Apparently, not even working at a place like CR can keep you from accidentally peeling your skin off with a power washer.

The story explicitly said make sure you don't point it at yourself. Our video even had a guy who had really hurt his foot that way, as I recall. "I'll never do that," I said confidently. And, sure enough, the first time I used the device I managed to just brush the edge of my wrist with the stream. No skin left.

Staff blunders: Times when we didn't heed our own advice [Consumer Reports]

First of all, Consumer Reports has determined that pumpkin carving kits are the way to go—

From CR:

Cutting through pumpkins can easily injure your hands. Such gashes can be especially serious since nerves, blood vessels, and tendons lie just under the skin. The cuts can occur, for example, when a knife sticks fast in the rind, then abruptly dislodges as you tug, slashing your other hand. A long knife can penetrate to the other side of the pumpkin where one hand holds it steady. Or your hand can slip down onto the blade after the handle gets coated with the pumpkin's slimy innards.

The pumpkin-carving kits we evaluated—which ran from about $6 to $15—eased some of those concerns. They contained tools that can saw through rind, poke holes, or scoop out the innards. One advantage of the sawlike tools is that they're not razor-sharp, unlike many knives. Although various tools broke in our tests, the sawlike ones were judged less likely than regular knives to cause serious cuts to your hand.

If you've never carved a pumpkin before — or want to improve your carving technique, we found some helpful YouTube videos from someone called "The Pumpkin Lady." Here's one where she demonstrates how to use the carving saws:

You can find more "How To" videos as well as some free patterns on The Pumpkin Lady's website.

Happy Halloween! Oh, and don't forget to toast your pumpkin seeds. Yum!

(Photo: aginghipster77 )

The AP says:

United Airlines says 1 of its pilots has been arrested by police for being over the legal alcohol limit.

The airline says the first officer was due to join the crew of flight 955 from London's Heathrow Airport to San Francisco when he was arrested early Sunday morning. London's Metropolitan Police say the 44-year-old was arrested following a breath test but has since been bailed.

Fox News has some quotes from horrified passengers who witnessed the pilot being marched off the plane:

“A couple of police officers stormed on to the plane as we were all sitting down and went straight for the cockpit.

“We didn’t have a clue what was happening and we were kept waiting on the plane for hours.

“It is horrifying to think we were apparently so close to being flown thousands of miles by somebody who could have been drinking."

United Airlines issued a statement about the incident:

"United Airlines' alcohol policy is among the strictest in the industry and we have absolutely no tolerance for abuse or violation of this well-established policy.

"Safety is our number one priority and the pilot has been removed from service while we are co-operating with the authorities and conducting a full investigation.

Sigh.

Pilot arrested after failing breath test [Reuters]
'Drunk' United Airlines Pilot Arrested Before Takeoff [Fox News]
Pilot arrested in UK for being over alcohol limit [WHBF]
Pilot Arrested at Heathrow Following Breath Test[WSJ Middle Seat Blog]
(Photo: Zonaphoto )

Because we didn't already have enough to worry about this week, the New York Times took a moment to remind us that recessions and crime go hand-in-hand. Consider:

• 1970s: New York almost dies, neighborhoods follow.
• 1987: Stocks crash. The next year, murders soar.

"Every recession since the late ’50s has been associated with an increase in crime and, in particular, property crime and robbery, which would be most responsive to changes in economic conditions. Typically, there is a year lag between the economic change and crime rates."

Nearly 80 police departments say that the subprime meltdown is already boosting crime rates. In Santa Anna, foreclosed homes have been converted to playgrounds for gangs and whores.

New York is enjoying record-low crime rates, even with 4,000 fewer officers than we had eight years ago. Of course, the police department is funded by tax revenue, and New York, more than most, depends on Wall Street for a double-digit chunk of budget grease. Former top cop Bill Bratton said:

Those are tough choices. Where are you going to put the scarce tax dollars? I would advocate it is the wrong thing to do if you start impacting police.

Mayor Bloomberg disagrees and told the police to slash $94 million from this year's budget. Next year, the cops are set to lose another $192 million.

Of course, these social scientists don't really know anything. Some think bad times and foreclosures lead to falling wages, unemployment, and crime. Others think crime is caused by the prosperity and gaudiness found in good times. So unlike the countless investors driving us inexorably towards recession and potential stabbings, you can take solace in the uncertainty.

Keeping Wary Eye on Crime as Economy Sinks [The New York Times]
(Photo: Getty)

Install a VPN program and run it every time you go online using a public Wi-Fi hotspot.

Using a public Wi-Fi spot without a VPN is like shouting everything across the room in plain English—anyone who wants to listen in, can. Using a VPN is more like shouting in a made-up language that only you and your twin sibling understand. A VPN will encrypt anything you send from your laptop to the Wi-Fi router, so that nobody else in the coffee shop, student center, or hotel can see what you're doing.

