Researchers at Dartmouth College have found that organic baby formulas, as well as cereal bars, have high levels of arsenic contained in them. The arsenic that has been found in the products has been deemed inorganic arsenic, which has an elevated risk of cancer development.

The arsenic is concentrated in organic brown rice syrup. This syrup is used as an alternative to high fructose corn syrup as a way to make the product healthier in nature.  The researchers found that the baby formula and the cereal bars, that showed rice as a main ingredient, had increased amounts of arsenic.

There are regulations on arsenic in water consumption, but currently there are not any set for food products. One of the researchers involved in the study recommended that parents not feed their infant children baby food products with rice syrup as one of the main ingredients.

If you have been injured due to a toxic food product, please contact the Hunterdon County product liability lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. by calling 800-346-5529 today.

Two people have died after the car they were riding in crashed into a construction vehicle on the New Jersey turnpike.

The car accident took place around 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday. The 31-year-old driver, from Pleasantville, was traveling north on the turnpike when he drifted into the left lane, striking the back of a construction car. The construction vehicle was parked there in order to protect the workers on the highway.

The driver as well as the passenger, who was located directly behind him in the car, died as a result of the accident. Two other passengers were in the car, and they both sustained injuries in the crash. An investigation into the accident is still underway.

Our thoughts are with the victims’ families and friends.

One million packets of birth control are being recalled by Pfizer Inc. due to the fact that an error in packaging lead to an insufficient amount of the pills.

The names of the medication affected by this recall include: Lo/Ovral, Norgestrel, and Ethinyl Estradiol. The expiration dates on the faulty packages range in date from July 31, 2013 to March 31, 2014. Packets of this type of birth control come in one month supplies.

There are three weeks of the actual birth control pill and one week of inactive pills contained in each normal supply. Pfizer noted that the defective sets contained either too many birth control pills or too few. The risk associated with this recall is largely associated with the chance of an unintentional pregnancy.

If you have been affected negatively by a defective pharmaceutical product, please contact the Hunterdon County product liability lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. by calling 800-346-5529 today to discuss your legal options.

A massive explosion killed a driver after his or her vehicle collided with a tanker truck carrying nearly 8,000 gallons of gasoline.

The deadly accident occurred early on Tuesday morning on Route 1 and 9 in Elizabeth. The explosion awoke residents. Authorities have been unable to identify the driver of the car, which was wedged under the tanker truck when the explosion occurred.

The truck driver was able to escape from the accident unharmed. Local police are investigating the crash and so far are unsure of who had the right-of-way. The Elizabeth Fire Department flushed the storm drains as residents were temporarily evacuated from their homes.

Memorial Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida has been ordered by a jury to pay the family of a gastric bypass patient $177 million for negligence and damages.

The medical malpractice lawsuit was filed against the hospital after a 2007 gastric bypass surgery went horribly wrong. The patient, a 32-year-old former lieutenant in Clay County, developed serious complications after the surgery and the negligence of the doctors that followed left the man brain damaged and unable to care for himself.

The jury in the case determined that the doctors at Memorial Hospital were negligent in their care for the patient and awarded his family $167 million. An additional $10 million was also awarded for punitive damages in the case.

If you need assistance with a medical malpractice lawsuit, please contact the Hunterdon County medical malpractice lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. by calling 800-346-5529 today.

Last Friday, January 13, the Costa Concordia cruise liner struck large rocks and began to sink. Mayhem ensued and passengers on board began looking for ways to evacuate the boat. As of right now, there have been 11 confirmed deaths stemming from the accident and 21 people are still missing.

Italian authorities have released the names of four more victims of the accident. Three of the victims were passengers on the ship and one was employed as a violinist. There were more than 4,200 people on the Costa Concordia, including passengers and crew members when the boat began to tip.

The search mission resumed Wednesday morning after the harsh weather conditions subsided. The ship has been shifting in the rough waters and the rescue mission is becoming more difficult to perform.

The Hunterdon County personal injury lawyers of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. are hopeful that divers are able to find more survivors aboard the Costa Concordia.

Police are currently investigating a single-vehicle car accident in Franklin Township.  The driver of the vehicle, a 49-year old from Hillsborough, swerved off of Interstate 287 and crashed into a tree on Tuesday morning, and officials are unsure what caused him to do so.

The accident occurred at around 5:15 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the highway, near the Weston Canal Road Exit, according to New Jersey State police.  Officers found the 49-year old trapped inside his vehicle.

The driver was extricated from the car and transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital.  He was listed as being in critical condition with multiple unspecified, serious injuries.

If you or a loved one has been injured in a car accident, contact the Hunterdon County auto accidents attorneys of Levinson Axelrod, P.A. at 800-346-5529 to learn more about how we can help you.

According to a National Transportation Safety Board preliminary report, the remains from the single-engine Socata TBM 700 that crashed onto Interstate 287 has been sent to a storage facility where federal investigators will examine the aircraft.

Last Tuesday, the small airplane crashed in Morristown, killing everyone on board. Inside was an investment banker from Manhattan, his wife, their two children, and his colleague on their way to Atlanta. The pilot contacted air traffic control to report icing on the plane, a problem many other pilots reported that day.

Debris was thrown nearly a quarter mile around the crash site, some parts landing in wooded areas, onto the highway, and near a residential area.

It is unknown now if the amount of times a football player is hit can cause brain damage that consists of  memory loss and behavior problems, but researchers are trying to use ‘virtual biopsies’ to find out.

Researchers are experimenting with imaging techniques that will be able to tell if repeated concussions has lead to brain damage in athletes. The experiment being done now consists of five retired athletes, three NFL players, a boxer and a wrestler.

The imaging found suspicious chemicals in the former athlete’s brains. The athletes had suffered multiple hits per game and suggests that the athletes had chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

If you or a loved one has suffered a brain injury, contact the New Jersey brain injury lawyers of Levinson and Axelrod, P.A., by calling 800-346-5529.

A 3-year-old girl suffered traumatic brain injury after she had a lack of oxygen in her brain. Her stepfather was charged with suspicion of felony child abuse.

The incident occurred as police were called to the man’s house with a report that the child was not breathing. Paramedics were able to get the child’s heart started again.

The man told the police that he heard  “thud” as the child was playing upstairs with her toys, but paramedics said that the child was not breathing for several minutes before they revived her and the man changed his story several times. The child remains in the hospital at this time.

Our thoughts are with the victim during this difficult time.