All Topics

• Overtime Lawsuits On The Rise

  Ricky Bagolie | July 27, 2006 11:39 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Workers whose employers fail to properly pay them the overtime they deserve may be able to file an overtime lawsuit. Generally, all workers are eligible for time-and-a-half overtime, except for those in the executive, administrative and professional categories. Changes in federal regulations in 2004 defined more clearly those exempt categories by using new job descriptions such as "exercises...

• Liver Failure Linked to Anti-

  Ricky Bagolie | June 30, 2006 10:05 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  The New York Times reports that the Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) issued a strong warning Thursday that Ketek, a controversial antibiotic, could in rare circumstances cause serious liver injury, liver failure and even death.Ketek is manufactured by Sanofi-Aventis, the French drug giant, and it has been approved to treat bronchitis, sinusitis and mild-to-moderate pneumonia.Thursday's...

• Beware Guidant Pacemaker Device Malfunction

  Ricky Bagolie | June 29, 2006 9:11 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  The FDA and Guidant has notified the public that a subset of implantable pacemakers, cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators [ICDs] is associated with five reports of device malfunction due to the failure of a low-voltage capacitor from a single component supplier. Patients with a bad pacemaker may experience premature battery depletion and are...

• Family of Nursing Home Resident Bitten to Death by Ants Gets Award

  Ricky Bagolie | May 31, 2006 9:18 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Can you imagine anything more horrible than having a loved one be bitten to death by fire ants? The wife and children of a retired postal worker who died from hundreds of fire ant bites in a Florida nursing home nearly four years ago had to endure such a tragedy. They will receive almost $2 million for their loss.Mariner Health Care, the nation's third largest long-term health care company,...

• Watch for Trucks on the Road

  Ricky Bagolie | May 20, 2006 11:16 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  It does not matter if you live in New Jersey or Florida, motorists need to keep watch for the big rigs that share their roads. Truck accidents are collisions involving large vehicles (gross vehicle weight rating greater than 10,000 pounds). Typically, these include semi-trucks, tractor-trailers, 18-wheelers or other commercial vehicles. Since they are tremendously larger and heavier than...

• Chromium Linked to Lung Cancer

  Ricky Bagolie | May 14, 2006 10:45 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Workers beware, exposure to hexavalent chromium has been linked to the development of lung cancer. Used in the production of stainless and nickel alloys, it is a known human carcinogen that may also cause severe upper respiratory tract, skin, nasal, and kidney damage. Hexavalent chromium is used in pigments for photography and pyrotechnics, dyes, paints, inks and plastics, stainless steel...

• Suicide Risk for Paxil

  Ricky Bagolie | May 12, 2006 3:35 PM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, along with the Food and Drug Administration, warned doctors that the antidepressant Paxil may raise the risk of suicidal behavior in young adults. The warning letter was accompanied by changes to the labeling of both Paxil and Paxil CR, a controlled-release version of the drug, also called paroxetine.

• Senate Rejects Medical Mistake Limitation Bill

  Ricky Bagolie | May 10, 2006 7:43 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  In a victory for consumers and victims of medical errors, the Senate on Monday rejected two Republican backed malpractice bills. The first Bill would have capped jury awards in all lawsuits against doctors and health care institutions; the second would have applied caps only to cases involving obstetricians. Studies have proven that restricting a patient's rights would not reduce a doctors'...

• European Link to Eye Fungus Troubles Bausch & Lomb

  Ricky Bagolie | May 06, 2006 9:15 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  More bad news for Bausch & Lomb as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has notified the company additional cases of Fusarium keratitis involving contact lens wearers have been linked to another of its products. The CDC has found some 27% of the reported cases of the rare fungal infection in contact lens wearers occurred in people who had used ReNu MultiPlus, a contact lens...

• OSHA Cites 14,000 Employers for High Worker Injury Rates

  Ricky Bagolie | May 04, 2006 9:39 AM | 0 CommentsJersey City, NJ

  Is your job safe? Approximately 14,000 employers have been notified that injury and illness rates at their worksites are higher than average and that assistance is available to help them fix safety and health hazards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) announced. OSHA wants these jobs to clean up their act.Check to see if your job is on the list. The 14,000 sites are...