If you work for a large company, odds are your IT department has already got you using a VPN when you're traveling or working away from the office. If you're everyone else—a freelancer, a student, a small business owner with one or two computers and no real "back-end" system—then many of those VPN solutions are out of your reach. Either they're too complicated to set up without computer skillz or they're too expensive.

Luckily, there are cheap VPN programs you can install on your laptop that are more or less self-contained: you install the app, then launch it when you log on to a Wi-Fi network, and everything you do online from that point forward will be encrypted. There's also a hardware-based solution—a USB drive that you can plug into any computer for a quick VPN environment.

A couple of things to note:

1. When the website you're on uses https, your data is already encrypted. For some Google-based services (like Gmail and Google Docs), you'll be using https automatically or you can add the "s" yourself to force the encryption. But not every site offers this extra security.
2. These VPN programs are not the end-all in security solutions. If you're really serious about security, don't get your advice from this blog. Find a skilled computer security technician to help you set up an awesome home-based VPN solution (where you route all your laptop traffic through a home network remotely), or teach yourself how to do it with freeware and your router.

So with those caveats, here are some options you can consider. The first two programs listed below install the same as any other app, but I haven't tested the other three. If you've tried any of these and can share an opinion, please join in the comments below.

AnchorFree's Hotspot Shield
Free, but ad-supported. While browsing, you'll see ads appear occasionally at the top of the browser window. It's great if you infrequently need it, but annoying if you find yourself in a Starbucks once a week.

Witopia's PersonalVPN
$40 per year

HotSpotVPN
$9 per month (listed as a temporary price reduction as of October 2008)

iPig
Free with a 10MB cap / $30 for 30GB of data transfer

PublicVPN
$70 per year, or $7 per month

About that hardware solution: IronKey is a USB flash drive that offers a few extra features you can't get with the software above. It encrypts any files you store on it, and it comes with its own VPN software that runs automatically when you plug it into a Windows PC. It comes with the Firefox browser included, so you can surf the web through the IronKey no matter what PC you're using. It costs $80 for a 1 GB drive with a 1-year VPN subscription.

And finally, Consumerist reader Ein2015, who provided an invaluable service by vetting this article before I posted it, pointed out that there's an awesome open source VPN solution called OpenVPN. It's cross-platform and free, so if you're feeling techy and want to set up your own virtual private network using your home computers, you might check it out.

(Many, many thanks to Ein2015!)
(Photo: Getty Images and stevecadman)

The NYT has an interesting article about the movement to standardize the bracelets:

The goal is to prevent potentially dangerous mistakes, like giving the wrong food to an allergic child, or allowing a patient with balance problems to walk unescorted down a freshly waxed hallway. The drive was spurred, in part, by a notorious 2005 Pennsylvania case in which a patient nearly died because a nurse used a yellow band thinking it meant “restricted extremity” (don’t draw blood from that arm), as it did at another hospital where the nurse sometimes worked, when at this hospital it meant D.N.R.

While the new color-coding has been quickly embraced by at least 20 states and endorsed by the American Hospital Association, the purple bands, typically embossed with the letters D.N.R. to reinforce the message, are meeting with some resistance.

The nation’s leading hospital-accreditation agency, known as the Joint Commission, has expressed caution about the new system, citing concerns about branding patients by their end-of-life choices, or inadvertently broadcasting those choices to family and friends who have not been consulted.

The commission also said that children who do not understand the system had been prone to trade the wristbands like baseball cards.

Awwwwkkwaaarrrdd. The main takeaway for the consumer is that hospitals make mistakes, so it's a good idea to ask questions about the bracelets that they put on you and make sure that everything is as it should be. If something doesn't seem right, speak up for yourself or for your family.

Hospital Bracelets Face Hurdles as They Fix Hazard [NYT]
(Photo:Chester Higgins Jr./The New York Times)

Tipster Alexander writes:

These were in plain view at the Warren NJ Quiznos. It's one of those creepy bug zapper raquets with the dirty rag the guy used to pick up hot things with on top of it. This is taken with my iphone from right where you stand when you order a sandwich. I am never eating there again.

Whatever is up there, it's not artisan bread.

The substances detected in the latest tests mirrored those cited in the earlier AP report.

Chicago, for example, found a cholesterol medication and a nicotine derivative. Many cities found the anti-convulsant carbamazepine. Officials in one of those communities, Colorado Springs, say they detected five pharmaceuticals in all, including a tranquilizer and a hormone.

"This is obviously an emerging issue and after the AP stories came out we felt it was the responsible thing for us to do, as a utility, to find out where we stand. We believe that at these levels, based on current science, that the water is completely safe for our customers," said Colorado Springs spokesman Steve Berry. "We don't want to create unnecessary alarm, but at the same time we have a responsibility as a municipal utility to communicate with our customers and let them know."

