A Tennessee company could be heading for a legal battle with U.S. auto safety regulators after refusing a request that millions of potentially dangerous air bag inflaters be recalled.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding that ARC Automotive Inc. of Knoxville recall 67 million inflaters in the U.S. because they could explode and hurl shrapnel. At least two people have been killed in the U.S. and Canada, and seven others have been hurt as a result of defective ARC inflaters, the agency said.
The recall would cover a large portion of the 284 million vehicles now on U.S. roads, but the percentage is difficult to determine. Some have ARC inflaters for both the driver and front passenger.
In a letter posted Friday, the agency told ARC that it has tentatively concluded after an eight-year investigation that ARC front driver and passenger inflaters have a safety defect.
“Air bag inflaters that project metal fragments into vehicle occupants, rather than properly inflating the attached air bag, create an unreasonable risk of death and injury,” Stephen Ridella, director of NHTSA’s Office of Defects Investigation, wrote in a letter to ARC.
But ARC responded that no defect exists in the inflaters, and that any problems are related to isolated manufacturing issues.
The next step in the process is for NHTSA to schedule a public hearing. It could then take the company to court to force a recall.
The NHTSA has posted documents showing that General Motors is recalling nearly 1 million vehicles equipped with ARC inflaters. The recall covers certain 2014-2017 Buick Enclave, Chevrolet Traverse and GMC Acadia SUVs.
ARC inflators also can be found in Stellantis (Chrysler), BMW, Hyundai, Kia and other vehicles.
TN travel, tourism rakes in $27.5B in ’22
The travel and tourism industries in Tennessee had a big year in 2022, including a record $27.5 billion in travel spending, according to preliminary data from U.S. Travel and Tourism Economics.
Among the top 25 states, Tennessee is the fastest-growing in travel spending since 2018 and has risen from 14th to 11th in the nation for travel spending.
The leisure and hospitality industry plays an essential role in Tennessee’s economy and employs more 352,000 Tennesseans. Tourism is a significant source of tax revenue for Tennessee, contributing $1.8 billion in state sales tax collections in 2022.
This news came during National Travel and Tourism Week, an annual celebration of the industry which spotlights the essential role travel plays in economic growth and innovation. New county-level data is expected in August.
Survey: TN business leaders more optimistic
Tennessee business leaders have become more optimistic about the state’s business climate, though concerns about inflation continue, according to results from the latest Tennessee Business Barometer by MTSU’s Jones College of Business.
The latest statewide index, which measures business leaders’ perceptions of the current and future economy, produced a score of 156, up 114 points from fall 2022 but down 24 points from a year ago. The inaugural survey in July 2015 registered an index of 325.
Conducted in partnership with the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce & Industry, the Tennessee Business Barometer is an online opinion survey that tracks an overall index and four subindices: current outlook, future outlook, business/firm performance and employment outlook. Index scores are calculated from the percentages of positive and negative responses to a series of questions about perceptions of the economy.
Tennessee business leaders had become pessimistic over the last several quarters, but sentiment moved in a positive direction this quarter, the survey showed, with positive sentiment increasing from 25% to 29%, and negative sentiment decreasing from 23% to 20%.”
Find the full Tennessee Business Barometer survey report and previous reports at https://bit.ly/2GZvO7U.
Caldolor gains FDA nod for infant treatment
Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., a specialty pharmaceutical company, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved expanded labeling for Caldolor, an intravenously delivered formulation of ibuprofen, to now include use in infants.
The nonnarcotic agent may now be administered for the treatment of pain and fever in patients three months to six months of age.
The newly FDA-approved label includes information regarding the product’s indications and usage, appropriate patient populations, clinical study results, potential side effects, patient safety details, and instructions for use in these young children.
To support this expanded use of Caldolor, Cumberland sponsored a multi-center study in 21 hospitalized infants. All but one patient was treated with a single dose of the product.
