Gair, Gair, Conason, Rubinowitz, Bloom, Hershenhorn, Steigman & Mackauf is a New York Plaintiff's personal injury law firm specializing in automobile accidents, construction accidents, medical malpractice, products liability, police misconduct and all types of New York personal injury litigation.

Articles Posted in Product Liability

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Some hand sanitizers can be dangerous for consumers  as they contain a high level of benzene, a carcinogen which can be absorbed by the skin and cause leukemia and other blood cells cancers.  These products are particularly harmful to children. Valisure, an independent lab, recently tested 260 hand sanitizers and found that 44 among them contained benzene and among these 44, 21 contained a level of benzene that was above the 2 parts per million (ppm) allowed in liquid sanitizers by the FDA. These products are especially dangerous to children.

The Top 5 most dangerous hand sanitizers were:

dangerous hand sanitizer1. Artnaturals hand sanitizer,  SCENT FREE NATURAL ELEMENTS + CLEANSING FORMULA 8 fl oz (236 ml), produced in China and distributed by artnaturals ® ,Gardena, CA 90248

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treadmill can be dangerousThe company Peloton just announced that a child died in an accident that involves one of their “Tread+” treadmills and issued a safety warning asking Peloton users to keep children under 16 year old and pets away from their equipment.  Peloton and other at home gym equipment companies have seen their sales rocketing over the last year with more and more consumers preferring working out at home instead of at the gym during the covid19 crisis.

While the Peloton CEO did not release the circumstances of the accident citing family privacy,  earlier this year, in February, another child sustained serious brain injury after he was trapped under a Peloton Tread+ Machine. According to an incident report filed with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, a 3 year old boy was found by his dad  under the Treadmill, not breathing and pulseless. The boy had tread marks on his back matching the machine as well as neck and face injuries. He was resuscitated but sustained serious brain injuries.  In the below video (at 0.51 seconds) a mom  shows how easily a medicine ball gets stuck under the treadmill as she is working out. The USCPSC has now started an investigation related to the accident that lead to the death of a child.

Treadmills can be dangerous

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rhino-pillRhino Pills and other herbal sex supplements for men often contain hidden ingredients that have caused injuries and even, in rare cases death to consumers.  These types of supplements can still be found at many gas stations around the country, at Walmart and on Amazon despite multiple FDA warnings and  the original manufacturer of the Rhino pill being sentenced yesterday to 4 years in prison.

Nam Hyun Lee, an illegal immigrant from South Korea based in California got into the business of selling sex herbal supplements in 2015.  His marketing was convincing with flashy Rhino labels and consumers quickly noticed that the supplements were actually working. Lee illegally  spiked his herbal supplements with Sildenafil or Tadalafil, the drugs used in Viagra and Cialis. The drugs were illegally imported from China, packaged at warehouses in Southern California and shipped all over the country. Lee was caught when one of the drug packages sent under the description “acrylic paint” was seized by custom agents and tested positive for Sildenafil.  He was arrested in 2018 and has been in federal custody since that date. It is estimated he sold between $3 million and $9 million of sex supplements.

While Lee has been convicted, other unscrupulous competitors quickly took over the market and continue to sell the Rhino brand name or other variations of sex herbal supplements.  Gas stations, Walmart and Amazon still sell them despite multiple FDA warnings.

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bABYSeveral negligent baby food manufacturers are being investigated by the US government after dangerous levels of toxic metals such as arsenic, lead, mercury and and cadmium were found in their products. These products are:

  • HappyBaby by Nurture
  • Beech-Nut
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Best Law Firms - Standard BadgeFor the 11th consecutive year, our New York Personal Injury Law Firm was named a Best Law Firm 2021 by U.S. News – Best Lawyers®. The firm was also named

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small rare earth magnetsA few months ago, a 9 year old girl was rushed to a New York ER after she swallowed dangerous high-powered tiny magnets that got stuck in her stomach. Doctors had to effectuate an emergency endoscopy on the little girl to remove the magnets.  In another case, a Long Island doctor had to remove tiny magnets that ended up on each side of the lingual frenum, the fleshy part of tissues under the tongue, of a patient. The patient had to be sedated so the doctor could pull the whole tongue out to remove the magnets. Doctors are also seeing multiple cases of children having their ears, noses and genitalia  pinched by the magnets. Cases of young children swallowing the magnets and suffering major injuries such as perforated intestines and bowels after they got stuck in their internal organs are also on the rise.