Of the twenty-seven municipalities to test their water supply, seventeen returned positive results. The water in Boston, Phoenix and Seattle all turned up crystal-clear.

What about the country's largest water provider, New York City?

The City Council called for an urgent-sounding emergency meeting in April to order the Department of Environmental Protection to test the city's water supply. In response, the D.E.P. declared: "the testing of finished tap water is not warranted at this time."

Drugs affect more drinking water [AP]
PREVIOUSLY: AP: 41 Million Americans Drink Water Contaminated With Antibiotics, Anti-Convulsants, Mood Stabilizers, And Sex Hormones
(Photo: mikelens)

I'm all in favor of buying generic over the counter medications; however, this morning when my child was sick, I went for the acetaminophen, and almost ended up giving him allergy medication.

Is it just me, or should Target make the bottles just a bit different, as to not confuse those of us who wake at 4am to a crying toddler?

(Thanks to Circadian Swing!)

Bed, Bath & Beyond refused to let some customers use the phone to call 911 after they saw a toddler locked in a hot car in the store's parking lot. The witnesses told the local news that the employees told them, "...You cannot call no one, what goes on in the parking lot is not our concern."

"I said, lady, there is a child out there in a hot car and it's locked and it needs help. And I said, will you let us use your phone and call and she said no, we will not get involved."

The Lexington police arrived, smashed the car window and gave the 3-year-old some water. The mother was arrested and charged with wanton endangerment. Meanwhile, Bed, Bath & Beyond has issued a statement about the incident.

"The customer did ask the store to contact the authorities, the store suggested that the customer, who had witnessed the situation, contact 911. We are pleased that the manner was addressed in a timely manner and will use this incident as a training opportunity."

Police: Toddler In Hot Van For 45 Min. [LEX 18 News] (Thanks, Doug!)
(Photo: Morton Fox )

The first list is a bare-bones compilation naming 20 medications and the potential issue for each. It provides no indication of how widespread or serious the problems might be, leading some consumer advocates to question its usefulness, and prompting industry worries that skittish patients might stop taking a useful medication if they see it listed.

Food and Drug Administration officials said they are trying to walk a fine line in being more open to the public while avoiding needless scares. Congress, in a drug safety bill passed last year, ordered the agency to post quarterly listings of medications under investigation.

"My message to patients is this: Don't stop taking your medicine," said Dr. Janet Woodcock, who heads the FDA's Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. "If your doctor has prescribed a drug that appears on this list, you should continue taking it unless your doctor advises you differently."

Google proficiency obviously doesn't confer a M.D., but that doesn't stop some consumers from freaking out at the first sign of trouble. With that in mind, the FDA issued its list with this crystal-clear caveat:

The appearance of a drug on this list does not mean that FDA has concluded that the drug has the listed risk, or that FDA has identified a causal relationship between the drug and the listed risk. It is on the list only because FDA has identified a potential safety issue.

Potential Signals of Serious Risks/New Safety Information Identified by the Adverse Event Reporting System (AERS) [FDA]
FDA posts its first online list of drugs under investigation for safety problems [AP]

Asserting that government and industry safety rules don't protect children from the hazard, Toys "R" Us is dictating stricter tests and design standards that cribmakers have balked at for years. The company, which also owns Babies "R" Us, has the clout to do so because it sells so many cribs—hundreds of thousands annually.

Toys "R" Us is specifying the trees its suppliers can use, the way they attach spindles to crib railings and even the type of glue. Manufacturers that don't follow the new rules can't sell cribs in its stores.

The move by Toys "R" Us shows that major retailers, responding to parents' concerns, are using their purchasing power to redefine the safety of children's products—more quickly and more stringently than government regulators and groups that set standards for the industry.

Toys R Us says that it can speak for consumers when the government won't.

"We saw that there were products that passed the existing standards but had problems in the real world," Toys "R" Us chief executive Gerald Storch said. "Something needed to be done, so we did it. . . . We think that it will spread to the market as a whole."
...
"Clearly a consumer is not going to say, 'You need a slat integrity test,' but they want to feel confident shopping for products," said Storch, the Toys "R" Us CEO. "What we try to do is stand up for the consumer and say, 'What would they do if they had the facts?' "

Toys 'R' Us gets tough with cribmakers [Chicago Tribune]
(Photo: What Rhymes With Nicole )

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine have linked [BPA] to problems with brain function and mood disorders in monkeys—the first time the chemical has been connected to health problems in primates.

Last month, the FDA declared BPA safe enough to keep using in manufacturing, but yesterday another federal group reignited the issue:

The National Toxicology Program, a federal interagency initiative, released a final report saying it has “some concern” that BPA is linked to health and developmental problems in humans. Of the NTP’s five categories of concern, “some” would rate a three, or the middle of the dial between the extremes of negligible and serious.

The report doesn't call for a ban, but suggests more research is needed. And here we go: this new study on monkeys seems to add more evidence to the argument that BPA may have negative consequences on humans.

