The US Drug Watchdog says, “One of the biggest problems we have with respect to our drug initiative work, is the average US consumer never hears about a drug recall, or serious side effects related to a specific drug’s use. If you have a friend, or loved one, who was, or is using the diabetes drug called Actos, who has developed bladder cancer, please have them call us at 866-714-6466.”

The collection is divided into three parts: 1.) Persons recognized as heroes by the Carnegie Hero Fund Commission, 2.) Persons recognized as heroes by organizations and municipalities and 3.) Persons recognized as heroes by the DogsBite.org community. Many of these heroes express similar responses after receiving recognition, such as Randall McConnell, who said after rescuing Guy Clairoux, 39, from three attacking pit bulls: “Maybe we all have something to do in life, a purpose,” McConnell said. “Maybe that was mine.”

Some of the stories boggle the mind, such as when 16-year old Thomas Moehler burst through his front door to rescue Mark Stanberg, 10, being mauled by a pit bull. At the time, Moehler had a cast on one of his arms; he used it as a weapon to pound the dog and free his friend. In the process, he re-broke his arm. The heroic acts of 23-year old Katie Juneau, who suffers from cerebral palsy, but still managed to pull a pit bull off of a child, evokes the startling capabilities of human beings when faced with a life-threatening situation.

Other stories ignite shudders, such as when Deputy Joe Auckerman arrived to a scene with a pit bull on top of a young girl “shaking her violently.” A portion of the cable unsuccessfully used to restrain the dog was wrapped around the girl’s neck and torso as well. Or, when letter carrier Michael Redice came upon 8-year old Roddie Dumas Jr. being torn apart by his father’s four vicious pit bulls. Roddie did not survive his injuries. During the criminal trial, Redice broke down on the witness stand when he described how he tried to save the boy.

The Hero Stories collection is available at the DogsBite.org Blog starting November 22, 2011. Please visit the link below to view the collection:

http://blog.dogsbite.org/

Operations Technician James LeBlanc had two of his friends die as a result of workplace injuries at Ponderay paper mill, in 1995 and 2003.  He had a nearly fatal on-the-job accident in 1993 as well.  ”I shattered my shoulder and had 2nd and 3rd degree burns over 60% of my body. Doctors said I might not make it.”

LeBlanc is the president of Local 422 of the Association of Western Pulp and Paper Workers (AWPPW) in Usk.  The union has demanded greater labor-management cooperation over health and safety issues during bargaining with management.  “Since I was seriously injured at work myself, I know how important it is that we frontline workers take on the role of watchdogs on health and safety.”

Ponderay worker George Wallis said, “People get burned, objects in their eyes, back injuries. We continue to have accidents and injuries. Management says that safety needs to improve, but until we start working together to address the real causes, we’re not going to be as safe as we should be.”

All paper mills are potentially dangerous places.  Workers at Ponderay make the newsprint, operating machinery that is three stories high, a block long, running at 55 mph.  In addition to the two workers who have died from workplace accidents, Ponderay workers have reported head or eye injuries, hearing loss, burns from caustic agents or welding slag, heat exhaustion and other serious injuries.

The Ponderay strikers are also on strike to protest unfair labor practices.  On October 12, 2011, the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint alleging that Ponderay management has violated federal labor law by threatening to permanently replace employees if they engage in a strike and by bargaining in bad faith by insisting on a contract proposal that interferes with employees’ right to join the union, among other charges.  The complaint allegations are awaiting trial before an NLRB Administrative Law Judge.

Many frontline Ponderay workers have been with the mill since it opened in 1989.  A few years ago, Ponderay workers banded together to have a strong voice on the job by voting to join the AWPPW.  Earlier this year, Ponderay workers went on strike for five days.  A key issue was management’s requirement that workers participate in fire brigade and Emergency Medical Technician teams that historically were voluntary.  Workers said they did not want to fill these risky roles, under duress, without adequate management support.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study, about one-third of all fatal vehicle crashes involve an alcohol-impaired driver, and almost 11,000 deaths in 2009 resulted from crashes in which at least one motorist had a blood alcohol concentration of more than .08.

Drunken drivers nationwide face penalties including incarceration and loss of driving privileges. But consequences are more severe in states such as Florida, where state officials require that motorists who are convicted of or plead contest to driving under the influence (DUI) carry higher levels of insurance.

All drivers in the Sunshine State must carry a minimum $10,000 in personal injury protection (PIP) and the same amount in property damage liability. Those who are found guilty of certain traffic violations or who are uninsured must carry greater levels of coverage.

But DUI drivers must be insured for far more, once they are legally allowed to drive again. Policies for those who have been busted for a DUI must provide for at least $350,000 total in liability coverage per accident.

