Defective or dangerous packaging causes injuries, deaths Special

According to news from Tulsa, Oklahoma recently, product liability cases are on the rise. Although there may be a number of reasons for this, could problems with packaging be involved?

Layers of plastic surround merchandise that includes everything from furniture parts to be assembled to batteries. Even a new electric toothbrush will be buried under plastic. Having cut my finger more than once on an edge of plastic while trying to extract merchandise from its wrapper, I wondered how this issue might be of concern to others, particularly to seniors and why product liability cases are on the rise. Diane Lessner lives in California with her 92-year-old mother. I asked her if her mother had problems opening up packaging in order to get certain merchandise from the wrappings. Lessner said she has to help her mother with items like this frequently. "I don't know why companies are making packages so difficult to open." she said. "I have to help my mother open things because it has become so difficult. Batteries are an example of this. They used to have a jagged place in the paper between batteries that allowed the person to open the package. They don't have it anymore." Lessner went on to say how especially difficult this can be for seniors.

AllBusiness, reporting on what has been occurring in Tulsa, Oklahoma, reports that lawyers are filing more cases about product liability than previously. It is hypothesized this is occurring in advance of the state's changes in tort laws making it more difficult to do so. This is in addition to medical malpractice cases as well. But are there other issues? First of all there are regulations with respect to product liability and what companies have to do to insure responsibility in the development of their products. Answers.com provides some information with the following quotation: "According to Section 102(2) of the Uniform Product Liability Act, product liability includes "all claims or action brought for personal injury, death, or property damage caused by the manufacture, design, formula, preparation, assembly, installation, testing, warnings, instructions, marketing, packaging, or labeling of any product." Injury and death can occur from packaging and containers in which material or equipment is sold. According to a government report, in 2003 there were 998,910 treated injuries with 371,240 of these treated in emergency rooms. The annual cost for all this is more than $15 million. Packaging is part of product safety for the consumer. Product liability cases are increasing with a consequent rise in injury or death as a result. The problem is growing even as there is increasing clamor for tort reform according to experts... Folks debate the matter of tort reform, but some people are concerned that product packaging can present risks, especially to older people. As Lessner says, "the packaging could be made simpler because accidents are possible, especially with the elderly." In the meantime, she maintains she will continue to help her mother with these matters because of the potential for accidents and injury when paring knives and other tools have to be used to open packages to get products layers deep in plastic.