The FDA will hold a public meeting on September 16th to discuss the matter some more, with academics and industry reps in attendance.

"Chemical in Plastic Is Connected to Health Problems in Monkeys"
(Photo: mape_s)

PSC staff said FiOS "may form an electrically conductive path" and could create an electrical hazard. PSC spokesman James Dean called the public safety risk "minimal - however, there is a potential risk."

Under a plan submitted to the PSC last month, Verizon would review all of its fiber-optic installations to ensure connections are properly grounded and correct violations.

The company also said it would issue credits of up to $20 to customers for installations after Aug. 18 unless it meets standards at least 95 percent of the time. The credits would "compensate such customers for the inconvenience of the inspection (and, where applicable, remediation) process," according to documents filed with the PSC.

Verizon added that they take the Public Service Commission's concerns "very seriously."

Verizon offers plan to inspect FiOS wiring [Albany Times Union]
Violations cited in LI FiOS installations [Newsday]
(Photo: Getty)

Portable gas generators, often used by consumers to restore power to their homes and businesses in the aftermath of a storm, produce high levels of deadly carbon monoxide (CO). CPSC warns consumers that generators should be used outdoors only, far from doors, windows, and vents that could allow CO to come indoors.

“Carbon monoxide is an odorless, colorless poison gas. It is an invisible killer,” said CPSC Acting Chairman Nancy Nord. “While generators can come in handy after a storm, using one indoors can kill you and your family in minutes."

Gas generators inside = bad. Thanks for the safety tip, Nancy.

CPSC Warns of Dangers at Home in the Aftermath of Tropical Storm Fay [CPSC]

From the Nova Scotia News:

The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Jazz, Air Canada’s regional affiliate, plans to reduce fuel consumption by dropping commercial life vests from its flights, which will amount to about 25 kilograms less aboard its Dash-8 planes with 50 seats.

The move will leave passengers holding onto their seats — or at least their floating seat cushions — in the event the plane ditches and they hit the water alive.

Transport Canada regulations allow airlines to use flotation devices, a secondary option for other carriers, instead of life vests as long as the planes remain within 90 kilometres of shore. A Jazz official said a number of its East Coast routes were adjusted so the planes met that requirement, the Star reported.

One former airline CSR interviewed for the report wondered what would happen to infants and people who couldn't grab on to their seat cushions...

"If you have an infant (and) you don’t have a (life vest), you’re hanging on to the cushion," he said. "Are they saying, ‘Hang onto the cushion with one arm and your baby with another?’

"I mean, who comes up with these things?"

What do you think?

Airline ditches life vests to save on fuel [NSN](Thanks, Aaron !)

Now—right before California decides whether to ban BPA in children's products—the FDA has revisited its earlier studies and reaffirmed that "the trace amounts of bisphenol A that leach out of food containers are not a threat to infants or adults."

Critics are saying the FDA is cherry-picking what studies to consider in its decision:

"It's ironic FDA would choose to ignore dozens of studies funded by (the National Institutes of Health) — this country's best scientists — and instead rely on flawed studies from industry," said Pete Myers, chief scientist for Environmental Health Sciences.

Myers said the agency disregarded recent studies of bisphenol's effects included in the National Toxicology Program's April draft report.

That group's review of animal studies suggested low doses of bisphenol can cause changes in behavior and the brain, and that it may reduce survival and birth weight in fetuses. A final version of the group's findings is expected next month.

Commenting on those studies in its 105-page assessment, the FDA said they had "inconsistencies and inadequacies which limit the interpretations of the findings."

We're not sure what sort of effect this will have on the pending lawsuits or on California's potential ban, but the BPA debate should take on new energy next month, when the National Toxicology Program's final report is released and the FDA brings in outside "advisors" to debate its own findings.

"FDA says chemical found in plastic bottles is safe" [Associated Press]
(Photo: Oop)

"We do not agree with the FAA's [latest] findings and characterizations of American's action in these cases," the airline said in a statement. "We believe the proposed penalties are excessive."

The FAA defended the fine in a statement of its own:
"The FAA believes the large total amount of the fine for these violations is appropriate because American Airlines was aware that appropriate repairs were needed, and instead deferred maintenance."

As for the drug testing issue, the FAA wants to fine AA $1.7 million for warning its employees ahead of time when they were scheduled to be tested. The tests are supposed to be unannounced.

The FAA proposed $7.1 million in fines against American for violations that included:

•$4.4 million for improperly deferring maintenance in December

•$1.7 million for problems with its drug- and alcohol-testing program

•$1 million for operating planes without properly inspecting the emergency- path lighting system

American Airlines faces $7.1M in fines for safety violations [Dallas Morning News]
(Photo: Joshua Davis jdavis.info )

Later that day Hawley called back and said that the TSA had changed its policy and would no longer be adding forgetful fliers to the database if they could prove their identity.

