When the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation meets on March 25, it will be the second time the panel has been asked to consolidate and centralize shoulder pump lawsuits for pretrial litigation. The panel rejected a previous request by plaintiffs in August 2008, saying that the number of different manufacturers of pain pumps and different medications used in the devices made coordination for pretrial litigation inappropriate. At that time, about 30 cases had been filed.

According to a hearing order issued last month, there are currently at least 104 cases pending in 27 different federal district courts in 20 states. Minnesota, Arizon and Oregon have the largest number of cases filed, and a group of plaintiffs have proposed that all of the federal cases be transferred to the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota for pretrial litigation.

All of the suits involve similar allegations that plaintiffs developed chondrolysis of the shoulder after their doctors used a pain pump to deliver a combination of pain medications directly into the shoulder joint via catheter during the days after surgery. Although the FDA has never approved the pumps for this purpose, plaintiffs argue that the manufacturers encouraged doctors to use the pain pumps instead of oral pain medications, without warning about the risk of these debilitating complications.

In November 2009, the FDA required manufacturers of the pumps and the local anesthetics to add new warnings about the risk of chondrolysis from should pain pumps. The recent warnings were designed to alert healthcare professionals that the use of pain pumps following shoulder surgery to infuse medication directly into the joint increases the risk of chondrolysis, particularly involving the shoulder.

If a multidistrict litigation, or MDL, is formed for the pain pump chondrolysis lawsuits, all of the cases will be assigned to one judge for pretrial proceedings to eliminate duplicate discovery, inconsistent rulings from different judges in different courts and to serve the convenience of the parties, the witnesses and the court.

The lawsuits could be costly for the medical device manufacturers if the first shoulder pump trial is any indicator. In January, a jury in Oregon ordered the maker of the I-Flow On-Q Painbuster shoulder pump to pay nearly $4.75 million to a man who developed the progressive loss of cartilage after he received the pain pump.

The Pompton Lakes, New Jersey environmental tort lawsuit was filed on March 4 in the Superior Court in Passaic County, N.J. More than 350 residents of the Passaic County borough are expected to eventually file claims involving allegations that DuPont and Royle caused homes to lose value and exposed residents to hazardous chemicals due to toxic releases from a munitions factor DuPont operated there from 1902 to 1994. Royle had an equipment manufacturing facility on part of the site from 1976 through 2009.

The claims are supported by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection reports in 2008, which determined chemicals released by the facility into the local groundwater were vaporizing in the soil and then seeping into residents’ homes through the basements. In 1998, DuPont allegedly sent letters to residents saying there was no reason to suspect that there was vapor intrusion.

State environmental investigators have determined that residents in the area affected by the vapor intrusions have elevated rates of kidney cancer and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Both health problems have been linked to PCE and TCE; chemicals used at the facilities to degrease machinery. However, the state said it could not make a direct causal link between the chemicals and the elevated cancer risks.

Since then, DuPont has agreed to install venting systems in Pompton Lake homes that would remove the vapors. The company is expected to submit plans for the installation of the systems in June.

Groundwater contamination from the facility has been confirmed by groundwater testing since the 1980s, and DuPont has been sued repeatedly by local residents who have used the courts to force the company to perform cleanup operations on the site.

The newest lawsuits claim that DuPont and Royle knew or should have known since the 1990s that there was risk of vapor intrusion by toxic chemicals released into the groundwater. They also claim that the companies took no real steps to remove or reduce the risk of exposure to residents.

The nurse negligence lawsuit was filed last month in St. Clair County Circuit Court by Cletus Schmittling, whose wife, Carole Schmittling, died at the hospital on February 12, 2008. The lawsuit names the hospital and nurses Josefina Nance and Cathy Allen as defendants.

Schmittling was a resident of the Memorial Convalescent Center, which is managed by the hospital, when she began to show signs of a respiratory infection, according to a story in the St. Clair Record. In early 2008, she made numerous complaints to the nursing staff about her health, but the lawsuit alleges that those complaints were ignored.

The litigation claims that Scmittling, in the span of three days, from January 24 through 26, complained that she had been coughing up blood, that she was too tired to perform physical therapy, that she felt ill and that she feared that a previous respiratory infection was returning. Nurses indicated that her blood oxygen level dropped from 97% to 92%, and that she had a temperature that ran as high as 100 degrees. Cletus Schmittling also alleges that he complained to the nurses about his wife’s health.

