Halifax Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

Last month Bisphenol A was officially designated a dangerous substance by Health Canada. I posted about the news here.
The ruling came about as a result of concerns when the hormone was found in children’s baby bottles.

Now tests conducted for CTV News and The Globe and Mail on cans for several popular children’s foods shows similar or higher levels of bisphenol A than in baby bottles.

Baby bottles were found to leach about 6 parts per billion of BPA. The new test results showed higher concentrations of the dangerous substance in some popular children’s food containers.

Campbell’s Chicken Noodle Soup: 8.61 (Parts per billion)
Heinz Tomato Juice: 14.11
Allen’s Apple Juice: 17.9
Hunt’s Tomato Sauce: A whopping 18.21 parts per billion!

For those of you that think just children are at risk, the chemical was also found in Molson beer cans 8.19 and Labatt beer cans 9.27.

The scary part is that these results are likely low:

"The tests we did in the cans are fairly conservative," said Julia Taylor, the lab technician that conducted the tests. "We used water, which is less likely to pull out BPA in a can."

My boys love Campbell's chicken noodle soup. What do you eat when you have a cold or aren't feeling well? Chicken noodle soup. Is there any product out there that has a reputation for being healthier than chicken noodle soup?

I guess now I'm going to have to dig out my grandmothers recipe for home made chicken noodle soup. Yum!

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post | Comments (0)

Posted In: Product Liability

Bookmark:

Unintentional injury is the leading cause of death for children in Canada.

Safe Kids Canada has released a research report this week that showed that residential streets may be more dangerous for our children that we think. According to the study, which was released this week a child hit by a car travelling at 50 km/h has an 80 per cent chance of being killed!

Thousands of Children Injured or Killed in Pedestrian Accidents:

Child - pedestrian accidents are a leading cause of death for Canadian children. More than 2,000 children are seriously injured each year in child pedestrian accidents each year! Sadly, almost 30 children are killed in pedestrian accidents every year.

Intersections Dangerous:

Most child pedestrian accidents happen while the child was crossing the street in an intersection.

Injuries Happen Close to Home:

It may come as some surprise that many of these serious injuries and deaths happen within just 5 kilometres of the children’s home.

Slow Down and Save Lives:

The study found that reducing vehicle speed results in a huge decrease in the number of child injuries and fatalities. A child hit by a car traveling at 30 km/h, has up to a 95 per cent chance of surviving.

The report calls for legislation reducing speed limits in residential neighbourhoods to a maximum of 30 KM (from the current 50 KM).

As a personal injury lawyer for the past 18 years I have represented hundreds of children who have been seriously injured in car-pedestrian accidents. Even more tragic are the cases where a child has been killed by a driver who was speeding, or just not paying attention.

I would encourage anyone who is interested in child safety to send a copy of the Safe Kids Canada news release to their local MLA.

Continue reading " Slow Down and Save a Childs Life! " »

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Car Accidents , Child Injuries

Bookmark:

A number of Canadian hospitals are reusing "single-use" medical devices (SUDs) that are supposed to be disposed of after being used. Worse yet, the vast majority of hopitals that are reusing the medical devices are sterilizing the devices in-house. Infection control experts have criticised the practice as being "fraught with risk", according to a story by the Canadian Press.

...tragedies like the tainted blood scandal and cases of variant Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease -- the human form of mad cow disease -- linked to reuse of tools used in brain surgery have deepened the understanding of infection risks and raised the bar for infection control in hospitals.

The story reports that while there appears to be consensus among health care professionals that a national policy is needed and that the practice of in-house reprocessing ought to be banned, a regulatory void means that in many parts of the country hospitals can do as they wish when it comes to reuse of single-use medical devices.

Saving Money vs. Patient Safety:

The cost of health care has become so astronomical that hospitals have been forced to find any way they can to save money. Some would say by cutting corners at the expense of patient safety.

The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) is a national body that provides Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial health care decision makers with impartial advice and evidence-based information about the effectiveness and efficiency of drugs and other health technologies.

Reuse Poses Legal Liability Issues:

CADTH has produced a series of reports on reprocessing of SUDs that address concerns about possible risks to patients of infection or other complications, legal liability issues, and uncertainties regarding cost-effectiveness.

CADTH concluded that there is:

"Insufficient evidence to establish safety and effectiveness "of reusing SUDs.

Reuse Endangers Patient Safety: United States:

Almost three years ago the Washington Post published a story about the dangers of reusing SUDs. The report documented dozens of cases of patient injuries and device malfunctions after single-use devices were reused.

