TOV Injury and Safety Blog

Doctor claims American cigarettes have become more dangerous

Dr. David M. Burns has been a long-time campaigner against smoking.  He published or edited some of the seminal work on tobacco health issues, according to the New York Times, including surgeon general reports, National Cancer Institute monographs and World Health Organization studies.  On May 6, as Congress is considering whether or not to regulate cigarettes, Dr. Burns drew attention to the abstract of a current study which has not yet been published.  Dr. Burns pointed out that it appears that U.S. cigarettes have become almost twice as likely to cause lung cancer as they were in 1964.

Dr. Burns compared the American cigarettes, which are now cured by an accelerated method involving nitrogen fertilizers and propane heaters, to Australian cigarettes which are still made as cigarettes were made in the U.S. back when the original health warnings were devised.  He noted that the American curing process leads to the formation of nitrosamines, which are among 47 known animal or human carcinogens in cigarette smoke.  Dr. Burns believes this curing process explains why the frequency of deadly adenocarcinoma--the most common lung cancer among smokers--has steadily increased in the U.S. over the past fifty years, but not in Australia.

Hospital infections and malpractice

The February 10, 2009, Washington Post contained an interesting article by the Medical Director of Medicare's quality improvement organization in Tennessee, an Infectious Disease specialist who is also an assistant professor at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University.  The doctor recounts in the article his experience with an innovative program to reduce hospital-acquired infections.  He noted that prior to the initiative (which was created by pediatrician Donald Berwick's nonprofit Institute for Healthcare Improvement) for every 1,000 "device days" in his ICU, seven patients would develop bacterial pneumonia, six would develop blood infections (sepsis) and four would develop urinary tract infections.  Together, these infections made ten percent of ICU patients more ill than they were, and they added on average $25,000.00 to the average hospital bill for ICU patients.  Despite the cost and misery of these infections, the doctor considered them unavoidable and a small price to pay for the enhanced likelihood of survival from life-threatening conditions requiring intensive care.

Traffic accidents are primary killer of teenagers in developed world

A recent report by the World Health Organization addressed childhood fatalities in developed and undeveloped countries.  It noted that world-wide, accidents kill 830,000 children each year--the equivalent of all of the children in metropolitan Chicago.  The major causes are drowning, burns, traffic accidents, falls and poisoning.  In the developed world, motor vehicle collisions are the primary threat to kids.

Efforts to create a joint registry continue to fail

Last year, in the U.S. alone, nearly one million knees and joints were implanted in patients. Worldwide, the U.S. is the number one manufacturer and the number one user of joint implants.  Unlike other countries, however, we have no joint registry and there is no organized follow-up of implant patients.  As a result, Medicare, Medicaid, private insurers and individual patients literally spend millions of dollars on defective implants that are not identified on a timely  basis.   

Defective hip socket withdrawn from market

Zimmer Holdings has suspended sales of an artificial hip component that has been failing at an unacceptable rate.  The device is a socket called the Durom cup.  12,000 of the devices have been implanted since 2006 and "hundreds" will require premature replacement according to doctors quoted by the New York Times.  

A rare victory for Don Quixote

When earthquakes struck the Sichuan Province of China, 10,000 school children, killed in their school buildings, were among the 60,000-some acknowledged victims.  These deaths stood in stark contrast to the fact that not one of the more than 2,000 students in the Peace County school near the epicenter of the quakes was injured or killed.  The startling contrast was explained by the Peace County School's prinicipal's decades-long struggle to bring his two four- and five-story buildings up to a reasonable construction standard.

Death of a staunch advocate for the disabled

While she wasn't really a "safety" hero, Harriet McBryde Johnson was certainly a hero to the disabled.  Confined to a power wheelchair, herself, Ms. Johnson was a tireless and eloquent defender of the rights of severely disabled persons.  Educated as a lawyer, she first gained prominence through essays she published repudiating the philosopher Peter Singer's advocacy of killing disabled infants at birth.  Ms. Johson died earlier this month at age 50.