The safety and efficacy of Caldolor has now been established for the treatment of pain and fever in pediatric patients aged 3 months and older. Use of Caldolor for these indications is supported by evidence from one adequate and controlled open label study in infants, along with additional safety data from four studies in 164 pediatric patients, supportive pediatric data from other approved ibuprofen products, and evidence from adequate and well-controlled studies in adults.
Importantly with this newly approved labeling, Caldolor is the only non-opioid product approved to treat pain in infants that is delivered through injection.
Lipscomb receives $4.8M for counselor training
Lipscomb University’s College of Education, one of the top teacher preparation programs in the nation, has received a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Education to train mental health professionals in high-need local education agencies in the Nashville area. This is the largest grant received in the university’s history.
This grant will fund the college’s IMPACT (Innovative Mental Health Partnership Accessing Counselor Training) Initiative and will provide full tuition for a total of 80 students to complete Lipscomb’s Master of Education in school counseling. These funds, which will be disbursed over five years, are provided fully by federal resources and do not come from other sources.
The goal of the IMPACT Initiative is to increase the quantity and diversity of high-quality, professionally trained and credentialed mental health service professionals employed in high-need LEAs.
Partner districts for this initiative are Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Rutherford County Schools, Maury County Public Schools, Lebanon Special School District and Hickman County Schools.
Biz owners confident they’re ‘recession-proof’
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. released the results of its inaugural Private Business Owners Survey which found that despite challenging economic conditions, from rising interest rates and inflation to geopolitical tensions and the labor market, business owners are confident in the future of their organizations.
The research found that 71% of business owners believe their business is mostly or fully recession-proof. In fact, 69% say they’ve increased their efforts to grow the business through investment as a result of recent economic uncertainty. However, 76% agree that every time they have to navigate through economic uncertainty, they lean more toward selling their business.
“Private businesses are, in many ways, the backbone of the U.S. economy,” said Val Carlotti, BBH Partner. “They have the opportunity to be truly long term in their planning and our results highlight that even in challenging economic conditions and uncertainty, private business owners have a steady hand and lean into opportunities to reinvest in their companies.”
The research found that while complicated dynamics play a significant role in family-owned businesses, 85% of owners who identify their company as family-owned feel it’s very or extremely important that their business remains in the family for at least another generation. However, 75% of these business owners say the family members’ roles are either not well defined or not fully communicated.
Simplr delivers safeguard for AI customer service
Simplr, a bot-first CX outsourcing solution that offers automation and human agents, announced a major infusion of generative AI into its platform alongside comprehensive safeguards called Cognitive Paths to ensure safe and secure use of the new technology.
The result is that Simplr, funded and supported by Asurion, is now able to fully automate “Level 2” complex inquiries and those that provide the opportunity for upsell and cross-sell motions, dwarfing competing BPO offerings in automation take rates while generating superior customer experiences.
Almost immediately after its launch in November 2022, ChatGPT became a bellwether for the entire customer service industry. The promise of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI in customer interactions was clear: Juniper Research has predicted that by the end of this year, 70% of customer inquiries will be automated through the use of AI.
Study: Genetic screening would be cost-effective
An exhaustive cost-benefit analysis of population genetic testing published May 9 in Annals of Internal Medicine concludes with a recommendation to U.S. health policymakers to adopt routine testing of adults ages 40 and under for three genetic conditions posing high risk of life-threatening illness.
“Sequencing costs of genetic panels for these conditions have fallen to around $250, and our analysis shows the high upfront investment in genetic testing is gradually recouped with improved outcomes among people with genetic risks over their lifetimes,” says a Josh Peterson, M.D., MPH, professor of biomedical informatics and medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and a leader of the study.
For U.S. adults ages 20 to 60, the authors report age-based cost-effectiveness of hypothetical one-time, all-in-one screening for hereditary breast and ovarian cancer syndrome; Lynch syndrome, which is the most common cause of hereditary colorectal cancer; and familial hypercholesterolemia, which increases blood levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and the likelihood of coronary heart disease and stroke at a younger age.
The three genetic conditions are designated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having the most evidence to support use of genetic testing for early detection and intervention. Testing for any of these conditions, when done at all, is currently limited to patients with a high-risk family history.