Later Tuesday, Hawley called the newspaper to say the agency is changing its policy effective today and will stop keeping records of people who don't have ID if a screener can determine their identity. Hawley said he had been considering the change for a month. The names of people who did not have identification will soon be expunged, he said.

USAToday says the database contains the following information:

TSA can keep records for 15 years of someone's name, address, Social Security number, nationality, race and physical features, as well as identifying information about a traveling companion, according to a report by the Homeland Security Department privacy office.

Fliers without ID placed on TSA list [USAToday]

1. Do not allow children to use a cell phone, except for emergencies. The developing organs of a fetus or child are the most likely to be sensitive to any possible effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields.

2. While communicating using your cell phone, try to keep the cell phone away from the body as much as possible. The amplitude of the electromagnetic field is one fourth the strength at a distance of two inches and fifty times lower at three feet. Whenever possible, use the speaker-phone mode or a wireless Bluetooth headset, which has less than 1/100th of the electromagnetic emission of a normal cell phone. Use of a hands-free ear piece attachment may also reduce exposures.

3. Avoid using your cell phone in places, like a bus, where you can passively expose others to your phone's electromagnetic fields.

4. Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times. Do not keep it near your body at night such as under the pillow or on a bedside table, particularly if pregnant. You can also put it on “flight” or “off-line” mode, which stops electromagnetic emissions.

5. If you must carry your cell phone on you, make sure that the keypad is positioned toward your body and the back is positioned toward the outside so that the transmitted electromagnetic fields move away from your rather than through you.

6. Only use your cell phone to establish contact or for conversations lasting a few minutes, as the biological effects are directly related to the duration of exposure. For longer conversations, use a land line with a corded phone, not a cordless phone, which uses electromagnetic emitting technology similar to that of cell phones.

7. Switch sides regularly while communicating on your cell phone to spread out your exposure. Before putting your cell phone to the ear, wait until your correspondent has picked up. This limits the power of the electromagnetic field emitted near your ear and the duration of your exposure.

8. Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or when moving at high speed, such as in a car or train, as this automatically increases power to a maximum as the phone repeatedly attempts to connect to a new relay antenna.

9. When possible, communicate via text messaging rather than making a call, limiting the duration of exposure and the proximity to the body.

10. Choose a device with the lowest SAR possible (SAR = Specific Absorption Rate, which is a measure of the strength of the magnetic field absorbed by the body). SAR ratings of contemporary phones by different manufacturers are available by searching for “sar ratings cell phones” on the internet.

Of course, science doesn't actually know for certain whether cellphones are safe or whether they cause debilitating brain tumors. "Further research is needed" is a common refrain, though this is the sort of thing that will work itself out over the next decade as more, um, tumors data become available.

Important Precautionary Advice Regarding Cell Phone Use [University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute via firedoglake] (Thanks to Shaula!)
(Photo: Getty)

Mythbusters confirmed that aerosol bug sprays could ignite and explode, but the killjoys at Slate aren't convinced.

How many cans of Raid would it take to hit these levels? Take a sealed room that's 10-by-10 feet, containing 28,320 liters of air. For propane, the most dangerous concentrations are between 2.1 percent and 10.1 percent. It would take about 15 liters of propane to exceed one quarter of that lower limit in our hypothetical room. Since a standard, 17.5-ounce can of Raid contains about 0.29 liters of propane and similar propellants, you would need to empty at least 50 full cans of bug spray before you crossed that threshold.

This calculation assumes that all the propellants released into the room are distributed evenly in the air. In fact, the propane and butane are heavier than air and are therefore more likely to settle in one place. As a result, the hydrocarbons in a single can of bug spray might be sufficient to create a small pocket of explosive gas somewhere in a room. Temperature and humidity also play a role: It takes less bug spray to blow up a dry, hot room than a cold and wet one.

Still, the score remains:

Isias Vidal Maceda: 0
Bugs: 1

Man blows up apartment spraying for bugs [Reuters]
MythBusters (season 2) [Wikipedia]
Can Bug Spray Explode? [Slate]
(Photo: Getty)

Look where L L Bean advises you to keep your phones and gadgets!

They're such trusting souls, storing their gadgets outside their backpacks for the whole world to steal. No wonder this is probably the worst complaint we've ever gotten about L.L. Bean. They're obviously just too nice. Good for them.

The man was taken into custody and later released on bail. A Delta spokesperson told the AP that they will be filing charges against the man for interfering with flight crewmembers. Well, at least he was paying attention during the "safety lecture," right?

Angry flier uses emergency slide to exit Delta jet [USAToday](Thanks, David!)
(Photo: balmes )

I was at my local hardware store to pick up some disposable, quick-use masks for spraying some nitrocellulose lacquer. I go to the right aisle and pick out a decently priced pair of 3M Latex Paint and Odor Respirator with Valve masks.