Dr. Randall Stafford objects to the FDA refusing to regulate off-label drug use

   Dr. Stafford recently authored an article objecting to the FDA's proposed new rules which would allow broader off-label drug use by easing restrictions on marketing drugs for off-label use.    "Off-label" drug use is the term used when physicians (legally) prescribe a drug for a use that has never been scientifically supported and for which the drug was not expressly approved.  Currently, physicians are allowed to exercise this discretion, however, drug reps are not allowed to promote off-label uses. 

     This proposed easing of regulations is yet another example of the Bush Administration's round-heeled approach to industry regulation and its coziness with the pharmaceutical industry, in particular.  In short, the Bush Administration has yet to meet a henhouse that it wouldn't regulate by inserting a fox, and Dr. Stafford judiciously identifies the problems with this approach. 

    The FDA's role should be to assure that medications are used only where scientific data supports their use, and it should be the clearinghouse that controls the dissemination of accurate, balanced information on data.  If it eschews this role and allows drug marketers who have a profit incentive to control the flow of information to harried doctors, no good can come to consumers.

A clearing house for dangerous products is proposed

    Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, has sponsored a bill to create an easily accessible database for dangerous products.  Given the ineptitude and inadequate resources of the Bush-led Consumer Product Safety Commission, the difficulty of supporting any government entity through tax revenue, and the practical ineffectiveness of product recalls, this is an excellent idea that would help consumers to protect themselves and their children.

Father of baseball player killed in bus crash campaigns for improved bus safety

    John Betts, father of David Betts, the Bluffton College baseball player who was killed when a bus collision on an Atlanta freeway overpass decimated his team, has devoted considerable energy to a campaign to improve the safety of interstate and charter buses.

Low back pain: Controversy over back surgery and Prodisc

The January 30 issue of the New York Times included a lengthy critique of the conflict of interest that has been uncovered with the artificial spinal disc "Prodisc".  The artificial disc sells for about $10,000.00 and has generated significant profits for its manufacturers and investors, even though Medicare and many private insurers will not pay for its use or the expensive surgery to install it.

The Times reported that it has recently come to light that the medical researcher/doctors who endorsed the Prodisc and who were involved in the study that purportedly demonstrated its effectiveness were also investors in the product.  Thus, there is substantial question whether they were neutral, objective researchers with regard to the effectiveness of the surgical installation or the analysis of the resulting data.

A business professor regulates worker and consumer safety

    Prakash Sethi is an elderly business school professor and grandfather who has made it a personal crusade to battle against the "march to the bottom", i.e., the tendency to move manufacturing to the location where it is performed with the fewest protections and where labor can be procured with the fewest restrictions at the lowest cost.  As a result of a 1996 dispute with the Mattel Corporation over under-aged workers being abused in Mattel factories, Sethi created the International Center for Corporate Accountability at Baruch College in New York.  Ultimately, Mattel executives hired Sethi and the Institute to help them monitor working conditions in overseas Mattel factories. 

    Other toy manufacturers, such as Hasbro, have refused to actively monitor overseas manufacturing and instead have attempted to limit regulation to voluntary compliance with the "Sullivan Principles" which were created during the Apartheid era.  Sethi and the Institute created and perform a thorough audit of overseas manufacturing that guards against a multitude of abuses, including child labor, unsanitary living conditions, unsafe work conditions, noise, temperature, safety equipment, you name it.  They don't rely upon any form of self-reporting, as it has proven to be unreliable.  Now, there is pressure to apply the same principles to guard against defects and unsafe conditions in the product manufactured, as a result of the recent flood of Chinese-made product defects and recalls. 

     Since recalls can be expensive, are always embarassing to someone like Mattell, and rarely bring more than 10-30 percent of products back from the market, a significant production monitoring cost could be justified on economic, as well as public policy bases.  Other toy makers refuse to go along, however, instead relying on a public relations device to deflect criticism:  the adoption of the "Caring, Awareness, Responsible, Ethical" [ICTI CARE] voluntary standard of conduct.  The Co-
Chairman of " ICTI CARE" is the chairman of Hasbro, who was recently quoted blaming government bureaucracy for safety problems in China.  Sethi notes that CARE lacks the one quality that true regulation requires:  a disinterested, reliable third-party monitor.  He notes that the so-called ICTI CARE standards are simply one more example of an industry code that represents institutionalization of the "lowest common denominator" in safety, wages, health and standard of living.

