Cherry Hill, New Jersey Personal Injury Lawyer - Toxic Substances

E. Coli Ground Beef Death Toll Reaches 2

Mike Ferrara — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:38:26 GMT

An outbreak of E. coli in ground beef products has sickened more than two dozen people and killed at least two—one in New Hampshire and another in upstate New York.

Now, Fairbanks Farms, the New York State company suspected of producing the tainted beef, has issued a recall of 545,699 pounds of ground beef products.

E. coli is a dangerous bacterium which can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and kidney failure, especially in young children, the elderly, and those with weak immune systems. It was recently found in contaminated beef from Illinois producer Valley Meats; hundreds of consumers became sick from the E-coli in these products.

The products in question are ground beef or packaged beef patties that were made from Sept. 14 to Sept. 16 and distributed mostly in the Northeast. All are stamped “EST 492,” either within the Department of Agriculture’s mark of inspection or near the nutrition facts.

The products went to retailers in eight states: Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia. The stores receiving them included Trader Joe’s, Giant, Price Chopper, Wild Harvest and Shaw’s.

Donna Rosenbaum, executive director of Safe Tables Our Priority, a food safety organization, said…that the nation’s food inspection system needed reform.

“To this day,” she said, “contamination problems are not found by any checks on the products by companies. They’re found when people get sick, and that’s a failure in the system.”–New York Times

As of today, since all of the recalled products are at least three weeks past their sell-by dates, none should still be on store shelves.

If you have ground beef at home with an EST 492 stamp, please do not eat it, and either dispose of it immediately without opening it, or return it to the store for a refund. Even if you cook the beef thoroughly, which can kill the bacteria, preparing it in the kitchen can contaminate utensils and surfaces. Even tiny doses can cause harm.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

Chinese Drywall - Senate Looks to Regulate for Formaldehyde

Camryn Hansen — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 22:46:31 GMT

The Senate is currently considering a bill that would establish federal standards for the levels of formaldehyde allowed in Chinese composite wood products, like drywall and fiberboard, used in American housing construction.

Drywall from China first came under scrutiny earlier this year, when contaminated drywall was discovered to be in more than 60,000 new homes in at least a dozen states. The drywall emitted toxic levels of chemical pollutants like sulfur into the homes, which reeked of rotten eggs and was potent enough to corrode pipes and turn silver jewelry black. Homeowners were forced to abandon these un-sellable homes, though many were offered mortgage abatements by their lenders when they did so.

Formaldehyde, present in the adhesive resins used to manufacture pressed wood products, is a toxic and carcinogenic chemical that can cause coughing, skin rashes, headaches, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, and nosebleeds at levels above 0.1 parts per million. (To the chagrin of many of us, formaldehyde can be found in concentrations higher than this in new clothing, including children’s clothing, and textiles such as bed sheets.)

The Formaldehyde Standards for Composite Wood Act, would establish national emission standards under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) for formaldehyde in new composite wood products, but secondhand products and antiques are exempt.

Under the proposed legislation, these products sold in the U.S. would have to meet a formaldehyde emission standards of about 0.09 parts per million by Jan. 1, 2012 - making the regulations the toughest in the world. -HousingWire

I’m a little concerned that the “toughest” formaldehyde standard in the world is to be only 0.01 parts per million lower than the level at which the chemical causes nosebleeds and vomiting. But I’ll take regulation over no regulation. Maybe next the Senate can introduce a bill to regulate acceptable formaldehyde limits in products like clothing and bedding that come into direct contact with our skin (there’s no set limit as of yet!).

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Camryn Hansen

MRSA Found at West Coast Public Beaches Resembles Hospital Strain

Mike Ferrara — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:32:29 GMT

Researchers have found the antibiotic-resistant staph bacteria MRSA on public beaches along the Puget Sound in Washington State, and believe that sand and water at other public beaches may be home to the bacteria.

Earlier this year, MRSA was also discovered to be living on beaches in South Florida.

Community-acquired infections in people without risk factors such as poor hygiene are a growing concern, but little is known about environmental sources of MRSA, says Marilyn Roberts, PhD, an environmental health scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Roberts and colleagues tested marine water and sand samples from beaches along the Puget Sound in Washington from February to September 2008.

Staph bacteria were found at nine of 10 beaches tested. Five of the beaches harbored strains of multidrug-resistant staph.

