Defective Products Archive

Gaiam feelin’ FREE to tout bpa FREE and FREE shipping

October 19th, 2009. By AbiK

Gaiam Bottles (the BPA-free version we trust) with free shipping…but hurry, offer ends October 31st!

There’s something subliminal about those Gaiam merchandisers touting FREE shipping on what should now be FREE of BPA water bottles, no?

If you haven’t been following the news on Gaiam’s little marketing misstep, read on.

If you have, just thought you’d appreciate the very coincidental ad…which happened to appear in today’s San Jose Mercury News’ online edition.

Tags: BPA, Gaiam
Posted in Defective Products | No Comments »

Zicam, Hydroxycut, Ephedra: Separated at Birth, now need Babysitter

September 16th, 2009. By Kristine B

What do Zicam, Ephedra and Hydroxycut have in common?—and no, you can’t look at side-by-side pictures for this one. If you’ve been following the news, turns out they have a lot more in common than you’d think. All three…

• were marketed as “natural” products that people turned to in a time of need
• weren’t required to test their safety before being marketed
• caused nationwide recalls when reports of serious side effects started rolling in

and…

• were assumed to be safe because they were marketed as “natural”

And while each of these has been yanked from the market, those of their ilk that are still on the market now need some babysitting (i.e., tighter regulation and increased safety testing).

The bottom line is that people think “natural” equals “safe.” Unfortunately, that’s just not always true. Something can be natural and still harmful—Poison Ivy, anyone? And the food industry is renowned for giving new meaning to “natural”. Check out the Jelly Belly site and you’ll see the superfruit mix is: Naturally Sweetened, High in Antioxidant Vitamin C, Made with Real Fruit Juices and Purees, and have Colors from Natural Sources. Great—but I won’t be getting my USRDA of vitamin C from ’em. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Ephedra, Hydroxycut, Zicam
Posted in Defective Products, Drugs/Medical | 1 Comment »

Why Doesn’t US Take a Harder Stand on Sub-Standard Chinese Exports?

September 15th, 2009. By Hunter West

Anyone who wonders why the US doesn’t clamp down harder on China and some of the sorry, dangerous, unsafe crap they export into this country need only remember that the People’s Republic of China owns 24.07 percent of all the US Treasury Securities held by foreigners (as of January, 2009 source: The US Treasury). 

That’s $739.6 billion dollars. And thus, one might speculate, 739.6 billion reasons why Americans have had to put up with substandard tires, lead in painted toys, counterfeit substances in heparin, anti-freeze in toothpaste, and God-knows-what in toxic Chinese drywall.

It’s criminal, what some families are going through. Especially in this economy, which is still in the doldrums with far too many people out of work, it’s that much harder to realize the great American Dream of home ownership. And once you separate the wheat from the chaff and ferret out those who accepted choking mortgages for palaces and estates their income levels suggest they have no business of Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: chinese drywall, Chinese imports
Posted in Defective Products | No Comments »

Cell Phone Radiation: 10 Best, 10 Worst

September 14th, 2009. By LucyC

So, in case you missed it—and I very nearly did—the Environmental Working Group (EWG) put out 2 lists last week ranking radiation levels emitted from cell phones—the 10 least dangerous and the 10 most dangerous. 

They EWG evaluated over 1000 different types of phones—who knew there where than many to choose from? How could any consumer possibly figure out the dirty on that many phones? Thank you EWG! 

Bottom line, while the EWG boffins could not find conclusive proof that cell phones cause cancer —specifically brain cancer—they couldn’t give the devices  a clean bill of health either.

But you may want to know, your kids are most at risk for cell phone radiation-related health problems because their skulls are thinner and softer-so they absorb radiation more easily.

So without further ado, here’s the EWG’s list of the 10 best phones in terms of radiation levels:

Listing is based on phones currently available from major carriers.

            1.         Samsung Impression (SGH-a877) [AT&T]

            2.         Motorola RAZR V8 [CellularONE]

            3.         Samsung SGH-t229 [T-Mobile]

            4.         Samsung Rugby (SGH-a837) [AT&T]

            5.         Samsung Propel Pro (SGH-i627) [AT&T]

            6.         Samsung Gravity (SGH-t459) [CellularONE, T-Mobile]

            7.         T-Mobile Sidekick [T-Mobile]

            8.         LG Xenon (GR500) [AT&T]

            9.         Motorola Karma QA1 [AT&T]

            10.       Sanyo Katana II [Kajeet]

For the top 10 worst cell phones for radiation emission, look here.

Tags: Cell Phone Radiation, Cell Phones
Posted in Defective Products, Emerging Issues | 2 Comments »

Chinese Drywall: Here doggy, doggy!

September 11th, 2009. By AbiK

There was an article in the Palm Beach Post earlier in the week about…what else? Chinese drywall! Well, you can’t blame the folks in Palm Beach and Broward Counties—it’s a daily nuisance (or worse) they have to live with. But, they might be getting some help—from dogs.

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of getting “frisked” by some gnarling, ferocious dogs as you’re tooling through customs in Miami International Airport, you know what dogs are capable of sniffing out. So I’m all for this one.

According to the Palm Beach Post article, defective Chinese drywall can be difficult to locate with real accuracy—and air quality tests don’t necessarily register high levels of sulfur. That one stopped me cold: all the hoopla about “professional” testing of homes for Chinese drywall to date has pretty much focused on air quality tests—and they may not necessarily detect it?

Give it to the dogs!

The article goes on to quote American K-9 president, Mark Mahler, as saying “The more I read about Chinese drywall, the more I’m committed to getting some dogs trained and get them out there to help.” He also noted that dog training could begin in a matter of weeks.

Another little tidbit from Mahler: Dogs’ sense of smell is up to 40x stronger than humans. While humans have about 5 million olfactory cells, dogs average 220 to 250.

Tags: chinese drywall
Posted in Defective Products | 1 Comment »