Forest City – On Feb. 10th fire destroyed a two-story frame dwelling and the Lithuanian church and badly damaged three other dwellings.  The total damage, it is said, will reach close to $70,000.  The fire was caused by the blowing up of a boiler in the church.  The janitor, in starting the fire, had failed to put in water and when the boiler became heated the water, which was turned on slow, caused the boiler to explode.  Rev. A. Yunuszas stated that the loss of the church would reach close to $62,000 and an insurance of $16,000 was carried.  The loss of the dwelling adjoining the church will reach $5,000 and damage to the other three will reach $3,000.

Elk Lake – Rev. Cadwell, accompanied by Mrs. Cadwell, hiked in through snow drifts to his appointment at this place Sunday last.

Herrick Center - A petition was presented to the Public Service Commission for the elimination of the grade crossing near P. H. Flynn’s hotel, by residents.  Mr. Clanson, representing the commission, heard testimony in the case pro and con at this place, Thursday.  The Erie railroad was represented by its council.  The county and township was not represented by counsel.  Testimony was given by G. L. McGonigle, the chief complainant, Dr. A. L. Craft, Arthur Bowell, Laverne Carpenter, Arthur Flynn, John Jones of the Woodlawn Dairy Company, Joseph Calkins, township supervisor, Walton Burdick, on the part of the petitioners.  Erie officials gave testimony against the feasibility of a crossing.  It may be some time before a decision is reached.  The Ladies Aid furnished dinner for the gathering at the grange hall.

Montrose – The three upper classes in the high school have rebelled at a rule laid down the beginning of the year, Namely that if a student was tardy once, or absent five days, they must take the examinations even if their average was 85 or above.  A committee was appointed to wait on the principal, and the school board, and met with no success.  Then an article appeared ion one of the local papers signed “The Student Body” laying the bitter facts before a sympathetic (?) public and explaining how unjust it was if a person was unfortunate enough to be out on account of illness, that he must also have an added burden.  There is no getting around the fact that the rule is a stiff one, but in all probability, if certain students had minded the morning bell and been found in their places, instead of on the streets, this tardy rule might never beheld the light of day.  A week ago the school building was broken into, the clapper of the bell hidden; the art group of handsome statues presented to beautify the school room by graduating classes of the past was covered with ink and permanently damaged.

Thompson – Mrs. D. G. Casterline, of the North Side, who has been dealing out sauer

kraut this winter, in generous sized pails, selling to some and giving to many, took a 5 lb. lard pail from her pantry shelf the other day and went down the cellar to fill it with sauer kraut for one of her neighbors, and just as she was about to put in the first cupful something in the pail attracted her attention, which proved to be a most beautiful work bag of the latest design, which looked like one that had never been used.  Now she wants to know how it came there, who it belongs to, and all about it.  She hasn’t the remotest idea of how long it has been there, or who is the owner, but thinks that in some way the pails have got changed by mistake and that someone is wondering where on earth their hand bag has gone.  Someone suggested the idea that maybe it was a hint for more sauer kraut and thought the pail would not hold enough.  At all events it had a narrow escape and the owner may be thankful that Mrs. Casterline saw it just in time to save it from utter ruin. ALSO The store of C. R. Crosier has been a sort of rendezvous for the men and boys to congregate and talk over basket ball and war times, and it is now thought best to have them enlist and form a company and assign the honor of captain to Mr. Crosier to keep them out of danger.

Harford – Henry S. Jones, son of “Good Roads” E. E. Jones, State Senator from this district, has been driving an ambulance in France, in the vicinity of Verdun, for some months.  Not content with the excitement from dropping into shell crater holes or having shrapnel flying about him, he has taken up aeronautics.  While we naturally take pride in the daring of the brave young Susquehanna county boy, we would wish for him a less dangerous calling.

Jackson – John Jeffers, one of the few surviving veterans of the Civil War, celebrated his 70th birthday on Feb. 9, at his home near Jackson.  Neighbors and friends gathered in honor of the event and passed an enjoyable day.

