Archive for agency
Johnson & Johnson files Tylenol consumer complaints late
Posted by: | CommentsLegal news for New York product liability attorneys— McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s agency filed consumer complaints a year later.
New York, NY (NewYorkInjuryNews.com) –The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) www.fda.gov has announced that McNeil Consumer Healthcare’s Johnson & Johnson unit should have taken action to recall Tylenol and other over-the-counter products after filed complaints of a strange smell of the product, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The FDA’s office of compliance sent the company a letter informing them of the violation of agency reporting rules and manufacturing practice rules. Consumers had been complaining about a mildew, moldy smell coming from the products in September 2008, and the agency did not begin a full investigation into the problem or report the complaints to the FDA until September 2009.
Friday, January 15, 2009, McNeil Consumer Healthcare expanded the recall to more than just Tylenol, but also recalled several other products such as Benadryl, Motrin, St. Joseph’s Aspirin. There were also complaints of musty-smelling Rolaids. There were consumer reports of nausea and temporal stomach issues due to use of the medication.
Investigations revealed that the moldy smell was linked to traces of a chemical that is applied to wood pallets used to ship the products. The company first recalled the Tylenol products in November 2009, simultaneously; the FDA was inspecting one of the agency’s plant in Puerto Rico. The FDA reported that, with the expanded recall, there were 50 million bottles recalled. It was noted that in 2009, Tylenol made up about $1 million in sales across the country. A report released by company, which stated that it failed to test if the Tylenol was contaminated, even after numerous consumer complaints.
EPA Revises Guidelines In Response To Navistar Complaint
Posted by: | CommentsThe U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued revised guidelines for complying with tougher emissions standards on diesel engines, a move intended to counter complaints by Navistar International Corp. ( NAV) that the agency’s previous guidance was flawed.
Navistar, which is suing the EPA over its certification process for a popular technology to reduce nitrogen oxide emissions, said the new guidelines are largely cosmetic. The company said truckers will still be able to operate 2010 model trucks for long stretches without a functioning pollution-reduction system.
“Both the new and the old guidance allow that to be done over and over again,” Navistar said in a filing this week with the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. “The net effect is that for a substantial time on the road, uncontrolled nitrogen oxide will be spewed into the air by millions of trucks.”
The EPA’s latest compliance guidance removed the suggested limits on the hours and miles trucks can operate without sufficient levels of the urea solution before the trucks begin to lose power and eventually become inoperable. The EPA said removing specific parameters eliminated confusion over whether the guidelines are actually binding requirements.
“While EPA understands that a certain amount of time or mileage may be needed to provide the driver enough time to have the vehicle serviced, EPA is not determining in this guidance what specific amount of time or mileage … would be needed,” the agency said.
The EPA is leaving such limits for truck and engine manufacturers to determine. Navistar complained that the agency’s 1,000-mile limit in EPA’s earlier guidance would have permitted truck drivers to disregard the new regulations for 1,000 miles every time the urea solution in their trucks ran out. But the company argued the agency’s latest approach doesn’t reduce the likelihood of trucks operating without functioning SCR systems.
Illinois-based Navistar is the only truck maker in North America that is not treating nitrogen oxide with SCR, opting instead for a process that recirculates cooled exhaust through its engines.
AHCA launches online complaint form
Posted by: | CommentsThe Florida Agency for Health Care Administration has launched an online health care facility complaint form.
The state agency regulates 41 types of health care service providers, including hospitals, nursing homes, assisted living facilities and home health agencies.
In 2008, the agency received 7,788 complaints from Floridians through phone calls and written correspondence. Many complaints involved patient or resident care concerns within the health care facilities regulated by the agency, according to a Nov. 9 AHCA
The most frequent concerns involved issues such as billing practices, responsiveness to grievances, and care provided to residents at assisted living facilities and home health agencies. They also included concerns about nursing care, administration of medication and quality of food.
“The new online health care facility complaint form will give Floridians direct access to our agency when they feel a violation has occurred, allowing us to act quickly and efficiently to help correct the issue,” AHCA Secretary Thomas Arnold said in a news release.
Warning on Shock Risk of Breast Pumps
Posted by: | CommentsThe Food and Drug Administration said baby-products maker Evenflo Co. failed to properly investigate some complaints involving women who reported receiving electrical shocks while using the company’s breast pumps. In an Aug. 25 warning letter released by the agency Tuesday, the FDA said it found manufacturing violations at two Ohio plants that make pumps used by women to express breast milk. The breast pumps are sold nationwide under the “Comfort Select” brand name. Evenflo, of Miamisburg, Ohio, is private firm that makes a variety of baby products including toys, high chairs, car seats and strollers.
The FDA warning letter stemmed from inspections of two Evenflo facilities in January and February. Since then, the FDA and the company have worked to address violations of FDA manufacturing rules, with Evenflo providing monthly updates to the agency.
During the inspections, the FDA found Evenflo wasn’t in compliance with the agency’s manufacturing practice rules, including “failure to review and evaluate all complaints” and for failing “to establish medical device reporting procedures for your breast pumps.” Companies are required to report problems with devices to the FDA.
The agency said it reviewed 37 complaints and, of those, 18 weren’t investigated by the company, including at least three reports of women receiving an electrical shock when using the breast pumps. The FDA said companies are required to investigate complaints that involve “the possible failure of a device to meet any of its specifications.”
Amy Neff, Evenflo’s associate general counsel, said the company does investigate its consumer complaints but said the problem was a “documentation issue.” In its letter, the FDA said the company’s response to the complaint-investigation problem is now “adequate.” However, on the medical-device reporting problem, the FDA said the company has yet to fully address the agency’s concerns.