To the researchers' surprise, most of the samples "looked more like hospital-acquired MRSA strains than the bacteria typically found in the community," Roberts says. Three samples, from beaches 10 miles apart, were "essentially the same," she says. -WebMD Health News

It is unclear where this hospital-acquired lookalike MRSA on the beaches is coming from, but researchers are working hard to find out.

In the meantime, protect yourself and your children from MRSA at the beach by:

· Brushing all the sand off when you get out of the water. Digging and being buried in the sand seem to raise the risk of MRSA infection.

· Thoroughly cleaning and covering any open cuts or scrapes before playing in the sand.

· Showering after exiting the water.

· Consulting a health care professional immediately if a cut or scrape seems to be infected a few days after a beach visit.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

Altria Group to Pay $13.8 Million to Family of Smoker, Lung Cancer Victim

Mike Ferrara — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 20:18:55 GMT

A California jury has ordered Altria Group, the parent company of Marlboro cigarette maker Philip Morris USA, to pay $13.8 million in punitive damages to the daughter of woman who died in 2003 of lung cancer after smoking Philip Morris cigarettes for 45 years.

The verdict for Jodie Bullock, daughter of Betty Bullock, who smoked Marlboro and Benson & Hedges cigarettes for 45 years, was reached yesterday in Los Angeles. An earlier award of $28 billion from a 2002 trial had been first reduced by the trial judge and then canceled by an appeals court that ordered a new trial on punitive damages.

Bullock’s lawyer, Michael Piuze, told jurors Philip Morris misrepresented the risks of smoking for 50 years. He asked for “billions” in punitive damages, saying that anything less wouldn’t punish the company. Altria, the largest U.S. cigarette maker, reported 2008 sales of $19.4 billion. -Bloomberg

Betty Bullock, who was 64 when the trial originally began in 2002, testified that cigarette ads convinced her to start smoking Marlboros at the age of 17, and that company misrepresentations of the risks of smoking kept her from quitting while she still had her health.

Significantly, the jury was split over the $13.8 million in punitive damages, with the 3 no’s actually holding out for a higher award. One juror said to the press that he would have awarded half a billion dollars in punitive damages, since anything less wouldn’t have an impact on Philip Morris’ gargantuan profits.

It’s good to see a jury taking a defiant stand against the cigarette makers to compensate the families of those killed by these toxic products through dishonest marketing.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

Weed Killer in the Drinking Water Causes Birth Defects & Cancer; Use a Filter at Home

Mike Ferrara — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 21:30:03 GMT

The weed killer atrazine, sold under numerous brand names including AAtrex, is most often used on corn in farming states, but it is also commonly applied to lawns, gardens, parks and golf courses. Unfortunately, it is particularly bad about washing into nearby water supplies and contaminating them; in so doing, it has become one of the country’s most prevalent water contaminants. As atrazine comes under the spotlight, researchers are discovering that it can cause severe birth defects at concentrations much lower than levels previously deemed “safe” by the EPA.

In recent years, five epidemiological studies published in peer-reviewed journals have found evidence suggesting that small amounts of atrazine in drinking water, including levels considered safe by federal standards, may be associated with birth defects — including skull and facial malformations and misshapen limbs — as well as low birth weights in newborns and premature births. Defects and premature births are leading causes of infant deaths. –NY Times

Experiments are also showing that animals who are exposed to brief doses of atrazine before birth become more susceptible to cancer later on in life.

As part of its infinitely reasonable precautionary policy to eliminate all pesticides that easily contaminate groundwater, the European Union has banned the use of atrazine. But thus far, the EPA has refused both to re-evaluate the safety of the chemical and to take steps to prevent our water supplies from being contaminated by it.

Lawsuits have been filed against makers of atrazine (notably Syngenta, the chemical’s primary manufacturer) by forty-three different water systems in six states (Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi and Ohio), which if won, will force the companies to pay for removing this dangerous chemical from drinking water. Let’s hope these suits open the eyes of the EPA to the seriousness of this problem.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

Trans Fats Gone but Not Missed in NYC – Can We Be Next, Please?

Camryn Hansen — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:25:58 GMT

In December 2006, a city-wide mandate ordered New York City restaurants to begin phasing trans fats out of the foods they serve. In November 2008, the mandate turned into a full city-wide ban on restaurant trans fats. Today, reports show that the ban has been overwhelmingly successful, with the use of trans fats in restaurant food declining from 50% to less than 2%. Best of all, New Yorkers don't miss them. Instead, the food is healthier and tastes better.