He accuses the nurses at the hospital of medical malpractice for ignoring his wife’s complaints and failing to report her declining condition to her doctor. The lawsuit says that Scmittling was suffering from Acute Respiratory Distress, which the nurses should have recognized and reported to her doctor.

The lawsuit charges the nurses and the hospital with negligence, and seeks compensatory damages in excess of $150,000.

The investigational vaccine was tested by researchers in the Netherlands, who examined the drug’s effect on 10 patients and determined that it induced an immune system response to mesothelioma tumors. The results of the study were published in this month’s edition of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

Mesothelioma is a rare form of cancer found in the lining of the chest and lung. The only known cause of mesothelioma is asbestos exposure, and it is often not diagnosed for 20 to 40 years after exposure. As a result of the long latency period, the cancer is very advanced when it is diagnosed and life expectancy with the disease is limited.

The investigational vaccine takes antigen from a mesothelioma patient’s tumors and infuses it into the patient’s own dentritic cells, which are a type of immune system cell. Researchers say that they hope to be able to increase survival time in patients with mesothelioma, and eventually would like to develop a full vaccine for people who have are at risk of developing mesothelioma due to asbestos exposure.

Asbestos was widely used in a variety of manufacturing and construction applications throughout the last century, with use peaking in 1973. Most uses of asbestos were banned in the United States in the mid-1980s. Despite the ban, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that the number of mesothelioma deaths continues to rise each year due to the latency period, with the number expected to peak in 2010.

Asbestos litigation is the longest running mass tort in U.S. history, with the first asbestos exposure case filed in 1929. Over 600,000 people have filed lawsuits against 6,000 defendants after being diagnosed with mesothelioma, asbestosis or other asbestos-related diseases.

The Japanese automaker currently faces at least 89 Toyota class action lawsuits sparked by recalls involving problems with Toyota gas pedals and brakes. An analysis done by the Associated Press estimates that the company’s legal bills on those cases alone could top $3 billion, and that does not include the costs of a number of individual Toyota accident personal injury lawsuits, product liability lawsuits and wrongful death lawsuits that have also been filed against the company.

Toyota has recalled about 9 million Toyota and Lexus vehicles since September 2009. About 8.5 million of those vehicles were recalled due to problems with sudden acceleration, which the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) says have been involved in as many as 52 deaths. More than 400,000 additional Toyota Prius and Lexus HS250h vehicles have also been recalled due to brake problems.

The Toyota class action suits, which could represent as many as six million different Toyota owners, allege that the company misrepresented the value of its vehicles by concealing the accelerator problem from consumers and investors. The lawsuits say that, as a result, the resale value of their Toyota and Lexus vehicles has plummeted. Toyota resale values are often used as a selling point of the company’s vehicles. If the company has to pay Toyota owners even as little as $500, the cost could quickly balloon in to the billions.

Later this month, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation will decide whether to consolidate all federal lawsuits against Toyota into a multidistrict litigation (MDL), where the cases will be centralized in one federal court for pretrial litigation.

Last month Toyota became the target of probes by both federal prosecutors and the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Both federal investigators and the SEC are looking into how the company reacted to complaints about Toyota accelerator problems, and are questioning whether the company attempted to cover up or downplay the seriousness and number of incidents being reported.

The company’s woes over the gas pedal problems may not end there. Many critics have said that the Toyota acceleration problem is due to an electronics flaw, which the company has denied. It has developed fixes for the problems that included replacing floor mats and installing devices to prevent the pedal from getting physically stuck due to friction. However, the NHTSA says it has received at least 60 reports from Toyota owners who received the fixes, but are still suffering from sudden acceleration problems.

According to a regulatory filing with the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) filed by Matrixx Initiatives, Inc., the makers of Zicam, the FDA is standing by their position that zinc-based Zicam nasal sprays and gels put users at risk for losing their smell, a condition known as anosmia. The FDA reaffirmed their position after Matrixx filed a response in November 2009 to the original warning letter.

On June 15, 2009, the FDA recommended that consumers stop using Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Gel, Zicam Cold Remedy Nasal Swabs and Zicam Cold Remedy Swabs Kids Size after the agency identified at least 120 reports of people who lost their sense of smell. Within hours of the warning, Matrixx Initiatives issued a Zicam recall.

