CORPORATE CRIME REPORTER

I was honored to have been featured recently in the "Corporate Crime Reporter", a weekly newsletter in Washington, D.C. Below is the the soundcloud preview and written introduction to my recent interview with Russell Mokhiber, editor of the publication.

You may stream the preview:

The written introduction is included below.

Murder Inc.: How Unregulated Industry Kills or Injures Thousands of Americans Every Year... and What You Can Do About It will be available March 18, 2020 everywhere books are sold.

GERALD GOLDHABER ON HOW UNREGULATED INSTURY KILLS OR INJURES THOUSANDS OF AMERICAN EVERY YEAR


Gerald Goldhaber calls himself the warnings doctor.

Not the warnings nanny — the warnings doctor.

"I'm not the warnings nanny," Goldhaber told Corporate Crime Reporter in an interview last week. "I'm the warnings doctor. I'm not here to say — do this and don't do that. I'm here to say — do whatever you want, it's America. But do it with informed choice. Be an informed consumer. And unfortunately, we are not there yet. You have a corrupt government agency system under a President who is deregulating everything in sight. And as a result, companies are given a free ticket to keep it going. I'm telling industry — if you tell the truth, the customers will not flock away. They will stay with you. They may even respect you. And you will save over $1 trillion a year. That's the cost of litigating product liability cases. And almost all of them have a failure to warn claim. Those claims would be hard to litigate if you told the truth."

Goldhaber is the author of a new book titles — Murder Inc.: How Unregulated Industry Kills or Injures Thousands of Americans Every Year –And What You Can Do About It.

"We're exposed on a daily basis to life-threatening hazards of which we're often unaware," Goldhaber writes. "From defective airbags that can explode and kill us to poisonous additives in food, we're often the unknowing victims of corporate malfeasance and shamefully incompetent government oversight."

In the book, Goldhaber examines the outcomes when corporate profits trump public safety. He uncovers the history of government regulatory agencies leaders who come and go from the same industries they're asked to regulate.

"And while our modern conveniences make life easier and more enjoyable than previous generations, we also face new dangers of the digital age. The hacking of autonomous cars, misuse of private information collected by smart devices, and renegade programming glitches in smart homes and offices are just a few scenarios confronting us in the near future. The companies who produce these innovations need to ensure they're fail-safe, or face hefty lawsuits if and when things go wrong."

"Principal disclosure of hidden hazards is an industry — and regulatory — neccessity. We can only make informed choices and avoid needless injury and death when we know all the facts."

As an expert witness in product liability cases, Goldhaber sees how the system forces settlements instead of allowing plaintiffs to take cases to trial.

"I have been involved in many cases — and I'm involved in some cases now — where I have argued — this is crazy to settle this case," Goldhaber said.

"The facts are strong. Both sides want to settle as fast as they can. I often joke with other expert witnesses in the field — we are not expert witnesses. We are settlement experts. One side is trying to get the price up, the other side is trying to get the price down. We are being used as mediation settlement experts. It is rare that we get to trial."

Can you give us specific examples where this is happening?

"Settlements are done secretly. Nobody tells me how much money was involved in settling cases because of the non disclosure agreements. But when I hear that there is a settlement, I get nervous. I'm an expert whose opinions are backed by science. I go to court and give those opinions."

"Both sides can't trust the jury. It's the runaway jury idea. We don't know what the jury will do so we might as well play it safe. The statistics don't lie — 97.5 percent of all products cases settle. It's two in a hundred that actually go trial."

Do you have any remorse for participating in such a system?

"The reason I wrote the book is to help make things safer for people so they don't get injured or killed. When I leave a defense case, I tell my clients — you dodged a bullet here. Let's make it better. The standard is adequacy of warning, not excellence. I've told every single client — can we make it better? So, no I don't regret it. I'm trying to make it better."

"In writing this book, I'm not trying to tell every company to close shop. I'm telling them — make it better."

You have described a reactive system. What's a better system other than a reactive system?