This is terrific news for the health of all New Yorkers, as well as anyone else who decides to jump on the no-trans-fat bandwagon. Trans fats, or vegetable fats artificially saturated by industrial machinery that adds hydrogen atoms onto their molecular structure, making them more solid and extending their shelf life relatively indefinitely, are about the worst thing a person can consume on a regular basis. Not only do trans fats grossly elevate a person’s risk of coronary heart disease by increasing “bad” and decreasing “good” cholesterol (one New England Journal of Medicine study estimated that between 30,000 and 100,000 heart attack deaths in the US are caused by trans fats), they play a suspected role in the ever-increasing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, and Alzheimer’s Disease in the United States.

Lest you think you don’t have to worry about all this because you never eat any trans fats, please be aware that anything listing partially hydrogenated oils of any kind in the ingredients (soybean is the standard) contains trans fats. Cookies, pies, cakes, breads, some chips, and many of the fried foods that you buy at the grocery store very often contain partially hydrogenated oils, or trans fats. If you can cut the amount of these fats in your diet to zero: excellent. The National Academy of Sciences has ruled that there is no such thing as a “safe” level of trans fat consumption, and no daily recommended amount exists.

Though in New Jersey, there has been a sensible mandatory trans fat reduction in public school lunches, the state doesn’t have a trans fat ban. In fact, when former senator Ellen Karcher proposed a trans fat ban in New Jersey restaurants, she immediately began receiving physical threats and hate mail so vicious it forced her staff to temporarily shut down her office. Note:

Ms. Karcher sought a ban on trans fats because, she said, she believes their consumption contributes to obesity-related illnesses. (New Jersey spent $2.3 billion on obesity-related illnesses in 2003, half of which was paid for by taxpayers through Medicare and Medicaid, according to a 2006 report by the State Department of Health and Senior Services.)

“They kept screaming that they wanted choice,” Ms. Karcher said in a recent phone interview. “Well, it’s not like you can walk into a restaurant and say, ‘Give me trans fats or non-trans fat.’ It’s not like ordering chocolate or vanilla.” -Stacey Stowe, The New York Times

The knee-jerk reaction to preserve “choice” and “freedom” at the cost of Americans’ health (and accordingly, the taxes and government spending we use to pay for those of us in poor health) is simply ludicrous when it comes to trans fats. There is no rational reason why anyone should feel that he or she has a fundamental right to choose lumps of slimy white fat produced in a factory using million-dollar equipment. This slimy fat is killing Americans, and we should get rid of it as an option altogether.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Camryn Hansen

Quit Smoking in New Jersey!

Mike Ferrara — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 22:50:28 GMT

According to the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS), about 17% of New Jersey adults are smokers. About 76% of smokers want to quit, but only about 10% successfully quit without outside help.

What this means is that people need help to quit. Understanding this, the DHSS offers a broad spectrum of quit services that not a lot of people know about. If you are a smoker and want to quit, you can get friendly and effective help here:

New Jersey Quitcenters: a network of seven smoking cessation clinics located across the state that offers a customized, face-to-face approach to quitting. The New Jersey Quitcenter program combines intensive individual or group counseling with the supervised use of nicotine patches, gum and inhalers. Centers provide services on a sliding-fee scale according to income and clients can purchase over-the-counter nicotine replacement therapy products at a reduced cost. For New Jersey Quitcenter locations, visit www.nj.quitnet.com or call 1-866-NJ ÐSTOPS.

New Jersey Quitline: (1-866-NJ-STOPS) a free, telephone-based counseling and referral service, available six days a week in 26 different languages. New Jersey Quitline counselors have been trained by the American Cancer Society and work with clients to develop an individualized treatment plan including ongoing support and follow-up. Using New Jersey Quitline, smokers are three times more likely to succeed - with more than 30 percent of registered users reporting they were tobacco free after six months.

New Jersey QuitNet: (www.nj.quitnet.com) a free, online information, counseling and referral service that offers a variety of resources to help people break the control of nicotine. This service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. New Jersey QuitNet users have access to trained counselors. Online chat rooms provide real-time support from other smokers using New Jersey QuitNet to quit smoking. Other tools include a quitting calendar, quitting strategies and a directory of local treatment programs and support groups.-nj.com

Anyone interested in quitting smoking or helping a friend, family member, patient, or employee quit smoking can visit New Jersey’s Quit Services Web site to learn more.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

FDA Warns of Possible Salmonella in Pistachios

Camryn Hansen — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:58:37 GMT

According to the FDA, consumers should not eat two brands of pistachios that are associated with a salmonella-related recall because they may have been repackaged before being sold in airports and hotels.

