Articles Posted in Defective Products

Recognized as a critical safety device in every passenger vehicle in the United States since 1998, airbags offer a soft “pillow” to land on in a crash. The science behind how these safety devices work is staggering, but basically the airbag has only a fraction of a second to inflate at just the right time to slow the passenger’s motion without an abrupt halt. There are a number of things that have to happen simultaneously in order for the airbag to be triggered, and this is governed by a complex computer program.

Airbag Failure

At the time of an accident, a number of sensors send information to the car’s computer about whether the impact is coming from the front, back, side, or is a rollover, and then the computer activates the appropriate airbags. All this occurs in milliseconds. Unfortunately, recent crash tests show that airbags sometimes fail to function properly, the malfunctions primarily being caused by faulty software and problems with sensors.

Product recalls are serious business. Companies do not want to appear negligent, so they will usually not recall a product unless there is significant evidence of risks of injury or even death for consumers. It is important to be aware of any recalls in the news to heed the warnings when an item is recalled.

Because these recalls are so serious, they get quite a bit of attention from the press. People remember defective products long after they are taken off the market. Some product recalls are so extensive or serious that they are remembered for years. wrote an article a few years ago about the Top 10 most notable recalls. Many of them are still clear in our memory today.

Recent Product Recalls

Back to School shopping is an annual ordeal, and chances are that you took your children to a local Target, Wal-Mart, or another store of the same nature to pick out new binders, notebooks, pens, and other supplies needed for another year at school. Yet according to My Fox Atlanta, children at Atlanta schools could be put at risk every single day to dangerous chemicals in the school supplies that they use constantly. According to healthy school expert Jennifer Hankey, 80,000 chemicals have been created and dispersed in the environment in the past fifty years. Many of those chemicals find their way into school supplies or school buildings.

The Healthy Green School is an initiative that aims to remove chemicals from elementary schools where children are still developing. A barrage of chemicals on the developing body could result in serious health defects. Healthy Green School says the first place to start at any school is in the janitorial closet. Oftentimes, cleaners have strong and harmful chemicals, and they are used liberally in school classrooms and hallways to clear the areas of germs and grime. Yet many of these chemicals can be directly linked to causing asthma attacks or causing children to develop allergies. One study says that 12 to 13 percent of all schoolchildren suffer from asthma or allergies because of the presence of strong cleaning chemicals in their school rooms.

Dangerous toxins can also be found in other locations. Crayons in particular are created by petrochemicals, which means petroleum is a key ingredient. Young children often chew on crayons, and are ingesting these dangerous petrochemicals in the process.

Advance Pharmaceutical is voluntarily recalling its Rugby Enteric Coated Aspirin Tablets after the company received a complaint that the bottles contain the wrong medication. Instead of holding aspirin like the label says, some select bottles are filled with Acetaminophen tablets. This typically won’t cause an injury or illness unless a person intended to take acetaminophen and aspirin, and accidentally double-dosed on acetaminophen because of the pharmaceutical company’s mistake.

Consumers may be taking Acetaminophen 500 mg instead of their Aspirin if they are not aware of the mix-up. WSBTV says that overdosing on acetaminophen can lead to liver damage. Those who drink alcoholic drinks or already have liver disease are more at risk to the adverse effects of an acetaminophen overdose. If you want more information about this mix-up, or if you were a victim of the Advance Pharmaceuticals error, then you need to contact an attorney today for more information.

You will want an Atlanta injury lawyer to assist you in proving your case. The attorneys of Van Sant Law are all personal injury trial lawyers that have been honored by many different attorney review services. Lawyers at the firm have a 10.0 Superb Rating and have been listed as Super Lawyers®. Members of the firm are listed in the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the Multi-Million Dollar Advocates Forum.

In colder weather, many people choose to buy heated jacket liners which can act as a heating system when out in the harsher temperatures. Yet the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently noted that Gerbings jacket liners had a tendency to overheat, and could burn a customer rather than keep them warm. The company will be recalling about 9,900 of their jacket liners which are listed under the name Gerbings and Harley-Davidson black nylon 12-volt heated jacket liners.

The Gerbings jacket liners only work when they are plugged into a car, motorcycle, or snowmobile, but they are helpful in keeping bikers and drivers warm if they are exposed to the elements. They are most commonly sold at Harley-Davidson dealerships though the jacket liners have also been sold at Eagle Leather as well as some sporting goods and retail stores. So far, the CPSC has received two reports of the jacket liners overheating and causing burns to consumers’ backs. The burns eventually turned into blisters.

The jacket liners can be repaired or replaced. It is illegal to sell or re-sell a recalled product, so chances are that most retail venues that carry these jacket liners have already pulled them off the shelves. If you have a Gerbings jacket liner that is described under model number JKLN and PO # 3796 or has one of the model numbers listed on the Consumer Product Safety Commission website.

