Let kids be kids! – National Consumers League

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By Mimi Johnson, NCL Director of Health Policy

With new reports that girls are hitting puberty at alarmingly young ages and as the nation increasingly focuses on the obesity epidemic ravaging our youth, we need to remember that they are still children.

We’ve created an environment that pins children against typically adult problems. Diabetes. Early signs of heart disease. Early puberty – and all that comes with it.   We need to remember, however, that they are still kids beneath it all and we need to treat them in a way that they can emotionally and psychologically understand.

The BBC reported recently on a girl who had stopped eating because she saw a letter that contained the results of a national health survey, which found that she was overweight. Her solution? She decided she needed to stop eating. While we as society recognize that the younger generation is not as fit as they should be, and that it can have long-lasting effects on their health and society, we also need to develop better ways of addressing it. In other words, our solution should not encourage an 11-year-old girl to lose weight by inadvertently drive her to anorexia.

When we talk about behavior change in adults, we often emphasize the importance of meeting them where they are. The First Lady’s “Let’s Move” campaign is a wonderfully kid-appropriate effort to combat childhood obesity.

Remember, just because she’s hit puberty earlier does not mean we should encourage them to abandon their youth altogether.

Back to school a good time to revisit immunizations schedule – National Consumers League

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You may have recently read about the whooping cough epidemic in California, or you might recall the chaos last fall* when folks were scrambling to get their H1N1 vaccine. Immunizations* are one of the most important public health tools available, and they greatly improved our quality of life over the past century.

Today, we often associate vaccinations with infants and children, and possible the elderly. It is important to remember, however, that adults can not only benefit from immunizations, but they can help protect their loved ones by getting boosters or new immunizations. The CDC establishes a recommended schedule of vaccines for both adults*, children*, and teens*. You should talk with your health care practitioner to determine what is appropriate for you and your family.

Recently, the CDC* revised its seasonal flu recommendations to reflect the value of the flu vaccine universally in the population. As summer turns to fall, it is important to remember to schedule a visit to the pharmacy or your family doctor to get your seasonal shot; it is often advised to get your seasonal vaccine in October or November to ensure that it protects you throughout the flu season (usually ending in early spring).

While many may grimace at the thought of a needle, it is important to remember the value of vaccines in preventing discomfort and illness.

 

*Links are no longer active as the original sources have removed the content, sometimes due to federal website changes or restructurings.

Chinese workers facing dire consequences for speaking out – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Chinese bank workers who have been openly protesting the downsizing of jobs in the white-collar banking sector in China deserve great praise for their bravery. Last month the Agricultural Bank of China went public, bringing in $22 billion. A few days after, bank workers, of whom 400,000 have been laid off in the past decade as banks have gone public and shed workers, staged a protest, and some were promptly arrested. What is interesting is this very capitalist act of a bank “going public” in a formerly centrally-run, communist economy is directly connected to the layoffs. The fate of the organizers of these protests is bleak: they are often put in “black jails,” according to the New York Times, where they are sometimes beaten. The unrepentant end up in labor camps, sometimes spending several years there without being charged with a crime.

The dismissals seem to follow a pattern: workers over age 40 are singled out first, offered paltry buyouts, and anyone refusing is let go without compensation. Many of these laid-off bank workers have never found other jobs since and are forced to live off their elderly parents. They share the same fate as millions of Chinese factory workers, who have found no redress in the Chinese courts. No union exists to help them take up their cause. One former banker profiled in the Times collects recyclables to feed her family. She’s recently been arrested for continuing to protest, and her son says he’s not sure when they will see her again, adding “she’s very stubborn.”

The plight of these workers is reminiscent of the struggles of American workers, except that the Chinese don’t even have the semblance of a democratic court system where workers can turn for redress. I admire the courage of these people, who face dire consequences for speaking out and little hope their actions will change the system. Like workers everywhere facing long odds, they deserve our support and admiration.

Sweet revenge: auto warranty robocaller ordered to pay up (and sell his Benz) – National Consumers League

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

Remember those annoying robocalls from telemarketers “warning” consumers about supposedly expiring car warranties? It seems like everyone received one last year. Fortunately, the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general investigated and cracked down on the ringleaders behind the scam.

