uHealth Group Challenges E-Cig Makers After Tests Find High Levels Of Toxic Chemicals In Most Productsr

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  (Mike Mozart)

  A health watchdog group took legal action against some of the country’s largest e-cigarette manufacturers for failing to properly warn consumers about the risk of such products after tests show that most produce high levels of toxic chemicals.

  The Center for Environmental Health conducted tests of 97 e-cigarettes and other “vaping” products from two dozen makers including Imperial Tobacco’s Vuse brand, NJoy, and RJ Reynolds’ blu brand for the report [PDF] titled “A Smoking Gun: Cancer Causing Chemicals in E-cigarettes.”

  The report – which the group claims is the first-ever large sampling of actual e-cigarettes and vaping products tested simulating real-world use – found that 50 out of the 97 e-cigarettes tested pose a serious cancer risk.

  The products used in the tests were purchased at easily accessible businesses such as 7-Eleven, Rite Aid, online retailers, and vape stores in the Bay Area.

  According to the report, 90% of the companies had at least one product that produced high levels of formaldehyde or acetaldehydeone or both, representing a violation of California safety standards.

  

  The two chemicals have been found to cause cancer and are also linked to genetic damage, birth defects and reduced fertility.

  “The testing showed that 21 products produced a level of one of the chemicals at more than ten times the state safety standard, and seven products produced one of the chemicals at more than 100 times the safety level,” said CEH in a press release on Wednesday.

  

  Most e-cigarettes and vaping products included high levels of toxic chemicals. [Click to Enlarge]

  While some consumers believe that nicotine-free e-cigarettes are safe, the CEH testing found high levels of the chemicals even in several of these varieties.

  For example, the report found one nicotine-free product produced acetaldehyde at more than 13 times the state legal safety threshold and formaldehyde at more than 74 times the threshold.

  “Anyone who thinks that vaping is harmless needs to know that our testing unequivocally shows that it’s not safe to vape,” said Michael Green, Executive Director of CEH. “This is especially troubling given the reckless marketing practices of the e-cigarette industry, which targets teens and young people, and deceives the public with unfounded health and safety claims.”

  In its legal claims [PDF], the group alleges that e-cigarette manufacturers are breaking California’s consumer protection laws.

  “Our legal action aims to force the industry to comply with the law and create pressure to end their most abusive practices,” Green says.

  According to the legal actions, the companies can resolve the issues if they agree to a binding agreement that recall products already sold, provide clear and reasonable warnings for products sold in the future, and pay an appropriate civil penalty based on violations.

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist

uGeneral Mills Selling Off Green Giant, Le Sueur Vegetable Brands In $765M Dealr

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  (jaycoxfilm)

  General Mills has had enough frozen and canned vegetables, it seems, as the company announced it’s selling off its Green Giant and Le Sueur brands for $765 million in cash. It’s been trying to move away from packaged food as consumers’ tastes have changed, and this appears to be one more way it’s shedding its old image as it looks for a new approach to selling food.

  The new owner is B&G Foods, a company that owns brands like Molly McButter cheese flavoring and Pirate’s Booty, though General Mills said it will still operate Green Giant in Europe and other export markets under license from B&G, reports the Wall Street Journal.

  With all the cash it’s getting in the deal, General Mills says it’s planning on funding share buybacks and reducing its debt. The company has been struggling to keep customers as tastes move away from packaged food like Hamburger Helper and toward foods with healthy, fresh ingredients. As it tries to play catch-up, General Mills has had to cut jobs and close down plants.

  And though one might think parting with a brand that’s so familiar to shoppers would be a bad move — who doesn’t know the Jolly Green Giant? — General Mills said once it redirected resources away from supporting the brand, it reviewed the business and decided it just wasn’t as valuable as it once was.

  The deal benefits B&G by giving it a stake in the frozen-food market, which it didn’t have previously.

  General Mills to Sell Green Giant, Le Sueur for $765 Million [Wall Street Journal]

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uMysteriously Closed Walmarts Will Reopen In October Or November As Plannedr

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  (Mike Mozart)
  

  You may remember that this past spring, Walmart abruptly closed five stores in four different states to repair mysterious plumbing problems, leaving employees to find new jobs or maybe transfer to other nearby Walmarts. The closing was only ever meant to be temporary, though, and the stores have started to hire new and returning employees to staff the stores.

  The closing of five stores at once for the same ostensible reason was so unusual that conspiracy theories circulated: some were government-related and some were related to Walmart union-busting. Skeptics pointed out that Walmart hadn’t even filed for work permits for the theoretical plumbing work, and that it was extremely unlikely that five stores in different parts of the country had the same urgent plumbing problem at the same time, requiring the stores to close with only a few hours’ notice.