Auburn Twp. – T. R. France’s family, of Jersey Hill, are sorely afflicted.  About Christmas their son, Arthur, had his ankle bone cracked by a wagon running over it.  Later, a daughter, Lela, was stricken with appendicitis and was taken to the Sayre hospital.  Soon after returning, she broke out with the measles and a few days later a younger sister, who is suffering from anemia, was stricken with diphtheria.  Both girls are being treated by Dr. Fry, of Rush, and are doing nicely.  The grades of which they are scholars, in the Auburn High School, are preparing a sunshine box this week.  A rigid quarantine is being kept and there is no fear of the dread disease being spread.

Dimock – Carl Fuller and wife are getting ready to move on their large farm when vacated by Byron Benninger on March 1.

Silver Lake – Thomas Kanane, is making arrangements for a sale of personal property.  Mr. Kanane was born on the farm about 74 years ago and has always lived there, except when in the employ of the government for about four months near the close of the Civil War.  His father came from Ireland about 10 years prior to his birth and cleared the farm on which he now resides.  Mr. Kanane hopes to spend the remaining years of his life in some less toilsome occupation than farming.  He and his wife are considering moving to Montrose.

Kingsley – Matthew Oakley got up a wood-bee for William Benning last Saturday afternoon.  It was hurridly arranged, but the men who responded did good work, which was appreciated by Mr. Benning.  Both he and his wife are gaining from the shock and bruises received at the Harford fire.

Susquehanna – One of the employees at the new terminal, William Vedder, was struck by an engine at the depot here, while waiting for a train to return to his home in Binghamton, on Saturday last.  He was standing on the tracks and, through some oversight, was struck by the engine.  At the Simon H. Barnes hospital one leg was amputated between the ankle and knee.  The other limb is badly crushed, but his condition was so precarious that the surgeons had not decided whether to attempt to remove it, hoping to save it.

South Montrose – The school gave an entertainment on Friday evening, at the schoolhouse.  A pleasing program, consisting of patriotic songs, drills and recitations was rendered.  An Indian drill by the primary grade and a minuet dance by eight of the older pupils, dressed in antique costumes, were among the most attractive features.  The entertainment was followed by a cobweb social and box supper.  Proceeds, $10.50.  This is to be used in framing pictures for the school rooms.

200 Years Ago – No news this week.

On April 5, 2011, Corporal John Nobles of the Philadelphia Police Department was sitting at his work desk when he office chair busted at the base causing him to fall to the floor.  Nobles hit his head and sustained injuries to his neck, back and right shoulder.  Immediately after the incident, Noble took a picture of the offending chair – the base of the chair was still in the proper position but the remainder of the chair was on the floor.  Thereafter, a fellow police officer threw the chair (and its parts) into the trash.

Nobles filed a civil complaint against Staples claiming that the defective chair was purchased from Staples.  In response, Staples denied that the chair had been purchased at one of their stores and that Staples could locate any invoices demonstrating that it had sold that type of office chair to the Philadelphia Police Department.  Neither party was able to discover any evidence that Staples had sold a similar style chair to the Philadelphia Police Department.  Despite the absence of any evidence that the chair was purchased from Staples, the case proceeded to trial and a jury was selected.

Staples then filed a motion seeking to exclude the testimony of Nobles’ expert witness who had provided an opinion that office chair was defective and the defects caused Nobles’ fall.  Given that the chair had been destroyed, the expert witness had nothing to inspect or review except for the photograph of the office chair that Noble took immediately after the incident.  The expert witness concluded that Nobles had not engaged in any conduct that would have caused the office chair to break and that the incident was caused by a “failure of the [chair’s] bell and post column. 

