Chicago Injury Lawyer Blog

When the swine flu emerged last spring, “it was a school nurse in New York City...who helped identify and curtail the country's first major outbreak after she noticed large numbers of students complaining of high fevers and sore throats” (Terence Chea, AP for FindLaw, 9/25). As the flu season approaches, it is crucial to have adequate nursing staff in schools to be the first barrier to outbreaks by quickly diagnosing and sending sick children home.

Unfortunately, “many schools around the country don't have a medical professional who can quickly diagnose students and detect outbreaks. The average nurse-to-student ratio nationwide is one nurse for every 1,151 students, but in 14 states there is only one nurse for more than 2,000 students, according to the nurses association. Only 12 states, mostly in the Northeast, met the 1-to-750 ratio recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the association found.” One example is Utah's Granite School District near Salt Lake City. Although officials there have prepared a pandemic response plan, the district only has 10 nurses for 89 schools with 68,000 students. Less than half of the states require a specified nurse to student ratio, and only a few states have set aside money to pay for school nurses. Currently, schools with shortage in medical professionals are asking all school employees with or without medical training to be on the lookout for flu like symptoms.

As a personal injury lawyer, I am concerned by the lack of medical professionals in schools across the country. With the H1N1 virus, the need is only greater this year to combat both the seasonal flu and the virus, and schools without adequate nursing staff are sacrificing their first line of defense against an outbreak.

Ray Theodore reports, “In a brief, unpublished decision the three-judge panel unanimously found that the ban is permissible because it restricts the sale of cigarettes and not cigarette advertising” (Andrews Publications for FindLaw, 9/16). The court reject the argument that the product itself is an advertisement and found that the sale of cigarettes does not involve expressive conduct that would be protected by the first or fourteenth amendments.

The ban, “which took effect Oct. 1, 2008, seeks to address concerns that smoking is "legitimized" by allowing cigarette sales in pharmacies, whose primary mission is to serve consumers' medical and health needs.” The ban, however, does not affect other stores, such as groceries and mega stores, whose primary purpose is not to serve customers medical and health needs.

As a personal injury lawyer who has seen many cases involving the aftermath of smoking cigarettes, I am pleased with this progressive decision.

As a personal injury lawyer, I am pleased to see the new rule governing food safety, which regulators say "will help the FDA prevent widespread illness from contaminated products and direct inspectors to plants that pose a greater safety concern.”

The new rule aims to help federal regulators identify food contamination issues sooner, and requires food makers "to alert government officials of potentially contaminated products within 24 hours” (AP for FindLaw, 9/8). To aid in this new process, “the Food and Drug Administration unveiled a new electronic database where manufacturers must notify the government if one of their products is likely to cause sickness or death in people or animals.” Congress passed the law creating the database in 2007 after widespread criticism about the FDA's handling of several food safety incidents.

The American Association for Justice news brief recently included an article stating The National Highway Safety Administration said, “it isn’t necessary to require that power windows operate in reverse to prevent the injury or deaths of children who could be accidentally caught in them” (AP, Manning, 8/28).

The NHTSA further asserted that sufficient safety measures are already in place including “switches designed to make it difficult for children to mistakenly close windows, [which] are effective enough to reduce risk of serious injury or death.”
However, the NHTSA did mandate automatic reversing on some power windows without certain safety measures. For example, windows that can be closed with a single touch of a button as opposed to windows that require the user to hold down the button while closing the window must have an automatic reversing feature.

As a personal injury lawyer, I hope that the NHTSA investigation was thorough as power windows intrigue children, so safety measures are necessary to protect their safety.

Jennifer Kerr reports, “six companies are recalling millions of window blinds and shades, following the deaths of three children who got caught in cords that help the coverings move up and down” (AP, 8/26). The recalls were announced last week by the Consumer Product Safety Commission and involve some “big-name companies, including Pottery Barn Kids, IKEA,” and some smaller retailers who sold their products at large retailers such as Target.

None of the deaths were associated with the IKEA or Pottery Barn Kids blinds, but there had been reports of children becoming entangled in the inner cords. The commission’s new chairman, Inez Tennenbaum says the recalled blinds “pose a hidden hazard,” and urges “all parents to inspect their blinds and shades immediately and obtain the free repair or refund the companies are offering to consumers.” As a Chicago personal injury lawyer, I join Ms. Tennanbaum in her sentiments and further suggest that parents consider other child proofing mechanisms on all binds and shades. For more information on the details of the recall visit www.cpsc.gov.