Illinois Injury and Mass Tort Lawyer Blog

Recently, Walmart, Costco, and Trader Joe’s recalled certain cheeses after a listeria outbreak. The CBC had originally looked into the listeria outbreak back in 2017 and 2021, after it began making people sick in 2014, which was linked to sickness even in 2014, back in 2017 and 2021, but were unable to identify the specific brand responsible for the outbreak. However, evidence suggested that queso fresco and like cheeses were possible sources. The outbreak has made ill 26 people in 11 states. 23 of these people were hospitalized and two died as a result of consuming the cheese. If you were made sick or a loved one died due to contaminated cheese, you should call the seasoned Chicago-based product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group.

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The Mayo Clinic describes listeria as a hardy bacteria that has its home in water, soil, and animal excrement. The bacteria can survive refrigeration and contaminate a wide range of food items. If you consume listeria and become sick, the diagnosis will be listeriosis. Listeriosis can be especially dangerous for the elderly and within the country, it is the third leading cause of death from foodborne illness.

One listeria outbreak, which has lasted a decade, killed two and made sick many more as a result of contaminated cheese associated with a California cheese and dairy company, Rio López Foods, which voluntarily recalled around 60 dairy and cheese products that were made in its facility. Walmart, Costco, and Trader Joe’s, along with other nationwide retailers are recalling the company’s products given the ongoing listeria outbreak. Some of the recalled items include the following, when manufactured during specific windows of time: Don Pancho Cilantro Lime Crema, Rojo’s 6 Layer Dip, Chicken Street Taco Kit, Southwest Chicken Wrap with Sauce, Ready Pac Bistro Queso Crunch Salad Kit, Cilantro salad dressing, Chicken Enchiladas Verde, Elote Chopped Salad Kit, Southwest Salad, Fresh Express Salsa! Ensalada Salad Kit, Marketside Southwest Chopped Salad Kit, Marketside Bacon Ranch Crunch Chopped Salad Kit, and various Dole food kits. The cheeses were sold under a range of brand names at stores and delis around the country—some of these brand names were Tio Francisco, Don Francisco, Rizo Bros, El Huache, Rio Grande and 365 Whole Foods Market.

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In November 2023, a 6 month baby died in a Fisher-Price infant-to-toddler rocker. Consumer Reports asked Fisher Price and its parent company Mattel to launch a recall because of the safety concerns raised by the baby’s death and other deaths over the years. If your baby died due to the risks of inclined sleepers, you should call the seasoned product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group. Billions have been recovered in cases with which we’ve been involved across the nation.

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There were reports of a minimum of 13 infant deaths related to the rockers between 2009 and 2021.The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and Fisher-Price issued a warning in 2022, in which they advised consumers not to use the rockers for sleep. Despite this warning, the rocker was not recalled.

Consumer Reports also found an event report from March of 2023 in which a baby was nearly harmed, though escaped without injury. It has recommended parents and caregivers to be particularly careful to make sure a baby that spends time in a rocker stays awake. Caregivers are supposed to move a baby that falls asleep in the rocker to a play yard, a crib, or a bassinet. In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics asked that babies be placed by themselves on a firm flat surface with a fitted sheet and no additional things like pillows, blankets, padded crib bumpers, toys, or blankets.

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Due to severe health risks, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned against buying or using tianeptine products like Neptune’s Fix. Tianeptine supplements are commonly sold at convenience stores and gas stations under the name Neptune’s Fix. The drug tianeptine has not been approved for medical use in this country, though it is prescribed as an antidepressant in other countries. Synthetic pot was also found in supplements. On January 29, 2024, Neptune’s Fix was recalled after federal officials determined the supplements include an unapproved antidepressant drug that can increase the chances of consumers suffering severe side effects such as seizures, suicidal behavior, overdoses, and loss of consciousness, and potentially fatal prescription drug interactions. Tianeptine is also called gas station heroin because it operates on opioid receptors.. If you were harmed by gas station heroin, you should call the seasoned Chicago-based product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group.