After going down the list of things this mask protected the user from, I quickly found "disposable aerosol spray paint cans" on the list and was satisfied. I bought the item and was about to use it, but had an inclination to read the instructions before going out to spray.

I read through the instructions and I was cautioned NOT to use this mask with "paint spray."

Should I use the masks or not?

Well, kudos on reading the instructions! The instructions are written in a confusing way, but we understand them to mean that you shouldn't use it with paint spray, "when particulate concentrations exceed 10 times the PEL/OEL, specific OSHA standards, or applicable government regulations, whichever is lower." If you're not sure that the substance you're spaying qualifies, you should check with an expert.

Do we have any experts in the comments?

• Take the place of an airline boarding pass.
• Contain personal information about the traveler.
• Be able to monitor the whereabouts of each passenger and his/her luggage.
• Shock the wearer on command, completely immobilizing him/her for several minutes.

Lamperd Less Lethal—oddly, that name doesn't make us confident about either the effectiveness or the safety of their products—has an entertaining instructional video on their site that explains why this is such a great idea. It opens with footage of the planes hitting the WTC towers, just in case you've forgotten, then describes how all the current solutions are ineffective—biometrics can't spot "new" terrorists who aren't in the database, Air Marshalls can inflict friendly fire on nearby passengers, etc. But they've got an answer in the EMD Safety Bracelet! Check out these handy graphics if you don't believe them:

Okay, we doctored that last one, but you know there'd be a technical glitch at some point that turns everyone on the manifest into a herky-jerky bag of twitching muscles. Pretzels everywhere! Plastic drink cups flying! You have to admit, it'd be funny to see (so long as your own EMD Safety Bracelet didn't go off at the same time.)

Lamperd Less Lethal insists that this is a great idea, and that passengers won't mind being figuratively collared like slaves out of a bad sci-fi movie:

Wearing an EMD safety bracelet for a few hours during a flight is a small inconvenience to ensure their safe arrival...many if not most passengers would happily opt for the extra security of the EMD safety bracelet.

We'll admit, it would certainly make it easier for flight attendants to take care of drunks, fashion victims, unruly children, and the occasional masturbator. But if DHS wants to take security this far, why not just anesthetize passengers and load us up on gurneys, where we'll remain blissfully unconscious as we're shipped like freight across the globe? It would be more dignified than wearing a stun bracelet.

"Want some torture with your peanuts?" [Washington Times] (Thanks to Capt Janeway!)
EMD Safety Bracelet video [Lamperd Less Lethal]

"PVC is just bad from cradle to cradle," said Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility. "It's a mess when you create, it's a mess when you get rid of it, and it's off-gassing when you're using it."

So is it possible to buy PVC-free shower curtains? Yes! Target and Sears/Kmart say they're phasing out PVC, while Bed Bath & Beyond is increasing the number of PVC-free curtains it offers. However, the authors of the report said that Wal-Mart didn't respond to repeated requests for its PVC policy—which is odd, considering how quickly it moved to announce it would pull BPA products from shelves back in April.

"That 'new shower curtain smell' gives off toxic chemicals, study finds" [Los Angeles Times]
(Photo: Getty)

"There's no reason this should have happened to my daughter," said Alison Pregliasco, Lexi's mother. "She was holding onto the rail...I heard her screaming and tried to pull her foot out and it wouldn't come out and the escalator just kept going down. And, I just started screaming at the top of my lungs, 'Somebody stop this thing, somebody stop this thing. We have to make it stop.'"

Pregliasco said it took 15 minutes to get her daughter's right foot out of the escalator. EMTs took the child to the hospital, where doctors put pins in her foot and performed surgery to clean bones and remove contaminated skin.

"Three broken toes, two pretty severely broken, the other is just a hairline fracture," said Pregliasco. "The toe was severed down to the bone and they called it a 'dirty wound' because they had escalator grease in there."

Crocs is currently being sued over a similar incident. The company responded to that lawsuit by saying that they "take escalator safety seriously."

The CPSC recently issued a warning about "some shoes" causing more risk of entrapment on escalators than others, but were careful not to specify which brand of shoes they were talking about.

CPSC is aware of 77 entrapment incidents since January 2006, with about half resulting in injury. All but two of the incidents involved popular soft-sided flexible clogs and slides.

Girl, 3, Injured On Airport Escalator [WSBTV](Thanks, Ryan!)

Michael writes:

On May 8 2008 around 6pm, my wife was shopping at Rite Aid store # 11285 in Newport News, Va. She noticed an individual in the store wearing a heavy coat and nit cap with a backpack. It was warm out so she thought it a little strange. He paid for his purchase and left the store. She paid for her items and left. She has remote start on her car and started it from inside the store. When she got to her car and opened the door, the individual who was in the store ran up behind her an attempted to grab her.