"A proactive system. Anticipating ahead of time. Let's change it from reacting to lawsuits to preventing lawsuits. People sue because they get hurt or their families get killed. We are doing a much better job in making safer products than we did fifty years ago. But let's tell people what the risks are proactively."

"Coincidentally, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) has formed an initiative to encourage companies to anticipate hazards before they manufacture products. I met the guy in charge of this in a diner outside of Ralph Nadre's Tort Museum in Winsted, Connecticut. We stopped in thei greasy spoon to have breakfast, and there was nobody in there except this other guy from the IEEE, who was also visiting the Tort Museum."

Where has a proactive model worked?

"Daikin. The world's first or second largest commercial air conditioning manufacturers from Japan. They wanted to come into the United States. Their lawyer was an American lawyer who heard about me. They asked me to come in. The Japanese executive came here and they didn't understand the culture of lawsuits and litigation. The Japanese didn't think they could ever get sued. I simply said the way Tom Hanks said it in the movie Philadelphia — how can I get hurt? Tell me as a sixth grader, how can I get hurt or killed by this product? And who is at risk?"

"We identified who is at risk — the person who installs or maintains these air conditioners. That person can get electrocuted or scalded or they can lose a finger. We figured out where and how to warn. We tested the warnings. We put the warnings on. And they have not been sued at all. I can't guarantee they won't get sued. But as of this interview, they have not been sued."

WARNING: FDA DELAYS IMPLEMENTATION OF RULE THAT WOULD REQUIRE NEW NUTRITION LABELING

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • May 27, 2025
The FDA is delaying implementation of a rule that would require food companies to print nutritional information on the front labels of their products. The proposed rule was developed by President Biden’s Administration, with a comment period scheduled to close on May 16. The rule is designed to help consumers make better choices to avoid chronic health problems. Such problems—and consumer choices about nutrition—are things President Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has repeatedly touted. Even though hundreds of comments have been filed about the proposed rule, Kennedy’s Food and Drug Administration is delaying the close of the comment period by 60 days. Most of the comments filed so far have come from food companies and food industry trade organizations. “ A 60-day comment period extension allows adequate time for interested parties to submit comments while also not significantly delaying rulemaking on the important issues in the proposed rule ,” according to the FDA’s announcement about the delay. 

WARNING: THE GENDER BIAS IN CAR SAFETY TESTING PRESENTS AN ONGOING DANGER

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • April 30, 2025
Car accidents are a leading cause of injury and death worldwide, yet the safety measures designed to protect occupants in these life-or-death situations have long ignored a critical reality: women are more likely to be severely injured or killed in crashes than men. This disparity isn't rooted in biology alone—it’s also a result of a troubling oversight in the automotive industry’s safety testing protocols. For decades, crash-test dummies, which serve as proxies for human passengers in simulated collisions, have been modeled after the average male physique, leaving women out of the equation entirely. The Alarming Data Gap The implications of this gender gap in safety testing are both staggering and infuriating. Women, on average, have different body compositions than men—they tend to be shorter, lighter, and have different muscle distributions and bone densities. These physiological differences mean that women’s bodies interact with car safety features—such as seat belts, airbags, and headrests—in distinct ways. When vehicles aren’t tested with dummies that accurately represent female anatomy, crucial data about how to better protect women in crashes is simply ignored. Studies have revealed the dire consequences of this exclusion. Research from the University of Virginia found that women are 47% more likely to sustain serious injuries in car accidents compared to men, even when accounting for variables like seatbelt usage and crash severity. Women are also significantly more likely to suffer whiplash injuries due to the positioning of headrests, which are often designed with men’s neck dimensions in mind. These statistics aren’t just numbers—they represent lives cut short, families broken, and untold suffering that could have been mitigated with equitable safety testing.

WARNING: ARE MUSK, KENNEDY, AND TRUMP IGNORING THE GRAVE CONSEQUENCES OF SLASHING PUBLIC HEALTH FUNDING?

