Ethisphere News and Commentary Blog

Product Liability

3M Misrepresents Size of Tape

March 31st, 2008

Thanks to a settlement announced last Thursday, 3M Company will have to change the labels of their tape products and pony up nearly $700,000 for allegedly misrepresenting the physical dimensions of their tape by six percent. 3M was accused of mislabeling its products by Fresno, California’s Division of Measure Standards, which brought suit against

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H&M Stops Selling Australian Wool

February 19th, 2008

H&M is the second largest retailer in Europe and has stores around the world, and now it no longer accepts wool from Australia. This came about after the Australian wool industry showed signs of hesitation on its plan to stop mulesing sheep by 2010. Though H&M admittedly uses only a “very small […]

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Mattel is Recovering from Toy Recall

February 1st, 2008

Remember all those Mattel toy recalls last year? Apparently it didn’t cripple the company as much as some experts predicted. The Motley Fool posted an interesting article yesterday on the tenuous recovery of the company. Mattel’s fourth-quarter earnings are up 15% over last year, and the stock price - still drastically

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Target Aims to Eliminate PVC from Several Product Lines

November 16th, 2007

Target became the most recent retail company in the United States to announce it would end the use of polyvinyl chloride (more commonly known as PVC) in some of the products it sells, most notably children’s paraphernalia like eating utensils and lunch boxes. By 2008, the company wants to eliminate PVC from changing […]

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Johnson & Johnson Settles the Latest in Ortho Evra Related Death Suits

October 25th, 2007

Johnson & Johnson recently agreed to pay $1.25 million to settle allegations that its Ortho Evra birth control patch was responsible for the death of a 14-year-old Wisconsin girl. Just two weeks ago, J&J settled a separate lawsuit over a death allegedly caused by the patch as well. In fact, J&J has settled […]

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Follow Up: Topps Meat Co. Doesn’t Survive E. Coli

October 11th, 2007

Less than a week after announcing a 21.7 million pound recall of ground beef, Topps Meat closed its doors.
The recall, one of the largest beef recalls in U.S. history, was initiated because the meat was potentially contaminated with E. coli. It was the first recall for the company, founded 67 years ago.

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21.7 Million Pounds of Meat Products Recalled by Topps Meat Co.

October 2nd, 2007

Nearly 22 million pounds of meat were recalled last Wednesday after E. coli bacteria was suspected to be in the meat, resulting in at least 25 injuries.
Topps Meat, Co. recalled the meat, which included ground beef and those packages that have either a “sell by” or “best if used by” date between September 25, 2007 […]

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Hot New Trend Among Canadian Teens: Dousing Your Friends in Body Spray and Lighting Them on Fire

September 28th, 2007

A disturbing, underground pastime among Canadian teens was uncovered on Tuesday after a 14-year-old boy was admitted to a hospital for first-, second- and third-degree burns. What is the new hobby? Covering various objects in body spray, particularly Axe and Tag brands, and lighting them on fire.

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425,000 Play Sets Recalled After the Death of a 10-Month-Old Boy

September 28th, 2007

Chicago based Kolcraft Enterprises Inc. had 425,000 of its play yards recalled yesterday following the death of a 10-month-old Texan boy. With 11 different models involved, this is the second significant recall of a nursery product in a week, according to a report by the Chicago Tribune.

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Australian Company Fined $300,000 Australian Dollars

September 11th, 2007

Melbourne based Camden Neon Pty Ltd has been fined $300,000 Australian dollars by the Victorian County Court after pleading guilty to “failing to provide a safe work environment.” 26-year-old Sion Rees died after attempting to remove broken glass from a light fitting with improper tools.
Judge Sue Pullen said the company had “insufficient” safety conditions […]

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Food with Certain Artificial Colors and Additives Linked to Hyperactivity

September 6th, 2007

A new study commissioned by the Food Standards Agency, an independent UK government department established to protect public health, found that certain artificial colors and additives in food can lead to hyperactivity disorder in children. It’s believed that the new study will pressure the food and drink industry to remove certain artificial colors and additives […]

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Second hand copying? Report says that office printers cause chronic respiratory illnesses

August 3rd, 2007

New research coming out of Australia suggests that office laser printers can damage lungs in a very similar way as smoke particles from cigarettes.
A team of Australian scientists from the Queensland University of Technology found that almost a third of all business laser printer models emit dangerous levels of toner particles into the ambient office […]

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Fisher-Price recalls nearly 1 million “Made in China” toys over lead paint concerns

August 2nd, 2007

Fisher-Price has announced a recall of nearly one million Chinese-made toys over concerns of lead-based paint.
The worldwide recall affects 967,000 Nickelodeon and Sesame Street toys, including such popular items the Big Bird, Elmo, Dora and Diego characters.
In an interview with the Associated Press on Wednesday, David Allmark, general manager of Fisher-Price, said the problem […]

