Smartphone theft a ‘national epidemic’? – National Consumers League

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92_shopping_apps.jpgThe explosion in smartphone use has put the Internet in the palms of consumers’ hands. Consumers use smartphones every day; whether it is for work, to pay their bills, or to find out who “that guy” from “that movie” is. Now imagine that little device vanishes. Might someone use the personal and private information on your phone against you?

 

This is a fear that too many people are facing. Smartphone theft in the United States is increasing at an alarming rate. According to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in New York City alone smartphone thefts increased 40 percent in just one year. In other cities the problem is even more dire. In San Francisco, about half of all robberies involved mobile phones and nationwide one in every three robberies involve a stolen cell phone. In total, 1.6 million Americans had a handheld device stolen last year. San Francisco District Attorney George Gascon has called smartphone theft, “a national epidemic.”

High demand for stolen smartphones on the black market is fueling this trend. A typical stolen iPhone can be sold on the street for around $200. However, many stolen smartphones are sold internationally for even more money. According to the California Department of Justice, a stolen iPhone can sell for upwards of $2,000 in Hong Kong.

In 2012, former FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, in collaboration with major police department chiefs, wireless companies, cell phone manufacturers, and members of Congress, launched a broad initiative to address the increase in smartphone thefts. The project’s two major goals were to build a national database to prevent the use of stolen cellphones and to educate consumers about how to better protect their smartphone.

So far, the initiative has proved to be a great success. Many U.S. wireless companies have set up stolen phone databases that will allow them to see if a phone, reported stolen, is reactivated and can then prohibit it from being used on their network. Many smartphone manufacturers have also taken steps to improve security. For example, Apple’s iOS7 mobile operating system includes a “Find My iPhone” app and requires the user to log in before he or she can do anything with the lost/stolen device. Also, Samsung’s Galaxy S4 smartphone customers, can purchase a LoJack system, which is very difficult for thieves to remove without damaging the phone.

While there is no guaranteed way to protect your smartphone from theft, there are several tips consumers can use to better safeguard their devices. These include:

  1. Be aware of your surroundings when using a smartphone. Thieves prey on distracted victims when they initiate the theft
  2. Use your phone’s security features, particularly password or PIN locks. Choose a hard-to-guess password and change it on a regular basis
  3. Consider installing an app that can remotely track, lock, or wipe the memory of a stolen smartphone
  4. Export sensitive personal information (photos, emails, contacts, etc.) to external devices like a computer or USB drive
  5. Consider purchasing a smartphone insurance policy if the you are prone to losing phones, particularly if the phone is a newer, more desirable model; and
  6. Write down the phone number or website to report a stolen phone to your wireless carrier and keep the information in a safe place. Report a stolen phone immediately to your carrier and local law enforcement.

More information about protecting your smartphone:

Federal Communications Commission advice
Helpful information from the wireless industry

Remembering C. Everett Koop – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

C. Everett Koop’s recent passing reminds us what it means for a public official to put America’s health over ideology. Koop served as Surgeon General of the United States from 1981-1989, appointed by President Reagan. He was a practicing physician who conducting groundbreaking surgeries on babies with birth defects, when he was appointed by Reagan to the post.

Koop’s evangelical upbringing and strong opposition to abortion evoked fear among women’s groups that he would use his post to preach against abortion. He determined early on in his tenure that since abortion wasn’t threatening the health of women, he wouldn’t spend the Surgeon General’s resources on the issue.

Instead Koop, who the New York Times calls “the most influential surgeon general in American history,” devoted his energies to fighting smoking in the United States and raising awareness about AIDS and HIV prevention.  He warned about the consequences of smoking, noting that 300,000 people every year at the time were dying from smoking.

Several senators from tobacco states wanted him ousted from the job. He was unfazed, and his campaign was effective: When he came to the SG job, 33 percent of Americans smoked. Nine years later, the percentage had dropped to 26. By 1987, 40 states were restricting smoking in public places and 17 banned it inside workplaces and offices.

Koop also prepared the first extensive report on AIDS and HIV infection during the early years of the disease’s emergence. He resisted demands from conservatives to remove the recommendations that people use condoms if they weren’t practicing abstinence or monogamy. “Too many people place conservative ideology far above saving human lives.”