In many cases, when authorities arrest those responsible for scams, they are unable to recover much in the way of assets from these criminals. For example, in this robocall scam, the FTC’s proposed settlement of $24 million was suspended because of the defendant’s inability to pay.

Fortunately, not all of the scammers responsible for the auto warranty scams have been able to escape paying up. Earlier this year, the FTC collected more than $655,000 from two of the defendants. On August 23, the agency announced that Damian Kohlfield, another of the fraudsters, will pay approximately $2.3 million in fines related to the scam. In addition, Kohlfield will be required to give up his Mercedes-Benz automobile in what must be delicious irony for victims of the auto warranty scam. All told, the agency will be able to use fines from this scam to reimburse consumers nearly $3 million.

The FTC also has a helpful fact sheet to help consumers avoid auto warranty scams and learn the differences between warranties and service contracts here. For a full listing of all FTC actions taken since last year against these robocallers, click here.

Consumers should also be on the lookout for auto dealerships that claim you must buy a warranty in order for your financing to be approved. Also be wary of salesmen who claim that if you don’t buy an extended warranty when you purchase a vehicle, you won’t be able to buy a warranty int he future. Be sure not to pay for a warranty until you see the full details in writing.  Also be sure to check out the dealership and warranty company’s records with the Better Business Bureau before purchasing the warranty.

In general, be very cautious of salesmen who want to sell you “extended” warranties. These warranties are almost always pure profit for dealers. Newer automobiles today are much more reliables that older cars. A Consumer Reports survey in December 2007 found that only 22 percent of consumers surveyed saved any money by using their costly extended warranties instead of simply paying for car repairs out of pocket.

Company at center of egg recall has troubled past – National Consumers League

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Update: Since this blog post went live, an additional 170 million eggs have been recalled, this time by Hillandale Farms of Iowa, bringing the number of recalled eggs to 550 million. These recalled eggs were sold under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow. The plant numbers and Julian dates of the recalled products are as follows:

  • Plant number P1860, Julian dates 099-230
  • Plant number P1663, Julian dates 137-230

The Iowa company that is at the center of the huge egg recall – with 380 million eggs as part of the effort and underway as we speak  – has a history of inhumane treatment of animals,  bad labor practices, and has been sued for mistreating workers. August 22’s  Washington Post’s front page story on the Iowa based DeCoster family’s egg production operation finds that the company has far too often been engaged in a series of unfortunate practices.

In June of this year, the DeCoster company agreed to pay $34,000+ to settle allegations of animal cruelty in its 5 million hen facility in Maine. Apparently hens were being suffocated in garbage cans, kicked into manure pits to drown, and hanging by their feet alive over conveyor belts. A whistleblower with a hidden camera recorded this abuses, and thank goodness for that.

The company has a bad food safety record; a federal investigation into 26 outbreaks of the pathogen found in these eggs, salmonella enteritidis,  the second leading cause of foodborne illness, shows that 15 of the outbreaks point to Wright County Egg, owned by DeCoster.  According to the Washington Post,

  • In 1996, DeCoster was fined $3.6 million for health and safety violations. Then Secretary of Labor Robert Reich termed as “dangerous and oppressive as any sweatshop we have seen.” Workers had apparently been forced to handle manure and dead chickens with their bare hands and to live in filthy conditions.
  • In 1999 the company settled a class action suit for unpaid overtime involving 3,000 workers.
  • In 2001 the Iowa Supreme Court found that DeCoster was a “repeat violator” of state environmental laws including violations of hog farming regulations.
  • In 2001 DeCoster Farms settled for $1.5 a complaint at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, EEOC, for sexual harassment of 11 undocumented female workers, including assault and rape charges.
  • In 2002, OSHA fined DeCoster for an array of violations.
  • DeCoster also settled a suit with Mexican workers for $3.2 for discrimination  in housing and working conditions
  • Federal officials found over 100 undocumented workers in DeCoster’s plants in 2003, fining them $2.1 million.
  • In 2008 DeCoster was fined by OSHA for violations including forcing workers to retrieve eggs the previous winter from inside a building that had collapsed under ice and snow.

