Marketing Artist L.L.C.

Corporate Communications Consulting by Andrew Tytla

Monthly archives "May 2009"

Non-stick Lawsuit

Suing DuPont? Good luck.  Here’s a recent verdict, via Chattanooga Times Free Press and the AP:

A lawsuit against DuPont Co. claiming its nonstick Teflon cookware coating could pose health risks to users has been dropped.

The lawsuit included 22 cases from about 15 states. All had been consolidated to be heard in U.S. District Court in Des Moines, Iowa.

The lawsuit has been in the courts for four years.

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Longstaff signed a dismissal order on May 1.

The case was dropped because if failed to convince the court it deserved class-action status.

“The court determined that we did not meet the criteria to have it class certified,” said Kim Baer, a Des Moines attorney representing plaintiffs from Arizona, Nebraska, Iowa and New Mexico. “Given the fact that we cannot proceed as a class-action, the cases will not be going forward.”

She said the court did not rule on the issue of whether the cookware is safe.

Personally, I prefer cast iron.

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Healthy Global Domination

Calling it an “initiative” is gentler than calling it a “campaign” — less warlike, too. Considering the state of GE’s stock, this really is a global campaign in GE’s battle with the markets’ perception.

GE launched Healthymagination this week and I expect it to genuinely improve the quality of healthcare everywhere.

Under healthymagination, by 2015 GE will:

  • Invest $3 billion in research and development to launch at least 100 innovations that lower cost, increase access and improve quality by 15 percent. GE will also apply its expertise in services and its suite of performance improvement tools for impact in these areas. These actions will strengthen GE Healthcare’s business model.
  • Work with partners to focus innovations on four critical needs to start: accelerating healthcare information technology; target high-tech products to more affordable price points; broaden access to the underserved; and support consumer-driven health.
  • Expand its employee health efforts by creating new wellness and healthy worksite programs while keeping cost increases below the rate of inflation.
  • Increase the “value gap” between its health spend and GE Healthcare’s earnings to drive new value for GE shareholders.
  • Engage and report on its progress. GE will engage experts and leaders on policy and programs and create a GE Health Advisory Board, which will include former U.S. senators Bill Frist and Tom Daschle and other global healthcare leaders.

Healthymagination will draw on capabilities from across GE, including GE Healthcare, GE Capital, GE Water, NBC Universal, the GE Global Research Center as well as the GE Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GE.

Now, if we can just rehab the surly nurses’ behavior a local doctors’ offices…

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