Consumer News & Alerts

March 5, 2007

LEFT HOLDING THE JAR
Peanut butter is supposed to be comfort food. After all, it was invented by a physician as a high-protein nutrition supplement and was a big hit at the 1904 St. Louis Worlds Fair. But the tasty goober paste has become a lot less comforting lately and it's not likely to be seen as a health food again anytime soon. Truth is, the Peter Pan/Great Value Salmonella outbreak is a lot worse than you might think.

The Numbers Official figures make it all seem very low-key. The feds' official tally is 288. At ConsumerAffairs.com, we've received 163 complaints -- but many of them report illnesses affecting entire families, including more than a few dogs. All told, the actual number of poisoned consumers is doubtless well into the thousands, but since most did not seek treatment or were misdiagnosed, the true number will never be known.

The deaths of at least three elderly people are being blamed on contaminated peanut butter. Once again, the CDC's paperwork has not yet caught up.

Not the First Time Interestingly, this is not the first major Salmonella outbreak involving Peter Pan. A now-retired Swift & Co. employee tells us he helped organize the collection and burial in Florida of 13 boxcars full of the stuff. He doesn't remember any recall, probably for good reason.

Your Tax Dollars And what is the government doing about it? Well, after finally getting into gear, FDA and CDC are gathering statistics and preparing reports. Congress is harumphing around and is likely to -- you guessed it -- hold hearings. That's probably long overdue. As Joe Enoch notes in this week's cover story, Consumers Left Holding the Peanut Butter Jar, our system of food safety is so absurd that one agency handles eggs, while another handles chickens. One agency is responsible for cheese pizza, another for pepperoni pizza.

More unappetizing tidbits ...

KFC Hopes to "Eraticate" the Rodents When TV crews got footage of rats scurrying around a New York City KFC, Yum Brands at first tried to dismiss it as an isolated incident. But now, Yum has taken the rodent by the tail and hired rat control expert to clean up its NYC franchises.

Oscar Mayer/Louis Rich Chicken Strips Recall Expanded The contaminated packages can cause listeriosis.

Feds Step Up Inspections at "Selected" Food Plants The USDA says it is adopting a "risk-based" inspection schedule, paying more attention to plants that have caused trouble in the past. Does it seem that this is not necessarily something that should be greeted as a shocking innovation?

SAFETY FIRST
Some things just can't be taken lightly -- child safety, for instance. Now, it would be easy to take a devil-may-care attitude and recall all the toys, clothing and child-care products that were dangerous to children, but -- hey! -- that would be bad for business. It would cost manufacturers big bucks to recall all those items and even more to build safer products. To safeguard against such a reckless outcome, President Bush has nominated a longtime lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, a nomination called "laughable" by a previous CPSC chair.

More child safety news ...

Fisher-Price Fined $975,000 The CPSC is currently powerless to fine safety violators because it doesn't have a quorum, thanks to President Bush failing for more than six months to nominate a new chairman to replace his ex-New Mexico campaign finance chair who quit abruptly to become a lobbyist. However, thanks to some advance planning and buraucratic finagling, t he commission and Fisher-Price have negotiated a $975,000 fine to settle charges that the company know about but failed to report serious safety hazards in its "Animal Sounds Farm" toy.

Kids Killed by Cars A surprising number of children are killed by cars in accidents that don't involve traffic. The two most common? Cars and SUVs back over them and automatic windows strangle them. Both of these risks could be reduced if Congress would only act. It held hearings on long-stalled legislation last week but who knows if it will get into gear and actually do something.

HPV Infection It never rains in Southern California and none of the young teens any of us know engage in sexual activity. Could be, but a survey finds that the papillomarivus which is linked to cervical cancer is widespread in the U.S. There's an effective new vaccine but, as so often happens, it has become politicized and many young women who could benefit from it likely won't receive it.

No Smoking Area The results of a Dutch study lend urgency to the necessity for pregnant women to stop smoking. The study found that smoking by the mother during pregnancy damaged developing arteries, setting the unborn child up for heart attacks and strokes in adult life.

Congress Fails to Curb Magazine Sales Abuses It's been 20 years since the Senate held hearings on the issue and Congress has still done nothing to regulate the abusive magazine sales industry that preys on young people. Perhaps it's because most of the children victimized by nomadic scam artists are from low-income families who don't hold much influence with the ladies and gentlemen of Congress?

