Woman Claims Made-in-China Flip-flops Burned Feet (New Claim)

[RamboLiberal]

A north Texas woman says a pair of made-in-China flip-flops she bought from Wal-Mart severely injured her feet.

Taylor Vanover said she bought the flip-flops because they were cheap and that she developed a serious and painful rash after wearing them.

"It hurts, it's irritating, very irritating," Vanover said of the rashes on both her feet that she said follow the exact design of the flip-flops she bought in Gun Barrel City in June. "It itches it burns it tingles. It started out as just like a normal looking rash, and then it's progressed into that, where the actual rash is it's swollen."

She said the rash developed three weeks after buying the shoes and eventually went to an emergency room fro treatment.

Afterward, Vanover said, she saw a Web site by Kerry Stiles, a young woman in Florida who claims the same brand of Wal-Mart flip-flops gave her a similar rash.

http://www.myfoxdfw.com/myfox/pages/News/Detail?contentId=4217705&version=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=3.2.1

[PDJane]

1. I spend a mint on footwear.

Truly. Not only to I have an awkward size, plastics give me contact dermatitis. That means leather footwear. Period.

This is what this sounds like.

[Warpy]

2. That's exactly what this is

Contact dermatitis is an allergic reaction that can be quite severe with something that is in contact with the skin.

Most of mine is detergents and some soaps. Ivory liquid is the WORST for me; after washing dishes with it for 3 days, my hands looked like they'd been dipped in a vat of acid.

The cure is to wear socks under any plastic footwear (thinking Crocs here). OTC cortisone cream can help heal the rash, but severe reactions need a visit to the doctor.

[kestrel91316]

4. Plain, unscented homemade soap might be just the thing for you.

It's very gentle.

[Warpy]

7. I use Dr. Bronner's Peppermint Castile Soap

I even wash my clothes in it when something breaks me out--and I loathe seeing "NEW! IMPROVED!" on any product I've used successfully because the change often involves adding whatever it is I'm allergic to.

There are commercial products out there I can use. There are others I can't get near.

[hootinholler]

5. The first instance is a chemical burn, not contact dermatitis.

Follow the link.

-Hoot

[AZBlue]

3. Sounds like it's something in the dye.

Especially since the rash followed the design on the shoe. My mom's very allergic to soy and it's used in everything including many dyes - she had a weird reaction to a pair of flip flops once but she's very sensitive to her reactions to things (she has to be, her allergy can kill her) and stopped wearing them immediately. She thought it was the dye in that case too.

[NeedleCast]

6. Is there precedent for legal action?

I'm not really sure how that works. I'm sure you can sue a foreign manufacturer, just not sure that a US court could force them to pay. With all the problems we're seeing with Chinese products (problems, I imagine, that have always been there...we're just now starting to hear about them because it's The Media's Big Fucking Deal right now), I wouldn't be surprised to see some suits cropping up here pretty quick.