That means a minimum policy would provide up to $300,000 for bodily injury damages caused by a policyholder in an accident ($100,000 per injured person) and $50,000 for property damages caused by the policyholder.

The higher coverage levels must be maintained for three years, after which those with clean driving records can opt for lower levels.

State transportation officials will suspend your driver’s license and registration if you fail to get the required coverage, and violators must pay reinstatement fees of $150 for a first offense, $250 for a second and $500 for any subsequent violation within three years.

According to the U.S. Trade Representative, the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) among the U.S., Canada, and Mexico created the world’s largest free trade area, linking 450 million people producing $17 trillion worth of goods and services. The increasing volume of global trade and the complexity of global supply chains require cooperation among consumer product safety authorities. The organizations agreed to explore further opportunities for collaboration in the following six areas:

• consultation on proposed regulations and voluntary standards,
• cooperation on risk assessment,
• cooperation on import and market surveillance,
• cooperation on training and outreach within and outside North America,
• coordinated consumer awareness campaigns, and
• consultation on potential joint recalls or corrective actions.

“We are facing common challenges and opportunities to promote product safety, and we can be more effective in protecting consumers in the United States and across North America through collaboration and being proactive,” said CPSC’s Chairman Inez Tenenbaum.

“Having real intelligence to identify product safety risks is vital to reassure the consumers of our countries that we have secure borders, and companies that are committed to the consumer,” said Profeco’s Federal Consumer Attorney, Bernardo Altamirano Rodriguez.

Imports from Mexico and Canada accounted for the second and third largest shares, respectively, of imported consumer products likely to be under CPSC jurisdiction. Both countries share major land borders with the U.S. and products produced in or imported from outside North America to any of our three countries may easily find their way into another partner’s jurisdiction.

“If products can be regulated in a harmonized manner and emerging hazards can be addressed swiftly, then consumers in all three countries can benefit,” said Chairman Tenenbaum.

The joint statement was issued during the First North America Consumer Product Summit hosted by the CPSC.  The Summit provided an opportunity for product safety leaders of these countries to lay out their shared visions for enhanced consumer product safety cooperation.  Chairman Tenenbaum also noted that the Summit serves as a practical demonstration of support for the principles behind President Obama’s Regulatory Cooperation Council initiatives between the United States and Canada and the United States and Mexico.

During the Summit, CPSC also renewed its Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Profeco. The MOU describes a framework of cooperation with the goal of reducing the unreasonable risks of injuries and deaths associated with consumer products CPSC already has a MOU with Health Canada in effect.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting the public from unreasonable risks of injury or death associated with the use of the thousands of consumer products under the agency’s jurisdiction.  Deaths, injuries and property damage from consumer product incidents cost the nation more than $800 billion annually.  The CPSC is committed to protecting consumers and families from products that pose a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. CPSC’s work to ensure the safety of consumer products – such as toys, cribs, power tools, cigarette lighters, and household chemicals – contributed to a significant decline in the rate of deaths and injuries associated with consumer products over the past 30 years.

Under federal law, it is illegal to attempt to sell or re-sell any recalled product.

“This “Flu Shot time of year” has been led to an increase in the injuries and adverse reactions that can occur as a result of vaccinations, including Guillain-Barre Syndrome, a progressive neurological disease,” says Howard Gold, a leading Vaccine Injury attorney. The Influenza Vaccine is designed to protect young and old alike from contracting the Flu, which can have devastating affects on the infirmed and elderly and can be debilitating to otherwise healthy individuals, leading to more severe conditions, including Pneumonia.

Guillain-Barre Syndrome and other reactions are continually reported to the Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System (VAERS) as occurring after the Flu Vaccine. See, http://www.vaers.hhs.gov

“I strongly believe that children and adults alike should be receiving all of their mandatory vaccinations. However in the case of optional vaccines, especially ones that are new to market, it’s important to talk to your health care practitioner about the risks,” states Gold, who has been handling Vaccine cases for 12 years.

Gold also says that there is nothing inherently wrong with the Flu Vaccine but that each person is different and reacts differently to each vaccination. That is why it’s essential that the public be aware of a Program intended to compensate them if they do, in fact, have a reaction to this or other covered vaccines.

Petitioners have three (3) years from the onset of the injury (or two years from date of death) to file a claim. Gold states that the “Program is not used as much as it could be because the American public is just not aware of it. I receive at least 5 calls a month from individuals who cannot obtain compensation because the deadline has passed. They just found out about it too late. We all need to do a better job in getting the word out to the public that the Program exists.”

The Johns Hopkins investigators emphasize that the drug therapy clearly improves length of survival in advanced cancer by months to years, and that the goal of their new study is to find ways of preventing or slowing the damage through nerve-protective therapies identfied through simple skin testing.

Many patients who take oxaliplatin report bothersome neurological side effects, including pain in the hands and feet and a numbness or tingling in the throat that affects swallowing, according to study leader Michael Polydefkis, M.D., M.H.S., associate professor of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and director of the EMG Laboratory and Cutaneous Nerve Laboratory at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Though these symptoms develop over time in the majority of patients, some report neuropathies as early as when the drug is first infused.

To get a better sense of how oxaliplatin affects nerve cells, Polydefkis and his colleagues recruited eight cancer patients about to begin oxaliplatin treatment at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. All had been diagnosed with advanced colon cancer.

Before their first oxaliplatin infusion, each patient underwent a comprehensive neurological examination, including nerve conduction testing, a clinical exam to look for signs of nerve damage, and a punch biopsy that removed tiny (3-mm diameter) portions of skin near their knees and ankles. Once oxaliplatin treatment began, consisting of infusions over two days once every two weeks for 12 cycles, the researchers performed the same tests after 30, 90 and 180 days. Another 180 days after they finished with treatment, the patients received one final exam.

Test results showed that each of the patients’ nerve function and neuropathy symptoms worsened over time and that results from the punch skin biopsies neatly mirrored the side effect arc. Using a microscope, the researchers saw that nerve cells’ long extensions, called axons, degenerated over the course of oxaliplatin therapy. This progression persisted after treatment stopped. Even 180 days after their last doses, seven out of the eight patients’ axons continued to wither.

“This drug has rapidly become the standard of care for people with advanced colon cancer, but we really knew little about how oxaliplatin affects nerves over time,” he says. “With people living longer lives on oxaliplatin, it’s important to know more about these neurological side effects so patients and their physicians can make educated choices on how this drug is used, and perhaps suggest ways to limit the damage.”

The new study strongly suggests that punch skin biopsies could be an easy and inexpensive way to follow nerve cell degeneration, a crucial prerequisite for testing the effectiveness of drugs currently in development to trace, prevent or slow nerve damage.

“Skin biopsies can be done pretty easily, uniformly and cheaply anywhere, including hospitals, doctors’ offices and clinics, and those places can have the tissue sent to Hopkins for analysis,” Polydefkis says. “High-quality neurological testing isn’t nearly as easy or economical to do, so it’s possible that the biopsies could play a pivotal role in bringing neuroprotective drugs to fruition.”

While 80 percent of all Washington drivers are aware the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration recommends children under 13 ride in the back seat, just 43 percent say they see other drivers in compliance all or most of the time, according to the PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll.  Washington is one of 14 states to require by law that children under age 13 sit in the rear of a vehicle “where it is practical to do so,” according to the Revised Code of Washington.

“Studies show that frontal crashes are the most common type of car accident. Add that to the threat posed by air bags, which are designed for adult passengers, and theres no question that the safest place for children is the back seat,” said PEMCO spokesperson Jon Osterberg. “What this poll tells us is some drivers may be uncertain about when its safe to sit up front.”The PEMCO poll showed that Washington drivers with children at home are generally more informed about back seat guidelines, but theres disparity among all respondents when it comes to their opinions about when children should be allowed to ride in the front seat.  Nearly half of those polled said height should be the key factor, and 21 percent said that weight is most important for determining when a child is ready to move to the front seat. Just one-quarter of respondents said that age should be the primary basis.

According to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety IIHS, placing children in back instead of the front seat reduces injury risk by 64 percent for infants and kids up to age 8, and by 31 percent for kids ages 9 to 12.  Height and weight are, however, important measurements for deciding when a child is ready to move from a child safety seat to a booster seat, or ride comfortably with just a seat belt.

“Its important to follow the guidelines from your child-safety-seat manufacturer, but a general rule of thumb is that children under 40 pounds are always better off riding in a car seat,” Osterberg added.As kids outgrow the height and weight requirements of a front-facing car seat, its recommended they graduate to a booster seat that allows cross-body seatbelts to fit properly before theyre big enough to sit without any type of safety seat.  PEMCOs poll found that 43 percent of Washington drivers believe that most parents follow booster-seat guidelines, while another 32 percent believe that only some parents use booster seats to help their child passengers ride correctly.

“If youre in doubt on the best way to buckle up your kids, the IIHS provides a helpful Q&A, or call the non-emergency line of your local police,” said Osterberg.To learn more about the PEMCO Insurance Northwest Poll and view a summary of the results, visit www.pemco.com/poll, where the public is invited to participate in an informal version of the poll to see how their own responses compare with those collected by FBK Research of Seattle.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recently recommended a complete cell phone ban for commercial truck drivers following a 2010 accident in Kentucky that killed 11 people, according to the New York Times.

The deadly wreck happened when a trucker lost control of his rig, crossed the median and collided with an oncoming van. Records showed that the trucker was talking on the phone at the time of the wreck, the newspaper said.

“Driving an 80,000-pound tractor-trailer requires a truck driver’s full attention at all times, and distractions from cell phones or other wireless telecommunication devices simply pose too great a threat to the safety of other motorists,” said Cuthbert, who practices truck accident law with Cuthbert Law Offices in Petersburg and Richmond.

The NTSB’s proposed ban would include both handheld and hands-free cell phones.

Virginia statutes currently outlaw texting while driving for all motorists and prevent drivers under the age of 18 from using cell phones behind the wheel. School bus drivers are also forbidden to use cell phones while driving.

Bills that would have extended a handheld cell phone ban to all Virginia drivers died in the General Assembly during the last legislative session.

Cuthbert encouraged Virginia’s lawmakers to make progress on those bills in the next session regardless of what the federal government does about cell phone use by commercial truck drivers.

However, he pointed out that commercial trucks pose a unique threat on Virginia’s roads due to their weight and size when compared to other motor vehicles.

“When a distracted or otherwise negligent truck driver makes a mistake behind the wheel, the outcome frequently results in far more serious injuries and deaths than if the driver of a passenger car had made the same error,” Cuthbert said. “That’s why our laws already set tougher requirements for commercial truck drivers — and those rules need to be strengthened by a ban on all cell phone use by truckers.”

Cuthbert Law Offices has established a solid reputation for helping people who have suffered severe injuries because of a truck driver’s negligence, including securing a $1.7 million verdict for the estate of a woman who died after a collision with an illegally parked tractor-trailer in the case of Shepard v. Capitol Foundry of Virginia, Inc., 262 Va. 715, 554 S.E.2d 72.

When the verdict came down in 2001, it was the second largest award ever obtained in Petersburg Circuit Court, and the firm’s lawyers saw the case through to the Virginia Supreme Court, which affirmed the verdict.

(Cuthbert’s law firm also obtained the largest verdict ever obtained in Petersburg Circuit Court – a $2.045 million amount, plus interest, in the 1999 medical malpractice case of Pulliam v. Coastal Emergency Services, 257 Va. 1, 509 S.E.2d 307.)

Cuthbert stressed that anyone who has been involved in a serious accident with an 18-wheeler or other commercial truck should talk to a qualified Virginia motor vehicle accident attorney.

“Trucking accidents are often more complex because of truck-driving regulations and the various parties who could be liable, including the truck driver, the trucking company, the leasing agency and the cargo’s owner,” Cuthbert said.

He also said that law firms such as Cuthbert Law Offices have the means to fully investigate a Virginia tractor-trailer accident and can discover evidence, including records or other indications of distracted driving, that shows who was really to blame.

“There’s no excuse for drunk driving, and every driver with a license knows it.”More than 2,000 drivers were arrested for DUI by Texas Highway Patrol officers during the three-week campaign surrounding the Labor Day holiday, according to a TxDPS press release issued this week. That number was up by nearly 200 from a year ago.“I applaud our law enforcement officers for working overtime to get intoxicated motorists off the road,” said Wyly. “Obviously, pulling over and jailing drunk drivers reduces the immediate dangers facing innocent motorists and passengers. However, we need to remember our society has a major social problem on their hands.

That’s not as easy to fix.”Fortunately, there are laws in Texas meant to protect the rights of victims who are injured or families who lose their loved ones in drunk-driving crashes, Wyly said.Texas – along every with other state in the nation – has passed laws establishing that people are legally drunk if they have a blood alcohol concentration BAC of 0.08 or higher. There are also personal injury and wrongful death statutes that allow victims and their families to collect compensation for their injuries.“An experienced drunk-driving attorney who is well-versed in personal injury and DUI laws can help injured people determine their legal options when a drunk driver causes them harm,” said Wyly. “That’s particularly important because insurance companies and opposing counsel will try their hardest to prevent victims from recovering the damages they are entitled to receive.”

Insurance companies always start by offering drunk-driving victims the lowest settlement offers possible, Wyly said.“Insurance adjustors frequently call accident victims while they are the most distressed and will press them to give a recorded or written statement about the accident,” the Houston car accident lawyer explained. “That is all information that could later be used against injured individuals and could prevent them from collecting the full amount of money they deserve.”Typical defenses in a DUI accident lawsuit might be that the breath-testing equipment failed, or that the officer administering the breathalyzer test didn’t know what they were doing, Wyly said.“The good news for victims is that personal injury lawyers know what to expect, and they know how to use the law to beat them in court or during settlement negotiations,” he said.