The trial court reviewed the expert report and determined that it was based upon “little more than guess and conjecture.”  The trial court noted that the expert report failed to identify in any manner what the alleged defect was that caused the failure of the office chair.  The expert report was unable to even identify what kind of office chair was involved in the incident.  Given the lack of the ability to identify the type of office chair involved, the expert report had no measurements, specifications, weight restrictions, design criteria, features, warnings or product history.  At most, all the expert witness could say was that because the chair broke, it was defective without making any effort to explain what the defect that caused the malfunction.  The trial court excluded this evidence and then dismissed Nobles’ case.

Nobles filed an appeal contending that the trial court erred in excluding his expert’s testimony and dismissing the case.  The Pennsylvania Superior Court affirmed the decision of the trial court and concluded that Nobles’ expert’s opinion “would provide no more than an inference that since the chair broke, it must have been defective.  Such an inference is no more than speculation – a subjective assessment of cause and effect . . . and it is insufficient to satisfy the requirements of expert evidence.”

This case presents a good example of how important documentation and preservation of evidence are to any civil claim.  When the chair was destroyed, Nobles was no longer in a position to even demonstrate what had happened.  Further, without the specific product information, he was also unable to even determine where the chair was purchased, when it was purchased, or obtain information relative to its design.  After his co-worker threw out the broken chair, Nobles was left with very little information aside from some kind of office chair that he was sitting in broke for some reason, which was simply not enough to continue the litigation.

Why take a drug that might cause cancer?

Karl came into the pharmacy and asked the pharmacist, “Those drug ads on TV. They often mention cancer as one of the side effects. Why would anyone take a drug that might cause cancer?”  The pharmacist knows that one cannot surf the TV channels without tripping over drug ads that feature happy people, distracting music, names that look like jumbled Scrabble™ tiles (think Xeljanz® or Erelzi®), and a quickly mumbled list of side effects, cancer often being one of them. According to the FDA, while federal law does not bar drug companies from advertising any kind of prescription drugs, even ones that can cause severe injury, addiction, or withdrawal effects, there are rules to be followed.

Product claim ads, that is, ads that promote a drug for an FDA-approved condition, focus on the drug’s benefits and its risks. This is called fair-balance. Drug companies are encouraged to use understandable language throughout product claim ads that are directed to consumers. All such ads, whether they are on TV, in print or online, must include certain key components within the main part of the ad: The drug name, both brand and generic, an approved use for the drug, and the most significant risks of the drug.

As opposed to chemically synthesized drugs such as penicillin or aspirin, a good portion of ads on TV are for biologic drugs.  A biologic drug is manufactured in a living system such as a microorganism, or plant or animal cells. Most biologics are very large, complex molecules or mixtures of molecules. Many biologics are produced using recombinant DNA technology, meaning that they are genetically engineered for a specific condition. Insulin, used for types 1 and 2 diabetes, was the first biologic. Today, biologics are used for psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis (RA), Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and a wide range of malignancies including breast, colon, lung and brain. These are serious diseases that have eluded overall cures over the decades. Therefore, having biologic medications available is a life-saving advance in the therapy of these diseases. However, while there are benefits that these drugs have, there are also risks associated with their use, such as cancer. 

Determining risk for cancer associated with biologic therapy in patients is problematic. Patients often have a history of cancer before starting biologic therapy, treatment may be carcinogenic, or the disease may predispose the patient to cancer. For example, patients with RA may have a rate of lymphoma 2- to 4-fold higher than that of the general population. According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, patients taking the RA drugs Remicade® (infliximab) or Humira® (adalimumab) had a 3-fold increased risk of developing various types of cancers.

Although new biologics are in use and more are being developed, the long-term risks for cancer have yet to be fully elucidated. Research and systematic reviews have studied the risk for cancer associated with biologics, and despite no clear association, patients receiving these agents must be warned of the potential risk and should be screened regularly for cancer.

The pharmacist told Karl that, fortunately, the risk of cancer from a biologic is relatively low. While Karl is healthy, the pharmacist gave him a new appreciation for biologic drugs and how they are advertised.

Ron Gasbarro, PharmD, is a registered pharmacist, medical writer, and principal at Rx-Press.com. Visit him at www.rx-press.com.