Fourth Quarter 2003 Personal Injury Law News Article Excerpts

Sunday News (Lancaster, PA), "Lancaster County law firm sues makers of rods used for welding"

          A Lancaster law firm has filed a class-action lawsuit against 21 national manufacturers of welding rods, alleging the rods produce harmful fumes that can lead to personal injuries such as Parkinson's disease and manganism. More...

Miami Daily Business Review, "Jury awards $1 million in suit over welding fumes"

          An Illinois jury has become the first in the nation to hold manufacturers of arc welding rods liable for a fume-induced Parkinson's-like disease. More...

Associated Press State & Local Wire, "Lawsuits claiming welding causes Parkinson's consolidated in Cleveland"

          A federal panel has ordered federal lawsuits from across the country consolidated in Cleveland before U.S. District Judge Kate O'Malley to simplify legal issues. More...

The Plain Dealer of Cleveland, "Man Who Blames His Parkinson's on Welding Wins Suit; Many More Pending"

          Larry Elam went to court to prove that welding had ruined his health. Elam said he suffered from Parkinson's disease that stemmed from years of using welding rods made and sold by companies across the country. More...

Financial Times (London,England), "BOC appeals against US health verdict"

          BOC, the industrial gases group, has begun the appeal process against a US court decision linking its manganese welding rods to Parkinson's disease. More...

Chicago Sun Times, "Power windows' deadly risk to kids"

          Mitchell Johnson was antsy, bored and feeling like he wanted to be just about anywhere but watching his little brother's school musical program. He'd seen the program once already, and being a typical 11-year-old, he just couldn't make it to the end. More...

Chemical Week, "BOC Shares Fall After Adverse Court Ruling"

          Shares in BOC Group fell more than 7% last Wednesday to 821.5 pence/share ($ 13.92) after the company lost a suit charging that fumes from welding rods caused Parkinson's disease. More...

          More than 60 patients who received a popular new drug-coated heart stent have died, the government disclosed Wednesday -- a surprising increase since the last health warning about the device just months ago. The Cypher stent is a tiny metal scaffold used in patients with heart disease. It props open a cleaned-out artery and, unlike other stents, emits a drug to reduce the chances the artery will clog again. More...

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri), "Jury Awards $1 Million in Welder's Suit; He Blamed Fumes for Illness"

          A Madison County jury awarded $1 million on Tuesday to a Granite City man who claimed that inhaling welding fumes gave him Parkinson's disease. More...

Philadelphia Inquirer, "Drugmaker's quarterly earnings mixed"

          Wyeth said third-quarter earnings were depressed by a $2 billion diet-drug litigation charge, bringing to $16.6 billion charges taken related to its fen-phen diet-drug combination. Wyeth, based in Madison, N.J., said it lost $426.4 million, or 32 cents per share, in the third quarter, compared with a profit of $1.4 billion, or $1.05 per share, in the year-ago quarter. More...

The New York Times, "Tough Questions Are Raised On Fen-Phen Compensation"

          The trust set up to compensate people injured by fen-phen, the formerly popular diet drug, says that an alliance of doctors and lawyers filing invalid claims threatens to drain its coffers. Some plaintiffs' lawyers contend that the trust simply wants to delay making payments to deserving people who are sick. More...

Consumer Reports, "THE CONSUMERS UNION PERSPECTIVE: Cars should be made safer for children." (Excerpt)

          Promising technologies are emerging, or exist, to make vehicles safer for children. Consumers Union is pressing the auto industry, Congress, and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to give serious consideration to them in three particular areas More...