In the aftermath of the recall, FDA inspectors discovered 800 reports of Zicam problems that Matrixx Initiatives failed to forward to the agency, in violation of federal regulations.

At the time of the recall for Zicam, the FDA indicated that Matrixx Initiatives would not be permitted to market the cold remedy until they submit data establishing that they are safe and effective. Zicam was not approved by the FDA when it was first introduced, as it was classified as a homeopathic product, which is a designation usually reserved for herbal remedies. However, once the health concern was identified, the FDA was able to force the company to have the product approved, regardless of classification.

The company has twice asked the FDA to retract the warning, most recently in November, saying that they do not believe the products pose a danger. The FDA has refused both times. Matrixx Initiatives officials say they are weighing their remaining options.

Matrixx Initiatives faces a number of Zicam class action lawsuits and Zicam injury lawsuits that allege the company knew the products were dangerous and continued to market them anyway. The company also faces lawsuits from investors who say that the company falsely represented its products by hiding the anosmia complaints. The SEC is also investigating the company’s actions.

In October, the U.S. Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation consolidated the federal Zicam litigation for pretrial proceedings in the District of Arizona. All of the lawsuits over Zicam contain similar allegations that zinc gluconate, the single active ingredient in nasal Zicam cold remedies, is toxic to the tissue inside the nose and can cause damage to a user’s ability to smell, detect odors or taste.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Chairman Inez Tenenbaum said on Tuesday that the agency would issue a warning on the safety of all baby slings sometime later this week.

“We know of too many deaths in these slings and we now know the hazard scenarios for very small babies,” Tenenbaum said. “So, the time has come to alert parents and caregivers.”

The seven infant baby sling suffocation deaths have occurred over the last 11 years, and there have been other deaths of infants in slings that have been classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which generally refers to unexplained infant deaths. This year, according to Consumer Reports, at least two infants have suffocated in baby slings manufactured by Infantino of San Diego, California.

The Infantino baby sling deaths include 6-day-old Derrick Fowler of Oregon, who suffocated against his mother while she was shopping, and a 7-week-old boy from Philadelphia who also suffocated while in the sling being held by his mother. In both cases, the mothers were unaware that their infants were in trouble until they looked into the sling to check on them.

Consumer Reports placed the baby slings on its list of products parents should not buy for their babies in April 2009, saying that the bag-like shape of the slings can lead to the infant’s smothering without the mother being aware of it. At that time, there were only four suffocation deaths known to be connected to the use of the slings.

In 2007, CPSC announced an Infantino SlingRider baby sling recall due to the risk of the straps breaking. The recall was issued after the company received eight reports of children falling out of the slings. One of the infants suffered a fractured skull. Chairman Tenenbaum did not say that the upcoming baby sling warning would specify any one baby sling product.

After notifying 369 patients about unnecessary stent procedures by Dr. Midei late last year, St. Joseph Medical Center confirmed Tuesday that additional letters were sent last month, according to a report in the Baltimore Business Journal. This brings the total number of confirmed unnecessary stent implants by Dr. Midei to 538, and many anticipate that more St. Joseph stent letters are likely to be sent as other procedures are reviewed.

The letters inform former St. Joseph patients that their coronary stent procedure may not have been needed, even though they were told by Dr. Midei that the stent was implant because of severe coronary blockages. The stent surgery problems at St. Joseph Medical Center were uncovered as part of an on-going federal investigation of Medicare fraud and other health law violations involving the financial relationship between the hospital and an affiliated group of cardiologists. While St. Joseph hospital initially denied that any patient care was impacted, they are no longer making such statements, and have since started reviewing all procedures performed by Dr. Midei between May 2007 and 2009.

Dr. Midei, who led the hospital’s cardiac catheterization unit, has denied any wrongdoing. The hospital stripped him of his position at the hospital last summer without explanation, and at least three other executives have left their jobs amid the investigation.

The stent procedures, which are designed to prop open arteries that are significantly blocked, can cost $10,000 or more. Typically it is necessary for there to be at least a 70% artery blockage for a stent implant to be necessary, and many patients who have received these letters were originally told that they had blockages over that amount. However, after a subsequent review of records from the procedure, many of the patients were found to have blockages that were well under 50%, which is generally considered “insignificant.” Some patients who received stents had blockages as low as 10%.