Some state regulators commented that the company has improved its approach in recent years.  That may be, but – this June alone – DeCoster was cited for mistreatment of animals.

The best outcome for a company with so many violations is addressing the myriad issues head-on. Consumers, animal rights supporters, and labor leaders should come together to challenge the DeCoster company practices and demand more from those who  produce the products – eggs – that we all eat.

Bad eggs prompt largest food recall in years – National Consumers League

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Update: Since this blog post went live, an additional 170 million eggs have been recalled, this time by Hillandale Farms of Iowa, bringing the number of recalled eggs to 550 million. These recalled eggs were sold under the brand names Hillandale Farms, Sunny Farms, and Sunny Meadow. The plant numbers and Julian dates of the recalled products are as follows:

  • Plant number P1860, Julian dates 099-230
  • Plant number P1663, Julian dates 137-230

by Courtney Brein, Linda Golodner Food Safety and Nutrition Fellow

Do you have shell eggs in your refrigerator?  If so, take a close look at that carton before whipping up your next omelet – those eggs may be implicated in a 380 million-egg recall, the largest food recall in years.

On August 13, Iowa-based Wright County Egg voluntarily recalled 228 million eggs, due to possible contamination with Salmonella Enteritidis, and the company has since expanded the recall to include an additional 152 million eggs.  Several hundred cases of Salmonella in Minnesota, Colorado, and California have already been linked to the contaminated eggs, and FDA/CDC field investigation teams are currently determining whether they are responsible for clusters of Salmonella outbreaks in at least seven other states.  Individuals with confirmed cases of egg-induced Salmonella poisoning were likely exposed to the contaminated product in May or June of this year.

The contaminated eggs have been packaged under the following brand names:

  • Albertsons
  • Bayview
  • Boomsma’s
  • Dutch Farms
  • Farm Fresh
  • Hillandale
  • Kemps
  • Lucerne
  • Lund
  • Mountain Dairy
  • Mountain
  • Nulaid
  • Ralph’s
  • Shoreland
  • Sunshine
  • Sun Valley
  • Trafficanda

To determine if eggs in your kitchen from the above brands are subject to recall, locate the plant number and Julian date printed on the carton.  The plant number begins with the letter P, and the Julian date is listed immediately following the plant number (ex: P-1026 135).  The recalled products include plant numbers 1026, 1091, 1413, 1686, 1946, and 1951 and Julian dates from 135 to 225.

If you find the recalled product in your refrigerator, discard the eggs or return the carton to the store where you purchased it for a full refund.  DO NOT CONSUME THESE EGGS.  The recall includes all shell eggs produced by Wright between May 16 and August 13 of this year.

If you suspect that you may have become ill from eating recalled eggs, contact your physician or other health care provider.  Symptoms of Salmonella Enteritidis infection set in 12 to 72 hours after an individual consumes the contaminated product and include fever, abdominal cramps, and diarrhea.  Small children, the elderly, and those with impaired immune systems are at greater risk for more serious illness or complications.

For more information about the recall, visit the FDA Web site.

Maybe Steven Slater not so crazy after all – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Steven Slater seemed a little crazy to me a few days ago, when I first read his story, but he doesn’t seem so crazy to me today. Who is Steven Slater ? He’s the Jet Blue flight attendant who blew his lid after landing the flight to JFK from Pittsburgh and spewed out a tirade of invective, then proceed to pull the emergency chute and leave the airplane.

I recently boarded an Air Tran flight from Minneapolis to Boston, with a stop and change of planes in Milwaukee at 12:20 in the afternoon. By 9 pm I was still not in Boston yet. Air Tran – a discount airline – is infamous in my family for canceling flights, delaying them, or re-routing passengers through circuitous destinations that take them from one end of the country to another, finally delivering them hours – maybe days – after their scheduled arrival.