     Keep these relative positions in mind if you ever have the opportunity to choose between a toy made by Mattel and one made by Hasbro.  At least Mattel is attempting to live by an American standard of decency:  at Hasbro, apparently, immediate profit is the sole issue.

Free dental care in Kentucky

    Dr. Edwin Smith has spent about $150,000.00 of his own money to equip a mobile van to provide free dental care in rural areas of Kentucky.  As noted elsewhere in this blog, fully ten percent of the residents of Kentucky have NO teeth, due to a combination of too few dentists, a poor, rural population, limitations on Medicaid treatment and reimbursement and lack of dental insurance.  Dr. Smith created "Kids First Dental Care" on the back of an 18-wheeler and leaves his private practice on a weekly basis to provide free check-ups to children in rural areas.  According to health officials, almost half of the state's children between 2 and 4 have untreated cavities and toothache is a leading cause of school absence.  Fatalities have been reported from untreated oral infections.  Fewer than twenty-five percent of the state's dentists will treat Medicaid patients:  they argue that the government pays only about half the "market" value of dental care.

More overwhelming evidence of lead in toys

        Volunteers and non-profit agencies scrambling to do the work of the Bush Administration have documented overwhelming evidence of lead poisoning in toys on retailer's shelves during the '07 Christmas shopping season.    While the Republican head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission denied that her agency needed the additional funding that had been removed from its budget over the past several years and was restored by Congress last month, her Agency continued to drop the ball in protecting our kids. 

        The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that toys available to children not contain more than 40 ppm of available lead, due to the known, serious injuries and lifetime damages lead exposure causes.  Recent tests on 1200 children's products, most still on shelves found that 35 percent contain lead levels far above the federal recall standard for lead paint, according to the Associated Press.    Only twenty percent of the products had no evidence of lead or other dangerous chemicals.  One third of the products contained lead levels above 600 ppm:  15 times the recommended level.  The Hannah Montana Pop Star Card Game case tested at 3,056 ppm.  The testing was done by the Michigan-based Ecology Center and the nantional Center for Health, Environment and Justice and related groups in eight other states.

       Thus far in 2007, Mattell has recalled more than 21 million Chinese-made toys.  The tainted products identified yesterday included Hannah Montana card game cases, Go Diego Go! backpacks and Circo brand shoes.  The toys were on shelves at locations suchs as Toys 'R' Us, Wal-Mart and other major retailers.   Interested parents can consult the Consumer Action Guide to Toxic Chemicals in Toys, at http.//www.healthytoys.org.

Dole South American laborers win verdict

        Six employees of The Dole Food Company recently recovered verdicts against Dole and Dow Chemical for illegal exposure to a toxic chemical.  The Dole Food Company continued to use in South America a chemical, DBCP, that it discontinued using in this country in 1977.  The chemical kills pests that attack the roots of fruit-bearing trees and increases banana production by twenty percent, however, it also rendered test animals--even the ubiquitously-procreating rabbit--sterile.  Production of DBCP was suspended in 1977 after workers producing it in California were found to have low or zero sperm counts. 

       When Dow attempted to stop shipping DBCP, Dole allegedly threatened to sue and forced Dow to honor its previous commitments.  According to the documents produced by Plaintiffs, as much as 1.4 million pounds of the chemical were used where the six laborers worked, and a Dole internal memorandum suggesting a policy that laborers be warned of the danger of the chemical in their own language was rejected in 1978 as "not operationally feasible...need not be implemented".  Dole's numerous arguments against liability included the specious claim that the employees had not proved that they were fertile before they were exposed to the chemical.  That kind of argument, alone, probably warrants a large verdict against the party who proffers it.

        Dole had originally objected to appearing to defend the suit in Central American Courts.  We understand that today it objects to defending the cases in Los Angeles.