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J&J throws in the towel… settles death lawsuit over pain patch for $2.5 million

August 2nd, 2007

Six weeks ago, Johnson & Johnson was ordered to pay $5.5 million in damages in a Florida lawsuit over a defective pain-killing patch that resulted in the death of a Florida man. While initially the company looked like it would appeal the judgment, they instead tried to settle it quietly for $2.5 million.
An excerpt […]

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Judge blasts lawyer for keeping 99% of nationwide class action settlement as his fees

July 26th, 2007

We’ve all heard stories of attorneys that charge an arm and a leg (and possibly your first-born) for their services. But N.C. Superior Court Judge Ben Tennille was less than forgiving in his recent criticism of a Sears class action settlement in which attorneys collected almost 400 times the amount that the plaintiffs received. Tennille […]

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Medtronic to pay $75 million to settle claims that it failed to disclose device failures…

July 21st, 2007

According to an exclusive report coming out of Bloomberg, Medtronic, the world’s largest maker of electronic heart devices, has agreed to pay more than $75 million to settle lawsuits claiming it hid defects in its defibrillators.
Medtronic has been facing approximately 2,000 claims over battery defects in the defibrillators which are potentially fatal and had […]

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Cadbury fined $2 million over tainted chocolate

July 20th, 2007

European papers are reporting that Cadbury Schweppes has been ordered to pay over $2 million in fines for allegations that some of its chocolate had been contaminated with salmonella bacteria.
The company, who pled guilty to charges that it violated food and hygiene regulations at an earlier hearing, was fined for selling an unsafe product and […]

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China takes food safety chief off the menu

July 18th, 2007

On Tuesday of last week, China executed its former chief food and drug regulator (Zheng Xiaoyu, age 62) for taking nearly $1 million in bribes from eight pharmaceutical companies to approve medicines. Reportedly at least six of the medicines turned out to be fakes - and some of the ingredients caused bodily harm.
According […]

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Our holiday travel advice if you’re hitting the roads: DUCK and COVER!!!!

July 4th, 2007

Actually the proper term from the nuclear cold war drill of the 1950s is “duck, cover and roll.” However, the “roll” part seems inappropriate today as Online Tire Review (yes, there really is such a website - www.tirereview.com) broke the news yesterday that Foreign Tire Sales (FTS), the New Jersey importer at the center […]

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Laptops continue to smolder…raise broader ‘recall’ issues…

July 3rd, 2007

Toshiba has announced that it will redouble its efforts to encourage greater customer response to its recall of certain ‘flamable’ Sony batteries that had installed in Toshiba laptops. The original recall had been announced by Sony in September of last year with customers eligible to receive free replacement of the battery packs […]

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Thomas the Train gets the lead out… slowly and rather ineffectively

June 26th, 2007

RC2 Corporation could soon find itself in the middle of a train wreck. A discovery of paint contaminated with lead prompted the recall of 1.5 million Thomas the Tank Engine wooden trains and other railroad components by the company and the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission. As a result of the investigation, RC2 […]

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Colgate’s new winterfresh ingredient? Why antifreeze of course…

June 15th, 2007

The FDA and Colgate-Palmolive issued warnings this week about counterfeit Colgate toothpaste which may contain a poisonous substance. Thus far, the toothpaste has been discovered in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Maryland.
Apparently, this product does not contain fluoride. Instead, it contains Diethylene Glycol (DEG). DEG is often described by its more layman’s […]

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Kellogg affirms its status on Ethisphere World’s Most Ethical Companies List

June 15th, 2007

The Kellogg Company announced today that they will rule out advertising its products to children under age 12 unless the foods meet specific nutrition guidelines for calories, sugar, fat and sodium. Additionally, Kellogg intends to stop using licensed characters or branded toys to promote foods unless the products meet the same […]

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Man sues Novartis over unwanted boost from Boost drink…

June 7th, 2007

According to media reports, a NY man is suing Novartis over a days-long erection that he attributed to ingesting the Boost Plus Nutritional Energy Drink.
As 29-year-old Christopher Woods told the New York Post…
“It gave me a lot of energy — too much energy,” Woods said of the protein drink. “It was unbearable and embarrassing.”
“It […]

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Coke takes the benzene out - puts confidence back in

June 6th, 2007

Coca-Cola has brought a lawsuit against it to a halt by agreeing to reformulate two of its popular soft drinks in the U.S. to ensure that they will no longer contain the cancer-causing chemical, benzene. Despite denying the allegation, the company said that it changed the Vault Zero and Fanta Pineapple drinks to minimize the […]

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