West Palm Beach Personal Injury Law Blog

A Florida compound pharmacy, The Compounding Shop, has agreed to voluntarily recall all of its sterile products after the Food and Drug Administration warned doctors and pharmacists to avoid drugs and supplies produced by the company. The warning was the result of a recent inspection in which FDA officials say they witnessed possible sterility breaches that could lead to a bacterial infection.

Compound pharmacies produce custom mixtures of drugs to meet specific requests from doctors and pharmacists. The FDA has increased inspection of compound pharmacies after a national meningitis outbreak that affected over 700 Americans and claimed 50 lives was linked to a Massachusetts compound pharmacy. The FDA's crackdown has led to several national recalls in the past few weeks.

According to a recent analysis of state and federal figures by the National Safety Council, distracted driving crashes may be seriously underreported by law enforcement agencies. If not investigated properly, Florida distracted driving crashes may be chalked up to driver inexperience, especially when teens are involved. Drivers who cause crashes due to texting or talking on cell phones may be liable in a wrongful death lawsuit, but families may not have the answers they need if the crashes are not documented as distracted driving accidents.

According to a study that reviewed 180 fatal crashes between 2009 and 2011, only half were coded as involving cellphone use by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In 2009, only eight percent of crashes were designated as distracted driving incidents, and in 2010 the number increased to 35 percent. Even when drivers admitted to cell phone use prior to a crash, the cases tended to be written up excluding this information.

A Florida pharmacy is recalling all of its sterile compounded products because the company could not be sure the products were sterile. According to the announcement on the website of Balanced Solutions Compounding pharmacy, the potentially defective drugs were distributed nationwide. They include popular injectables like progesterone, a birth control hormone, and betamethasone, an anti-inflammatory steroid.

The Food and Drug Administration recently inspected Balanced Solutions along with three other compounding pharmacies suspected of employing unsafe practices. Compounding pharmacies combine existing drugs to meet specific patient needs. They are typically regulated by state organizations, but the FDA has monitored the pharmacies more closely since a fatal meningitis outbreak that caused severe pharmaceutical injury was linked back to a New England compounding pharmacy.

Both the Dunecraft Water Balz and Orbeez, toys marketed to children because of their ability to expand when exposed to water, are under scrutiny due to safety concerns. The Water Balz were recalled in 2012, but the Orbeez products remain on the market in Florida and across the country. The recall of the Water Balz came after an eight-month-old infant swallowed one of the small balls, which may look like candy to young children and have the ability to expand tremendously when wet. A doctor stated that the child's intestine could have been perforated by the product's expansion if steps had not been taken.

Orbeez are notably smaller than the Water Balz, but Consumer Reports states that they may also be dangerous to children. They have the potential to block the airways and cause a child to choke, and they may also enter the digestive tract and cause health issues. Orbeez has a choking hazard label to address product liability, but it does not mention digestive issues in its warning. Other similar absorbent balls have been associated with injuries in other parts of the world, and they have been outlawed in Malaysia and Italy.