He lived a long life and happy life, marrying for the second time at age 93. We owe C. Everett Koop a debt of gratitude for his brave crusades against smoking and AIDS. Americans should remember him as one of the great public health pioneers and a truly outstanding Surgeon General.

LifeSmarts Nationals 2013: Looking for a few GREAT volunteers! – National Consumers League

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By Brandi Williams, LifeSmarts Program Manager

The National Consumers League is hosting its 2013 National LifeSmarts Championship in Atlanta from April 20-23 at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta, and volunteers are needed! We expect teams from 30+ states and the District, plus at-large teams representing student leadership organizations FCCLA and FBLA, to be in attendance — the largest number of student teams to attend Nationals to date!

Now you can become a part of this incredible opportunity to support teens from across the country as they strive to become future consumer and worker champions!

Please join us and share your time and expertise with these exceptional students by volunteering as competition officials. Volunteers serve as Question Masters, who read the questions and interact with the players on stage, or Judges, who sit on a panel of 3-5 and determine if players’ answers are correct.

If you are planning to join us at Nationals as a volunteer, please click “Register Now!” to complete the Registration form. Hotel reservation details are included on the registration form.

REGISTER NOW!

As friends of LifeSmarts, we welcome you to spread the word about LifeSmarts with colleagues in your industry. By reaching out to your network to share the LifeSmarts mission, you can increase awareness about educating today’s youth today, so they become savvy consumers tomorrow.

Thank you again for your continued dedication to LifeSmarts, and for considering this invitation to play a key role at this national event. Please do not hesitate to contact us with questions.

Introducing the all-new Fraud.org! – National Consumers League

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By John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

NCL is proud to announce the relaunch of its anti-fraud education and advocacy campaign, Fraud.org. Today’s announcement is the culmination of nearly a year of work by the League to update its signature anti-fraud program to address the continued challenge of fighting rampant online and telemarketing fraud.

For more than 20 years, anti-fraud education and advocacy have been at the center of NCL’s mission. In 1992, under the leadership of former NCL President Linda Golodner, NCL launched the Alliance Against Fraud, a coalition of groups from the governmental, business, non-profit, and labor communities all united around the common goal of educating and empower consumers to avoid telemarketing scams. This collaboration led to the creation of the National Fraud Information Center, which operated one of the first consumer hotlines dedicated to counseling consumer victims of telemarketing fraud.

In the mid-1990’s millions of consumers were getting online for the first time via home dial-up connections and early broadband networks. This provided fertile ground for scam artists to use the new communications medium to reach millions of potential victims. In 1996, in response to the dramatic growth in Internet-based scams, the League launched Internet Fraud Watch and the original incarnation of Fraud.org. Then, as now, the program was designed to help consumers find up-to-date information on emerging scams and connect them with law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. In the 2000’s the NFIC/IFW (rebranded as NCL’s Fraud Center) regularly published educational brochures, Web content, and anti-fraud educators’ toolkits to help consumers and the agencies that work with them to fight back against fraud.

A new decade has brought new leadership and new challenges to the Fraud Center. With the vast majority of the U.S. population connected to broadband and carrying mobile phones, con artists have never had a more lucrative audience for their schemes. According to estimates from the Financial Fraud Research Center, the annual cost of consumer financial fraud in the U.S. is approximately $50 billion, on par with the annual gross output of the radio and television broadcasting industry. There is a global community of scam artists, as networked and tech-savvy as any Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Their global reach makes it especially difficult for American law enforcement to prosecute the con artists. As billion-dollar scams like the Bernie Madoff case illustrate, even savvy consumers remain vulnerable to fraud.

In the face of this, NCL has not been idle. In 2012, under Executive Director Sally Greenberg, the League launched Fraud Alerts – a monthly email service designed to directly alert consumers to emerging scams and empower them with tips on how to avoid being defrauded. Through the Alliance Against Fraud, NCL will in the coming months redouble its efforts to identify emerging scams and develop new tools to help consumers avoid becoming fraud victim statistics. Today, NCL continues that mission with the relaunch of its anti-fraud campaign. Focused on its iconic Web site, Fraud.org, NCL remains committed to consumer education and empowerment in the fight against fraud.