She was able to turn and kick him and get into the car and drive off. When she got home we called the police. While we were waiting for them to show up we called the store and spoke with the manager. His name is Jim or John . We explained what just happened and he stated he remembered her being in there and he somewhat knew the individual as he comes in regularly and he might work for a Waste Management Company. He also stated the camera facing the right front side of the building where the attack happened was not working, but the one in the store was. Once we gave the description to the police, he went to talk to the manager. Later in the evening he called to let us know the manager refused to discuss the issue and would not let him see the security video of inside the store. The matter was turned over to a Detective the next day. Since the 9th, numerous attempts have been made to contact the manager, however he has not returned one phone call.

On May 27 around 1pm I called the Home Office at (717)761-2633. After getting bounced around to different departments and disconnected, I was finally able to get Karen Mcklintic (sp) at 503-977-5903 in the claims department. She listened and stated she would take this to her supervisor to act on. I heard nothing from her yesterday May 28, and left her a message today May 29. All I was asking for was for someone to call the manager and instruct him to call the detective and to give him the information he needs. I don’t know if the security video is still available or if it has been taped over.

I do not understand why he is reluctant to help get this resolved. My wife was attacked a few years ago and this is bringing back some bad memories. It makes it worse that the manager may know the individual and sees him in the store and is not doing anything. As a minimum the security tapes should have been pulled after we called and given to the police. I understand if a district or regional manager needed to be involved before the tapes were given or viewed, but to get NO cooperation from a Rite Aid representative is ridiculous. I have no problem taking a week off from work, having a sign made that states: MY WIFE WAS ATTACKED IN THIS PARKING LOT AND RITE AIDE WILL NOT HELP. SHOP AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Good idea. Make the sign, show it to the manager, and explain your intentions. Then, ask once more for the tape.

The corporate office really needs to step up and reign in their vigilante manager. Customer service complaints are inherently subjective, but we can all agree that it's a bad idea to interfere with a police investigation.

(Photo: Getty)

Scotts has agreed to recall the fertilizer. The EPA says:

[We] ordered Scotts Miracle-Gro Co., located in Marysville, Ohio to stop selling and distributing four pesticide products. Two of these products are illegal because they were never registered with EPA and display invalid registration numbers on the labels. The other two products are currently registered with EPA. However, Scotts sold and distributed these products before they were registered, which is a violation of federal law. The labels on these two products make false or misleading claims or fail to provide adequate safety instructions to protect people and the environment.

Check your Scott's products for the following EPA numbers:

Each registered pesticide must have an EPA registration number on its label that is specific to that product. That number may appear anywhere on the label, but is typically found near the bottom of the label on the front or back of the product. It is often designated as EPA Registration No. XXX-XXX or EPA Reg No. XXX-XXX.

If you see the following EPA registration numbers, you have an unregistered or improperly labeled pesticide:

* 62355-4 (garden weed preventor & plant food products)
* 538-301 (weed & feed and fire ant killer product)
* 538-299 (turf builder plus weed and feed product)
* 538-304 (lawn service fertilizer with .28% Halts Pro products)

If you have purchased any of these products, you should stop using them and follow Scotts recall instructions

The recall instructions are located here.

EPA orders Scotts to stop selling certain pesticides [EPA](Thanks, Greg!)

From the Wall Street Journal:

These pools, unlike in-ground models — which usually require a construction permit — are less likely to be subject to local safety codes that call for measures such as fencing, covers or alarms, advocates say. Inflatable pools can be quite large, accommodating several adults and, in many cases, accessible by a ladder.

Donald Mays, senior director of product safety and technical public policy at Consumers Union, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, urges consumers not to buy such inflatable pools. He says that the sides are often pliable, making it easy for a child to topple in.

Mr. Mays also says that such pools' covers are usually designed to keep out debris but cannot withstand the weight of a person. He mentioned an incident in which kids playing on a cover of one of these pools got entangled and drowned.

"The fact is that when people buy these very inexpensive pools at drugstores or the supermarket, towns are not aware they are being installed ... and safety measures don't get put in," Mr. Mays says.

Here's some more pool safety information from Consumer Reports. A particularly useful tip:

Since every second counts, always look for a missing child in the pool first. Precious time is often wasted looking for missing children anywhere but in the pool.

Child Drownings Rise, Spark Safety Concerns [WSJ]

Rise in child drownings prompts new warnings on pool safety [Consumer Reports]

A representative for a Sonic restaurant in Eunice, Louisiana has admitted that two of their employees were spitting in customers' drinks. "It was brought to my attention by the manager of the store that the incident was brought to his attention that an employee had spit in a drink of a customer," said the rep. Oh, good. So long as something was brought to someone's attention.

Several customers at the restaurant said their drinks were spiked with saliva.

"(My daughter) came up here and got a soda and come to find out some girls spit in the drink" father Joe Lawrence said.

