Myron Levin

Myron Levin founded FairWarning after more than 20 years as a staff writer for the Los Angeles Times, where he was a member of the California investigations desk. He has won numerous honors and awards for his detailed investigations of health and safety matters, including an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship and the National Press Club’s Consumer Journalism Award. He has reported on the tobacco industry, auto and tire safety, and a variety of product liability issues. He likes hiking and playing racquetball, and he owns a minuscule share of a professional minor league baseball team. Myron is a member of FairWarning’s board of directors.

A FairWarning Story

What’s in a name? Ghostly spirits stalk the medical literature

"Spinning science to sell drugs"

Myron Levin

November 7, 2019

The idea sounded fishy to Dr. Adriane Fugh-Berman. She was not about to put her name on a ghostwritten article for a medical journal. But she was curious, so she played along for a while. An associate professor at Georgetown University Medical Center, Fugh-Berman was contacted in 2004 by a medical communications firm working for drug maker AstraZeneca with a proposition: Would she like an author credit on a forthcoming article to be submitted to a journal?

A FairWarning Story

Safety agency probes data breach amid complaints about muzzling of hazard information

Myron Levin Eli Wolfe

June 5, 2019

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is struggling to contain the fallout from a data breach involving thousands of companies, highlighting the tension between the agency’s mandate to protect consumers and to prevent reputational damage to product makers.

A FairWarning Story

Lawmakers question influence of industry at CPSC

Myron Levin

April 2, 2019

Leaders of a House committee have called on the acting head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Ann Marie Buerkle, to disclose her contacts with business groups, citing a “disturbing” report by FairWarning that “suggests you are prioritizing the interests of industry over the safety of consumers.”

A FairWarning Story

ATV deaths top 15,000 threshold in latest government report

Myron Levin Eli Wolfe

March 20, 2019

Since the early 1980s, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has conducted a grim census, tracking reports of deaths from crashes of all-terrain vehicles, or ATVs. Now the body count has risen above 15,250, according to the agency’s latest annual report, with more than one in five of the deaths suffered by children under 16.

A FairWarning Story

Industries turn to Bracewell lobbyists to scuttle product safety rules

Myron Levin

March 15, 2019

Justin Miller was 16 when he took his first ride on a recreational off-highway vehicle, or ROV. He came home missing a hand. The powerful 1,100-pound machine tipped over and landed on the Northridge, California, teen, mangling his hand so severely that seven surgeries couldn’t save it. At the time of the accident in 2008, similar reports of gruesome injuries and deaths were piling up at the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

A FairWarning Story

Apple has swatted away distracted driving lawsuits without much trouble so far

Myron Levin

February 28, 2019

Garrett Wilhelm was chatting with the Facetime app on his Apple iPhone, police say, as he sped along an interstate highway northwest of Dallas on the day before Christmas in 2014. He crashed his SUV into a sedan carrying a young family, killing five-year-old Moriah Modisette and injuring her parents and sister.

A FairWarning story

Mistrial declared in high-stakes Johnson & Johnson talc-cancer case

Myron Levin

September 25, 2018

A mistrial was declared today after a California state court jury deadlocked on whether Johnson & Johnson was responsible for the asbestos-related cancer of a woman who blamed her illness on longtime use of contaminated baby powder. Soon after starting a sixth day of deliberations, jurors in Los Angeles Superior Court told Judge Margaret L. Oldendorf that they were at an impasse, with eight of 12 favoring an award of damages to the plaintiff, Carolyn Weirick.

A FairWarning story

Safety would take a back seat if Senate passes bill on driverless cars, critics say

Myron Levin

September 13, 2018

Consumer advocates are attacking a bill heading for a vote soon in the U.S. Senate that would clear legal obstacles for the deployment of driverless cars — a proposal that, critics say, lacks safeguards needed to protect the public and largely would let vehicle manufacturers regulate themselves. The measure, which is being pushed by auto and tech industry lobbyists, is called the AV START Act, standing for “American Vision for Safer Transportation through Advancement of Revolutionary Technologies.”

A FairWarning story

Johnson & Johnson hit with $4.69 billion loss in baby powder-ovarian cancer case

Myron Levin Stuart Silverstein

July 13, 2018

The legal assault on Johnson & Johnson and its signature baby powder reached new heights today, when a state court jury in Missouri found the company responsible for the ovarian cancers of 22 women, and ordered the drug and consumer products giant to pay $4.69 billion in compensatory and punitive damages to the cancer victims or their survivors.

A FairWarning story

Study finds Apple’s CarPlay, Google’s Android less distracting, but still not safe

Myron Levin

June 27, 2018

Automakers have packed many of their new models with distracting infotainment features that allow drivers not only to play music and get directions, but to talk, text and use social media while tooling down the road. Now new research has found that two popular smartphone-based systems –Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto – are somewhat simpler and safer to use than the built-in electronics.