Personal Injury and Social Security Disability Blog

Window Blind Manufacturers Urged to Improve Safety of Products

I've written many times about the hazards to children of window blinds, and specifically the cords on the blinds. Consumer groups are losing patience with the manufacturers repeated promises to make their products safer, and the inevitable delays in implementing those promises. A story in the Seattle Times goes into detail about the dangers, and the delays. Here are excerpts:

A fight to make window blinds safer for children is growing more contentious after manufacturers of the common household product have ignored demands from federal regulators to eliminate exposed cords on window blinds and shades. The manufacturers, who set standards for their own products, are adopting less-stringent rules that safety advocates say won't reduce injuries or deaths.

"The industry is clinging to the status quo and is refusing to address this very dire safety issue," said Rachel Weintraub, director of product safety with the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America and a member of a task force drafting the new standards. "As frustrating as it has been, it is even more tragic."

About one child each month strangles to death on cords of a window blind or shade, according to U.S. regulators. Children can get caught in the cords that hold the blinds together or the cords that are used to pull blinds up and down.

Last summer, safety regulators in the U.S., Canada and Europe told the window covering industry to enact product standards that would eliminate strangulation hazards. Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, gave an October deadline, but the task force, which is heavily influenced by the industry, did not meet it.

Many manufacturers say it isn't feasible to rid window blinds of accessible cords and think it is impractical to eliminate all risk for any kind of product.

In a statement, Tenenbaum said the proposed standard from the task force "poses too much risk to the safety of children." If the standard isn't strengthened, she said the agency could be forced to pass mandatory standards. But doing so could take years.

Safety advocates and regulators want to rid blinds of cords that children can wrap around their necks, including long operational cords used to pull blinds up and down.

More than 200 children in the U.S. have died in the last two decades from being strangled in window cord-related accidents with blinds and shades, according to the federal safety agency. The annual rate has remained steady, the commission said.

Study Reveals More Deaths By Poisoning Than Car Crashes

Here's a story that took me by surprise — deaths by poisoning have overtaken deaths by auto collision in the United States. The latest statistics are from 2008, and were reported by the National Center for Health Statistics. The report was detailed in an article in the New York Times. Here are excerpts:

An analysis published by the National Center for Health Statistics found that opioid painkillers like morphine, hydrocodone (sold as Vicodin and other brands) and oxycodone (Percocet and other brands) were involved in more than 40 percent of drug poisonings in 2008. These drugs were implicated in more poisoning deaths than heroin or cocaine.

Opioid analgesics accounted for 14,800 of the 36,500 fatal drug poisonings in 2008. About 12,400 people died after taking other kinds of drugs, and for 25 percent of the cases where drugs were listed as a cause of death, no specific drug was mentioned.

There were considerable variations in rates of drug poisoning by age. The rate was highest among 45- to 54-year-olds, and people under 24 had the lowest rates of any group except those over age 65.

Non-Hispanic whites had higher rates of death from drugs than Hispanics, and rates among African-Americans were lower than both.

In 30 states, poisoning is the leading cause of injury death. New Mexico, West Virginia, Alaska, Nevada and Utah have the highest rates in the country.

The lead author of the study, Margaret Warner, a statistician with the federal agency, said that a multifaceted approach to solving the problem was needed, analogous to the various steps taken to improve traffic safety. Equipment improvements and law enforcement have combined to sharply reduce the rate of car crash deaths since 1980.

“The C.D.C. is doing some prevention work,” she said. “The Food and Drug Administration is looking at different regulations they can impose, and the Office of National Drug Control Policy is not just focusing on interdiction, but using a public health approach as well.”

According to the article, more than five million Americans in 2009-10 reported using pain relievers without a prescription or only for the feeling they caused.

FDA Tells Consumers Not to Use ShoulderFlex Massager

Here's a rather alarming story about a massager that could strangle a user. As reported in the Boston Globe, The FDA is telling consumers who own the ShoulderFlex Massager not to use it. Here are details:

If you own a ShoulderFlex Massager, get rid of it, said the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The device -- which delivers a deep tissue massage to the neck, shoulders, and back while you’re lying down -- was recalled last August after it killed one user and resulted in the near-strangulation of another. But the agency is concerned that the now bankrupt company, King International, didn’t do a good enough job recalling the product before it went out of business.

“King International has not followed through with recall procedures,” read the FDA press release. “The 800 number established by the firm for this recall is no longer in service; and many of the companies that sell this device are not aware of the recall or did not properly notify customers who purchased the massager.”

