So far in 2010, I haven't been able to blog as much here at the Agonist as I'd hoped to. Much of this has to do with increased family obligations now that my wife is working full-time again. Being a dad is great fun but also hard work and not something you can do while "multi-tasking".

Other obligations have also been eating up my time. One of the most interesting projects I've been working on is an endeavor to warn people of the dangers presented by denture creams such as Fixodent and Poligrip.

This will shock some of you, and others will not be surprised, but the relatively high levels of zinc present in these products present a very real danger to people with poorly fitting dentures who use a lot of adhesive to keep their false teeth in.

My clients have launched a web site called "Denture Cream Justice" where you can learn more than you ever wanted to know about neuropathy, the terrifying nerve syndrome caused by zinc overdose.

The reason I'm bringing this up at the Agonist is to emphasize the important role the plaintiff's bar plays in policing corporate power. GlaxoSmithKline has pulled their zinc-containing denture creams from the market due to the pressure of the law suits and bad PR they're facing.

Like unions and every other counter-balancing force to utterly unfettered corporate power, trial lawyers have been under siege for the past fifteen years. Our right to sue those who injure us has been collateral damage -- although some would say that was the target the whole time.

Here's more from my client, Edward Blizzard, writing on Huffington Post about GlaxoSmithKline's decision to pull denture creams containing zinc from the market:

On February 18, GlaxoSmithKline, the maker of popular denture cream products such as Super Poligrip, announced that it would remove zinc from all of its denture products. The company cited consumer safety concerns as the impetus for its decision and in a letter to doctors wrote that "long-term excessive use of GSK's zinc-containing denture adhesives" poses a potentially serious health risk.

The pharmaceutical giant went on to state that in 2009, it received "an increased number of adverse event reports" associated with its denture cream adhesives and that together with recent medical literature, evidence is mounting that denture creams laced with zinc can be not only dangerous, but crippling. Still, the company's willingness to take responsibility for the safety of its products ends there.

In the same letter to doctors, the company wrote "patients who have used Super Poligrip...in accordance with the instructions may continue to do so safely." What the company fails to note is that for decades, its products carried no dosage instructions or warning about zinc at all. The products' packaging simply told consumers to "start with a small amount" and "use more if needed." Only within the past year did the company acknowledge the dangers associated with its product in a package insert.

Facing an ever growing number of lawsuits from consumers left permanently disabled by its products, Glaxo is utilizing a strategy that corporations often employ when confronted by their own malfeasance: blame the victim. But the company acknowledged that consumers who used excessive amounts of its product did so because they had poorly fitting dentures, which are quite costly to replace. Without clear instructions from the manufacturer, and a warning about the risk of poisoning, consumers cannot be expected to know how much of the product they can safely use.