Defective Products

The holiday season isn’t the best time to learn that your favorite express cooker has been recalled, especially when there’s not enough time in the day to cook the meals you are craving the most. Millions of people have been relying on express cookers to help feed their families during the Coronavirus pandemic. With children…

Health experts agree hand sanitizers are effective as a backup or in tandem to washing hands as part of a regimen for killing viruses, like the flu or MRSA. However, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also regulates these products, preventing manufacturers of these products from claiming they prevent any specific illness or disease.…

Eisai Inc., the manufacturer of weight loss drugs Belviq® and Belviq XR®, voluntarily agreed to withdraw these drugs from the market after a clinical safety study showed an increased risk of cancer associated with taking the medications. The drugs are also known by the name loracaserin. As a condition of FDA approval of loracaserin in…

Parents have the right to trust that when they buy a baby sleeper, their infant will sleep comfortably and wake up from their nap or sleep to enjoy the day. Parents also have the right to hold the manufacturers of these sleepers accountable for any deaths or harm that results from a defective baby sleeper…

Over the last month, the news headlines have been dominated by Boeing: the software that failed, the regulations that were loosened, and the number of people who have died on 737 MAX crashes because of systemic failures to keep planes safe. It’s an important story, because it highlights just how much damage self-regulation with an…

When Kailani Burton bought her 17-year-old son a vape pen, she did so with the best of intentions: she wanted her son to stop smoking. What she did not anticipate was that the pen would explode in her son’s mouth, forcing her to drive 200 miles from her home to the closest trauma center for…

July 4th is almost here, and you know what that means: it’s time for the fireworks. Given how dry Arizona is, fireworks pose a different kind of risk for us. Today, we want to tell you which fireworks have been recalled for safety issues, and offer some tips to make sure your Independence Day celebration…

The dangers of medical devices are becoming more apparent. The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) reported in February 2019, that the US Food and Drug Administration has agreed to release information, previously hidden from the public, about defective medical devices. For the past 20 years, the FDA has allowed manufacturers to provide quarterly reports…

The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) has sued the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to force new rules to prohibit the sale of raw poultry, pork and beef that contain traces of animal waste, which is allowed under current law, according to a story in the Washington Post. The Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine…

Most claims of malfunctioning medical devices are required to be submitted to the FDA and kept in a public database. Often doctors search these databases when they experience or learn of a similar malfunction, to try to learn how they can better serve their patients. But not always. Kaiser Health News recently reported on a…