A reformed MD drug rep examines anti-depressants

        Dr. Daniel Carlat has written about his year as a drug rep on behalf of Wyeth.  He is a psychiatrist who was courted to persuade other physicians to prescribe Effexor XR as a treatment for depression.  Carlat explained that between fancy conferences in New York City (with theater tickets, haute cuisine, etc., and a $750 honorarium) and weekly medical lunches with potential prescribers ($500.00 or $750.00, depending on whether he had to drive an hour), he had supplemented his $140,000.00 private practice income with an additional $30,000.00 from Wyeth.   Not an insubstantial annual salary enhancement.

          Carlat explained that at first, he relied on metastudies which suggested that Effexor was ten percent more effective than serotonin reuptake inhibitors--the more common antidepressant--in achieving remission, and was completely comfortable serving as a salesman for Wyeth.  Over the course of the year, however, he studied the issue more carefully and learned that Effexor had originally been compared only with Prozac, and was only five percent more effective than other SSRIs when compared with SSRIs other than Prozac.  He was equally troubled by data showing that it was often very difficult to withdraw from Effexor--a serious issue when caregivers take into account the high likelihood that a particular drug regimen will need to be tweaked to achieve a response.  In addition, Effexor caused problems with high blood pressure fifty percent more often than SSRIs did.  Carlat began to wonder whether it made sense to prescribe a marginally more effective anti-depressant that would be more likely to cause problems with high blood pressure and be difficult to switch or withdraw.

          Ultimately Carlat gave up his $500 dollar lunches when he began to feel intellectually dishonest and recognized that the Wyeth salespeople who accompanied him to the doctors' offices would not retain him if he gave up his role as a cheerleader for Effexor.  When he honestly displayed equivocation on legitimate issues, his Wyeth companions made their displeasure clear immediately.  And Carlat used his free time to began producing a pharmacological newsletter that reflected his own opinions without editing--or support--from drug manufacturers.  He is on the faculty at Tufts and his newsletter is called the Carlat Psychiatry Report.  We hope the satisfaction he feels as a result of practicing intellectual honesty makes up for the income he sacrificed.

Private citizens keeping our kids safe

        When the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled an additional half-million pieces of lead jewelry, the effort was not the result of leadership by the anemic regulators appointed by President Bush.  Rather, Ward Stone and his 10-year old daughter were responsible.  They "out-investigated" the Feds:  a seemingly difficult task, but in fact, relatively easy when industry-insiders are appointed to maintain only a semblance of regulation.  The Stones used a process developed to test for lead levels in deer carcasses (deposited by lead bullets), and found that 56 of 75 pieces of jewelry they tested exceeded Federal limits on lead (.06 percent).  Stone found that some jewelry was one-half lead by weight.

        When Stone tested the jewelry his daughter had received at birthday parties and found that it contained excessive levels of lead, he took his findings to the office of the New York State Attorney General.  The New York AG then pressed the CPSC for action and the recall was instituted.  (Sadly, it has been well documented that only a small portion of recalled merchandise is actually returned and taken out of commerce.)

          Andrew Cuomo, the New York AG, signed an agreement with 12 retailers to stop marketing products with unsafe levels of lead, but the CPSC was typically passive. Cuomo's hope is to force retailers to conduct independent testing, or to at least force them to require independent, reliabile testing.  As with other, similarly unsafe products, retailers have claimed that the problems lie solely with their suppliers. 

           As Charles Margulis, communications director for the Center for Environmental Health explained, the CPSC is often uncooperative and unresponsive to consumers who report safety issues.  People like Judy  Braiman, a grandmother of six in upstate New York, have been testing on their own and identifying items such as the "Sassy & Chic" bracelet sold at Dollar Tree stores.  The first bracelet she tested was composed of 23 percent cadmium, a metal classified as a carcinogen.  When Ms. Braiman repeated the test on another brand of bracelet sold at Dollar Tree, she found it was made up of 34 percent  cadmium.  In response to her press release, Dollar Tree has pulled the first brand of bracelet from its shelves--but not the second.  The CPSC has yet to act.  A spokesman for the Center for Environmental Health noted that the CPSC under the Bush Administration frequently omits from its recall notices the fact that the hazardous product was identified by private citizens, thereby allowing the rest of us to believe that the CPSC has actually accomplished something on its own.