St. Joseph coronary stent lawsuits have been filed by individuals and the hospital also faces a stent surgery class action lawsuit seeking to force the hospital to pay for a review of patient records and to impose certain requirements on the hospital before they can perform stent procedures.

The lawsuit was filed by Louisiana employees of Intracoastal Tubular Services (ITCO) who were contracted to clean used oil drilling pipes for Exxon. The plaintiffs claimed that the pipes had naturally occurring radioactive material in them that increased the workers’ risk of developing cancer, according to report by Bloomberg News.

The employees worked on the site near Harvey, Louisiana between 1977 and 1992, and the owner of the property successfully sued Exxon in 2001 for radioactive contamination connected to the pipe cleaning work. Originally, a jury hit Exxon with $1 billion in punitive fees in the 2001 lawsuit, but that was later reduced to $112 million, which Exxon paid with interest after failed attempts at an appeal.

The lawsuit by the 16 workers included allegations that Exxon failed to warn them of radiation danger because the company feared that the property would be reclassified as a hazardous waste site, which could have cost Exxon hundreds of millions of dollars.

The Gretna, Louisiana jury’s decision awarded the plaintiffs between $10,000 and $175,000 each after a five-week trial. None of the workers have been diagnosed with a radiation-related illness. The lawsuits were filed over Exxon allegedly exposing them to increased risk. The company has settled several claims by workers who actually developed cancer or other radiation exposure health problems.

The jury rejected plaintiff requests to issue punitive damages or to force the company to pay $1.3 million for future medical monitoring.

On March 8, Proctor and Gamble, which manufactures Pringles potato crisps, and Herr Foods Inc. recalled some of their snacks due to the risk of salmonella poisoning. In both the Herr’s and Pringles recall cases, the potato chips were flavored with hydrolyzed vegetable protein (HVP), supplied by Basic Food Flavors.

The latest products hit by the Basic Food Flavors recall include:

• Pringles Restaurant Cravers Cheesburger flavored potato crisps, with “Best by” dates of 02/2011 and 04/2011.
• Pringles Family Faves Taco Night flavored potato crisps, with “Best by” dates of 03/2011, 04/2011 and 05/2011
• Herr’s Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Flavored Kettle Style Potato Chips, in 8.5 oz. bags with code dates of Feb 27, 2010 through MAY 15, 2010.
• Herr’s Cracked Pepper and Sea Salt Flavored Kettle Style Potato Chips in 1.875 oz bags with code dates of Feb 27, 2010 through June 12, 2010.

Proctor and Gamble says in a press release sent out this week that it issued the Pringles crisps recall after one supplier alerted the company to the use of the recalled HVP in the two brands. The recalled Pringles were only sold in the United States. The Herr’s potato chip recall was announced on Monday by FDA. No illnesses have been reported in either recall.

HVP is similar to monosodium glutamate (MSG), except that it is a liquid instead of a salt. It is used as a flavor enhancer in many foods. Over the last three weeks the FDA has announced recalls for a variety of products that used Basic Food Flavors HVP, including T. Marzetti vegetable dips, and Castella Chicken Soup, among numerous others. All of the recalls stated that they were being pulled due to fears of salmonella food poisoning from HVP.

FDA has released a letter it sent to Basic Food Flavors (pdf) which indicates that investigators have determined that the company knew its products were contaminated with salmonella, but continued to distribute tainted HVP to unwitting customers for about three weeks.

The FDA letter states that Basic Food Flavors received a private laboratory analysis indicating the presence of salmonella in its facility on January 21, 2010, but continued to manufacture and ship out HVP paste until February 15 using the same processing conditions.

Salmonella is a type of bacteria that attacks the gastrointestinal tract, causing mild to severe food poisoning. For most healthy adults, symptoms of food poisoning from salmonella typically resolve after a few days or weeks. However, young children, the elderly, and individuals with compromised immune systems have an increased risk of suffering severe food poisoning after ingesting the bacteria. If not properly treated, some cases of salmonella food poisoning can lead to hospitalization, dehydration or death.

Salmonella Tennessee is a rare strain of salmonella, known primarily for being the strain that caused the February 2007 peanut butter recall.