  The store closures affected 2,200 people, some of whom followed their customers to other nearby Walmarts during the shutdown. Now the company is inviting these workers to return to the stores when they reopen, which a spokesman said will happen in late October or early November. The work isn’t done yet: “While we continue to conduct plumbing repairs and store upgrades, our goal is to begin serving customers by late October or early November,” a Walmart spokesperson told Reuters.

  The United Food and Commercial Workers Union is behind OUR Walmart, an organization that isn’t a union but has been helping Walmart’s “associates” to organize and ask for better treatment and pay. The union filed a complaint to the National Labor Relations Board about the closings, noting that one of the stores that closed, in Pico Rivera, California, was a center of OUR Walmart organizing. They speculate that the store was closed as a pretense to shut down workers’ organizing efforts, and other stores that had no union-ish activity were also closed, as “cover.”

  Wal-Mart to reopen five U.S. stores at center of union complaint [Reuters]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uWhy Don’t Device Manufacturers Just Start Leasing Phones To Consumers?r

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  (William Hook)

  When phone carriers like Sprint and T-Mobile are happy to rent phones to customers, and Apple is the one phone manufacturer with its own network of stores to sell phones directly to consumers, what’s there to stop Apple from just leasing phones to customers directly? Even carriers would like this idea better, since they could sell iPhone leases instead of needing to buy them from Apple first. Everyone wins… but would consumers like this idea?

  This isn’t something that Apple is planning, as far as we know, but is just a proposal from an equities research company thinking ahead to the future of the wireless industry and of how mobile device manufacturers could maximize

  Now all of the major U.S. carriers prefer selling devices for a flat price or financing them over contracts with device subsidies, and some no longer offer contracts at all. Device leasing is an alternative that carriers could offer to customers scared of the real sticker price on a smartphone, and the best part is that customers bring them back, creating a better supply of used devices that haven’t been used for a full two-year upgrade cycle.

  Think of phones like cars: when you’re done paying off a car, you might want to keep it as long as possible to enjoy life without a car payment. People are behaving the same way with phones once they finally pay them off after 12, 18, or 24-month terms. Putting customers on leases would force them to upgrade more often. That would be great for carriers and phone manufacturers, but not necessarily for customers.

  Smartphone leasing; the preferred model of US carriers, and a win for AAPL too [Macquarie Research]
  Apple Could Lease IPhones to Help Spur Upgrades: Macquarie [Bloomberg]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uLawsuit Claims Operators Of Two Adult Subscription Sites Sent Unsolicited Texts Linking To Pornr

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  (afagen)

  No one likes getting spammed, but when you’ve got unsolicited text messages blowing up your phone with links to porn, it’s a lot harder to avoid than the pitches for fake Rolexes and male enhancement drugs that end up banished to your email’s spam folder. A lawsuit in Illinois that’s seeking class-action status claims the operators of two subscription adult entertainment sites spammed peoples’ phones with links to their sites, though the recipients never signed up for such texts in the first place.

  In the lawsuit [PDF], the plaintiff says he and what he believes to be thousands of others have had their phones spammed by the companies behind sites called “Well Hello,” which is run by Smoochy Brands LLC and displays nudity while offering free registration for men interested in “casual sexual” encounters, and “Badoink,” operated by CM Productions LLC, a “subscription-based website featuring nondownloadable adult-themed photographs and videos.”

  The complaint says the plaintiff (and the putative class) received a text message reading: “What does a girl have to do to get a guy to buy her a cup of coffee?, msg back on that site … Lily-F” that included a link. Clicking on the link leads users to a site that warns the link may contain “inappropriate content” or “spam or malicious code.”

  Following the links will take users to the Well Hello site, the complaint says, which invites visitors to put in personal information and then search for matches on the site, as well as to register and subscribe with one of the three tiers of paid membership. Trying to go back in a browser will just bring users to other websites owned and operated by Smoochy and CMP that advertise other paid services, the lawsuit alleges.

  The plaintiff says he and others that may be included in the lawsuit never gave express consent to receive said text messages, and alleges that the text campaign designed by Smoochy and CMP was sent “en masse to a list a list of thousands of wireless telephone numbers or randomly generated phone numbers.”

  To do so, the complaint alleges that the companies used “equipment that had the capacity to store or produce telephone numbers to be called using a random or sequential number generator, and to dial such numbers.” In other words, porn robospammers.

  All of this constitutes a violation of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, the complaint claims, which requires senders of SMS message advertisements for goods or services to obtain to obtain the recipient’s prior express written consent.

  The plaintiff says he is not and never has been a member of any of the defendants’ sites, and says that by sending unsolicited text messages, the defendants caused the plaintiff and class members “actual harm” because one, it’s annoying to get text messages you don’t want, and two, some folks might have to pay their wireless carriers each time they receive a message, or have it count against a monthly allotment of texts.