So, was it weather that had me missing a long-planned gathering of friends and family outside Boston for one night’s enjoyment? No, the weather was beautiful. Was it an airport closure? No, airports were fine. Mechanical problems? No such problems. No, Air Tran had a computer glitch, so they delivered more than 50 passengers to Milwaukee who had connections to make in the same exact area – some to Boston, some to Orlando, others to Washington DC. And instead of holding planes for 20 minutes in my case and 10 minutes for the DC-bound passengers, they sent the connecting flights on their way and stranded the rest of us. To add insult to injury, I had asked the crew in Minneapolis and they promised me that I wouldn’t miss my connection. “Your flight to Boston is running late, so don’t worry, you’ll make it.”

A recent New York Times piece says that the Steven Slater saga is an “object lesson in the difficulties of flying today, a symbol of the dislocations in the workplace caused by the economy . . . “  Another expert noted, “this is a symptom of a much larger problem. The airlines need to say, we hear you, we feel this, and we’re not here just to get you from point A to Point B but to treat you with respect.”

Consumers are fed up with airline travel, but what choice do we have?  My fellow bumpees and I raised a fuss and got free trip and food vouchers, and better connections than originally offered. But still, I had to pay an extra $70 in taxi fare to get to the rental house, a place I usually get to by train for a fraction of the cost. As the sun went down on on Milwaukee, where I was stuck for a mere 5 hours, all I could think was, maybe that Steven Slater isn’t so crazy after all.

DOL’s newest weapon in fight against child labor – National Consumers League

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By Elizabeth Gardner, NCL public policy intern

In an effort to combat child labor, the U.S. Department of Labor recently updated its list of products made with forced or indentured child labor in foreign countries. Federal contractors are prohibited under U.S. law from using these products.

Under Executive Order 13126 federal contractors are required to make a good faith effort to verify that no child labor was used in the products filling government contracts. It’s a good measure, and the list turns out to be a bit of a Who’s Who among nations with the worst forms of child labor.

Making the most appearances on this list of notoriety is Burma (a.k.a. Myanmar). (It almost completely monopolized the list in its first iteration back in 2001.) The nation’s bamboo, beans, bricks, rice, rubber, sugarcane, and teak (a type of wood) all made the Department of Labor product watch list.

India, closely followed by Nepal and China, isn’t doing that much better though. India’s bricks, cottonseed, embroidered textiles, garments, and stones made the list. Nepal was on the list for many of the same products. And China, whose toys and electronics have repeatedly been linked to child labor, must also be watched.

It’s looking at other parts of the list, though, that makes you just scratch your head—because of some of the products that are on the list and some of the countries that are off it. For example, Russia is on the list for having child labor in pornography. Hm… Why exactly is pornography on this list for federal contractors?

And then Ghana, one of the focal points of efforts to remove child labor from the cocoa industry, doesn’t appear on the list for cocoa. Should we be heartened by its absence? Assume that significant strides have been made to eradicate the worst forms of child labor in cocoa harvesting? That seems to be the case for Indian carpets being dropped from the list. Encouragingly, the Department of Labor noted that independent monitoring of carpet looms in India and pending research were sufficient to keep Indian carpets clear—at least for the time being.

All this being said—with Russia on and India and Ghana off—this list only provides a partial picture of the problem of child labor around the world. It’s good that federal contractors are being asked to monitor their supplies, even if they’re only required to “have made a good faith effort to determine whether forced or indentured child labor was used to produce the items listed.” For you and me, though, this list’s worth is primarily as a resource—a quick overview of countries and products. And when we need specific info, the Department of Labor’s bibliography for the list is an even better resource. If you need data on any of the products or countries—check it out.

Gearing up for healthy fall sports – National Consumers League

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By Jacob Markey, NCL LifeSmarts intern

Welcome back to the best year of LifeSmarts yet! August begins the 2010-2011 season by focusing on Health and Safety, and not only is it almost time for the school year to begin, it is also the beginning of the Fall sports season. Thinking about this brings me back to my adventures in high school playing soccer (not very good) and tennis (surprisingly decent). There is little else as fun to me as experiencing the thrill and joy of playing organized sports.