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • April 14, 2025
Recent budget cuts at the Health and Safety Science Services (HSSS) have sent shockwaves through the scientific and public health communities, threatening the very infrastructure designed to protect us from disease outbreaks, food contamination, and medical crises. These cuts have affected food inspectors, vaccine scientists, Alzheimer’s researchers, and experts studying bird flu, among others—positions that are essential to ensuring public safety and advancing critical medical research. The consequences of these decisions will be dire, potentially reversing years of progress and exposing society to increased health risks.

WARNING: IS ELON MUSK'S DEPARTMENT OF GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY JEOPARDIZING AIR SAFETY?

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • March 12, 2025
As Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DGE) pushes for sweeping reforms and cost-cutting across federal agencies, concerns are mounting over the impact on critical public safety roles. Among the most alarming areas affected is the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), where staff reductions may threaten the lives of millions of air travelers. The DGE, established with a mandate to streamline government operations and reduce bureaucratic waste, has come under fire for its aggressive downsizing tactics. Critics warn that essential safety personnel, including air traffic controllers, are being cut under the guise of efficiency, leaving the nation's airspace dangerously understaffed.

WARNING: WILL TRUMP'S SURGEON GENERAL SUPPORT IMPROVED ALCOHOL WARNING LABELS?

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • February 11, 2025
Biden Administration former Surgeon General, Vivek Murthy, on his way out of office, issued a Surgeon General's Advisory calling for new warnings on alcoholic beverages related to the cancer risk from consuming alcoholic beverages. Given that most individuals are unaware of the connection that consumption of alcoholic beverages can increase the risk for at least seven types of cancer, Murthy said in his advisory: "Given the conclusive evidence on the cancer risk from alcohol consumption and the Office of the Surgeon General's responsibility to inform the American public of the best available scientific evidence, the Surgeon General recommends an update to the Surgeon General's warning label for alcohol-containing beverages to include a cancer risk warning."

WARNING: TRUMP'S RE-ELECTION MEANS A DEREGULATORY NIGHTMARE FOR CONSUMERS

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • December 2, 2024
In my best-selling book, Murder, Inc.: How Unregulated Industry Kills or Injures Thousands of Americans Every Year...And What You Can Do About It , I propose a safety triad consisting of three components: manufacturers, regulators and consumers. All three must function properly in order to keep us safe. Manufacturers must produce and market safe (or safe as possible) products and warn us about any potential hazards so that we can make informed choices about whether or not to purchase their product and/or how to use it safely. Regulators , by imposing and implementing necessary rules and regulations, should hold manufacturers accountable for the above stated actions and to endure that they engage in "principled disclosure" by warning us about any potential hazards and dangers associated with their products. And, finally, Consumers , especially in the absence of well-meaning manufacturers or competent, well-intentioned regulators, must be highly diligent by researching products and learning about potential hazards prior to buying and/or using them. All three, manufacturers, regulators and consumers, must perform their jobs or the safety triad may fail to protect us and our loved ones. Think of a three-legged stool that distributes the weight of a person sitting on the stool, equally among the three legs. But what would happen if we leaned heavily to one side of the stool, essentially spreading the weight that was once borne by three legs to the two legs remaining braced to the floor. Unfortunately the third leg is no longer contributing to the stability of the stool, which may actually collapse because the two remaining legs may not be able to handle the amount of weight that was intended to be equally distributed among all three legs. 

WARNING: FDA RECOMMENDS REMOVING POPULAR DECONGESTANT FROM MARKET

By Dr. Gerald Goldhaber • November 15, 2024
If you or anyone in your family has used, uses or plans to use such over the counter (OTC) remedies for the flu or common cold as Theraflu, Robitussin, NyQuil, DayQuil, Mucinex, Sudafed or even some versions of Tylenol or Advil, you may want to read this newsletter very carefully.

