Red No. 3 is used as bright red artificial coloring in candy, cereal, fruit cocktails, strawberry-flavored milkshakes, and other foods and beverages. It’s ubiquitous. And so it’s alarming that data has surfaced that the dye can cause cancer in lab animals; specifically, evidence reveals that lab male rats exposed to…
2025 opened with announcements from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about cessation of smoking and the reduction of nicotine addiction. The first of the two announcements was a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking. This would call for a reduction in nicotine in combustible tobacco products to levels that are…
In an important legal step, the Depo-Provera birth control lawsuits have been centralized and transferred to multidistrict litigation that will take place in Florida. There were 27 lawsuits pending in 8 districts, and another 41 related actions pending in 15 districts. Plaintiffs had proposed to centralize the litigation in the…
Last July, Boar’s Head recalled liverwurst products due to a listeria outbreak. This recall eventually expanded and came to encompass sliced hams and sausages produced at the same plant as the liverwurst. Recently, the United States Department of Agriculture determined that a Boar’s Head facility’s inadequate sanitation practices contributed to…
This year, important actions will occur in a number of federal mass tort cases. These cases involve forever chemicals, social media, diet drugs, Bayer’s Roundup, preterm infant formula, ultra-processed foods, Depo Provera, and plastics. In some cases, mass tort lawsuits have survived a number of pretrial motions and will be…
In February 2023, Abbott, which manufactures Trifecta Valves warned doctors and other providers that its valves were subject to early structural valve deterioration. In summer 2023, the company announced that it would stop sales of the Trifecta Valves, including Trifecta Valve with Glide Technology (Trifecta Valva GT). Meanwhile the Food…
Recently, Northwestern Medicine published a study that finds that maternal health problems and birth complications have increased in Illinois. Severe maternal morbidity or severe health impacts from labor and delivery went up from 1.4% to 2% in connection with 988,000 births between 2016-2023 at more than at 127 hospitals in…
Two preterm formula cases have been tried against manufacturers. The president of the American Academy of Pediatrics has emphasized that preterm infant formula is both routine and necessary in the care of preterm infants. However, last year, there was a major victory in Gill v. Abbott Laboratories, a preterm infant…
Roundup litigation continues. One of the more recent federal lawsuits in the Roundup lawsuits involves a widow suing Monsanto Co. on the grounds that Roundup, the herbicide/weed killer is “defective, dangerous to human health, unfit and unsuitable” and should not be marketed or sold. Her lawsuit alleges that use of Roundup…
Firepits that function by burning liquid fuels like pooled alcohol can be extremely dangerous. The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has asked consumers not to buy or use these fire pits, which are sold as fire pots, tabletop fire pits, miniature fireplaces and portable fires that can be…