Hair, clothing or jewelry can become entangled in the ShoulderFlex Massager as it kneads on muscles, causing serious injury or even death from strangulation, according to the FDA. (Here are more details on the risks.)

“The ShoulderFlex Massager poses serious risks. Consumers should stop using this device, health care providers should not recommend it to their patients and businesses should stop distributing and selling the device,” said FDA compliance director Steve Silverman in a statement.

Owners of the device should dispose of it by removing the massage fingers so it can’t be used. Anyone who has been injured from the device can file a report with the FDA’s MedWatch program.

Featured Link — FightingForJustice.org

Fighting for Justice is the new blog of the American association for Justice. It is filled with consumer information about defective products and unfair laws. Here is a description from the site:

Fighting for Justice is your resource for the latest news and information about America's civil justice system.

As the world's largest trial bar, the American Association for Justice (formerly known as the Association of Trial Lawyers of America) works to make sure people have a fair chance to receive justice through the legal system when they are injured by the negligence or misconduct of others—even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations. Learn more at www.justice.org.

Alarms on Monitors Named Most Hazardous Hospital Technology

The Boston (MA) Globe "White Coat Notes" blog reports, "Alarms on cardiac monitors, infusion pumps and ventilators, which are meant to protect patients, have been named the most hazardous technology in hospitals by an organization that tracks problems with medical devices." Recently, "ECRI Institute, a nonprofit independent research organization in Pennsylvania...published its list of top ten health technology hazards for 2012. Alarms have been on the list for several years, but moved back into the no. 1 slot."

From the American Association for Justice news release.

Social Security Disability Harder To Get As Baby Boomers Raise Number of Applications

Despite the uninformed opinions of some people, it has never been easy to get Social Security disability benefits. Yes, some unqualified applicants do slip through system, but many more qualified applicants are denied benefits — especially if the applicants are trying to maneuver through the process without the assistance of a qualified Social Security disability attorney.

But now getting benefits may be even more difficult than in the past. That's the gist of an article recently published in the St. Augustine Record newspaper. The reason has to do with the number of Baby Boomers who are reaching the age at which diseases and injuries mount to the point that a person simply cannot continue to work. Here are excerpts from the article:

Kim Paul Carter of St. Augustine thought he would easily qualify for Social Security disability after his second round of debilitating cancer cost him his carpentry job, his house and all of his savings.

“It’s pretty hard; it gets you depressed,” said Carter, who now is living in a camper on land his family owns behind his foreclosed house. His family members have to give him money for the gas he uses for the generator that supplies the electricity and he is often without phone service. “It’s hard after working all your life ... depending on everybody else,” Carter said. “You feel like a burden to them.”

Carter is one of millions of Americans waiting longer for disability benefits because the number applying for benefits has grown substantially in the last few years, as has the number of rejections.

“Baby boomers reaching their disability-prone years and the economic downturn have contributed to the increase in applications,” said Patti Patterson, Social Security Administration regional communications director. Congress has imposed a strict definition of disability in order to be eligible for Social Security disability benefits, she said.

“Your condition must be so severe that it is expected to last at least a year and you are unable to work,” Patterson said.

The annual number of applications for the program has increased more than 28 percent over five years, going from about 2.5 million to about 3.2 million, according to administration statistics. At the same time, the number of approved applications has shrunk from 35 percent to 33 percent over the same time period.

The waiting period is slightly shorter than it was five years ago; initial claims take about 115 days to process now versus 120 on average, Patterson said. But for those who have been rejected, it could take a year or more to appeal the decision at the court level, she said.

By the numbers

Fiscal Year 2011: 3,243,079 applied for social security disability and 33.5% were approved at the initial level.

Fiscal Year 2006: 2,524,550 applied and 35.2% of these applications were approved at the initial level.

Source: Social Security administration

American Academy of Pediatrics: Crib Bumper Pads Pose Risk Of Death

The Chicago Tribune reports updated American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines say that crib bumper pads "should not be used" because "there is no evidence that bumper pads prevent injuries and say they pose a potential risk of suffocation, strangulation and entrapment." The issue is "still being hotly debated" and the Consumer Product Safety Commission has "hesitated to take a stance on the safety of bumper pads" despite getting "reports for years of babies suffocating against bumper pads."

From the American Association of Justice press release.

 

Fiat 500 is 'Top Safety Pick'

In my neighborhood I saw a lot of the tiny Smart cars when they first came out, and while I loved the look, I was concerned about the safety. Now the latest hot car is the FIAT 500C, which I see frequently. Again, I think they're really cute, but I worry about the safety aspects of such a small vehicle. I guess I can quit worrying now, after reading an article in USA Today, which says the FIAT was a top safety pick of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Here are excerpts:

Fans of Fiat spokeswoman Jennifer Lopez can rest easier now -- the object of their affection is cruising the streets in the Fiat ads in a Top Safety Pick.