WARNING: SOCIAL MEDIA IS ASSOCIATED WITH SIGNIFICANT MENTAL HEALTH HARMS FOR ADOLESCENTS

By Gerald Goldhaber • October 2, 2024
In an unprecedented, but, according to many social scientists and parents, a long overdue action, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, in a June editorial in the New York Times, called for a warning label to be placed on all social media platforms. In the words of the Surgeon General:

WARNING: DOES YOUR REFRIGERATOR CONTAIN LISTERIA?

By Gerald Goldhaber • September 5, 2024
If you are one of the millions of Americans who recently purchased one of several Boar's Head Deli Products, you may have bought a product containing deadly listeria bacteria. At least nine people have died and 57 have been hospitalized from a listeria outbreak linked to deli meat, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In late July, Boar’s Head, a deli meat and cheese company, expanded a previously announced recall to include at least 7 million pounds of deli products the company says may have been contaminated by listeria amid a nationwide outbreak. The recall spans 71 products and includes meat meant to be sliced at retail delis along with prepackaged meat and poultry products sold at retail locations, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

WILL THE CHEVRON DECISION CREATE A DEREGULATORY NIGHTMARE FOR CONSUMERS?

By Gerald Goldhaber • August 6, 2024
In my best-selling book, Murder, Inc.: How Unregulated Industry Kills or Injures Thousands of Americans Every Year...And What You Can Do About It (Hartford, Ct.:PYP Press, 2020), I discuss the need for "principled disclosure" from corporations about potential hazards that could hurt or kill us. I also discuss the role we as consumers play by seeking information about those hazards and finally, the role various regulatory agencies must play to initiate and enforce meaningful regulations on industry so that they do, indeed, engage in "principled disclosure" (i.e., tell the truth). In order to carry out its mandate, any regulatory agency or department charged with the responsibility of protecting the general public or consumers or workers and so on, must be empowered to both set the safety and hazard warnings rules and take aggressive, impactful action when they are not followed. Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court, in a landmark 6-3 vote last month, overturned a 60-year old decision, colloquially known as "Chevron", which has the potential to undermine our government's regulatory agencies' ability to hold corporations accountable. What is the Chevron Decision and how could it impact your safety and well-being? In a unanimous ruling, the Supreme Court ruled against energy giant, Chevron, who challenged the Clean-Air Act, and instructed lower courts to defer to federal agencies when laws passed by Congress are not crystal clear. The 40-year-old decision has been the basis for upholding thousands of regulations by dozens of federal agencies, but has long been a target of conservatives and business groups who argue that it grants too much power to the executive branch, or what some critics call the administrative state. In the decades following the ruling, Chevron has been a bedrock of modern administrative law, requiring judges to defer to agencies’ reasonable interpretations of congressional statutes. But the current high court, with a 6-3 conservative majority has been increasingly skeptical of the powers of federal agencies. With a closely divided Congress, presidential administrations have increasingly turned to federal regulation to implement policy changes. Federal rules impact virtually every aspect of everyday life, from the food we eat and the cars we drive to the air we breathe and homes we live in. For example, the Biden administration has issued a whole host of new regulations on the environment, including restrictions from emissions at power plants and from vehicle tailpipes. Those actions and others could be opened up to legal challenges if judges are allowed to discount or disregard the expertise of the executive-branch agencies that put them into place. When you consider who was advocating for the overturn of Chevron, it does not bode well for consumers and their safety: groups representing the gun industry and other businesses such as tobacco, agriculture, timber and homebuilding, were among those pressing the justices to overturn the Chevron doctrine and weaken government regulation. Can you imagine the FDA being defanged by Chevron-influenced lawsuits to the point where tobacco could sell their products to teens or resume advertising on television, a practice banned by Congress since 1970. Or imagine OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) regulations being stripped away that protect worker safety? Or a CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) challenged on its stringent toy regulations that are aimed at infant choking hazards? Or a Department of Agriculture no longer able to inspect meat with the rigor that industry now faces? Or a NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) no longer able to regulate the safety of our automobiles, especially now as we address the feasibility and safety of self-driving vehicles?
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