Have a Safe Halloween!
October 30, 2009
The S.E. Farris Law Firm and the Consumer Product Safety Commission hope your holiday is a safe one. Here is an advisory message from the CPSC:
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Soon the ghouls and goblins of Halloween night will prowl neighborhood streets in search of treats. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) wants to ensure that candle flames from jack-o-lanterns, decorative obstacles on the porch or lawn, and sharp edges on costumes and accessories don’t keep kids from enjoying this annual tradition of trick-or-treating.
Incidents involving burns from flammable costumes and lacerations related to pumpkin carving lead the list of Halloween-related injuries.
“Using inherently flame-resistant fabrics in home-made costumes and using battery-operated candles when decorating the house for Halloween can help keep children safe,” said CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum.
Make this year’s holiday a safe one by following a few simple safety tips:
Costumes
When purchasing costumes, masks, beards and wigs, look for flame-resistant fabrics such as nylon or polyester, or look for the label “Flame Resistant.” Flame-resistant fabrics will resist burning and should extinguish quickly. To minimize the risk of contact with candles and other fire sources, avoid costumes made with flimsy materials and outfits with big, baggy sleeves or billowing skirts.
• Purchase or make costumes that are light, bright and clearly visible to motorists.
• For greater visibility during dusk and darkness, decorate or trim costumes with reflective tape that will glow in the beam of a car’s headlights. Bags or sacks also should be light-colored or decorated with reflective tape. Reflective tape is usually available in hardware, bicycle and sporting goods stores.
• Children should carry flashlights to see and be seen.
• Costumes should fit well and not drag on the ground to guard against trips and falls.
• Children should wear well-fitting, sturdy shoes. Oversized high heels are not a good idea.
• Tie hats and scarves securely to prevent them from slipping over children’s eyes and obstructing their vision.
• If your child wears a mask, make sure it fits securely, provides adequate ventilation, and has eye holes large enough to allow full vision.
• Swords, knives and similar costume accessories should be made of soft, flexible material.
Treats
Warn children not to eat any treats before an adult has examined them carefully for evidence of tampering. Carefully examine any toys or novelty items received by trick-or-treaters under three years of age. Do not allow young children to have any items that are small enough to present a choking hazard or that have small parts or components that could separate during use and present a choking hazard.
Decorations
Keep candles and jack-o’-lanterns away from landings and doorsteps where costumes could brush against the flame.
• Remove obstacles from lawns, steps and porches when expecting trick-or-treaters.
• Indoors, keep candles and jack-o’-lanterns away from curtains, decorations and other items that could ignite. Do not leave burning candles unattended.
• Indoors or outside, use only lights that have been tested for safety by a recognized testing laboratory. Check each set of lights, new or old, for broken or cracked sockets, frayed or bare wires, or loose connections. Discard damaged sets.
• Don’t overload extension cords!
Think This Election Doesn’t Matter? Think Again!
October 7, 2008
I typically avoid politics in this blog. Sometimes, though, politics affect my clients. Okay, most of the time.
The next President will undoubtedly select judges for Federal courts, including the United States Supreme Court. That Court has done its share of judicial activism. Here is what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said today, and why the Court is important to injury victims:
Is there anyone left in America who still thinks that just because a medication is approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration it’s perfectly safe and without product defects? If so, he or she should type the words “heparin recall” or “Vioxx recall” or “Zyprexia weight gain” into a search engine. The FDA approved all of those drugs, and all of them turned out to cause big problems. The companies that made the drugs found themselves defending thousands of product-liability lawsuits.
But next month, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear what could turn out to be a landmark case. At issue is whether people harmed by prescription drugs should be allowed to recover damages for their injuries by suing in state courts.
The pharmaceutical industry says that such suits should be prohibited because drugs must be approved for sale by the FDA. That approval, the industry says, should protect drug-makers from liability.
Last spring, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the manufacturers of medical devices, which made a similar argument. A similar decision in this case effectively would grant “get-out-of-responsibility free” cards to makers of drugs that turn out to be dangerous.People such as Diana Levine, a 62-year-old musician from Vermont, would be out of luck.
Make that “former musician.” In 2000, Ms. Levine lost her right hand after receiving an injection of an anti-nausea drug. That ended her career as a guitarist and pianist.
The drug she received, Phenergan, usually is injected into a muscle. Sometimes, it is injected into a vein. But if it comes in contact with oxygen-rich arterial blood, it causes gangrene — a condition in which bone, muscle and skin tissues die. Affected limbs must be amputated.
The drug’s label, also approved by the FDA, warned that mistakenly injecting the drug into an artery can cause “gangrene requiring amputation.” But it did not include a similar warning about a method of administration called “IV push,” which is what caused Ms. Levine to lose her hand.
A jury in Vermont awarded Ms. Levine $6 million in damages. The Supreme Court is being asked to overturn the judgment — not because she wasn’t harmed, but because the FDA-approved label didn’t warn against the IV-push method.
Drugs are tested for safety on small groups of people before being approved for wider distribution; testing on larger groups would be cost-prohibitive and potentially dangerous. But sometimes, the number of test subjects is so small that side effects don’t become apparent.
Drug companies pay for those safety tests and control how the results are written and distributed, and some firms have been known to play down problems. In some instances, problems have come to light only after injured people brought lawsuits for the damage the drugs caused.
Recent revelations about the health effects of a psychiatric medicine called Zyprexia, which can cause rapid and uncontrolled weight gain leading to diabetes and increased risk of heart attack, came about that way.
Vioxx was a best-selling arthritis and pain drug before a broader FDA study revealed in 2004 that Vioxx users were more likely to suffer a heart attack or sudden cardiac death than those taking other types of drugs. And earlier this year, the FDA came under criticism for mistakenly approving distribution of a shipment of defective Chinese-made heparin, a blood-thinning agent.
Prohibiting suits in state court by people injured by prescription drugs is profoundly unfair, particularly when drug-safety tests are considered “proprietary information” owned by drug companies. The larger question is whether the justices will require manufacturers — of all sorts — to stand by their products, or allow them to blame government for their failures.
The problem for most injury victims is that they don’t know that they need the courts until it is too late. Rather, the courts are like fire hydrants- you don’t notice them until your house is burning, then you hope they work right. If you care about the civil justice system (your right to trial by jury) at all, remember and protect it when you vote in November.
National Board of Trial Advocacy Certification
October 6, 2008
St. Louis Daily Record & St. Louis Countian
Dec 4, 2004
by St. Louis Daily Record Staff
Spencer E. Farris of The S.E. Farris Law Firm has achieved certification as a National Board of Trial Advocacy civil trial advocate, which illustrates a commitment to bettering the legal profession and high standards of professional conduct. The credential process includes documentation of trial experience, judicial and peer references, documentation of participation in CLE, evaluation of legal writing skills, report of all disciplinary matters brought before an official body and completion of a daylong examination.
Members are required to maintain an active trial practice and reapply every five years to ensure commitment to their designated specialty.
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