Dallas Fort Worth Injury Lawyer Blog

September 21, 2009

Dioxin levels high in Vietnam near US base

New environmental tests confirm extremely high levels of dioxin, the toxic ingredient of Agent Orange, in people, fish and soil near a former U.S. air base where American troops stored the herbicide during the Vietnam War.

“Time is of the essence” to finish cleaning up the site, now home to the Danang airport, where dioxin levels in the soil, sediment and fish were 300 to 400 times higher than internationally accepted levels, the survey by the Canadian environmental firm Hatfield Consultants said.

The survey also found that temporary containment measures jointly implemented by the U.S. and Vietnam in 2007 have apparently resulted in lower dioxin levels in people who live near the site.

September 20, 2009

Women Should Take Safest Birth-Control Pill

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Doctors should prescribe the birth- control pills that are the least likely to cause blood clots, according to a study of more than 3,000 women published in the British Medical Journal.

Oral contraceptives containing levonorgestrel and a low dose of estrogen, such as Bayer AG’s Microgynon 30, were associated with the lowest risk of blood clots in the leg or lungs, researchers at Leiden University Medical Center in the Netherlands found. Birth-control pills containing desogestrel, cyproterone acetate or drospirenone carried about 1.5 to 2 times the risk of clots, they found.

September 20, 2009

Oral Contraceptives History and Facts

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Forty years ago, on September 4, 1969, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) declared the new birth control pill to be “safe” for use by women to regulate births.

Forty years later, the true safety of oral contraception is still in question.

September 19, 2009

Pennsylvania to be Center of State Court Yaz, Yasmin and Ocella Birth Control Litigation

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Judge Sandra Mazer Moss, Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, consolidated all lawsuits filed in Philadelphia that involve Bayer’s popular birth control pills, commonly known as Yaz, and Yasmin. Philadelphia is likely to be the country’s center for state court litigation involving this widely used birth control pill.

The lawsuits allege that Yaz and Yasmin have risks beyond those of traditional birth control pills, because they contain DRSP (drospirenone), and that Bayer over-promoted the drug without disclosing risks. Bayer was warned by the FDA, in the fall of 2008, that Bayer’s television ads were misleading and were not disclosing these additional risks.

September 19, 2009

Pfizer Says Lawsuit Consultant Tried to Sway Witness

by Dr. Shezad Malik

– Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, said a consultant to plaintiffs’ attorneys in lawsuits over its epilepsy drug Neurontin tried to tamper with a prospective witness.

Dr. David Egilman, a Brown University medical professor, “improperly contacted” the treating physician of a Massachusetts man whose family claims he killed himself after taking the drug, Pfizer said in a court filing. Pfizer asked the judge to punish Egilman for sending a sealed document to the doctor. Pfizer faces a trial in this case, brought by the family of Hartley Shearer, in March.

Egilman’s letter to Shearer’s doctor was “a transparent attempt to taint her perceptions of Pfizer shortly before her deposition,” Pfizer said. Egilman enclosed “a confidential internal e-mail between Pfizer employees,” along with other documents, in his letter to Dr. Lisa Catapano-Friedman, the company said.

September 18, 2009

Glaxo Linked Birth Defect of Fetus to Paxil

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Officials of GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the U.K.’s largest drugmaker, said in 2001 that a birth defect in the fetus of a woman taking its Paxil antidepressant likely was linked to the drug, according to court testimony.

After analyzing a 2001 e-mail from a Paxil user who aborted her fetus because it had a heart defect, Glaxo officials noted in company files they were “almost certain” the drug was related to the problem, Jane Nieman, a former Glaxo drug-safety executive, told a Pennsylvania jury.

September 18, 2009

GlaxoSmithKline to Defend Paxil in Birth-Defect Case

by Dr. Shezad Malik

GlaxoSmithKline Plc, the world’s second-biggest drugmaker, begins a trial in Philadelphia in what may be a test case for more than 600 lawsuits over claims its antidepressant drug Paxil causes birth defects.

Patients and their parents claim internal company documents produced for trial show Glaxo failed to warn about the risks of Paxil until forced to do so in 2005 by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. In a trial set for Sept. 14, Michelle David blames the drug for causing life-threatening heart defects in her son Lyam Kilker, 3.

September 17, 2009

Testing for Toxics at Schools Sparks Lawsuits

by Dr. Shezad Malik

ACROSS THE NATION: Controversies brew over possible toxic emissions
Almost a year after tests by USA TODAY found significant levels of two potentially toxic metals in the air outside the school, local health officials expanded their own monitoring efforts here. The reason: Air samples taken by the county earlier this year showed even higher levels of the metals than what USA TODAY found — on two days, at least nine times more.

Highlands, flanked by two metals plants, is among scores of schools where regulators — local, state or federal — are monitoring outdoor air for toxic chemicals, many that pose unique dangers to kids. The monitoring is not required by law but came in response to the USA TODAY investigation that identified hundreds of schools where chemicals from nearby industries may permeate the air.

September 17, 2009

FDA Requires Strong Amputation Warning on Promethazine

by Dr. Shezad Malik

Makers of injected promethazine, a sedative also used to treat nausea and vomiting, are being required to put the strongest warning possible on the product because it can cause tissue damage leading to amputation, the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday.

The drug, previously sold by Wyeth Pharmaceuticals Inc. under the brand name Phenergan, was at the heart of a U.S. Supreme Court case this spring that ended in a ruling that consumers harmed by a medication approved by the FDA still have the right to sue the manufacturer.

Wyeth had appealed the case up to the Supreme Court after a Vermont woman named Diana Levine, who once played the guitar and piano professionally, sued because she had to have her right arm amputated after being injected with Phenergan. Levine’s lawsuit, which claimed she wasn’t sufficiently warned of the risks of using Phenergan, won her a $6.7 million jury award.

September 16, 2009

Appeals Court Sends KBR Contractor’s Case to Court

by Dr. Shezad Malik

The case of a Texas woman who alleges she was gang-raped by co-workers while working for a military contractor in Iraq will go to court instead of arbitration, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday.

A divided three-judge panel from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans ruled Jamie Leigh Jones’ federal lawsuit against Halliburton Co., former subsidiary KBR and several affiliates can be tried in open court.

The companies contended Jones signed an agreement that required claims against the companies to be resolved privately through arbitration.