Through a complete overhaul of its design, the new Fraud.org will make it even easier for consumers to find the information they need to avoid scams. The new user experience includes:

  • An updated search function to help consumers search for scams in multiple ways, enabling them to go directly to a specific type of fraud or, using a more advanced search, identify the type of scam they’ve been exposed to if they aren’t sure;
  • Content that is easily shareable via social networks so that consumers can quickly pass along fraud warnings to friends and loved ones in need;
  • The ability to sign up for regular Fraud Alerts to help consumers stay abreast of emerging scams before they become victims; and
  • As always, consumers who have been victims of fraud or been approached by scammers can file complaints through our secure online complaint form. These complaints are then shared with our network of law enforcement and consumer protection partners.

Even with these new resources, the League can’t do it alone. Fraud.org depends on partner organizations and individual consumers to join in the fight against fraud. That’s why we continue to encourage consumers to come forward and report scams via the secure online complaint form on Fraud.org. We are also seeking to expand the membership of the Alliance Against Fraud, so that, through a growing coalition of like-minded partners in the fight against fraud, our concerns will be better heard by policymakers who can help make a difference.

The relaunch of Fraud.org isn’t just about a new Web site. It’s about rededicating ourselves to the notion that no one deserves to be a victim of fraud. With the new resources of Fraud.org and the collective power of the Alliance Against Fraud, we stand a real chance of putting a dent in the pain that scam artist inflict on consumers every day. We hope you love the new site! Check it out today.

President’s Day reflections – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Happy President’s Day! Over this holiday weekend, I’ve been reflecting on last month’s Inauguration of Barack Obama as our 44th President, and imagining how much NCL’s founders and champions would have liked this man. First off, they would have been proud that our American electorate has voted overwhelming for the second time to send an African American to the White House. During her most active organizing years, Florence Kelley often decried the disreputable treatment of her Black colleagues who were many times banned from hotels and restaurants when social workers or women’s groups gathered at conferences across the country.

Secondly, though our president is moderate in all of his actions, he also has a strong progressive streak that leaders like Florence Kelley, Frances Perkins and Josephine Roche would have greatly appreciated. After being elected with a healthy margin, Obama seems willing to be a little more daring, and thankfully not intimidated by those who fixate on debt and, instead, focus on other priorities: championing comprehensive immigration reform, addressing the pay gap between men and women in the workplace, raising the minimum wage and tying it to inflation, and educating pre-schoolers and giving them a leg up on their future.

The President also announced the formation of a commission to address the rampant problems in the nation’s voting system—and hailed a 102-year-old North Miami woman named Desilene Victor, who endured hours of waiting to vote in the last election. These issues would all have won favor with NCL’s leaders.

Obama challenged his opponents on their opposition to tax increases for the rich at the expense of kids and seniors: “After all, why would we choose to make deeper cuts to education and Medicare just to protect special interest tax breaks?” Another issue near and dear to the hearts of the NCL’s founders.

The president also called for an infrastructure-boosting bridge-building program and insisted, very forcefully and long overdue that climate change be at the top of the agenda; no, these were not programs that Kelley, Perkins or Roche knew of in their day, but I think they would have approved, largely because these programs mean jobs for working Americans and will protect future generations.

Four Loko labels changing – National Consumers League

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By Teresa Green, Linda Golodner Food Safety & Nutrition Fellow

Several years ago, Four Loko, a caffeinated alcoholic beverage, gained notoriety for its role in the hospitalizations of several college students.  Amid enormous public scrutiny and rumors that the FDA was planning to ban the drink, the product was reformulated to remove the caffeine.  Despite this important change, concerns about the drink still remained.  At long last, these concerns will finally be addressed by a settlement finalized by FTC.  This settlement will do two important things to protect consumers.

  1. Four Loko will be required to seek approval for an alcohol facts label.  This label will bear important information about alcohol content and number of servings per container, information consumers need in order to make informed decisions about consumption.
  2. Four Loko will also be required to make the packaging resealable so that the product can be consumed over multiple sittings.

These changes will hopefully lead to a safer and healthier product.  Certainly the strong enforcement action the FTC has taken sends a message to all companies that they need to be honest with consumers and scrupulous about their labeling.

