A new class of diabetes medicines is heavily advertised on TV and shows great promise in getting patients’ blood sugar levels down, but a safety announcement from the Food and Drug Administration warns that one of the drugs, Johnson & Johnson’s Invokana, doubles those patients’ chance of needing parts of their legs or feet amputated. [More]
risks
Diabetes Drug Invokana Must Warn Patients About Increased Risk Of Foot, Leg Amputation
By 5.17.17 — Updated: 5.19.17
Best Buy To Pay $3.8 Million For Selling Recalled Products
By 10.4.16
It’s against the law to sell any product that has been officially recalled by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, but back in 2014 Best Buy and its closeout stores were found selling electronics and furniture after they had been recalled. The retailer then allegedly continued selling additional recalled items well into 2015. Now, to close the book on these allegations, Best Buy has agreed to pay a $3.8 million penalty. [More]
Unregulated Preparers, Lack Of Disclosures & Costly Financial Products Put Your Tax Refund At Risk
By 3.30.16
Each year during tax time millions of consumers put their financial future in the hands of strangers, trusting that these tax preparers — who are largely unregulated — know the rules, will get them the best possible result (hopefully a refund), and won’t sell them on a product that costs more than it’s worth. But in the world of complicated tax codes and credits, consumers continue to face a long list of risks, including untrained preparers, undisclosed fees, and dangerous refund anticipation products. [More]
Tesla Asks Drivers To Please Stop Souping Up Their Cars
By 3.4.15
Sometimes the factory radio just doesn’t cut it in your new vehicle. While swapping out the sound system, and other features – rims, seat covers, tires – is an established way for consumers to put their personal stamp on cars, one automaker is asking them not to, because, you know, it could pose a safety risk, which isn’t good for business. [More]
Study: Smoking Increases Breast Cancer Risk
By 1.25.11
If you were looking for yet another reason to trash that last pack of cigarettes, medical journal Archives of Internal Medicine has got one for you. Smoking slightly ups your odds of developing breast cancer, according to a study. [More]
Security Experts Claim iPad Vulnerable To New Attacks
By 6.14.10
Goatse Security, thewhite-hat hackers that exposed the iPad’s problems keeping email addresses under wraps, is back with a warning about additional risks to owners of the tablet. And they’re also more than a little peeved that AT&T called them “malicious” in yesterday’s apology to customers. “When we disclosed this, we did it as a service to our nation. We love America and the idea of the Russians or Chinese being able to subvert American infrastructure is a nightmare,” Goatse’s Escher Auernheimer said.
Sears Caught Selling "Grills to Cook Babies" Thanks To Poorly Built Website
By 8.21.09
Yesterday a reader sent us a pretty funny screen capture of a Sears product page with a suspicious category description (see above). By the time we got around to checking it out, Sears had corrected the error. It turns out, however, that the real problem was the Sears website was built in a way that lets anyone mess with the category descriptions.
Asbestos Found In Several Products
By 11.28.07
Lead-tainted toys are old news! This Christmas, the new new thing is asbestos-tainted toys and other products.
Nokia, Cingular to Try Mastercard Test in NYC
By 12.14.06
Good news for those of you who don’t fear ID theft. Nokia, Cingular, Mastercard and Citi are testing some crap that lets you pay for things with a cell phone. The phones will use the “Mastercard Pay Pass” system that’s already installed in some stores. If you live in NYC and are accepted into the trial, you get a free phone. You need to be a Citi account holder and a Cingular user. Let us know how you like it and if your ID gets stolen. Good luck. —MEGHANN MARCO
