Colorado Law Blog

Children's sweatshirts or jackets with drawstrings create a strangulation hazard to children which can result in serious injury or death, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said. In May 2006, the agency announced that children's sweatshirts or jackets with drawstrings at the hood or neck would be regarded as defective and presenting a substantial risk of injury to young children. Earlier this month, it announced fines against four companies Tuesday for improperly selling hooded sweatshirts or jackets that have drawstrings at the neck, posing a safety hazard.

About 120,000 Hill Sportswear sweatshirts with drawstring were sold at various small retailers in California and Texas from 2003 through December 2008 for approximately $8 apiece. Due to the serious nature of this hazard, parents are urged to immediately remove the drawstrings from the sweatshirts or return the garments to either the place of purchase or to Hill Sportswear for a full refund.

In November 2008, a 3-year-old boy died in Fresno, Calif., when the drawstring on his Hill Sportswear hooded sweatshirt reportedly became stuck on a playground set strangling him. Hill Sportswear and CPSC announced a recall of the sweatshirts in February of this year.

In agreeing to the settlement, the companies deny CPSC's allegations that they knowingly violated the law. Federal law requires manufacturers, distributors, and retailers to report to the agency within 24 hours that a product contains a defect that causes a safety hazard or doesn't comply with consumer product safety rules.

The commission issued guidelines in 1996 to help prevent children from strangling or getting entangled in the neck or waist drawstrings in jackets and sweatshirts. In 1997, the clothing industry adopted a voluntary standard for drawstrings that incorporated the CPSC guidelines.

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Any one wandering why there is urgency in the campaign for health care reform should know that every hour of the status quo costs lives. According to a Harvard Medical School study released last week, nearly 45,000 people die in the United States each year -- one every 12 minutes -- in large part because they lack health insurance and cannot get adequate care. Overall, researchers said American adults age 64 and younger who lack health insurance have a 40 percent higher risk of death than those who have coverage.

A similar study in 1993 found those without insurance had a 25 percent greater risk of death, according to the Harvard group. The Institute of Medicine later used that data in its 2002 estimate showing about 18,000 people a year died because they lacked coverage.

Roughly 46.3 million people in the United States lacked coverage in 2008, the U.S. Census Bureau reported last week, up from 45.7 million in 2007. This increase in numbers of uninsured results in greater risk for the group. Another factor is that there are fewer places for the uninsured to get good care. Public hospitals and clinics are scaling back or closing across the country. Uninsured people are more likely to die from complications associated with preventable diseases such as diabetes and heart disease.

The Harvard researchers analyzed data on about 9,000 patients tracked by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics through the year 2000. They excluded older Americans because those aged 65 or older are covered by the U.S. Medicare insurance program.

On September 10, the U.S. Census Bureau released its annual estimates from the Current Population Survey (CPS) of the number and percentage of Americans who lacked health insurance coverage in calendar year 2008. Nationally, the number of uninsured people grew from 45.7 million to 46.3 million between 2007 and 2008, while the uninsured rate remained stable at 15.4 percent of the population. Colorado's uninsured rate in 2007-08 is estimated to be 16.1 percent. According to the CPS estimates, the number of uninsured Coloradans is 790,000 in 2007-08.

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A Kentucky jury deliberated only 90 minutes before acquitting a high school football coach yesterday in the heatstroke death of a 15-year-old player. The coach was accused of ordering his players to run a series of sprints on a 94-degree day, refusing to relent even after some began vomiting. The defense argued that Max Gilpin was more susceptible to the heat because he used a drug for attention-deficit disorder and a dietary supplement.

Observers say that, despite the acquittal, the trial sends a message that coaches have to err on the side of caution on hot days. See High School Coach Charged in Player's Death

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Major marijuana operations in the high country have the attention of top law enforcement officials after last week's seizure of 14,500 marijuana plants in the Pike National Forest near Deckers. The seizure last week is believed to be the largest in Colorado history. A hiker made the discovery and notified authorities, who estimated the haul to be worth millions of dollars.

In the latest discovery, in Pike National Forest near Deckers, dozens of federal and local agents found a rifle, piles of discarded garbage, propane tanks and more than 14,500 marijuana plants in an area the size of a football field. It could be the largest marijuana-growing operation ever found in Colorado.

Last month, authorities seized 5,100 plants, worth an estimated $2.5 million, from a pot-growing operation in Pike National Forest near Cheesman Reservoir.

Forest Service rangers had previously encountered only small mom-and-pop marijuana-growing operations. The bigger farms found this year indicate that well-funded drug cartels have discovered the Rocky Mountains. Federal authorities arrested two suspects in the most recent case, both illegal immigrants from Mexico.

Drug cartels, believed to be based in Mexico, are expanding into national forests to avoid the difficulty of moving marijuana grown in Mexico across the border. To maintain control, they import workers from that nation who spend months living in the forest monitoring the plants, authorities said.

But finding and catching them is difficult. Currently, 29 rangers oversee more than 14 million acres of forests and grasslands in Colorado. Each ranger must monitor an average of 500,000 acres each.

In the Deckers operation, farmers suspected of being brought from Mexico carried miles of irrigation tubing, propane tanks and farm equipment to the site, about two miles east of Colorado 126. The marijuana plants were sown on different days so that they could be harvested in stages and the operators built a large shed where bundles of marijuana were hanging from the ceiling to dry.

The marijuana farmers used pesticides, weed killers and rat poison on crops within a few feet of Gunbarrel Creek. So chemicals could have drained into Gunbarrel, which empties into the South Platte River. Workers stay close to the farms during the entire growing season, posing a safety risk to anyone hiking or hunting in the national forests.

Although no one in Colorado is known to have been attacked or killed while mistakenly walking into a marijuana growing camp, the potential is there. People hiking in national forests need to be aware of several red flags, including trails formed where there shouldn't be any, as well as tortilla wrappers and beer, Spam and tuna cans left on them. Also, people should not take the time to take pictures or record GPS positions. They should quickly hike away and call authorities.

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Pinnacol Assurance, the insurance company responsible for Colorado workers' compensation claims, paid bonuses to claims adjusters and doctors based on performance standards that included net income targets. State Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora has accused the insurance company of rating employees on how quickly they disposed of claims, giving claims adjusters an incentive to dismiss them. Carroll said claims adjusters were also rated based on "customer satisfaction," which Pinnacol told her were the businesses that paid for the insurance, not the injured workers who needed medical attention, giving Pinnacol an incentive to hold down costs.

The committee was formed after lawmakers considered but ultimately rejected taking the company's $684 million surplus to help balance the state's budget. Pinnacol says its surplus is now $580 million because it again refunded more money to its policyholders this year. Lawmakers said the surplus came at the expense of injured workers who had their claims denied. See Colorado Workers Comp Under Review.

On Monday, a dozen workers injured on the job told lawmakers they were spied upon and their claims were unfairly denied. Witnesses included a former Durango firefighter who was injured in training told legislators he was forced to sell his home after Pinnacol denied him the surgery he needed to fix his back, and a former union worker who said nurses were sent with him on doctor visits to spy on him.

The committee is considering whether the company should have more state oversight or whether it should be sold off. But since Pinnacol is a hybrid of public and private, lawmakers may not have the right to sell it.

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Years after the enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act, some businesses still don't get it. A national credit card company refused to help a vision-impaired woman with a disputed charge and a bank refused to cash a check for a man missing both arms because he could not provide a thumbprint.

A 71-year-old vision-impaired New York woman made the complaint that sparked the changes. She says she spent three months on the phone arguing daily with HSBC representatives about a charge for a household item she never received, the news agency reports. Not only did they tell her that she had to fill out a written form, several told her they had never heard of the Americans With Disabilities Act, which requires such accommodation.

And many banks require non-account-holders to provide a thumbprint when cashing a check drawn on a customer's account, but not when the person seeking to cash the check doesn't have any arms.

That was the issue presented last week when Steve Valdez arrived at a Bank of America branch near his home in Tampa, Fla., to cash a check written by his wife on her account there. Born without arms, the 54-year-old Valdez had two forms of identification. But, according to Valdez, both the teller and a branch manager refused to cash his wife's check without a thumbprint. His only alternatives, the manager said, were to bring his wife to the branch with him or open his own account there.

The bank has since apologized to Mr. Valdez and his family for any inconvenience. In a written statement Bank of America stated "This is an isolated occurrence and does not represent the bank's policies for accommodating customers or non-account holders with disabilities. We have ensured those policies have been underscored with all our associates across the bank."

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