  The lawsuit is seeking an injunction “requiring Defendants to cease all unsolicited text message activities, an award of statutory damages to the Class members under the TCPA, and an award for damages for conversion, together with costs and reasonable attorneys’ fees.”

  
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by Mary Beth Quirk via Consumerist

uFox News Anchor Sues Hasbro Over Toy Hamster With Her Namer

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• Harris Faulkner, an anchor on the Fox News cable network, is a human and has been on TV for decades. Yet the toy company Hasbro sells a tiny plastic hamster as part of its Littlest Pet Shop line which is named Harris Faulkner. How did the hamster get its name? Is it intended to insult or honor Ms. Faulkner, or just a very strange coincidence? She has sued the company for $5 million dollars, either way.

  Sure, I would love if someone named a toy hamster after me, but not without my permission. Faulkner may not have anything about hamsters, but her lawsuit says that the company “willfully and wrongfully appropriated Faulkner’s unique and valuable name and distinctive persona for its own financial gain.” The letters (TM) appear after the name Harris Faulkner on the toy’s package, which implies that the journalist’s name has been trademarked by Hasbro.

  She also happens to have daughters who are six and eight years old, which is the target market for Littlest Pet Shop toys. The lawsuit is happening because she complained about the toy back in January, and Hasbro didn’t respond. The suit describes the existence of this doll as “distressing,” since the she believes that the hamster doll “bear[s] a physical resemblance to Faulkner’s traditional professional appearance,” including her skin tone, eye shape, and the design of the animal’s eye “makeup.”

  “Further,” the complaint says, “Hasbro’s portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting.” Not just a rodent, but an officially licensed plastic rodent: Faulkner doesn’t endorse or license products, believing that’s inappropriate for a journalist.

  We noticed that the toy is no longer on the Littlest Pet Shop site, and also isn’t in stock online at Diapers.com or Target, but it isn’t clear whether that’s due to the lawsuit or the toy has been rotated out of the current lineup of Littlest Pet Shop characters.

  In a statement to Entertainment Weekly, Hasbro declined to comment on the lawsuit about the resemblance of the hamster to Ms. Faulkner, but over her allegation that the toy is unsafe, and that a child could potentially choke on a rodent with her name on it. Hasbro sent a statement to Entertainment Weekly:

  While we generally do not comment on litigation matters, it is critically important to correct a false statement made by Ms. Harris in the complaint regarding the safety of the product. The Littlest Pet Shop product identified, and all products in the Littlest Pet Shop line, meet and exceed all safety standards.

  Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner sues Hasbro over same-named toy hamster [Deadline Hollywood]

  
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by Laura Northrup via Consumerist

uAnalysts Say McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast Could Drive Up Egg Prices, Exacerbate Shortager

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  (NYCandre)

  Before McDonald’s big announcement on Tuesday that it would roll out all-day breakfast across the country starting next month, we wondered if the fast food giant would scrap its plans because of egg shortages caused by the recent avian flu outbreak and the high egg prices that have resulted from it. While we now know that the Golden Arches wasn’t put off by the possibility of dishing out more cash for eggs, its new venture could further aggravate the egg-supply issues plaguing other businesses.

  Industry analysts say that the chain’s foray into all-day breakfast could mean higher prices for other businesses and consumers alike, Bloomberg reports.

  “It’s going to make it harder for everyone,” analyst Darren Tristano tells Bloomberg. “It’s going to lift prices across a lot of those products that use eggs. The cost will likely be passed through to the consumer.”

  An increased strain on the egg industry isn’t exactly surprising with McDonald’s latest menu chain: the company has long been known to shake up the food-supply chain when it adds or removes items from its lineup.

  According to Bloomberg, when the company announced it was going to bring back chicken tenders earlier this year, it boosted the poultry industry.

  Before that, when the company began offering apples as a side item, it became the nation’s largest buyer and seller of the fruit.

  The addition of more eggs to the company’s menu will likely have similar effects, but unlike the poultry industry which had an oversupply of product, the egg industry continues to struggle to come out of the recent avian flu outbreak.

  The shortage of eggs has already shot up prices in recent months, and caused some chains to cut back on their use of the products.

  In June, Texas-based Whataburger trimmed its breakfast hours to cut down on the number of eggs it went through. Dunkin’ Donuts has already scrapped an eggy promotion it had on the calendar for later in the year.

  Some supermarkets are saying the high retail prices for eggs (wholesale prices have more than doubled since the beginning of the year and are expected to keep going up) are keeping retail demand down, but if McDonald’s suddenly needs to significantly increase its egg-buying to make sure it can meet McMuffin demand, it could drive the price even higher.

  McDonald’s All-Day Breakfast Might Make America’s Egg Shortage Worse [Bloomberg]

  
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by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist