Emerging Products & Technology

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Self-driving car concept

After 130 million miles driven without a fatality, Tesla Autopilot’s perfect track record ended tragically on May 7 with the first fatal crash of a car using Autopilot. Given the infrequency of fatal crashes involving autonomous vehicles, why are commentators suggesting that the auto industry “put the brakes” on this technology?

That’s unclear, especially with the facts here. Autopilot has a better safety record than human drivers. Overall, drivers in the United States cause one fatality roughly every 93 million miles. This was Autopilot’s first fatal accident in over 130 million miles driven.…
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Self-driving car concept

Imagine you are driving down a two-lane mountain road.  As you round a bend, you see five pedestrians in your lane.  You do not have enough space to stop before hitting them, but in the other lane there is only one pedestrian.  Do you stay in your lane, killing five? Do you swerve into the other lane, killing one?  Or do you steer off the road and down the mountain, avoiding the pedestrian fatality but likely killing yourself?  Can you make that decision better than an autonomous car?…
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On December 8, 2015, researchers at Harvard University announced that they had examined a small sample of flavored e-cigarette products and found that some contained diacetyl, a chemical suspected of causing respiratory illness. In the wake of this announcement, some news organizations reported that the Harvard paper established a “link” between e-cigarettes and bronchiolitis obliterans, a disease associated with diacetyl exposure.

But the Harvard study did not discuss any connection between diacetyl in e-cigarettes and respiratory illness. The researchers merely noted the presence of diacetyl in e-cigarettes and that diacetyl has been associated with respiratory disease in the industrial context. The study drew no conclusions about the possible health risks that vaping poses to consumers. Instead, the study’s authors recommended that this new potential source of exposure to diacetyl be further evaluated.…
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Male hacker with mask stealing information

Millions of Americans rely on implantable medical devices to stay alive. These battery-operated devices communicate through wireless transmissions — and can be hacked like any other wireless device. For example, a wireless pacemaker regulates a person’s heartbeat and records the heart’s activity, and then transmits this information to doctors who can reprogram the pacemaker. The interconnectivity between medical devices and clinical systems leaves wireless medical devices vulnerable to security breaches.…
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Two partners from Schiff Hardin LLP’s Product Liability & Mass Torts Practice Group spoke about the future of mass tort litigation in the United States at the Lloyd’s Old Library in London on October 20, 2015.  Paul A. Scrudato and Edward Casmere discussed the state of mass tort litigation and its future with a group of London-based insurance professionals in the historic Old Library at Lloyds on Lime Street in London.  The topics included nanotechnology, pharmaceuticals and medical devices, e-cigarettes, wearable technology, and fracking.
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Gsm Antenna Transmitter

Less than 1% of the population suffers from the serious gluten allergy known as celiac disease. Yet every time this writer goes out to dinner at least one dining companion passes on bread and pasta, claiming a self-diagnosed “gluten sensitivity” that manifests as a collection of nondescript symptoms, the major one being “fatigue.” The odd thing is that our obsession with gluten – present in a staple food for millennia – has only recently become the bad actor in all sorts of physical and mental maladies in celiac-free individuals.…
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structure geometric of framework electricity

For those of you who are fans of Michael McKean of This is Spinal Tap (lead singer David St. Hubbins…remember?), you know that he has a recurring role as Saul Goodman’s brother Chuck, on AMC’s hit show Better Call Saul.  Chuck is an x-Big Law partner who is convinced he has electromagnetic sensitivity. So he says in a dark, electricity free house wrapped in a big foil space blanket.  Art does, however, imitate fiction, as there are folks who live in communes in the US and Europe that are totally removed from any electromagnetic radiation from things like cell phones, garage door openers, and wifi.…
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No smoking electronic cigarette in the office

As regulatory clouds continue to gather over the electronic cigarette industry, public health researchers have set their sights on the potential risks these products pose to non-users. A study published this month in conjunction with the FDA’s second public workshop on e-cigarettes claimed that bystanders may be exposed to aerosol particles smaller than 1,000 nanometers, similar in size to tobacco smoke and diesel engine exhaust. The aerosol, according to the study’s authors, contains nicotine, glycerin/glycols, artificial flavorings, and preservatives.
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The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has finally announced its proposed rules governing the commercial use of drones.  The proposed rules, which have been long-awaited by members of the emerging multi-billion dollar unmanned aerial vehicle industry, pave the way for the commercial use of drones in the United States.  The proposed rules, released on February 15, 2015, are applicable to all commercial drones under 55 pounds.  The rules would require such drones to operate only in daylight hours below a 500 foot altitude ceiling and under a 100 mph airspeed limit.

The proposed rule would also prohibit the operation of commercial drones in the vicinity of other aircraft or known flight paths and, significantly, would prohibit the operation of drones above any people not involved in the operation of the drone.  One restriction in particular is likely to receive significant attention during the upcoming comment section for the proposed rule.  That proposal requires that drones only be operated within the unaided visual-line-of-site of their operators. Such a limitation, combined with a proposed prohibition of dropping any objects from a drone, is certain to impact various publicized plans for commercial drone delivery services.…
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Researchers, academics, public health advocates, and other stakeholders in the e-cigarette industry participated in the FDA’s first public workshop on e-cigarettes over two days in December 2014.  The workshop on e-cigarettes and other vapor products (sometimes referred to as Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems, or ENDS) suggested that ongoing efforts to regulate these devices are aligning some players while at the same time exposing some divisions within the industry.

Several common themes emerged from tobacco industry representatives, FDA-affiliated presenters, and public health presenters at the workshop: product uniformity, material quality standards, and concerns about user-modified products. Some participants expressed concern that user-modified devices allow for greater inhalation, as well as increased fire risk from more powerful batteries.  FDA chemist Michael Trehy pointed out the presence of impurities in e-cigarettes, as well as variations between claimed and actual nicotine content of certain products.  It was suggested that a push against user-modified products may disadvantage smaller players in the market, who specialize in customizable “open systems,” and that regulations may give large traditional tobacco manufacturers an edge over smaller competitors.

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