You Should Know: Top Safety and Justice Stories of 2016

Are you making all those lists and checking them twice? Gifts? Holiday cards? Party invitations? New Year’s resolutions? Well, here’s one more for you courtesy of the American civil justice system: safer products and services.

This past year we’ve been following several stories of dangerous products or unfair practices that threaten the health, safety and legal rights of all Americans. Think exploding batteries, lead-laced drinking water, forced arbitration or faulty medical devices, for example. 

But thanks to the courage of citizens like you and the power of the civil justice system, we are holding accountable many of those who put profit over public well-being. And that’s a list we can all be proud of, as these stories so richly illustrate.

1. Faulty Medical Devices: Recalls Double

According the the FDA, medical device recalls doubled from 2003 to 2012, and new data shows that the numbers keep climbing. While the FDA approves medical devices before release, they do not do any testing and instead rely on the manufacturers to provide accurate and comprehensive testing data.

Two St. Jude Medical defibrillators recalled due to battery defects.

Two examples of faulty medical devices now on the market include the Essure birth control coil and the St. Jude defibrillator. The FDA has received over 10,000 complaints from women suffering painful side effects due to the Essure birth control device. Countless lawsuits against Essure’s manufacturer, Bayer, have sprung up across the country. Rep. Mike Fitzpatrick (R-PA) has since introduced a bill to pull Essure off the market. Meanwhile, more than 400,000 defibrillation devices made by St. Jude Medical were the subject of a recent recall due to a faulty battery. To learn more about medical device recalls, click here.

2. Forced Arbitration: Sign a Contract, Lose Your Rights

There’s always a holiday gift year that’s a dud. Maybe you’ve received an ugly sweater three times too big or a candle that smells so terrible it gives you a headache. Unfortunately, many corporations are now giving you those ugly sweaters (and forcing you to wear them), hiding “forced arbitration” clauses in consumer and employment contracts.

This loophole prohibits Americans from taking companies to court and instead forces them into secretive arbitrations, which are typically stacked in favor of the company. An investigation by The New York Times has focused renewed scrutiny on the harm caused by forced arbitrations in claims of medical malpractice, sexual harassment, hate crimes, discrimination, theft, fraud, elder abuse and wrongful death. You can join others in petitioning Congress to ban forced arbitration right here.

3. Flint, Michigan: Lead in Water Sickens Thousands

Lead found in the Flint water supply has poisoned thousands, including 27,000 children.

Residents of Flint, Michigan, were exposed to dangerous levels of lead in their drinking water ever since a decision was made to switch the source of the city water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River.

Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, a young pediatrician known affectionately in Flint as Dr. Mona, discovered the problem when she noted an increase in the symptoms of lead poisoning in her young patients. Knowing that it was her moral and ethical duty to share her discovery with the public as soon as possible, Dr. Mona held a press conference. Michigan officials and lawmakers denounced her findings at first, only to relent when Dr. Mona wouldn’t back down. Dr. Mona continues to lead the recovery efforts.

4. Concussions and Brain Disease: NFL Settles Lawsuit

If you’re a movie fan, you probably saw the film Concussion, starring Will Smith. This movie is based on the true story of Dr. Bennet Omalu and his discovery of chronic traumatic encephalopathy in NFL players. CTE is a disease of the brain tissue and is caused by repetitive brain trauma. CTE is associated with dementia, aggression, memory loss and depression.

Subsequent research has prompted athletic organizations to make concussion prevention and recovery a priority. This includes many “When in Doubt, Sit Them Out” laws, which mandate that any youth athlete suspected of suffering a concussion be cleared by a medical professional before returning to practice or competition. Earlier this year an appeals court upheld a settlement by the NFL with former players, setting aside almost $1 billion for medical care due to repeated head trauma. Since this lawsuit, head injuries have decreased for NFL athletes.

5. Asbestos: Still a Widespread Hazard

Asbestos may seem like a thing of the past, but any building built in the United States before 1981 is presumed to contain asbestos. And in fact, asbestos-related diseases still kill about 15,000 Americans a year. Even though asbestos is known to be extremely dangerous, the substance has not been banned in the United States. President Obama recently signed the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, a bipartisan bill that strengthens ways to regulate and restrict chemical substances. Because of this bill, the EPA can officially work to ban asbestos in the U.S. 

6. Exploding Devices: Faulty Lithium-Ion Batteries

Over 1 million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones have been recalled due to defective and explosive batteries.

From e-cigarettes to hoverboards to smartphones, reports continue of everyday devices posing an unsafe explosion hazard. The culprit is lithium-ion batteries, which include unstable and flammable liquids. When improperly made devices include these batteries, the liquid can overheat and burst through the battery, igniting the device itself. These explosions have caused burns as well as property damage from subsequent fires. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) recently issued a recall of all 1 million Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phones, including replacement models thought to fix the problem. 

