Month: November 2019
Light drinkers beware: buzzed driving is drunk driving
When people think about drinking and driving, they often assume it mostly happens on special occasions like New Year’s Eve. There’s some truth to that, but it’s important to recognize that the “high season” for drunk driving runs from Thanksgiving through New Year’s Day. It’s not that people are more lenient towards drinking and driving
Johnson & Johnson loses Australian class action over pelvic mesh
For decades, one way doctors have treated organ prolapse is by surgically installing mesh implants into the pelvis to keep the prolapsing organ in the position where it is naturally supposed to be. Unfortunately, many women who have had pelvic mesh implants have experienced bleeding, chronic pain and severe pain during intercourse, and many have
Radon is a greater danger than many might think
Unfortunately, roughly 10% of lung cancer diagnoses occur in people who have never smoked a day in their lives. It can be frustrating if you or a loved one is in this situation. You took efforts to stay healthy but still received a frightening and life-changing diagnosis. The risk of lung cancer among non-smokers is
From ‘Blackout Wednesday” to ‘Danksgiving’: Be safe this holiday
Every year, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) issue campaigns to fight holiday drunk driving. The DOT also releases funds to be used for extra law enforcement on holiday weekends, including Thanksgiving, when drunk driving is common. You should expect extra DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols this week.
5 things to remember about the big breath-alcohol testing story
Last week, we discussed the New York Times’ major investigation into the reliability of breathalyzer tests around the country. This was a big story because the Times found that breathalyzers from various manufacturers used around the country suffer from the same technical difficulties. Thousands of DUI cases are already being reopened in at least two
Former executive: Juul knowingly sold contaminated vape pods
A former senior vice president for global finance at Juul, the nation’s most prominent maker of e-cigarettes, recently filed a whistleblower lawsuit. He claims he was fired in retaliation for objecting to illegal and unsafe conduct at the company. In particular, he claims that Juul shipped at least a million contaminated nicotine pods, along with others
The Fourth Amendment protects your cellphone
In this new age of technology, people share and store extremely personal information on their cellphones. And nearly every person in Tennessee and across the country has their cellphone on their person at all times. Storing personal information on our cellphones might be handy. However, it could be dangerous when individuals are facing criminal charges.
Did Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary market opioids deceptively?
In September, a judge in Oklahoma ruled that Johnson & Johnson’s subsidiary, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, caused a public nuisance with its two opioid medications, Duragesic and Nucynta. He also ruled that the company had marketed these drugs deceptively. The Judge ordered J&J and Janssen to pay $572 million in damages to the State. Since the Oklahoma
J&J challenges its own Baby Powder recall
In mid-October, Johnson & Johnson announced a voluntary recall of some 33,000 bottles of its Baby Powder after the FDA discovered trace amounts of asbestos in a bottle bought online. That was the first time J&J had recalled the product, despite thousands of legal claims that the company’s talc-based products have been tainted with asbestos
New York Times: DUI breath tests often inaccurate, exaggerated
In 2010, when a new person was brought in to run Washington, D.C.’s breath testing program, his first priority was to test the city’s Intoxilyzer machines for accuracy. He was astounded to discover that every machine was exaggerating the test results, entering numbers that were 20 to 40 percent higher than the actual result. This