Chances are that whether you own a home, live in an apartment, or are currently staying in a condominium, there is a garbage disposal installed in your sink. This is to help break down bulky food that may clog the sink drain as you try to rinse plates from dinner or dispose of food items from the last meal. While garbage disposals can be helpful tools, they are not always safe. In fact, there are a lot of dangers associated with these choppers in your sink drain.

One of the main dangers with a garbage disposal is that of an electric shock. The appliance is designed to operate in the presence of running water, but uses electricity to function. As well, the garbage disposal produces some sort of vibration when it works. Over time, the combination of these tree factors can cause the electrical connections to wear out, and this can increase the risk of an electrical shock. Because people are normally washing metal items such as utensils in the sink, this even enhances the danger of this sort of shock.

The rise of shock always increasers when the motor starts to burn out, so it is important that you get your garbage disposal inspected on an annual basis. If you are renting an apartment or are currently staying in a rental on vacation or business, then you have the right to assume that the garbage disposal has been inspected. If you receive an electric shock in one of these places where you are paying to stay, then you have the right to seek compensation, especially if you were severely injured or burned from the shock. The garbage disposal can also administer an electrical shock when someone is replacing or installing the disposal. It is important that you never try to fix your disposal when your hands are wet as this also increases your changes of an injury.

When you give your child medicines, you want those antibiotics to make your young one feel better, not worse. According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission, a recent manufacturing error has caused bottles of Triaminic and Theraflu to fail the child resistant closure requirements. This means that the bottles were not sealed safely. Because of this, children may be able to pry the lid off of the medicine and drink it. All medicines are supposed to have child-proof locks on the caps so that children cannot pull the cap off and drink the medicine out of curiosity or hunger.

If they overdose on the medicines, they can poison themselves. Triaminic wants to recollect all bottles of medicine that are not child-proofed and will repair the bottles or administer a refund to anyone who has purchased the product. About 2.3 million units have been affected by the recall. The main concern with these medicines is the fact that they contain traces of acetaminophen and diphenhydramine. Both of these medications can be dangerous and even fatal in strong doses.

There are a variety of different Triaminic and Theraflu products that are involved in the recall. All are syrups. The recall includes but is not limited to Theraflu Warming liquid, Triaminic Daytime Cold and Cough, Triaminic Fever Reducer, Triaminic Long Acting Cough, and Triaminic Nighttime Cold and Cough. If your child consumes a dangerous amount of any one of these medications, then you have the right to seek compensation from the company. This is because they had a responsibility to create a safe and reliable product and were not able to accomplish this goal.

Kitchen fires are a consistent danger that often brings on devastating house fires on a regular basis. Usually, these fires happen because a person will forget to turn off their oven or stove before leaving the house or the room. Yet the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission recently discovered another kitchen burn hazard in the form of Hy Cite Enterprises pots and pans. The thermal wall pots and pans have a burn and fire hazard because the materials are not always fire resistant like pots and pans are supposed to be. According to the CPSC, all consumers should stop using their Royal Prestige 9-Pky Thermal Wall Cookware immediately and return the products for a full refund.

The recall involves about 1.7 million units that have been shipped out all over the United States. According to reports, the cookware can collapse or crimp when placed over head and sometimes it will deform. All of these mistakes cause a burn hazard to the consumer and any nearby property. The company is aware of about 1,136 reports of cookware deforming or collapsing in ways that posed a burn hazard. One consumer called the company and reported that she had been spattered with hot oil when her pot caved inward. This caused burns that needed medical attention.

The pots and pans were not sold in stores, but rather at independent distributors or in door-to-door sales. The individual pots and pans were between $250 and $800 each and the sets were between $800 and $3,500. All pots were manufactured in Italy. The company requests that all consumers send their pots and pans back to the company headquarters where they will repair them free of charge. Any damaged pots and pans will be replaced Wither you have a saucepan, a Dutch oven, a skillet or a paella pan, you should return it to this company before you put yourself in danger because of the defective product.

More than 262,000 kids were injured last year by toys that were given to them by unsuspecting friends and relatives. If , like most Americans, you’re planning to buy toys for the children in your life this holiday season, there are some important things you need to keep in mind.

The number one injury sustained by children is asphyxiation (often from choking on toy parts, small balls or balloons). Experts warn that if a child is under the age of three, don’t buy him or her anything small enough to fit through the cardboard tube of a roll of paper towels – about 1.25 inches in diameter. Items small enough to fit in those tubes are small enough for little ones to swallow and choke on.

In 2008, there were enough toy-related deaths to cause Congress to enact new legislation that toughened laws on toy manufacturers. Despite that, there are still hundreds of dangerous toys on American store shelves. Particular things to beware of: