Produce Safety Project, March 2010: Foodborne Illness Costs Nation $152 Billion Annually -Nearly $39 Billion Loss Attributed to Produce. Acute foodborne illnesses cost the United States an estimated $152 billion per year in healthcare, workplace and other economic losses, according to a report published by the Produce Safety Project (PSP). The study, Health-Related Costs from Foodborne Illness in the United States, was written by Dr. Robert L. Scharff, a former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) economist and current Ohio State University assistant professor in the department of consumer sciences. The study estimates that more than a quarter of these costs, an estimated $39 billion, are attributable to foodborne illnesses associated with fresh, canned and processed produce. Access the Release, Summary or Full Report.
AAJ: Foreign Manufacturers Account for 83% of 2009 Recalls, 2/2010. "Eighty-three percent (312) of the 377 recalls announced by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in 2009 were from foreign manufacturers, according to an analysis by the American Association for Justice (AAJ). Despite this fact, foreign manufacturers are able to skirt the law and export billions of dollars of products to the U.S. without facing the same legal accountability for product defects that U.S. manufacturers face, even when their products injure or kill Americans." Continue reading the press release. Access the 2008 Recalls and 2009 Recalls.
Center for Justice & Democracy: Heart Sick - Hazardous Heart Devices and the Importance of Litigation 2009. "Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States. Medical device companies have invested billions of dollars developing devices to repair and protect the heart. While saving many lives, heart implants are also among the most dangerous and recalled medical implants ever made." Learn More.
AAJ 2009: They Knew but Failed to...True Stories of Corporations Who Knew Their Products Were Dangerous, Sometimes Deadly - "Every day there is another recall or warning of a product that turned out to have design flaws or unexpected problems - a drug with an unanticipated side effect, a toy with a sharp piece that can injure a child, or a popular food product that may have been contaminated in production." Learn more.
Saving Lives: AAJ: Cases That Have Made Us Safer, Saved Lives. "Throughout history, the civil justice system has kept Americans safe by allowing them a fair chance to receive justice when they are injured by the negligence of others – even when it means taking on the most powerful corporations.Some of the countless cases that have made our families safer." Learn more.
Pharmaceuticals
Cold Medicine & Children: Each year, about 7,000 children ages 11 and younger go to hospital emergency rooms after taking nonprescription cold and cough medicines, about two-thirds of them ingested without a parent or caregiver nearby, according to a recent Centers for Disease Control & Prevention study. Children ages 2 - 5 yrs are the most often affected. The Federal Drug Administration recommends that these drugs not be used to treat infants and children under 2 yrs old due to serious and possibly life-threatening side effects that may occur.
Resources on clinical trials:
US Government Resources
U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM) and ClinicalTrials.gov provides patients, family members, and members of the public easy and free access to information on clinical studies for a wide range of diseases and conditions.
U.S. FDA Center for Drug Evaluation and Research searchable database of safety information on specific drugs.
Pharmaceutical Industry Resources
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