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Neptune’s Fix is marketed as a dietary supplement to improve brain function, anxiety, depression, pain, and opioid use disorders, though it isn’t approved for medical use in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has noted an uptick in serious side effects associated with the supplement; poison control centers had received notification of 151 tianeptine exposures in 2020. Earlier, the FDA had asked gas stations and convenience stores to stop selling the product. In November, the FDA had also warned consumers not to buy Neptune’s Fix or other tianeptine products calling it a potentially dangerous drug that was illegally sold and marketed as providing improvements to brain function, pain, anxiety, depression, and opioid use disorder.

More recently, the FDA announced that the company voluntarily agreed to recall three Neptune’s Fix products: Neptune’s Fix Elixir, Neptune’s Fix Extra Strength Elixir, and Neptune’s Fix Tablets.

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Recently, a jury ordered Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit to pay more than $2.2 billion, $250 million in compensatory damages and $2 billion in punitive damages, to John McKivison, a 49-year-old former Roundup user who argued that the herbicide he used at home and at work caused his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer connected to glyphosate, Roundup’s active ingredient. He had worked as a landscaper and loaded 25 gallon tanks of the weedkiller on his tractor to deal with weeds and vegetation and used it on his home garden as well. McKivison received the largest verdict in five years of Roundup litigation. In Roundup litigation, users usually argue that Monsanto, in fact, knew that some researchers deemed glyphosate a carcinogen, but wanted to bury related studies. If you were harmed by Roundup, you should call our seasoned Chicago-based product liability lawyers.

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Although Monsanto has won 10 out of 16 trials related to Roundup, it has faced serious damages awards as well. For instance, before the $2.2 billion verdict, it was confronted with a $1.5 billion verdict in November of last year. In 2019, a husband and wife who used the weedkiller for 30 years and developed cancer won a combined $2.055 billion in damages, but the award was cut to $87 million.

Bayer, the German conglomerate that acquired Monsanto for $63 billion, is under significant pressure. Its shares fell nearly 3% before the jury announced its verdict after analysts downgraded the company in connection with the Roundup litigation. Bayer has set aside up to $16 billion to resolve over 100,000 Roundup claims but is now facing a second wave of lawsuits claiming that the herbicide contains carcinogens. Continue reading →

As you likely already know, Stanley tumblers are trendy water bottles. They are so popular that the Valentine’s day limited edition version of the tumbler triggered physical confrontations and campouts at Target. They are often used as a fashion accessory and the company’s use of influencers on social media has caused huge sales of the tumblers. However, the manufacturer of the tumblers, Stanley, states on its website that the vacuum insulation technology that controls the contents of the cup at an ideal temperature is sealed with an industry standard pellet that contains some lead. However, according to the company, after the bottle is sealed, the manufacturer covers that portion with stainless steel rendering the lead inaccessible to those drinking from the tumbler, so there isn’t anything to worry about in terms of health hazards.

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Even so, a number of social media posts on YouTube, X, Reddit, Instagram, and TikTok have remarked on concerns that there is lead in the tumblers. There are also tumbler owners who used kits from home to test the lead; experts say those are not reliable. The lead discussion continues on Facebook, as well.

Recently, professor of public health Jack Caravanos who studies lead and is a global exposure expert assured the public that the Stanley cup is not dangerous to consumers. He tested the cups of different sizes using an X-ray fluorescence detector. This detector decides what the elements of the material are, and this one did not find superficial lead, even, on any part of the cup, Dr. Caravanos reports. He says that the danger to human health is negligible since your mouth isn’t going to go near the surface, and the lead won’t dissolve into the stainless steel. He was unable to deconstruct the tumbler to look at what’s beneath the stainless steel but wasn’t able to get that part open; this is a sign, he says, that lead material is highly unlikely to get out of the cup and become something that could be consumed.