          Yet another private citizen who has shown more motivation than the "loyal Bushies" is Marilyn Furer, an Illinois retiree who used a home testing kit to check her grand-child's bibs for lead.  She was appalled to find unsafe levels of lead on 8 of 20 bibs.  She took her findings to the Center for Environmental Health (a non-profit group) and ultimately secured the agreement of several companies, including Toys 'R' Us, to stop carrying the bibs.  The New York Times quoted Ms Furer as explaining that she kept thinking "someone should do something...[and] then you look around and realize that you've got to be the one to do it".  Its a sad comment on the well-paid "starve-the-beasters" in whose hands the Republicans have placed consumer safety, when well-intentioned retirees are more effective in protecting our children than are the "professionals". 

Recall of defibrillator leads

  Once again, the activism of Dr. Robert G. Hauser, a cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute, has improved safety for cardiac patients worldwide.  Dr. Hauser published an analysis earlier this year that suggested problems with the leads in Medtronic defibrillators, and unnecessary, painful firings of the defibrillator.  Dr. Hauser's research had previously resulted in the recall of malfunctioning defibrillators manufactured by Guidant Corp.  Dr. Hauser brought his findings to Medtronic's attention earlier this year, but was told that there was insufficient data to support a recall or reach any conclusion.  Data from other clinical trials has since corroborated Hauser's concerns and resulted in the decision to halt sales.

        It turns out that the small wire leads on Medtronic defibrillators were showing a pattern of stress failures that had already resulted in five documented deaths by the time Dr. Hauser's research was published.  Medtronic has now begun urging doctors to use a different, larger implanted lead and indicated a willingness to pay a limited amount ($800.00) to re-implant fractured leads in uninsured patients.  Medtronic is unwilling to voluntarily replace defective leads which have not yet fractured, however.

        Approximately a quarter million patients have the small diameter "Fidelis" lead implanted, and Medtronic estimates that 4 to 5 thousand of these patients will experience a lead fracture in the next 30 months.   It is far more dangerous to replace these leads than it is to replace a defibrillator.  The leads Medtronic was using prior to 2004 are larger in diameter and have not demonstrated a history of failure.  The two other manufacturers of defibrillators claim that they have not experienced similar difficulties, due to the use of different materials or larger diameter leads.

        According to FDA records, one patient death was linked to a lead failure in August of 2006.  Two additional deaths were identified in FDA records in January and March of 2007.  A Medtronic spokesman confirmed that it had identified two additional deaths since March.

        While Medtronic acted more quickly than Guidant responded to similar problems several years ago, it still responded more slowly than it should have.  The defibrillator market is a six billion dollar business and each implant costs $30,000.00 or more.  Medtronic, with 12 billion dollars in sales in 2006, has 55 percent of the defibrillator market and according to the New York Times, the device is its "biggest" product.  Needless to say, it would delay an announcement that would disrupt its sales and upend its stock price for as long as possible.

        The New York Times quoted Dr. William Maisel, a heart device expert at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, who pointed out that the general reluctance to stop sale of a lucrative device is compounded in the medical device field because manufacturers have not created monitoring methods of anticipating or recognizing potential failures and device manufacturers are consistently scrambling to "catch up" with safety developments.

        Thirty-five year old Stephanie Martinson, a speech pathologist in Palo Alto, California, puts a human face on this problem:  her Fidelis lead gave her 26 painful shocks in a single hour before the lead was removed in March of this year.  It was replaced, with another Fidelis lead, unfortunately, in May of 2007.  This was almost a year after the first FDA-recognized death, two months after Medtronic sent a warning notice to doctors, but four months before the product was recalled.  Sleep well with your new lead in place, Stephanie.