The little 2012 Fiat 500 answered one of the questions always asked about minicars (But is it safe?) by earning coveted Top Safety Pick status in the minicar category in the battery of tests done by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, the insurance industry's research group.

The only other minicar that has earned Top Safety Pick status to date is the 2011-12 Ford Fiesta.

To earn the IIHS award, a vehicle must score the top rating of Good for occupant protection in front-offset, side, rear and rollover crash tests, plus have an electronic stability system (now standard on all 2012 models).

The Fiat 500 crash-test dummy's neck and chest showed a low risk of injury through the testing.

The dummy, showed a potential pelvis fracture in the side-impact crash test in which the vehicle is struck in the side by a barrier moving at 31 mph -- the barrier represents the front end of a pickup or SUV.

In the IIHS' roof-strength test, which requires the vehicle's roof to withstand the force of four times the vehicle's weight, the sturdy little 500 withstood an impressive 6.16 times its weight.

Buyer alert: Top Safety Pick status applies only to 500s built since July, according to IIHS. Models built earlier had weaker seat structures that could cause more harm to front passengers. You can check when a vehicle was built on a label affixed to the driver-side door jamb.

And as Drive On always reminds you: A Top Safety Pick offers the top protection in the vehicle class, however small, but the laws of physics still apply if you take on, say, a Suburban.

New SIDS Prevention Guidelines Released

USA Today reports, "The American Academy of Pediatrics recommended Tuesday that parents stop using all bumper pads in cribs because of the risks to infants." While the group previously only warned against "pillow-like" pads, AAP says there is "no evidence that bumper pads prevent injuries, and there is a potential risk of suffocation, strangulation or entrapment." However, the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association opposes a ban on the products. Instead, "JPMA wants a voluntary standard to set a maximum thickness for traditional bumpers." Consumer Product Safety Commission spokesman Scott Wolfson said that early in the year CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum "asked the commission's staff to review its files and studies to take a 'fresh look' at crib bumpers."

MedPage Today reports that the AAP recommendations, published in the November issue of Pediatrics, "go beyond [sudden infant death syndrome] SIDS and focus on providing a safe sleeping environment for infants to reduce the risk of all sleep-related deaths." The group "also recommends avoidance of any commercial devices purported to prevent SIDS." The guidelines say that "breastfeeding and immunization protect babies against" SIDS.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the guidelines recommend infants be offered pacifiers because their use has been shown to reduce SIDS risk. Another suggestion is having the baby sleep in the same room, but not the same bed, as the parents.

The "Shots" blog of NPR reports Rachel Moon, chairwoman of the AAP Task Force on SIDS, said that "the only thing that should be in the crib is the mattress with a tightly fitting sheet and the baby." This story is also covered by the Los Angeles Times, the "Daily Dose" blog of the Boston Globe, WebMD, the website of CBS News, and Reuters.

From the American Association of Justice press release.

NHTSA Investigating 36,000 Mini Cooper S Models for Engine Fires

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is investigating the 2007-2008 BMW Mini Cooper S for engine fires. This disturbing bit of information was reported by the Detroit News. Here are excerpts from the article:

NHTSA said in a notice posted on its website Saturday it is probing 36,000 models sold in the United States after receiving 12 complaints, including 5 alleged fires resulting in a total vehicle loss.

The investigation covers the Mini Cooper S, the Mini Cooper S convertible and the 2008 Clubman edition.

Eight complaints said fires occurred while the vehicles were parked with the ignition off. The complaints show an apparent increasing trend with most complaints received within the past year, NHTSA said.

NHTSA has reviewed field reports submitted as part of its Early Warning Reporting data. A preliminary evaluation has been opened to assess the cause, scope and frequency of the alleged defect by the agency.

NHTSA said no injuries or crashes have been reported as a result of the fires.

The investigation covers the Mini Cooper S, the Mini Cooper S convertible and the 2008 Clubman edition.

Eight complaints said fires occurred while the vehicles were parked with the ignition off. The complaints show an apparent increasing trend with most complaints received within the past year, NHTSA said.

NHTSA has reviewed field reports submitted as part of its Early Warning Reporting data. A preliminary evaluation has been opened to assess the cause, scope and frequency of the alleged defect by the agency.

NHTSA said no injuries or crashes have been reported as a result of the fires.