Launching an all-new Fraud.org! – National Consumers League

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NCL is proud to announce the relaunch of its anti-fraud education and advocacy campaign, Fraud.org. Today’s announcement is the culmination of nearly a year of work by the League to update its signature anti-fraud program to address the continued challenge of fighting rampant online and telemarketing fraud.

For more than 20 years, anti-fraud education and advocacy have been at the center of NCL’s mission. In 1992, under the leadership of former NCL President Linda Golodner, NCL launched the Alliance Against Fraud, a coalition of groups from the governmental, business, non-profit, and labor communities all united around the common goal of educating and empower consumers to avoid telemarketing scams. This collaboration led to the creation of the National Fraud Information Center, which operated one of the first consumer hotlines dedicated to counseling consumer victims of telemarketing fraud.

In the mid-1990’s millions of consumers were getting online for the first time via home dial-up connections and early broadband networks. This provided fertile ground for scam artists to use the new communications medium to reach millions of potential victims. In 1996, in response to the dramatic growth in Internet-based scams, the League launched Internet Fraud Watch and the original incarnation of Fraud.org. Then, as now, the program was designed to help consumers find up-to-date information on emerging scams and connect them with law enforcement and consumer protection agencies. In the 2000’s the NFIC/IFW (rebranded as NCL’s Fraud Center) regularly published educational brochures, Web content, and anti-fraud educators’ toolkits to help consumers and the agencies that work with them to fight back against fraud.

A new decade has brought new leadership and new challenges to the Fraud Center. With the vast majority of the U.S. population connected to broadband and carrying mobile phones, con artists have never had a more lucrative audience for their schemes. According to estimates from the Financial Fraud Research Center, the annual cost of consumer financial fraud in the U.S. is approximately $50 billion, on par with the annual gross output of the radio and television broadcasting industry. There is a global community of scam artists, as networked and tech-savvy as any Silicon Valley entrepreneur. Their global reach makes it especially difficult for American law enforcement to prosecute the con artists. As billion-dollar scams like the Bernie Madoff case illustrate, even savvy consumers remain vulnerable to fraud.

In the face of this, NCL has not been idle. In 2012, under Executive Director Sally Greenberg, the League launched Fraud Alerts – a monthly email service designed to directly alert consumers to emerging scams and empower them with tips on how to avoid being defrauded. Through the Alliance Against Fraud, NCL will in the coming months redouble its efforts to identify emerging scams and develop new tools to help consumers avoid becoming fraud victim statistics. Today, NCL continues that mission with the relaunch of its anti-fraud campaign. Focused on its iconic Web site, Fraud.org, NCL remains committed to consumer education and empowerment in the fight against fraud.

Through a complete overhaul of its design, the new Fraud.org will make it even easier for consumers to find the information they need to avoid scams. The new user experience includes:

  • An updated search function to help consumers search for scams in multiple ways, enabling them to go directly to a specific type of fraud or, using a more advanced search, identify the type of scam they’ve been exposed to if they aren’t sure;
  • Content that is easily shareable via social networks so that consumers can quickly pass along fraud warnings to friends and loved ones in need;
  • The ability to sign up for regular Fraud Alerts to help consumers stay abreast of emerging scams before they become victims; and
  • As always, consumers who have been victims of fraud or been approached by scammers can file complaints through our secure online complaint form. These complaints are then shared with our network of law enforcement and consumer protection partners.

Even with these new resources, the League can’t do it alone. Fraud.org depends on partner organizations and individual consumers to join in the fight against fraud. That’s why we continue to encourage consumers to come forward and report scams via the secure online complaint form on Fraud.org. We are also seeking to expand the membership of the Alliance Against Fraud, so that, through a growing coalition of like-minded partners in the fight against fraud, our concerns will be better heard by policymakers who can help make a difference.

The relaunch of Fraud.org isn’t just about a new Web site. It’s about rededicating ourselves to the notion that no one deserves to be a victim of fraud. With the new resources of Fraud.org and the collective power of the Alliance Against Fraud, we stand a real chance of putting a dent in the pain that scam artist inflict on consumers every day. We hope you love the new site! Check it out today.