Government Investigates Health Risks:

The practice has become so widespread that the United States Government Accountability Office prepared a report on the issue. The title of the report concludes that FDA has increased its regulation of the reprocessing of SUMDs and "available information does not indicate that use presents an elevated health risk".

But on the very first page of the report the authors state:

Neither existing FDA data nor studies performed by others are sufficient to draw definitive conclusions about the safety of reprocessed SUDs compared to similar original devices.

How comforting.

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post | Comments (0)

Posted In: Medical Malpractice , Product Liability

Bookmark:

I posted yesterday about the concerns of guards and inmates over asbestos found in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility.

When the announcement was made this week about the presence of asbestos in the jail, Justice Minister Cecil Clarke said all proper procedures had been followed.

"When issues come forward we respond to those and follow the prescribed procedures and policies in place and that's been done," said Clarke.

But yesterday afternoon the union that represents the guards released a document which indicates the government had been aware of asbestos insulation in some provincial institutions as early as 1988!

"It clearly stated that there was asbestos within the heating system of the correctional facility, particularly around the elbows and joints, which are the areas of concern at present day," said union local president Jim Gosse.

The province's code of practice on "Managing Asbestos in Buildings" requires that employees be notified immediately once asbestos is detected in a building.

The Canadian Press has reported that the guards' union maintains that it wasn't informed about the asbestos until it requested a meeting with jail officials on May 14. The meeting was held the next day.

The province knew about the asbestos in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility in 1988. The province's code of practice requires that employees be notified immediately about the presence of asbestos. The guards were not notified until May 14, 2008. Twenty years later!

What were they waiting for?

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post | Comments (0)

Posted In: Personal Injury

Bookmark:

Asbestos found in the Cape Breton Correctional Facility may have injured the guards and inmates that were exposed to the dangerous cancer causing mineral, according to the union that represents Nova Scotia's jail guards.

The province of Nova Scotia has released air quality test results at the prison which show:

"The reported values were well below the acceptable criteria of 0.1 fibres per cubic centimetre"

Guards and inmates are concerned because exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma a deadly form of cancer.

The problem, according to the National Cancer Institute, is that:

"Symptoms of mesothelioma may not appear until 30 to 50 years after exposure to asbestos."

Exposure to asbestos also increases the risk of lung cancer, asbestosis (a noncancerous, chronic lung ailment), and other cancers, such as those of the larynx and kidney.

The province says that exposure levels are "acceptable". The problem with this statement is that there is no scientific evidence to prove that asbestos exposure is safe at any level!

You have to ask yourself what the reaction would be if Nova Scotia's M.L.A.'s found out that there was asbestos in the air in the Legislature. Would they consider any level of asbestos exposure to be "acceptable"?

What do you think?

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post | Comments (0)

Posted In: Personal Injury

Bookmark:

Trasylol also known as Aprotinin, an expensive anti-bleeding drug used during heart surgery actually increased the risk that patients would die during surgery or in the 30 days following by more than 50%!

The Canadian Press has reported that a recent Canadian study called the BART trial compared Trasylol to two far cheaper alternatives found that patients who received Trasylol were 53 per cent more likely to die than people who received the other anti-bleeding agents, tranexamic acid or aminocaproic acid.

Dr. Paul Hebert, a critical care doctor at the Ottawa Health Research Institute and one of the investigators in the study, was quoted as saying that:

"The risks of aprotinin are greater than its benefits,"

Dr. David Mazer, a cardiovascular anesthesiologist and critical care physician at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto and one of the lead researchers in the BART trial said:

"The BART study has changed the way heart surgery will be done in Canada and around the world,"

I have posted about the risks surrounding Trasylol before. According to an investigation by CBS's 60 Minutes, Bayer, the manufacturer of Trasylol knew about dangers associated with the drug in 2006 but failed to advise the FDA and Health Canada.

You can watch the whole 60 Minutes story here.

Continue reading " Trasylol (Aprotinin) Anti-Bleeding Drug Raises Death Risk: Canadian Study " »

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Product Liability

Bookmark:

The federal government is considering declaring an ingedient used to make chewing gum as toxic after tests linked it to cancer in lab rats.

The Canadian Press reported that vinyl acetate is one of 17 substances Health Canada could recommend be deemed toxic in a draft report to be published Saturday.

There has been no link demonstrated between vinyl acetate and cancer in humans.

Many major chewing gum manufacturers were quick to point out that their products do not contain vinyl acetate.

I don't smoke and now it looks like I have to stop chewing gum. If they find out that coffee causes cancer I am in big trouble.

Posted by John McKiggan | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Product Liability

Bookmark: