Smokers who want to quit and think a good first step is to switch to light or low-tar cigarettes are making a big mistake. A study has found that those smokers instead have about a 50% lower chance of giving up smoking. The research, published in the November issue of…
A Sacramento jury set an eye-popping standard on the cost of radio station contests that kill and the resulting loss of a mother’s love and a wife’s companionship. The tab for Entercom Sacramento LLC came to $16,577,118 in the water-intoxication death of Jennifer Lea Strange in a contest put on…
Pfizer Inc. must pay about $75 million in punitive damages to an Illinois woman who developed cancer after taking one of the drugmaker’s menopause treatments. A Philadelphia jury ordered Pfizer’s Wyeth unit on Oct. 26 to pay the bad-conduct award, which is about 20 times larger than the $3.7 million…
Donna Scroggin had a hormone replacement product liability suit against Wyeth and Upjohn and at the spring 2008 trial her claim that the drug companies failed to warn of the increased risk of breast cancer resulting from their estrogen and progestin products, a federal district court jury awarded the breast…
The widow of a Volusia County Fla firefighter who died when a tree fell on him during a brush-fire training exercise is suing the county Fire Services department for wrongful death. County firefighter John Curry was with the department nine months and attending his first training with a wildfire team…
The family of the 9-year-old boy who drowned in a city pool is seeking $15 million from the city, according to a wrongful death claim filed in City Hall. Jameson Auciel, died on Aug. 20, three days after he was pulled unconscious from the McGrane Pool in Providence city’s West…
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration announced the largest fine in its history of $87 million in penalties against the oil giant BP for failing to correct safety problems identified after a 2005 explosion that killed 15 workers at its Texas City, Tex. refinery. The fine is more than four…
After 12 hours of deliberation, a jury sided with the parents of baseball pitcher Brandon Patch in a civil suit over the player’s death during a 2003 game in Helena. Aluminum bat maker Hillerich & Bradsby Co. failed to provide adequate warning as to the dangers of the bat used…
Amylin Pharmaceuticals Inc. and Eli Lilly & Co. said safety warnings were strengthened for their diabetes drug Byetta relating to the risks of pancreatitis and the medicine’s use by patients with severe kidney disease. Patients with “severe kidney problems” shouldn’t take Byetta and the treatment should be “used with caution”…
A drug designed to fight anemia appears to double the risk of stroke in patients with diabetes and kidney disease without substantially improving their quality of life, a new study finds. Darbepoetin alfa, marketed as Aranesp and known as an erythropoiesis-stimulating agent (ESA), is often prescribed for diabetic patients with…