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Recently, the United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation centralized the Ozempic lawsuits, at least 55 of them, in Pennsylvania federal court. These lawsuits allege that defendants Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly failed to warn people of severe side effects linked to the diabetes and weight loss drugs Ozempic and Mounjaro. The plaintiffs allege they were prescribed drugs to treat diabetes or assist in weight loss but weren’t warned about serious side effects like stomach paralysis and intestinal obstruction. If you were harmed by Ozempic or Mounjaro, call the seasoned Chicago-based product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group. Billions have been recovered in product liability cases with which we’ve been involved around the country.

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In its order, the JPML agreed it would send all the Ozempic and Mounjaro cases to United States District Judge Gene E.K. Pratter in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania where 13 of the cases were already pending. The JPML believes the drugs are similar enough that one MDL for the cases would make discovery and other proceedings more efficient; it will also avoid the risk of inconsistent rulings. Judge Pratter can issue rulings and make consistent decisions that apply to side effect cases related to the relevant diabetes and weight loss drugs.

The defendant pharmaceutical companies denied the allegations in court and moved to dismiss the lawsuits on the grounds that the drugs’ potential side effects are known to the public and that the labels on the drugs announce the side effects, thereby providing adequate warnings.

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The Philips DreamStation 2 CPAP machine, used both at home and in medical settings, is prescribed to provide positive airway pressure for treatment of obstructive sleep apnea. Recently, the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has warned patients and health care providers to diligently attend to whether their Philips DreamStation 2 continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machines are overheating. The warning was issued after the FDA realized that reports about thermal issues like burns, smoke and fire were increasing in connection with these CPAP machines; the agency received 270 reports of problems between August 1, 2023–November 15, 2023. If you were burned, suffered smoke inhalation, or another injury due to a CPAP machine overheating, should call the trustworthy Chicago-based product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group. Billions have been recovered in cases with which we’ve been involved.

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As a patient or caregiver, you should be aware that the affected Dream Station 2 CPAP machines were shipped in order to replace recalled DreamStation 1 CPAP machines. The foam used in the machines does not appear to be causing the safety issue. Rather, in a developing situation, it appears that there is an electrical or mechanical malfunction within the machine that can cause it to overheat under specific circumstances.

Patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers have been asked to ensure that the manufacturer’s instructions in the user manual are carefully followed. Among these instructions are to let the CPAP machine’s heater plate and water tank cool for 15 minutes prior to tank removal to reduce the burn risk and to inspect and examine the CPAP for atypical smells or appearance changes. If the machine exhibits any altered smell, appearance or sounds, or starts performing differently, the CPAP should be unplugged and left unused. Patients should ask their primary care physician or sleep doctor for next steps. Reports should be made to the FDA about these issues. Meanwhile the FDA continues to investigate and to discuss the manufacturer about mitigation strategies.

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Recently, federal safety regulators asked consumers to stop buying and using magnetic toy ball sets for their children’s use. These magnetic balls have now been associated with hundreds of serious injuries as well as 7 fatalities, 5 of them within the U.S. When swallowed, these toys magnets may attract to each other, which can result in intestinal blockages, blood poisoning and perforations of critical organs. If your child was injured or killed by magnetic toy balls, you should call the seasoned Chicago-product liability lawyers of Moll Law Group. Billions have been recovered in cases with which we’ve been involved.

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Six notices about the magnetic toy ball sets have been issued. Once swallowed, toy magnets may attract to one another and cause severe injuries. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has identified 6 children’s toys that don’t comply with safety regulations because they include magnets that are small enough to be consumed by a child. There were 2400 ER hospitalizations from 2017–2021 involving people who ingested toy magnets.

One of the companies implicated, Xpressgoods.com, has agreed to issue a recall of 728 units of a magnetic ball set manufactured in China. Customers have been advised to return them for a full refund or store credit. However, other manufacturers based in China and South Korea haven’t agreed to offer remedies to consumers. The toy magnetic balls in questions are Magic QQ 216-Piece Mixed Color Magnetic Ball Sets, Ming Tai Trade’s 216-piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets, Sunny House 125-Piece 5mm mixed Color Magnet Ball Sets, Allvre 216-Piece 5mm Magnetic Ball Sets, Carrara Magnetic Ball Sets sold by myKmarket.com.

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