Cold remedies for infants and toddlers

   NPR reported yesterday that in response to pressure brought by a group of Pediatricians, several makers of infant and toddler cold medications were pulling the medications from the shelves.  The withdrawal was voluntary and included only medicines designed for children under the age of two.  The Pediatrician and consumer groups whose activism led to the withdrawal claimed that it did not go far enough and should have included all meds marketed to children under the age of six.  The physicians and consumers maintain that these drugs are not effective in children under the age of six and that they result in nearly 100,000 overdose hotline calls per year.  Manufacturers conceded that the drugs have not been tested in younger children and that accidental overdoses administered by parents (in the middle of a sleepless night) must be addressed.  The manufacturers deny that the drugs are dangerous on any other basis and continue to sell medications designed and marketed for "infants".  Between 1969 and 2006 there were more than one hundred confirmed deaths of children related to the administration of antihistamines or decongestants.

The Panamanian who brought China to its knees

        It would probably be difficult to identify a single reasonably-informed consumer anywhere in the world who is not aware of the difficulties that Chinese manufacturers have experienced lately with respect to the safety of their products.  Whether one is talking Thomas the Train, SUV tires, childrens' jewelry, Hot Wheels cars, toothpaste, or dozens of other products, the Chinese have taken a beating over quality control.  The government even executed its own top regulator after convicting him of taking bribes.

        It may have been inevitable given the pervasiveness of the problem, but  it turns out that the catalyst to the recognition of safety problems in China was not a European safety investigator, a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commissioner, a trial lawyer pursuing a civil action or any other "typical" Erin Brockovitch character.  The hero was a mid-level bureaucrat in Panama; a 51-year old Kuna Indian who grew oup on a Caribbean reservation.  The New York Times edition for October 1, 2007, identified Eduardo Arias as the man who humbled the most powerful consumer product producer of our age.

        Mr. Arias was shopping for blank CDs on a Saturday morning when he noticed the terms "diethylene glycol" on a 59 cent tube of toothpaste.  The latter is a sweet-tasting and cheap, but poisonous antifreeze additive that had killed a number of Panamanian kids when it was substituted for glycerin in cough syrup.  A mid-level government employee who writes environmental reports, Mr. Arias was struck that the toxic additive was present in consumer products that were being promiently displayed for sale.

      Arias bought one tube of the toothpaste (which was being purchased all across the globe, to be handed out to prison inmates, hotel patrons and various other hospitals and institutions).    Assuming that complaining to the store would have no impact, he used his own vacation day to walk the tube to the crowded Health Ministry office in Panama City.  Workers there refused to accept the toothpaste and directed him to a second, equally crowded office.  When workers there attempted to send him to a third--very remote--office, Arias objected and insisted on filing a report with the Ministry.  He filled out a form and left the toothpaste with the Ministry, half-convinced that nothing would come of his wasted vacation day. 

        Three days later, Panama's top health officalmade a public announcement of the problem and within a few weeks, 24 contaminated brands had been identified in Canada and 16 in New Zealand.  Japan identified 20 million tubes of toxic toothpaste, and it was identified in the United States being sold under counterfeited brand names Colgate and Sensodyne.  Chinese authorities, meanwhile, claimed that the product was a legitimate thickener and did not present a health concern.  Health officials outside China were quoted describing this claim as "ridiculous".  Canadian authorities found a concentration of the toxin as great as fourteen percent in some tubes, and of course the same additive had previously killed a number of children in Panama and Nigeria.  In July of 2007, the Chinese government finally ordered Chinese manufacturers to stop using the additive in toothpaste.  It is interesting to speculate just how much longer this problem would have continued, and how many other people would have been poisoned, if Eduardo Arias had not used his vacation day to bring the toxic toothpaste to the authorities' attention.

Paintball product crusader

        Mark Contois has been a crusader for safety in the paintball industry, since his wife was killed while watching their ten-year old son's birthday paintball party at a supervised course.  One of the contestants accidentally discharged the pressurized prepellant cylinder which struck Ms. Contois in the head:  she never regained consciousness and died at the scene.  The owner of the facility closed it down soon afterwards, even though he had done nothing wrong or dangerous.  It turned out that a 15-year old had died from a similar injury a few months earlier.

        Any game that involves a gas under pressure or high velocity projectiles has the potential for danger.  Paintball presents an additional, avoidable danger, though, in that the valve and cylinder involved in the Contois fatality was defective in that it could detach from the gun on the pressurized side, and then be unwittingly discharged--like a rocket--by the user.  Modifications that young paintballers read about on the internet could also increase the propensity for failure with these guns.