A Sonic representative told KFLY-TV that the incident has been investigated and action has been taken.

How can you tell if someone spit in your cherry lime? Beats us. It might be best to just request no spit the next time your order from the Eunice Sonic.

"Fast-Food Workers Spit In Customer Drinks" [Local6.com] (Thanks to Jian!)
(Photo: trekkyandy )

Unless you're willing to risk being stranded with 14 other passengers several stories underground in a cattle car elevator on a hot summer day, or plunging at extreme speeds down an escalator with a broken chain, you might want to steer clear of NYC's subway system lifts. The New York Times has published the results of an extensive investigation that includes tales of daily breakdowns, comically undertrained mechanics, and about $1 billion spent over the past decade.

Probably the most disturbing finding is that the subway's mechanics are released into the system with 4 weeks of training, compared to 4 years for elevator repairmen in the private sector. By contrast, mechanics hired by Washington, D.C. metro system now receive 4 years of training, and those hired by the San Francisco metro system receive 2 years of training.

The worst offender is the 181st St station for the 1, 9 trains. As passengers familiar with the station know, you have to take giant elevators several stories underground to reach the subway lines, and they suffered over 100 breakdowns last year. The article highlights one breakdown where 15 people, including two women who began to suffer from asthma attacks, were trapped for 40 minutes last summer. The same elevator "had broken down five times in the eight days leading up to the event. Each time, mechanics came, made minor adjustments and put the machine back in service — only to have it break down again." After the 15 people were let out, the elevator was put back in service, only to break down again later that afternoon.

But it sounds like it's the plunging escalators you really have to watch out for—or at least have strong ankles and the ability to leap and roll when you reach the bottom:

On June 6th, during the evening rush, the chain snapped with a bang and the escalator stopped moving. People began walking down the escalator. The last person on was Magaly Diaz, a pregnant woman on her way home from work.

Suddenly, the escalator sprang back to life. Freed from the hold of the drive chain, the steps began freewheeling downhill, quickly picking up speed. It all went so fast that Ms. Diaz cannot even remember if she screamed.

“It felt like a roller coaster,” said Ms. Diaz, 40. “You know how it feels when you’re at the top of a roller coaster going down? That’s the kind of momentum it had.”

Most people jumped or stumbled off at the bottom. But a friend standing in front of Ms. Diaz fell at the bottom and Ms. Diaz landed on top of her. Both women were taken to the hospital. Ms. Diaz had two badly twisted ankles, though she was grateful that a sonogram showed no injury to her fetus.

Coming soon: the MTA will use this as a reason to call for fare increases.

"$1 Billion Later, Subway Elevators Still Fail " [New York Times]
(Photo: Pro-Zak)

The Philadelphia Inquirer used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a 21-page FDA report, then had experts review it for feedback:

FDA inspectors spent a total of 30 days at the West Point plant between Nov. 26, 2007, and Jan. 17, 2008. The agency could go on to issue a warning letter and take other actions if its concerns are not addressed. The FDA declined repeated requests to comment.
 
The report cites cases where bulk lots of PEDVAX and ProQuad were contaminated. Unwanted "fibers" were found on the vial stoppers of MMR, the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine, among others. They were caused by "lesser quality" supplies from a vendor, the FDA report said.
 
The report noted defective vials had to be rejected twice to be discarded, and that one internal quality investigation went on for more than a year.
 
Several experts said no single finding was horrendous but that the overall pattern was troubling. "It's the sum of many small things that puts the whole operation in question," said consultant Wheelwright. 
"FDA report shows problems at Merck vaccine plant" [Philly.com]
(Photo: Getty)

The researchers freeze-dried the heparin and used a combination of nuclear magnetic resonance imaging and liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry to analyze its structure. In addition to a known impurity of heparin called dermatan sulfate, they found that contaminated lots contain a molecule that looks similar to heparin and showed it was almost certainly oversulfated chondroitin sulfate.

China says their tests show that only some of the Heparin that caused the problems contained the contaminants, so it therefore must be something else:

They said other contaminants, problems with the device used to inject the drug or health factors with the patients who used the drug could be to blame.

Estimates suggest more than 80 percent of all active ingredients used by U.S. drug manufacturers come from abroad. But the FDA only inspects foreign drug plants about once every 13 years, compared to every two to three years for domestic plants, according to the Government Accountability Office. The GAO finds that China's drug plants are inspected once every 30 to 40 years.
 
The FDA plans to establish permanent overseas offices in numerous countries, including China, to help address the problem. More foreign plant inspections than ever were conducted by the FDA in 2007, dedicating about $10 million to the process. But GAO analysis said it would cost the FDA $67 to $71 million each year to inspect the thousands of foreign plants on the agency's priority list.
 
Still, von Eschenbach told the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations that in heparin's case, even if the Chinese plant had been inspected years ago, "we would not have detected that contamination" because the test to detect it was just developed.