by Sterling Anthony, CPP, expert in packaging, marketing, logistics, and human-factors.
Synopsis:
Parents discovered that their toddler had gotten hold of a bottle of baby oil and had gotten the product around his nose and mouth. The parents cleaned the toddler’s face. The toddler showed no immediate ill-effects, but the next day experienced breathing difficulties and was taken to the hospital. He was diagnosed as having inhaled (aspirated) baby oil. The oil had coated the toddler’s lungs and the hydrocarbons in the oil had caused a type of pneumonia. After languishing for days, the toddler died.
The parents brought a wrongful death suit against the manufacturer of the baby oil, alleging an unreasonably dangerous product, defective packaging, and failure-to-warn.
I was retained by the attorney for the Plaintiff.
My opinions:
The packaging had a design defect, being a squeezable plastic bottle without a child-resistant closure.
The packaging had a marketing defect, lacking warnings against the hazard of inhalation.
It was foreseeable that the product would be found in households having young children.
It was foreseeable that the product would end up in the hands of a young child if left within that child’s reach, given the lack of warnings to the contrary.
It was foreseeable that the product can be an attractive nuisance, in that a child accustomed to having the product administered by an adult might try to apply it to himself, given the opportunity.
It is known that young children have the dexterity to remove a closure that is not child-resistant, in addition to having the strength to squeeze a plastic bottle.
There had been similarly-caused fatalities on record; therefore, the Defendant knew or should have known about the hazard posed by the product.
The state-of-the-art in packaging included solutions that were technologically and financially feasible.
The state-of-the-art in warnings theory established a duty-to-warn, under the conditions attendant to the case-at-issue.
Result:
The case settled.
Sterling Anthony’s contact information: 100 Renaissance Center-Box 176, Detroit, MI 48243; 313-531-1875; thepackagingexpertwitness@gmail.com; www.thepackagingexpertwitness.com.