Here’s some news you can use, especially if you work in an office and really can’t run to the bathroom every fifteen minutes without someone noticing. “Many sugar-free chewing gums contain a sweetener called sorbitol. Sorbitol is a laxative which is poorly absorbed by the small intestine.” Normally, this doesn’t matter, but if you’re one of those crazy people who takes something wayyy too far, and you tend to chew over a pack a day, you might want to switch to a different gum brand.
A reader from Vermont writes in to let us know that he accidentally discovered Comcast has been charging him a $3/month modem rental fee for a modem he owned, because Comcast claimed that due to poor record keeping, it had no way of distinguishing between Adelphia’s modem renters and owners. This fee went on for months undetected because Comcast doesn’t itemize such fees on their online statements, only on their printed bills. (Well yeah, because including such details online would waste ink…wait, what?) When our reader called Comcast to have the fees refunded, he was told he’d have to provide proof of purchase for his modem.
With all the geektastic frenzy of CES going on, one man, Bob Sullivan from the Red Tape Chronicles asks: “But will these things work?”
In a quiet, nearly empty conference room on the other side of the city from the 140,000 enthusiasts cramming the Las Vegas Convention Center, a roomful of wet blankets was discussing a dirty little secret of the high-tech industry, a small sacrilege during this annual celebration of all things geek.
Several cheap waterproofing sprays—like Kenyon Water Repellent, Jobsite Heavy Duty Bootmate, Rocky Boot Weather and Stain Protector, and Stand ‘n Seal grout sealer—can cause “shortness of breath, persistent cough and in some cases long-term lung injuries,” writes the New York Times. Unfortunately, you won’t see warnings on any of these products, because the CPSC keeps ignoring state requests to do something about it.
The TSA has announced a ban on loose non-rechargeable lithium batteries in checked luggage, because they’ve realized that “fire-protection systems in the cargo hold of passenger planes can’t put out fires sparked in lithium batteries.”
Today the FDA announced that a group of Chinese “health supplements” from Puerto Rican-based Shangai Distributor, Inc., contain undeclared sildenafil, the active drug in Viagra, and are therefore illegal. The supplements are named Super Shangai, Shangai Ultra, Shangai Ultra X, Lady Shangai, and (perhaps the best name of the product line) Strong Testis. Shangai Regular, also known as Shangai Chaojimengnan, was found to have “an unapproved substance with a structure similar to sildenafil that may cause similar side effects and drug interactions,” and is therefore also included on the warning list.
State health authorities tonight urged consumers not to drink milk produced by Whittier Farms in Shrewsbury after an investigation showed it is the likely source of a bacterial illness that killed two elderly men and made two other people sick.
The FDA said today that a small number of preventable cases of accidental death have occurred since their first Duragesic warning in 2005, prompting them to ask Johnson & Johnson and the makers of a generic version to add new warnings. “Despite a July 2005 warning, the Food and Drug Administration ‘has continued to receive reports of deaths and life-threatening side effects after doctors have inappropriately prescribed the patch or patients have incorrectly used it,’ the agency said.”
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If you have babies visiting you this holiday season, don’t let them sleep on air mattresses, says the CPSC. They’ve received several reports of suffocation deaths because the mattresses can be too soft for infants. The same goes for waterbeds, although if you have a waterbed then you’re probably living in 1982 and this blog hasn’t been invented yet. [CPSC]
A reader writes in that he noticed an unusual charge for $8.95 on his bank card recently. He looked up the number connected to the charge—866-305-8808—at the website 800notes.com and found that it belongs to some company called Eureka or EurekaInfo.net, and that there are others who have discovered the same unauthorized charge in recent days.
Freddie Mac produced this video to educate borrowers who face foreclosure about a fraud scheme where “a con artist will seek out a public notice of foreclosure and approach the potential victim with documents and the promise of sorting out the debt,” thereby tricking the homeowner into signing over the deed to the house.
Rodrigo writes of American Airlines, “In the last 4 travels between me, my wife and my father-in-law, ALL of them had been pretty bad. But the last one was the worst by far.” However, they had lots of miles to cash in, a tight budget, and travel needs, so it was back into the belly of the beast for one more adventure: “First nonsense of the day was when the lady there claimed the maximum was 50 pounds for the luggage. Ok here we go again.”
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GfK Mystery Shopping has issued a warning to be on the lookout for a mystery shopper scam making the rounds. Here are 12 warning signs to look out for. [Earthtimes.org]
This week, an FDA advisory panel will review a recommendation to put a warning on flu drugs Tamiflu and Relenza that says there have been “psychiatric events observed in some patients.” The companies who make the drugs have both responded that they’ve found no causal link between their drugs and “psychiatric events.”
Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna is reminding consumers to read the fine print on rebate offers before giddily pouncing on a seemingly hot deal. We are rebate skeptics; they are nice when they work, but should never be a deciding factor when weighing a purchase. The Attorney General has a few tips to help improve your chances of successfully redeeming a rebate:
This week, California’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against 20 companies implicated in the various lead-tainted toy fiascos of 2007. The lawsuit “alleges that the companies violated the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986… because they didn’t notify customers of toys in the marketplace that contained high concentrations of lead.” The federal government doesn’t require such labeling, but California does.
The producers of Sesame Street have slapped volumes 1 & 2 of the eternally running children’s show with the following warning: “These early ‘Sesame Street’ episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today’s preschool child.” Why? Cookie Monster carries a pipe in one recurring parody—and then eats it. Oscar the Grouch is too grouchy and mean. And in the first episode, a grown man—Gordon—asks a little girl to come home with him for milk and cookies… and she does!
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