Parker Waichman Partner Appointed to Dial Complete Plaintiff Steering Committee

Jordan L. Chaikin, Esq., a partner in the national personal injury law firm of Parker Waichman LLP, was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee in the Dial Complete Marketing and Sales Litigation (Multidistrict Litigation No. 11-md-2263-SM) underway in U.S. District Court for the District of New Hampshire. Mr. Chaikin was appointed to the Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee by the Honorable Steven J. McAuliffe, who is presiding over the litigation.

The Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee was created to, among other things, conduct and coordinate the discovery stage of the Dial Complete litigation with the defendants’ representatives or committee and to act as a spokesperson for all plaintiffs at pretrial proceedings and in response to any inquiries by the Court, said Parker Waichman in a press release issued last week.

Plaintiffs in the Dial Complete lawsuits allege that Dial made unsubstantiated health claims in its promotion of Dial Complete to consumers.
Plaintiffs also allege that Triclosan, the active antibacterial ingredient in Dial Complete, may lead to bacterial resistance.

Triclosan was originally developed as a hospital surgical scrub 40 years ago. Its ubiquity has grown and, today, it can be found in a multitude of consumer products, including antibacterial soaps like Dial Complete Antibacterial Foaming Antibacterial Handwash.

The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) first proposed regulating triclosan in 1972, but has yet to complete its review, according to a prior New York Times report. In 1978, the agency proposed eliminating triclosan as an active ingredient in hospital scrubs and hand soaps, issuing a similar proposal in 1994; nothing was ever finalized. In 2005, the FDA concluded that antimicrobial soaps and sanitizers do not reduce the risk of illness and infection in the home. The Canadian Pediatric Society and the American Medical Association have concluded similarly.

Last year, Representative Edward J. Markey (Democrat-Massachusetts) pressured the FDA to write regulations for antiseptic triclosan-containing products, calling for its ban in hand soaps and products that come in contact with food and that are marketed to children, said the Times. That year, the National Resources Defense Council sued the FDA in an attempt to force it to finish its triclosan review. Despite all of this pressure, the FDA said that it would again delay the results of its review.

In an April 8, 2010 “Consumer Update,” the FDA stated that it has no evidence that Triclosan-containing antibacterial soaps and body washes provide any extra health benefit over soap and water alone. Yet, despite mounting concerns surrounding Triclosan, Dial continues to aggressively advertise Dial Complete as having substantial health benefits and being more effective in its use than ordinary soap and water, plaintiffs allege.