The small rare-earth magnets were recalled and banned from the American market by the US Consumer Safety Commission in 2012. However, Zen, a magnet manufacturer based in  Denver fought back and engaged in a legal marathon with  the CPSC that has so far allowed the tiny magnets to stay on the market.

In a recent study published in the Journal of Pediatric Gastroenterology and Nutrition and entitled “Magnet Ingestions in Children Presenting to Emergency Departments in the United States

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16 people were injured after a defective pedal on their peloton bike broke. Five of them required medical care such as stiches in their lower leg.  Peloton Interactive, Inc. a New York based company, received so far 120 complaints of defective pedal and announced on October 15 that it was recalling the PR70P Clip-In Pedals fitted on Peloton bikes  which were sold between July 2013 and May 2016. The potentially defective pedal has a orange logo and the name Peloton is printed in white letters next to it.  It was manufactured in Taiwan. While Peloton recommend consumers change their pedals every year, consumers who bought the PR70P Clip-In Pedals are being notified directly by the company that will let them know how they can receive free pedals with accompanying instructions on how to install them.

5,700 defective Extension Cord Splitters sold by Homerygardens at Walmart and Amazon.com recalled the same day

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MASKAre KN95 masks provided to healthcare workers reliable? The high demand of N95 masks has disrupted the usual supply chain. Therefore hospitals and other healthcare facilities had to turn to non traditional suppliers of PPE here in the US or in other countries. While things are not as bad as they used to be at the beginning of the covid-19 crisis, disruptions still occur and a lot a unscrupulous manufacturers are trying to sell counterfeit or defective products to hospitals.

When turning to non traditional suppliers how can healthcare providers make sure that they are buying masks that will protect their workers?

The ECRI institute recently published a video with recommendations form experts on how to vet a new mask supplier.  Here are the top 10 recommendations:

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person-holding-hand-sanitizer-396233175 dangerous hand sanitizers that are being sold at major retailers such as CVS, Wallmart and others have been recalled by the FDA. The dangerous products contained methanol, also known as wood alcohol. When absorbed by the skin or swallowed, methanol can lead to severe injury such as blindness neurological damage or even death. The FDA has received several reports of consumers including children who suffered personal injury or died  after being exposed to these dangerous products.

Please check your hand sanitizer  and make sure it is not part of the list released by the FDA.

Some of the products recalled were sold under the following brands: Good Gel, Lavar 70, Saniderm, CleanCare, All-Clean and Eskbiochem. All these brands are manufactured by the same Mexican company Eskbiochem SA de CV.

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Johnson and Johnson talcThe sale of a dangerous product that has been used for years by American families and women is being discontinued in the US and in Canada. Johnson & Johnson announced yesterday that it was removing its talc based baby powder from the market. The decision to remove this product from the store shelves is coming after thousands of women sued the company claiming the powder that was tainted with asbestos was responsible for their ovarian cancer.

Johnsons & Johnson always denied the claims and announced in a statement yesterday that its decision to remove the talc baby powder from the market was based on a decline in sale that was due to changing consumer habits and a misinformation campaign about the safety of the product.

While the company  always defended publicly that the baby powder was safe, internal documents dating from as early as 1973 and produced by attorneys in lawsuits,  indicate that the company was worried about the carcinogenic effects of the product. A company official wrote in a memo “If Johnson’s Baby Powder contained asbestos at a concentration of 1 percent, how much of the cancer-causing substance might a baby inhale when dusted with the powder?”