“Do whatever you want to me! Just don’t take away my cell phone!!”

 Doesn’t this sentence describe our collective attachment and sentiment today toward these devices?  It’s hard to deny that The Cell Phone has become so weaved into our daily—even hourly or “by the minute”–existence that an increasingly overwhelming majority of us have difficulty remembering how we functioned without it.

And it’s hard to deny that increasing numbers of us are using this device while we’re driving.

And up to now, different states, regions and municipalities have adopted different regulations ranging from restrictions on cell phone texting to outright bans on hand-held cell phone use.

But now, a federal agency is calling for the game to change nationwide. The Associated Press reports in a recent article that The National Transportation Safety Board has recently recommended that all states impose total bans on all cell phone use while driving, including the use of hands-free cell phones. This recommendation is prompted by recent deadly crashes attributable in whole or part to cell phone use, and increasingly alarming statistics from surveys about such use in cars nationwide.

A recent survey conducted by The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration shows that at any given moment last year on America’s streets and highways, nearly one in every 100 car drivers was texting, emailing, surfing the Web or otherwise using a hand-held electronic device—and those activities were up 50 percent over the previous year.

 This survey also shows that about two out of 10 American drivers overall – and half of drivers between 21 and 24 – say they’ve texted messages or emailed from the driver’s seat.

However, the survey found that many drivers don’t think it’s dangerous when they do it – only when others do.

Does the game need changing? Is the increased convenience and productivity that cell phone use gives us behind the wheel worth the increased risk of potential calamity we could cause? Should all cell phone use while driving be against the law? Should just hand-held cell phone use be illegal? Or should the law only prohibit cell-phone texting by drivers? What are your thoughts? It may very well be that either you or your elected representatives will be asked to vote on these questions in the not too distant future.

The holiday season is meant to be full of cheer and merriment.  However, there are several unique safety concerns presented by the holiday season.  Previously, this blog has made its readers aware of the dangers of  “drowsy drivers” during the holidays.  There is however another danger that hits a little closer to home.  According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission more than 141 serious fires and hot-oil burns have been reported in the United States from turkey fryer use over the last decade.  In fact, Thanksgiving is the leading day for cooking fires, with three times as many as on an average day, according to the National Fire Protection Association.  The burns associated with hot oil can be very severe, and in some cases be life threatening.

What can cooks do to reduce the risks associated with deep frying a turkey?  The Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood gave the following tips.

• Use new sealed fryers placed in open areas.
• Wear protective clothing and eyewear.
• Avoid overfilling fryers with oil.
• Replace and remove food items from the oil slowly.
• Be mindful of marinades and turkey preparations that introduces water into the hot oil, a dangerous combination,
• Make sure to fully thaw the turkey before placing into the frying oil.

As you prepare for the upcoming holidays, please keep these safety tips in mind so that you may have a happy and enjoyable season.

Election Day is upon us and I urge you to vote on November 8th or early vote and to vote NO on Issue 2. If you would like to vote early you may do so this week at your local Board of Elections: We Are Ohio – Action.

Issue 2 is the referendum on Senate Bill 5 passed by the Ohio General Assembly. The referendum resulted from a huge grass roots effort to have the Bill passed on by the voters of Ohio before becoming law. On its face, Senate Bill 5 drastically reduced the rights of public employees including firefighters, police and teachers to bargain about the terms and conditions of their employment. Even the right to bargain over non-economic issues such as classroom size for teachers and protection equipment for firefighters was gutted by the bill.

It is critical that we vote on Election Day. While the most recent polling shows we are gaining momentum ( 25-point lead for Issue 2 opponents is huge, but off-year referendums can be unpredictable, says elections expert | cleveland.com) the key will be turnout. Every vote will be important!

Let’s send a clear message to the legislature and the governor. Please join me in supporting working class families and the middle class in Ohio and vote No on Issue Two.

The U.S. FDA has announced that use of the popular anti-diabetic drug Actos (pioglitazone HCI) for greater than one year may be associated with an increased risk of bladder cancer. The announcement was based on an investigation of the safety of the drug in a study of more than 190,000 people. A study from France has also indicated the link, causing France and Germany to pull the drug from market. While the U.S. FDA has issued warnings regarding the drugs risks, it remains in use in the United States.

Studies indicate that there is a 40% increased risk of bladder cancer in people who took the drug for more than one year, as compared with those who never took it. Actos, used to manage people with Type 2 diabetes, is made by Takeda Pharmaceuticals North America Inc.

Possible symptoms of bladder cancer can include:
• Abdominal pain
• Blood in the urine
• Painful urination
• Urinary frequency
• Urinary urgency
• Urine leakage (incontinence)

If you have taken Actos and are concerned of the risks, contact your physician for an evaluation of your diabetes and appropriate medical management. If you have developed bladder cancer following the use of Actos, or have questions about the risks of this drug, contact our office for an evaluation of your legal rights.

Our law firm is committed to providing you information regarding defective products, including pharmaceuticals. Our person injury attorneys are available for a free initial consultation to explain your legal rights.

Lawsuit lottery.  Jackpot Justice.  Runaway juries who award astronomical verdicts to the clients of ambulance chasing lawyers who have unfairly (and frivolously) sued a good doctor over a bad (and unavoidable) result.  This is the narrative that the American Medical Association, in conjunction with conservative political messaging, has convinced the American public to be true.  Particularly in a struggling economy, malpractice lawyer and their clients are demonized as primary drivers behind the rising cost of health care.  The facts, though, undermine what sounds like a good story.

The cost of the entire medical liability system–which means payments, awards, litigation costs, attorney fees, expert witnesses, etc.–is less than six tenths of one percentof the overall cost of health care in this county.  So much for medical malpractice as a driver of escalating health care costs.

The Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit citizens™ advocacy group Public Citizen published an extensive review of the National Practitioner Data Bank data.  Among the organization™s findings was that health care spending rose 90 percent between 2000 and 2010 while medical malpractice payments decreased almost 12 percent.  So actual payments to victims of malpractice are seeing less and less compensation.

In spite of this data that malpractice costs are historically low while actual instances of malpractice continue to increase, doctors are winning more than half of cases that independent experts conclude they should lose and nearly one hundred percent of cases where the independents experts believe there is no liability. 

The net effect is that doctors are shielded from responsibility for their ever-increasing rate of negligence by a pool of potential jurors seek to punish the innocent victim.  So who are the real winners of the so-called “lawsuit lottery”?

At Gallon, Takacs, Boissoneault & Schaffer, Co., LPA, our mission dedicates us to providing legal assistance to working men and women, individuals with disabilities, and labor organizations. We are very proud of that tradition.

Now, I’m happy to announce that the firm is providing legal representation to veterans of our military who have physical or emotional impairments as a result of their service to our country.

I have received accreditation by the Veterans Administration General Counsel to represent veterans and their families before the agency and we are now privileged extend our tradition of quality legal representation to the proud and deserving men and women of our military who have had the misfortune of encountering physical or emotional injuries as a result of their service to and/or defense of our nation.

If you are a veteran who needs help receiving the compensation to which you are rightfully entitled as a consequence of your service, please feel free to contact us. We look forward to the opportunity for us to be of “service” to you.

Remember the old saw of defensive driving “watch out for the other guy”? Presumably it was meant to refer to the potential errant/unpredictable driving of others giving rise to the need for us to be all that more attentive. But it also should call to our attention the financial wherewithal–or lack thereof–of other people out on the road with us.

A recent article in USA Today points to statistics indicating that one in seven drivers is now uninsured, and that number is growing. And the ratio of uninsured drivers  is frighteningly higher in a number of states.  For example, it is estimated in Mississippi that the percentage of uninsured drivers in the state has already reached 28%!

This page has in past posts referenced the growing problem of uninsured drivers, as well as the tremendous benefit, particularly relative to the low additional cost, of uninsured/underinsured motorists coverage. If you have any doubt in your mind as to whether you are carrying this coverage, or any questions about the coverage  and amounts you do have, today might be a good time to contact your insurance agent–it appears that tomorrow the need for this coverage will be even greater.

It seems almost common place to hear  big corporations promoting  “corporate responsibility” and claiming to make “safer products”  for consumers.  Talk, however, is often cheap and actions usually speak louder than words.

According to the Consumer Product Saftey Commission,  Black & Decker Inc., a Maryland based power tool manufacturer, has agreed to pay a $960,000 civil fine regarding one of their defective products.   Black & Decker, according to the CPSC, knowingly “failed to report several safety defects and hazards” relating to its Grasshog XP model weed whacker, and “withheld information” during the CPSC’s investigation.  In fact, according to the CPSC, there were over 700 reported incidents and 158 serious injuries.

The CPSC found that Black & Decker knew that the high-powered, electric Grasshog was injuring people by May 2006, but intentionally stone-walled the investigation, refusing to give information regarding “mounting numbers” of incidents and injuries until October 2007.

If you think big business is on your side think again, when a company has to choose between your safety and its profits, far too often it chooses the latter.

We have recently learned of another potential danger in the use of the drug Chantix, adding to the already long list of potential side effects, which include visual disturbances, suicide, violence and depression, among other things.

New medical research suggests that the use of Chantix increases the risk of cardiovascular diseases, including heart attacks and stroke. Chantix (which is the trade name for the drug varenicline) is a smoking cessation drug, manufactured by Pfizer, and which was approved by the FDA in 2006.  The new study results follow a safety notice issued by the FDA last month, warning Chantix users with cardiovascular disease of a possible increase in the risk of cardiovascular events, including heart attack.

The Canadian Medical Association Journal published the results of a review study indicating that the risk of serious cardiovascular events in Chantix users is 72% higher in tobacco users than non Chantix users. While Chantix has not yet been recalled, at least one of the authors of the study suggested that it should be pulled from the market until a complete investigation has been performed.

The lead author of the study was Dr. Sonal Singh. Dr. Singh says the FDA and Pfizer have failed to pursue signs of this known risk since Chantix was approved in 2006, according to a New York Times article on the study.

“The F.D.A. should have already put it on their warning label,” Dr. Singh said. “The risk is substantial, the risk is present in smokers without heart disease, and Pfizer knew about this for five years.”

Our law firm is committed to the safety and well being of our clients and friends. If you or someone you know has been injured by a dangerous product, we are always available to discuss your rights.

American unions have done a tremendous amount for working people in our country – union members or not.  Watch this video – it’s only a few minutes – and be reminded of why unions have played, and continue to play, such a vital role in our county.