To keep yourself at peek performance and avoid injuries while playing sports, make sure you take the following steps:

  • Stay hydrated. Without enough water, your body will begin to cramp and break down. Always remember to bring a water bottle when playing sports, drink 4-6 ounces every 15-20 minutes, and let an adult know if you are in urgent need of help if you become dehydrated. Other recommendations for staying hydrated can be found here and here. And being from Wisconsin, the Dairy State, I have learned that milk is now a good sports drink too. So drink up!
  • See a coach and/or trainer if you have any health concerns. Maybe the worst part of playing a sport is having to sit out a game due to injury. To avoid this, always remember to thoroughly stretch before starting to play. If you do feel any pain, see your school’s trainer or nurse, who will give you advice on how to deal with your injury.
  • Use the proper equipment: Buy the right type of protection (cleats and shin guards for soccer, mouth guard for football, etc.) and make sure they fit correctly.
  • Refuse to take steroids. There are a multitude of negative health implications that can result from steroid use, and your best bet is to steer clear of them.

By keeping these tips in mind, you can best prepare yourself for a safe and successful sports season.

For those who don’t participate in sports, it is still vitally important to stay active for your health. The federal government recommends that teens get at least 60 minutes of exercise just about every day of the week. For some recommendations of the varied kinds of exercises and activities you could do to fulfill this, check out the links here and here.

Good luck to everyone for a fun and successful school year, and I look forward to posting again next month.

Auto recycling 101 – National Consumers League

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By Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

NCL's ED Sally Greenberg visited the AAA auto recycling parts plant in , MN this week. NCL supports the recycling of auto parts for a number of reasons. Its important to recycle perfectly good parts that haven't been damaged in an accident as long as the parts are bought from a reputable recycler that provides warranties for parts and deals with reputable repair shops: 1) used parts save consumers money compared to paying for new parts 2) there may not be new parts available for certain older vehicles 3) its environmentally sound to recycle old parts and saves many millions of dollars each year, 4) ensuring continued consumers access to such parts requires that damaged autos be available at reasonable rates to recyclers for parts

I spent Monday of this week at AAA auto parts recyclers outside Minneapolis getting an up-close look at the business. I got to know the recyclers when I worked on auto safety issues at Consumers Union a few years back. It’s a very important industry and valuable to American consumers in a number of ways. First, recyclers save us money by dismantling cars that have been in serious crashes and preserving the intact parts – engines, window washing fixtures, fuse boxes, wheels – and making them available at lower cost than new parts. Second, they save millions of dollars because they reuse parts that would otherwise be shredded and go into our landfills, not to mention the millions it would take to make all those parts new again. They also drain out the fluids as they dismantle the cars, and see that they are properly disposed of – gas, oil, power steering and window washing fluids, to name a few. AAA actually uses the oil and gas from the cars to heat its plant, no mean feat in 25-below-zero Minnesota winters. The other fluids are kept out of landfills and waterways.

The best in the industry belong to the Automotive Recyclers Association, and which holds members to strict standards. They have requirements for customer satisfaction, best practices in dismantling parts, cleaning them up and making sure they are in working order before sending them out to auto repair shops, and they provide warranties on the parts they sell.

One of the growing problems facing recyclers, however, is access to cars that have been in serious crashes – known as “total loss” vehicles. The recyclers buy the crashed cars at auctions. However, they have competition from a rogue’s gallery of sleazy repair operators who will take a crumpled car and do a superficial repair, putting a dangerous vehicle back on the streets. And if that weren’t enough, recyclers then have to compete for these cars with criminals looking to buy these total loss vehicles simply to get the vehicle’s unique identification number (VIN). These crooks spend more for the crumpled metal than its worth, and that makes it hard for the honest parts recyclers to compete. They then steal a car that is the same make and model as the crashed vehicle and slap the VIN on the stolen car.

It’s in the interest of consumers to make sure the auto recyclers continue to have access to the total loss vehicles. One idea that has been adopted in New South Wales Australia is to “kill the VIN” off of a total loss vehicle, thus depriving unscrupulous and dishonest actors from either putting a dangerous car back on the road or stealing the wrecked car’s VIN. NCL believes U.S. policymakers should look at the New South Wales regulations and consider whether to adopt such a policy in the United States.