC tests over the winter, levels in 99 percent of the Katrina trailers fell below that threshold.

‘Generally unregulated’
The use of formaldehyde in trailers is unregulated because they are considered vehicles, not homes, and because their makers say they are typically used a few days at a time, a few times a year.

“The RV industry is generally unregulated, and lobbying efforts have succeeded in keeping it that way,” said Connie Gallant, head of the RV Consumer Group, which represents trailer owners.

California regulators recently enacted the nation’s tightest formaldehyde limits on wood products, setting limits 60 percent below HUD standards by next year and 75 percent below by 2011. The rules are expected to become a de facto national standard.

FEMA, meanwhile, has barred the future use of trailers, and required that mobile home builders use wood that emits virtually no formaldehyde. The RV industry has embraced HUD and California standards.

FEMA has relocated more than 4,000 families after receiving 11,000 health complaints, but about 22,000 of its trailers remain occupied despite a CDC recommendation that all residents be moved to safer housing. As of May 1, more than 3,000 mobile homes were still occupied.

Paulison said that in the absence of a legally binding safety standard for residential air quality, FEMA will do the best it can in providing disaster housing. But, he complained, “There is no national standard for formaldehyde levels in American homes — not conventional . . . homes, not [mobile] homes.”

Staff researchers Madonna Lebling and Julie Tate contributed to this report.

SOURCE: Personal Injury Attorneys › FEMA Trailers Toxic