Telecom complaints agency finally going public
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s been two years since its formation, and still only a few Canadians know there is an agency where they can take their internet and cellphone complaints, a fact the group promises will change over the next six months.
The cumbersomely named Commission for Complaints for Telecommunications Services celebrated its second anniversary in July and is finally gearing up to roll out a publicity campaign over the remainder of this year.
The campaign, which aims to inform Canadians that they have a recourse in resolving disputes with telecommunications service providers, was supposed to have started last fall but was delayed because of difficulties in getting member companies to agree. Regulators require every major service provider — including Bell, Rogers, Telus, MTS Allstream, Shaw, Videotron and EastLink — to be a member of the CCTS.
Service providers such as Bell, Rogers and Telus will also be required to display CCTS information and contact details prominently on their websites and publish those same details on bills at least twice a year. The first such publication must happen before the end of January, Maker said. Information on the agency will also be published in white pages phone books.
Complaints almost tripled
Despite its lack of public visibility, the CCTS still saw a large increase in the number of complaints it received. The agency was contacted about 17,000 times during its second year, up from 6,000 times in its first year. The number of complaints accepted for investigation, however, did not rise correspondingly — only about 3,000 cases versus 2,200 from a year earlier.
Maker says the agency also refers many customers back to their provider when there is doubt about whether the company has had ample opportunity to resolve the complaint. Also, many customers contact the CCTS a number of times before lodging a complaint, which raises the discrepancy in case numbers.
The agency is also set to re-examine its funding system. Some of its members would prefer their share of funding be proportionate to the number of complaints they generate. Maker says the agency’s board is about to begin that debate with members.
Consumers may also get more relief on Sept. 1, when cellphone providers roll out a “wireless code of conduct,” a set of self-governing rules that will aim to head off complaints before they happen.
Senate Derides Consumer Protection: ‘Yes We Can Has Become No You Can’t’
Posted by: | CommentsDuring the debate over financial regulation, the Federal Reserve chairman, Ben S. Bernanke, has been surprisingly quiet.
But behind the scenes, he has been a forceful proponent of giving the Fed more power, both defending his management of the economic crisis and arguing that more authority would help the agency act more decisively to reduce the chances of a recurrence, according to interviews with lawmakers and officials from the Fed, the Treasury and the White House.
Despite criticism by some lawmakers that the Fed failed to anticipate the problems that led to the crisis, Mr. Bernanke has told associates that such critics fail to recognize the extraordinary actions taken by the central bank over the last year.
Mr. Bernanke believes the Fed’s actions have played a major role in averting a possible second Great Depression, according to government officials who know his thinking. Those steps, the Fed chairman has told these people, demonstrate that the agency is up to the larger task assigned to it by the Obama administration.
Mr. Bernanke has one important champion — President Obama. On Tuesday, the president reinforced his preference for an enlarged role for the Fed in a news conference at the White House.
The biggest impact, government officials said, is not in the number of institutions the Fed regulates, but in how it regulates them. It will have to go beyond measuring the financial safety of institutions to examining their connections to other firms and markets, and the dangers those connections could pose.
By possibly requiring the largest institutions to hold more capital against losses or to reduce the amount of debt they carry, for example, the Fed could make firms less profitable and less competitive with their smaller rivals. That in turn could prompt some of the largest institutions to decide to shrink, either by borrowing and lending less, or selling off units.
Fed officials said they expected that new capital requirements would be tailored to the risks and strengths of each bank.
Hearing on Consumer Financial Protection Agency
Posted by: | CommentsBusiness and trade-group lobbyists are beating a path to Capitol Hill this week for the first major battle over the Obama administration’s efforts to overhaul the financial regulatory system.
A coalition of business representatives, who are skeptical about a proposed Consumer Financial Protection Agency, has met repeatedly in recent weeks to hone their argument that a new regulator could cause more harm than good and to strategize about which members of Congress might be sympathetic to their cause.
These opponents of a new agency have begun visiting members of the House Financial Services Committee, which plans to take up the proposal in the coming weeks, and are putting a top priority on centrist Democrats, according to people familiar with the meetings. Though the groups represent different industries with often divergent interests, they share concerns that the new agency proposed by the administration could intervene in business activities in overbearing and unproductive ways.
Direct animal neglect complaints
Posted by: | CommentsIf you witness animal abuse or neglect, please contact your local humane society, animal shelter, or animal control agency immediately. In most areas, those agencies have the authority to enforce state and local laws related to animals and the capability to investigate and resolve these situations. They rely on concerned citizens to be their eyes and ears in the community and to report animal suffering. You can choose to remain anonymous, although giving your name to your humane agency will enable that group to follow up with you when necessary.
These dedicated agencies have the important job of ensuring that animals in their jurisdiction receive proper food, water, and shelter, and are protected from abandonment and cruel treatment. The prevention of cruelty to animals represents the core mission of many local animal care organizations. Investigation requests can come from members of the community or other law enforcement agencies.
How are complaints investigated?
While the exact process may vary depending on the local laws and procedures, an officer will look into the complaint to see if animal cruelty statutes have been violated. If in fact a violation has occurred, the officer may speak with the owner and issue a citation and give the owner a chance to correct the violation.The majority of cruelty complaints stem from simple neglect of the animal, rather than deliberate abuse. The humane officer’s biggest role is as an educator—informing well-meaning, but unknowledgeable, pet owners of the proper care of their pets.
In rare cases, animal neglect or abuse may be extreme and require immediate intervention. Depending on the circumstances, the animals may be removed from the situation by the humane agency to protect them from further harm. The agency will present the case to the prosecutor’s office for further evaluation and possible prosecution. Some agencies have the power to obtain and serve warrants; other agencies work closely with local police who execute the search warrant on their behalf.