National Consumers League launches all new Fraud.org – National Consumers League

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February 20, 2013

Contact: Carol McKay, NCL Communications, (724) 799-5392, carolm@nclnet.org

Washington, DC–The nation’s pioneering consumer advocacy organization, the National Consumers League, today debuted the redesign of Fraud.org, its consumer fraud education Web site. For more than 15 years, Fraud.org has been the premier resource for consumers to learn about and report Internet and telemarketing scams. Since 1996, NCL has tracked trends in Internet and telemarketing scams to identify emerging scams.  NCL assists victims by relaying reports daily to more than 90 law enforcement agencies in the United States and Canada, including the Federal Trade Commission, state Attorneys General, and police departments.

Fraud remains a widespread problem costing tens of millions of consumers billions of dollars annually. Thanks to modern technology, fraudsters can easily find victims while remaining largely hidden from law enforcement. According to estimates from the Financial Fraud Research Center, the annual cost of consumer financial fraud in the U.S. is approximately $50 billion, on par with the annual gross output of the radio and television broadcasting industry.

“We are proud to debut the new and improved Fraud.org today,” said Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director. “Fraud.org has been an invaluable tool in the fight against fraud for more than a decade. Because we track data as provided to us directly from consumers, Fraud.org is able to identify trends in emerging scams, deliver crucial prevention information about them to consumer protection professionals and members of the media.  We also assist law enforcement agencies engaged to help them bring con artists to justice.”

More than 30 years ago, NCL established the Alliance Against Fraud, a coalition of organizations concerned with the proliferation of telemarketing and Internet-based fraud. The work of the Alliance led to the League’s long-term program, the National Fraud Information Center (and later Internet Fraud Watch / NCL’s Fraud Center), established in 1992 to assist consumers directly with telemarketing fraud inquiries.

“With new scams popping up every day, there is a greater need than ever for reliable information to help consumers spot the scams and avoid becoming a fraud victim statistic,“ said John Breyault, NCL Vice President for Telecommunications and Fraud Public Policy. “NCL’s Fraud.org has long been recognized as a leader in the consumer watchdog community, and this site overhaul will enable us to reach even more consumers to empower them with our anti-fraud messages.”

“The National Consumers League, an important data contributor to the FTC’s Consumer Sentinel complaint database, is one of the primary reasons for that database’s volume and diversity of data,” said FTC Commissioner Maureen K. Ohlhausen. “NCL’s Fraud.org is an important partner in the FTC’s fight to protect consumers from being victimized by fraud.”

Through a complete overhaul of its design, the new Fraud.org will make it even easier for consumers to find the information they need to avoid scams. The new user experience includes:

  • An updated search function to help consumers search for scams in multiple ways, enabling them to go directly to a specific type of fraud or, using a more advanced search, identify the type of scam they’ve been exposed to if they aren’t sure;
  • Content that is easily shareable via social networks so that consumers can quickly pass along fraud warnings to friends and loved ones in need;
  • The ability to sign up for regular Fraud Alerts to help consumers stay abreast of emerging scams before they become victims; and
  • As always, consumers who have been victims of fraud or been approached by scammers can file complaints through our secure online complaint form. These complaints are then shared with our network of law enforcement and consumer protection partners.

“We are looking forward to adding even more features in the coming months to further enhance the experience for visitors to Fraud.org,” said Breyault. “We aim to make Fraud.org a go-to resource for consumers so they can find the information they need to avoid the daily onslaught of fraudulent tricks and traps.” 

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About the National Consumers League

The National Consumers League, founded in 1899, is America’s pioneer consumer organization. Our mission is to protect and promote social and economic justice for consumers and workers in the United States and abroad. For more information, visit www.nclnet.org.

Federal medical privacy rules strengthened; Medication adherence must be protected – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Last week, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) published its long-awaited final rule revising the nation’s federal medical privacy requirements under the HITECH Act of 2009 – a.k.a. the “HIPAA Privacy Rule.” NCL, a founding member of the Best Privacy Practices Coalition, congratulates HHS for strengthening consumer privacy and data security protections, and enhancing enforcement for HIPAA violations by covered entities and their business associates.

The final rule attempts to strike a balance between patients’ privacy concerns and the meaningful benefits of sponsored and non-sponsored communications that can improve adherence to prescribed therapies and greatly improve patient health. Notwithstanding HHS’s efforts, there remains some tension between certain of the privacy protections and the goals of bolstering public health.

