Seattle Injury Lawyer Blog

Consumer product manufacturers always seem to be striving to produce products that are easier to use, are more visually appealing and are improved from previous designs in some way. This kind of innovation often benefits consumers directly. However, new product design models can also harm consumers if these designs are not properly thought-out.

In recent years, both dishwashing detergent and laundry detergent have received a makeover. Instead of compelling the consumer to measure out the correct amount of liquid or dried detergent, manufacturers have placed these substances in single-use pods. These capsules are convenient, visually appealing and often work even better than traditional detergents. Unfortunately, their appealing and easy-to-handle packaging is proving to be quite hazardous to young children.

Young children find these single-use capsules to be visually appetizing. As a result, approximately 10,000 American children were problematically exposed to the capsules’ inner contents in the past year alone, according to the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Most often, children perceive the pods to be candy-like and either try to open the pods, consume their contents or both.

A few weeks ago, Congress passed a bill inspired in part by last year’s fungal meningitis outbreak that originated at a compounding pharmacy on the east coast. Tainted steroid injections produced by the pharmacy ultimately killed 64 people and made approximately 700 additional patients ill. These defective drugs could potentially have been kept out of the hands of patients had they been produced by large manufacturers which are subject to regulatory oversight that compounding pharmacies are not.

In response to this unacceptable patient safety loophole, Congress passed The Drug Quality and Security Act. The director of drugs and medical devices at Pew Charitable Trusts recently praised the passage of this legislation when he noted that, “Congress can still come together to pass meaningful legislation to protect the public’s health. This legislation will help protect lives and alleviate these costs by ensuring that prescription drugs are safe, effective and of the highest quality.”

However, some patient safety experts are not convinced that the new legislation will actually improve patient safety and a safe pharmaceutical culture. For starters, the new bill allows compounding pharmacies to register with the federal Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on a voluntary basis. The choice to adhere to stricter quality testing and sterility measures is also voluntary rather than mandatory, according to the bill. The bill also effectively legalizes large scale compounding without specific prescriptions.