GAS PRICES GET A BOOST
Fears that the U.S. will attack Iran are making world energy markets nervous and that is driving up the price of crude oil, which in turn is pushing pump prices up quickly. Regular grade jumped 6 cents last week, boosting the average price for regular self-serve gasoline to $2.43. But, oddly, as prices rise hybrid sales are slowing. One possible factor: California and Virginia, two hotbeds of hybrid hype, are cutting back the preferential car-pool-lane privileges extended to hybrids.

Sultry But Temperamental Consumer Reports turned its monocle on European cars and found that, while they are a joy to behold and drive, their reliability leaves something to be desired. Its annual reliability survey found the more utilitarian Honda, Subaru and Toyota more likely to be there when you need them.

Bumper Deflation Bumpers are pretty simple. They're supposed to minimize damage in low-speed collisions. But the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety finds that even that one limited function is just too much for many of the bumpers out there. The result? Major damage in low-speed fender benders.

"HEALTH" SUPPLEMENTS MAY BE ANYTHING BUT ...
If you wash down a handful of antioxidants tablets each day, you may want to think again. A Dutch meta study finds that the antioxidant supplements beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E may increase the risk of death by about 5%. Best way to get essential vitamins and minerals (and avoid food poisoning): Eat lots of fresh, local vegetables and fruits. Supplements are really intended for people who have medical conditions that require high-intensity dosages. They're not necessary for healthy adults who eat a balanced diet.

To put it more simply: Load up in the produce section, not the pharmacy.

Wine Good, Grapefruit Bad? The world is sometimes inside out. A new Dutch study finds that men who drink small amounts of wine have a slightly longer life expectancy, during which they can drink even more wine. OK, that part is good. But the Healthy Geezer, Fred Cicetti, warns us that grapefruit, that most bracing of all morning drinks (other than tequila, of course) can have very undesirable effects when combined with certain medications. In short: Check with your doctor before consuming a grapefruit or its juice.

POWER FAILURES & CELL PHONES
Whether it's an ice storm, hurricane, tornado or earthquake, there are natural forces just waiting to interrupt your power supply, and maybe even your land-based telephone service, possibly for days or more. With everything else cut off, how do you keep your cell phone going? Telecom consumer advocate David Wood has the answer.

TAX TIME IS COLLEGE SAVINGS TIME
As this time of the year makes painfully clear, we all pay taxes. That makes this the perfect time to invest in a tax-deferred or tax-free state-sponsored college savings plan. If you're a parent or a grandparent, this is a way you can put money away to pay for college tomorrow while reducing your tax burden. Like all savings plans, the sooner you start the better. Details vary by state but it's hard to go wrong putting money into one of these plans, as our Fred Yager explains.

Freddie Mac Limits Subprime Lending "Creative" mortgage money is drying up as lenders and investors fear a soaring foreclosure rate. This is good news for consumers, who when the juices are flowing, tend to get sucked into deals they can't afford. It's better to have a modest home with a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage than a McMansion with an ARM or interest-only loan. Who cares what the neighbors think?

REAL ID DELAYED AGAIN
Under pressure from the states, DHS issues a 162-page "Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" that, to boil it down, gives the states several more years to meet the difficult new standards for drivers' licenses. The REAL ID program was supposed to create national common standards for state drivers' licenses, including common "machine readibility" across the different states, and creating a linked database to store the information. Governors and state legislators say it just creates more impenetrable bureaucracy and unfunded mandates.

Arrests Made In Stop & Shop Data Breach Thieves tampered with credit/debit-card terminals to swipe data. Four men have been arrested and Stop & Shop says it has "nailed down" its point-of-payment terminals.

SCAMS & OUTRAGES

• "Phishing" Scam Takes New Tack E-mails claim to be fraud alerts but are actually an identity theft scheme.

• Justin Timberlake After-Hours Illinois attorney general warns consumers not to buy tickets to non-existent events.

• SkyBiz.com Settlement Last chance to file claims against international pyramid scheme.

• Girls Gone Wild Things don't change much in the soft-core-porn/teen-exploitation business.

RECALLS

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