          While improvements in valve design have since minimized the danger on new manufactures, the New York Times reported that ASTM International--a group that sets voluntary standards for various products--believes there are thousands of old and dangerous guns in the hands of consumers.  The CPSC has documented at least 73 accidental gas-cartridge ejections and seven resulting injuries.  The industry has discussed creating a system of disseminating paintball safety information since the 1990 severe facial injuries suffered by a California resident, however, to date no action has actually been taken.  Ms. Contois' husband has been crusading to change that fact and recently filed suit to force the successor corporation to National Paintball Supply to fulfill the promises it made when it settled the civil action against it, arising out of Contois' death.

One small protest

    The New York Times reported on August 29, 2007, that one young mother of four mounted her own protest against the Mattel Company's recent recalls of millions of toys manufactured in China.  The young mom loaded her backseat full of Mattel toys and camped out in the parking lot of the company's headquarters, demanding that executives send someone out to sort through her family's toys and identify those which are safe.  Ultimately the company did that and identified no unsafe toys.  You go, mom.

        In its article discussing this incident, the NYT interviewed company officials at length.  They noted that Mattel closed its last U.S. manufacturing plant in 2002.  It makes about 65 percent of its toys in China.  The remainder of Mattel's toys tend to come from Indonesia and Mexico, with Mexico contracted to build bulkier items that are more expensive to ship.  The lead paint fiasco actually originated with two of Mattel's most trusted manufacturing contractors:  one had supplied toys to Mattel for more than twenty years.  Recently both suppliers had sub-contracted some painting to third-tier suppliers.

Additional information on unsafe Chinese tires

    Chinese tires were in the news again yesterday, as the American distributor recalled a quarter million tires that were manufactured without a "gum" layer that is a standard component to prevent tires from disintegrating on rapid deflation.  The gum layer is a significant safety feature of radial tires that has been a standard American component for decades.  It costs about 30 cents per tire, according to CNN.  CNN also noted that Chinese manufacturers have now captured more than 80 percent of the American market for SUV tires, and about forty percent of the American tire market in total.

     The defective tires weren't identified by the American distributor or by any governmental entity--either Chinese or American.  The Consumer Product Safety Commission does not have the authority to investigate products pre-market; it only has the power to institute product recalls (after a lengthy investigative process that is never swift--but which under Republican administrations is incredibly dragged out).  Thus, a certain number of consumers must be sacrificed before the population can be protected from defective products.  Earlier in our blog on defective Chinese jewelry, we cited the statistics on the effectiveness of product recalls:  only about ten percent of recalled products are actually turned in by consumers in a typical recall, and ninety percent remain in circulation.

     In this case, the defective Chinese tires were discovered by a trial lawyer investigating the deaths of two men killed after a sudden deflation and blow out on a Pennsylvania highway.  The case is a further reminder of one of the original public policy advantages of a robust civil negligence system:  in the absence of governmental regulation, potential civil liability can serve a protective function.

     Sadly, in states like Michigan which don't allow product liability actions against the retailer, consumers have no remedy for defective products as the Chinese government doesn't allow service of process on its manufacturers.  Not only does this deprive injury victims of compensation, but it also shifts the cost of debilitating accidents to the general population in the form of Medicaid and Social Security Disability.  There is an additional cost, however.  Since Michigan retailers have no liability exposure for marketing defective products, they are encouraged to purchase the cheapest products available, and they are not encouraged to investigate these products.  As a result, American manufacturers, who are susceptible to service of process and to liability for defective products, bear additional burdens in the form of quality control and insurance coverage--making it more difficult for American products to be competitive in our own market.

     If our Michigan legislators wanted to assist native manufacturing efforts and enhance the job market here, they would assure that product retailers must stand behind defective products:  the effect would be to eliminate one of the legislative advantages that "tort reform" has bestowed upon foreign competitors.  As we have seen, these competitors are taking advantage of their governmental-gifted immunity to dump cheap, defective products on our markets.  Not surprisingly, the Chinese government has defended the tires being recalled and objected to the effort to remove them from the market.