7. Prescription Drug Addiction: A National Epidemic

Prescription opiate deaths have quadrupled since 1999, killing an estimated 165,000 Americans. During the same time period, profits recorded by the drug companies that manufacture prescription painkillers have also skyrocketed. Meanwhile, a coalition of opioid manufacturers and their lobbyists have fought legislative measures introduced to stem the tide of overdose deaths.

8. Dangerous Toys: Still on Store Shelves

Nearly 260,000 kids visit emergency rooms each year for toy-related injuries, according to the CPSC. And sadly, 11 children under the age of 15 died while playing with toys in 2015. [Download report] The most common injuries include poisoning, choking, ingesting magnets or falling from riding toys. While regulators, safety advocates and the parents of injured children have succeeded in ridding store shelves of many unsafe toys, too many still get through. Learn more.

This article appeared in our December 2016 "You Should Know" e-newsletter.

You Should Know: Our Growing Awareness of Traumatic Brain Injury

The movie Concussion opens with the story of “Iron Mike” Webster. Fifteen years as a center in the NFL for the Pittsburgh Steelers had earned him stardom and four Super Bowl rings, but also a host of behavioral and memory problems in his later years. Pittsburgh’s hometown hero gave away or lost all of his money (he couldn't remember which), would often slip into a catatonic state, and eventually became homeless, living out the last years of his life in his truck.

After Webster died at the age of 50 from a heart attack, a young Nigerian forensic pathologist named Bennet Omalu (played by Will Smith) performed the autopsy for the county coroner’s office. Omalu had heard the stories about how Webster had essentially gone crazy in his later years and wanted to know why. After months of studying Webster’s brain, he discovered signs of a new disease marked by severe brain damage. He named it chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and published a paper that linked the new disease to the repeated concussions suffered by Webster while playing football.

While the NFL rejected Omalu’s report that Webster and other NFL players suffered CTE as a result of playing football, the genie was out of the bottle, so to speak. Several subsequent studies of NFL veterans and other athletes vindicated Omalu’s research and ignited a firestorm of concern and discussion about sports-related concussions. Eventually we would learn that even a single mild TBI can more than double the risk of early-onset dementia.

The Big Denial

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Anatomy of an Impact (click to expand)

For years, the NFL ignored extensive medical evidence until finally acknowledging in 2009 that repeated head injures can cause brain damage. Litigation has played an important role in forcing the NFL (and other organizations) to address this growing crisis and change head injury protocol, as documented in this extensive report from the American Association for Justice. Attorneys and Dr. Bennet Omalu joined forces with the family of Mike Webster and other past NFL players to sue the NFL for disregarding medical research and not doing more to prevent TBIs. During this lawsuit, it was revealed that the NFL ignored its own actuarial research showing an estimated one-third of its former players would suffer from brain damage caused by TBIs.

The NFL eventually settled for $765 million, causing a ripple effect throughout the sports world. Many professional, college and high school sports programs have changed concussion protocols and rules of play as a result, and insurance companies have followed suit by requiring stricter adherence to proper procedures for TBI care. The NFL even started its own brain bank to study the brains of former players with the hopes of creating new measures that will combat the possibility of brain damage or CTE. NFL data released ahead of Super Bowl 50 showed that concussions were down 25% this season, mostly due to changes in technique by the players.

The Story Closer to Home

Football is lead cause of head injuries for high schoolers.

In 2006, high schooler Zackery Lystedt went back out on the football field after suffering a concussion earlier in the game. After being struck in the head again, Zackery collapsed with what proved to be a debilitating brain injury. In 2009, his home state of Washington passed the Lystedt Law. This legislation requires annual mandatory training for athletes, parents and coaches. It also requires the immediate removal from sporting events and practices of any athlete suspected of having suffered a concussion until cleared for return by a medical professional. Since Washington took action, every state except Wyoming has enacted a “When in Doubt, Sit Them Out” law. Compliance to these guidelines has increased from 50% in 2007 to 80% in 2013.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that very few states have enforcement mechanisms to make sure these laws are being followed, and only six states require parental notification of a child’s TBI. So for parents, athletes and coaches, vigilance is still the first line of defense. Know the signs and protocol for dealing with TBI (review here) and don’t delay seeking medical attention. Note that many other contact sports cause head injuries, as outlined in the chart above, not just football. Automobile crashes and other blunt trauma to the head account for many times more.

 This article appeared in our February 2016 "You Should Know" e-newsletter.