The problem of poor medication adherence is a major, and significantly under-appreciated health problem. Studies suggest that nearly three-out-of-four Americans do not take their medication as directed and that the cost to the health care system of non-adherence annually is a $290 billion. To address the problem, NCL is leading a medication adherence public awareness campaign, Script Your Future (www.scriptyourfuture.org). NCL’s campaign is designed to help patients take their prescribed medication as directed and better manage health problems such as diabetes, COPD, asthma, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol.

To help combat this problem of poor adherence, most pharmacies, health plans, and doctors provide a broad range of patient-directed communications regarding prescription drug therapies, including communications that encourage patients to stay on prescribed therapy. NCL’s views these communications, particularly “refill reminders,” as tools that help patients follow their medication regimen.

While we are pleased that the rule does allow use of “refill reminders” we are concerned that HHS’s final rule is more restrictive than the prior HIPAA Privacy Rule in requiring patient authorization (opt in) for health care providers’ (and health plans’) capability to use patient information to execute certain sponsored patient communications programs (refill reminders are excepted). To its credit, in addition to codifying the statutory exception for “refill reminder” messages, HHS also maintained the exception for sponsored communications that are delivered in face-to-face settings (e.g., in the pharmacy or doctor’s office).

In particular, we are concerned that the statutory exception for “refill reminders” is available only if compensation received by the covered entity provider or plan is “reasonably related” to the entity’s costs of making the communication. Although Congress included this “reasonable in amount” limitation in the HITECH Act, NCL believes that HHS has gone too far in its preamble interpretation by limiting such compensation to only certain direct costs. Specifically, under the final rule, HHS considers permissible costs to be restricted to those of labor, supplies, and postage to make the communication and that they include “only the pharmacy’s cost of drafting, printing, and mailing the refill reminders.” It sounds like a minor point, perhaps, but we are concerned that this could have a negative impact on patient adherence. We think that a broader definition of costs is called for, including such things as computer hardware, software, and other overhead – because we don’t want to inhibit in any way communications that can help improve the likelihood of patient adherence to medication.

We also are concerned that, from a policy standpoint, the “reasonable compensation” requirement may inhibit HHS efforts to promote medication adherence, and in the end does little to advance patient privacy. For instance, HHS’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) requires and rewards patient adherence programs in several respects, including through physicians’ “meaningful use” of electronic health records (EHRs). Furthermore, in order for vendors implementing Medicare part D to qualify for reimbursement, they must make use of CMS’s Medication Management Therapy Programs (MTMP), which are, by their very nature, adherence -focused incentives. In addition, HHS’s Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) has studied the comparative effectiveness of medication adherence interventions and funds adherence educational programs.

We’re concerned that HHS’s interpretation of “reasonable compensation” may not be grounded in good public policy and could actually hamper sponsored adherence efforts, which are widely regarded as beneficial to public health. In the final rule, HHS signaled its intention to issue informal guidance on the “refill reminder” exception. NCL hopes that, in so doing, HHS will make clear that the exception serves an important public health function and that “reasonable compensation” ought to be interpreted in the broadest possible fashion in order to ensure that we are doing all we can to promote improved medication adherence.

Time to stop the delays! – National Consumers League

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By Michell K. McIntyre, Director of NCL’s Special Project on Wage Theft

Happy anniversary! Besides being Valentine’s Day, today is also the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Department of Labor’s (DOL) Occupational Safety & Health Administration’s (OSHA) submission of a draft proposed rule to reduce exposure to life-threatening silica dust to the White House’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB). The review was supposed to take 90 days — but two years later, the draft rule is still there, languishing in regulatory limbo while workers continue to be exposed to the deadly dust.

Exposure to silica, one of the oldest known workplace dangers, can result in lung cancer and silicosis. Breathing in the tiny bits of silica, basically sand, is something nearly 2 million workers face everyday on jobs ranging from construction to manufacturing.

The legal limit on how much silica dust workers can inhale was set decades ago but in decades since science has shown that the limit needs to be cut in half.  It’s time to move the proposed rule out of OMB and make it law.  Too many lives are at risk to keep sitting on this life-saving rule.