The brands to avoid are California Prime Produce and Orange County Orchards, both of which were repackaged by Orca Distribution. (Anaheim, CA).

"The company (Orca) did not publicly announce its recall. We are warning consumers not to eat these brands of pistachio," FDA spokeswoman Stephanie Kwisnek said on Tuesday in a telephone interview. -Reuters

The salmonella pistachios originally came from Setton Pistachio (Terra Bella, CA), which recalled its products nationwide in March after the bacteria had been found in some of the nuts.

Symptoms of salmonella infection generally begin with nausea and vomiting, and progress to abdominal pains, cramps, and diarrhea which can last anywhere from two days to a week. Typically, patients can recover without treatment, but young children, seniors, and those with weakened immune systems can require hospitalization for dehydration and other complications.

Earlier this year, more than 500 people were sickened and at least seven died of food poisoning from salmonella-tainted peanut butter manufactured by the Peanut Corporation of America.

If you have been sickened by pistachios or any other contaminated consumer product, contact The Ferrara Law Firm to find out more about your right to compensation.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Camryn Hansen

Nestle Toll House Cookies May Contain E-Coli – Protect Your Kids

Mike Ferrara — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 20:21:40 GMT

After getting reports of food-borne illnesses in 28 states that seem to have been caused by its cookie dough, Nestle is recalling 300,000 cases of it as a precaution, suspecting that it may be contaminated with E-coli bacteria.

E. coli is a dangerous bacterium which can cause bloody diarrhea, dehydration, and kidney failure, especially in young children, the elderly, and those with weak immune systems. It was recently found in contaminated beef from Illinois producer Valley Meats. Hundreds of consumers became sick from the E-coli in these products.

The FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are urging any consumers with pre-packaged, refrigerated Nestle Toll House cookie dough products to throw them away immediately. They are also asking that restaurants and retailers stop serving Nestle Toll House products, for the sake of their customers’ health.

According to the CDC, 66 people have become sick and twenty five have been hospitalized after eating raw cookie dough since March.

Nestle issued a statement saying, "While the E. coli strain implicated in this investigation has not been detected in our product, the health and safety of our consumers is paramount, so we are initiating this voluntary recall."

"We really want to remind consumers that raw cookie dough should not be eaten," she said. -CNN

Anyone who becomes sick after eating Nestle Toll House cookie dough should contact his or her doctor to check for the presence of E-coli.

If you have been sickened by these or other contaminated consumer products, contact The Ferrara Law Firm to find out more about your right to compensation.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara

Congress: the FDA Will Now Control Cigarettes

Mike Ferrara — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 21:15:36 GMT

The Senate voted today and the House is expected to vote tomorrow to pass The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, a critical piece of legislation that will allow the FDA to regulate cigarettes and other forms of tobacco.

Currently, a full twenty percent of Americans smoke, and 400,000 die every year from diseases related to smoking.

The new legislation, which President Obama is expected to sign as soon as it reaches his desk (he co-sponsored the bill when he was in the Senate), will allow the FDA to regulate the chemicals in cigarette smoke, ban cigarette flavorings (which are said to entice children and teens into the deadly habit), and look into banning menthol (which has links to higher rates of lung cancer). There are about 60 cancer-causing chemicals and 4000 poisonous chemicals in cigarette smoke: these would all be reduced under the auspices of the FDA.

However, though the FDA may also be able to reduce the amount of addictive nicotine in cigarettes, this legislation expressly forbids the agency to ban it altogether. Researchers have suggested that doing so might force addicts to turn to the black market for their nic fixes.

The law would also further restrict marketing and advertising of tobacco products. Colorful advertising and store displays will be replaced by black-and-white-only text as part of restrictions aimed at reducing the appeal to youth to try smoking. Cigarette makers will be required to stop using terms like “light” and “low tar” by next year and to place large and graphic health warnings on their packages by 2012.

“This long-overdue grant of authority to F.D.A. to regulate tobacco products means that the agency can finally take the actions needed to protect our people from the most deadly of all consumer products,” Edward M. Kennedy, the Massachusetts Democrat who was chief sponsor of the legislation in the Senate, said in a statement from home, where he is receiving treatment for a brain tumor. -The New York Times

The wholly bipartisan legislation passed in the Senate by a 3:1 ratio; it has equally bipartisan support in the House.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Mike Ferrara