Class Action Blog : Consumer Fraud, Consumer Protection, Securities and Antitrust Lawyer & Attorney : Meiselman, Denlea, Packman, Carton & Eberz

Are Pampers diapers causing chemical burns on babies?  Thousands of parents think so, and now government officials are investigating their claims.  The Consumer Product Safey Commission (“CPSC”) has announced that it is reviewing complaints received about diaper rashes that appear to be associated with the use of Pampers diapers with Dry Max, manufactured by Proctor and Gamble (“P&C”).  Parents have reported the appearance of what look like chemical burns on their children when using Pampers Swaddlers diapers with Dry Max and Pampers Cruisers diapers with Dry Max.  Indeed, in March, 2010, P&C changed its "Pampers Swaddlers" and "Pampers Cruisers" to include "Dry Max."  Dry Max is a thinner and more absorbent material that replaced the paper pulp previously used.  P&C calls the change "new and improved" but some parents are calling it a nightmare.

For example, Jenny Cooper of Eugene, Oregon is one of those parents.  Cooper told KVAL News that within about two days of using Dry Max diapers her son Paul developed a rash.  "And then it started to get worse," she said. "It actually started to blister on him.  And the blisters started to bleed on him.”  Paul was in so much pain, he would fight his mom when she tried to change him.  "There was a lot of screaming and crying and tears," said Cooper. "And he didn't want to sit down because his bum was really sore."

Cooper thought it might be a reaction to the diaper so she went online to find out more information. At one point, she went onto the Pampers Facebook page and found a link to another Facebook group with more than 6,500 members called "Pampers bring back the OLD CRUISERS/SWADDLERS."  The site includes numerous horror stories, tips from parents of how to cure the rash, and some very graphic pictures of irritated skin.

As for Jenny, she changed Paul into Huggies and said the problem has gone away.  She told KVAL News she strongly believes her son's rash was directly connected to the diapers.  "There's something wrong with the diapers," she said. "I'd like to see a mass recall of all the Pampers Cruisers and any of the other affected products.”  Cooper told KVAL News she called P&C to complain but says it didn't do anything.  She called P&C again a few days later and told the P&C customer representative she was taking her story to the news.  It was at that point that P&G quickly agreed to refund her money.

If you purchased and used "Pampers Swaddlers" and/or "Pampers Cruisers" and your child has been injured as a result, please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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The continuing dangers posed to infants by certain products has been highlighted by the recall announced this month by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) of approximately 635,000 cribs manufactured by Dorel Asia SRL of Barbados.  The recall was announced after the reported death of a 6 month old child who became entrapped and strangled in a Dorel crib after the drop side hardware broke.  The drop side hardware on the cribs can fail causing the drop side to detach from the crib creating a space in which an infant can become entrapped and suffocate or strangle.  This, as well as bruising and lacerations, may also occur if one of the slats is damaged.

Moreover, thirty six incidents of slat breakage have been reported. The drop side hardware failure or slat damage may occur while the crib is in use, in storage, being assembled, taken apart or reassembled or during shipping and handling.  The Dorel cribs were sold at Kmart, Sears and Wal-Mart stores nationwide from January 2005 through December 2009.

The CPSC also recently announced the recall of about 1.5 million strollers manufactured by Graco Children’s Products, Inc. of Atlanta, Georgia, between October 2004 and February 2008, due to fingertip amputation and laceration hazards.  There have been seven reports of children placing their fingers in the stroller's plastic, jointed canopy hinge mechanism while the canopy was being opened or closed, resulting in five fingertip amputations and two fingertip lacerations.  The recalled strollers were sold at AAFES, Burlington Coat Factory, Babies “R” Us, Toys “R” Us, Kmart, Fred Meyer, Meijers, Navy Exchange, Sears, Target, Wal-Mart and other retailers nationwide from October 2004 to December 2009.

If any infants or children you know have been injured by these products please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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You may have received an email recently, or heard stories from friends, that the venerable Pyrex brand cookware is susceptible to “exploding” and/or shattering when used in the oven or microwave.  Pyrex, of course, has always prided itself on the fact that its dishes can be used safely in baking food in the oven or microwave, used to freeze foods and is dishwasher safe.  So should consumers be concerned that Pyrex dishes are not as safe as they once were, or as safe as the company that now manufactures Pyrex dishes claims?

For example, rumors are circulating over the Internet that Pyrex dishes, originally manufactured and sold by Corning, were indestructible because they were made of borosilicate glass.  Purportedly, once Corning sold the Pyrex brand to World Kitchen (a Chinese based company), the dishes were no longer made in the U.S. and were no longer manufactured by using borosilicate glass.  Instead, World Kitchen was manufacturing Pyrex dishes in China by using soda lime glass which is allegedly not as indestructible as borosilicate glass and a lot cheaper.  Today, Wal-Mart is the largest distributor of Pyrex products, and the Pyrex dishes consumers grew to love and trust is not the product they think it is.  That is, it is not as safe or indestructible as the Pyrex dishes originally manufactured by Corning.

The truth, however, is a bit more complicated than the narrative described above.  First, all brands of glass bakeware may be susceptible to breakage under certain conditions, particularly when subjected to extreme changes in temperature.  Glass bakeware is not, in every case, “indestructible.”  However, although glass bakeware is not “indestructible,” there are hundreds of consumer complaints on the Internet of sudden breakage involving Pyrex branded glass bakeware.  Moreover, as of 2008, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) had received 66 complaints about Pyrex incidents over the last ten years.  Second, the claim that when the Pyrex brand was sold by Corning to World Kitchen, World Kitchen immediately changed the material used to make the dishes from borosilicate glass to lime-glass is not completely true.  In fact, Corning itself began manufacturing Pyrex dishes out of soda-lime glass -- instead of borosilicate glass -- back in the 1940’s.  Finally, the rumors quoted above claim that World Kitchen is a Chinese based company that manufactures its Pyrex branded bakeware in China.  Not true.  World Kitchen is a subsidiary of WKI Holding Co., which is based in Rosemont, IL and manufactures its products in the U.S.

Nonetheless, some critics have maintained that Pyrex dishes are involved in a number of dangerous shattering incidents, allegedly caused by negligent manufacturing of Pyrex dishes.  For example, U.S. Senator Dick Durbin has called for an investigation of Pyrex, some critics maintain that the Pyrex dishes sold today are inadequately tempered and other critics maintain that World Kitchen’s product instructions are allegedly insufficient, misleading and/or deceptive.  And, as noted above, there are hundreds of consumer complaints that can be found online describing Pyrex dishes shattering after normal use, sometimes ending with someone being severely injured.

If you have purchased Pyrex brand glass bakeware, and have been injured as a result of the bakeware shattering, please contact us to discuss your legal options.

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