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Company to Pay Penalty for Importing Toxic Toys

Greg Webb — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 15:37:43 GMT

Excelligence Learning Corp., a California based company doing business as Discount School Supply, has agreed to pay a $25,000 civil penalty after repeatedly importing children's products with high levels of lead.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) stated that although the settlement resolves its allegations against Excelligence Learning, "the company [still] denies that it knowingly violated the federal [lead] pain ban."

Between 200 - 2007, Excelligence imported over 33,000 units of children's products containing high levels of lead in the paint, including shaving paint brushes, giant measuring charts and play mats. All of these products were recalled in 2007 and 2008.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

Private Insurance Bureaucracies Abusing the System?

Greg Webb — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 14:52:07 GMT

A House subcommittee held a hearing last Tuesday regarding private insurance bureaucracies’ abuse of the health insurance system. "The hearing was part of a continuing Democratic effort to promote an overhaul of the nation’s health care system by focusing on alleged abuses by health insurers" reported The Washington Post in a September 17 article entitled, "House Subcommittee Hearing Focuses on Alleged Insurer Abuses".

The need for the hearing stemmed from "the actions of insurance company bureaucrats in causing needless delays and denials for coverage for prescribed treatment," said Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), chairman of a House subcommittee on domestic policy.

Jim Jordan, the subcommittee’s ranking republican, said that he feels insurers cancelling policies on policyholders when they become sick is, naturally, "inexcusable." He also noted that he feels "most Americans instinctively realize that trading some challenges with the insurance companies for the bureaucracy of the federal government is not the solution." Despite the Republican stance that "legislative proposals would put government bureaucrats between patients and doctors," the hearing was effective in showing that "patients now contend with private insurance bureaucracies."

When questioned about how much they were paid, some insurance company executives were expectedly withdrawn. Executives were given the choice to either answer at the hearing or submit their answers in writing.

That didn’t stop Colleen Reitan, executive vice president of Health Care Services Corp. from sharing, however. Her company does business as Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and she confessed that she makes $728,000. Rep. Patrick J. Kennedy (D-R.I.) claims that what he finds so disconcerting about all of this is that Cigna's head earned $11 million last year. Rep. Kennedy also believes that the insurance company earnings are coming from denied claims.

As an example, Kucinich cited the story of cancer patient Esther Dardinger. Esther was successfully undergoing chemotherapy treatment when her insurer, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, decided to stop paying for it. "The decision was based on a 10-minute review of the case, according to court records" reported The Washington Post. Although she appealed, Anthem maintained its position, eventually leaving her family to cover the cost of the treatment itself. Esther Dardinger died at the age of 49, and "would have lived an additional eight months to two years, ‘maybe longer,’ if her chemotherapy had not been interrupted, her doctor testified during the litigation."

Furthermore, Kucinich cited a recent report done by the California Nurses Association that claims "six of the largest insurers operating in California rejected 47.7 million claims – 22 percent of the total" filed from 2002 through the first half of 2009

The executives of these companies testified last Thursday that, in actuality, the rejected population is much smaller than the percentages claimed by the study. Wellpoint, now the parent of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Ohio, said "the nurses association used data from a regulatory filing that included claims initially rejected for any reason – for example, if patients had not met their deductibles or the claims lacked supporting information."

Tom Richards, senior vice president of CIGNA, told the subcommittee, "[o]ur mission is to improve the health, well being and sense of security of the customers we serve."

This writer has to respectfully disagree with Tom Richards. I think CIGNA's mission, and the rest of the insurance industry, is to make money, and hold onto the money they have, as long as possible. That is what I see.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

Popular Dietary Supplements Alleged to Contain Steroids

Greg Webb — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 10:46:31 GMT

Federal authorities filed court papers last month alleging that two over-the-counter dietary supplements commonly used by high school football players contain steroids. Tren Extreme and Mass Extreme, manufactured by American Cellular Labs, are marketed as a potent legal alternative to steroids. However, search warrants were executed alleging that the supplements contain illegal designer steroids including Madol, a substance first identified six years ago during the investigation into the Bay Area Laboratory Co-operative.

Authorities say that Max Muscle, a supplement store with approximately 100 locations across the country, paid American Cellular Labs to be the exclusive retailer of these products, which are also available online.

An individual at Max Muscle’s corporate office said that no one was available to comment on how many of the company’s stores carried American Cellular products. A Max Muscle outlet in Iowa was offering an online promotion of Tren Xtreme for free, but a salesman reported that the store no longer sold the brand.

Travis Tygart, head of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, said that the substance helps athletes quickly gain strength and muscle mass and is popular amount high school football players because it works. He did not offer an estimate regarding how many high school athletes have used the product.

The investigation into American Cellular Labs is led by Jeff Novitzky of the FDA and prosecutors from the U.S. attorney’s office for the Northern District of California. Novitzky has been the face of the government’s investigation into the distribution of performance-enhancing drugs since 2002.

The FDA has jurisdiction over dietary supplements, which are defined as products that offer general health benefits but do not claim to treat specific conditions. Manufacturers of dietary supplements are responsible for recording and ensuring the accuracy of the claims that they make regarding the safety and efficacy of their products. The FDA is only empowered to act in cases when it identifies a harmful or adulterated product on the market. If authorities find that a supplement contains an undeclared pharmaceutical ingredient like a steroid, the product is considered to be an illegal drug.

Steroids are naturally produced organic compounds that can be used legally to treat conditions like testosterone deficiency. Athletes have also used illegal forms of steroids for performance enhancement. Such usage is particularly concerning in preteen and teenage boys, because artificially high levels of testosterone can stop bone growth.

Investigators first became concerned about products made by American Cellular Labs after reports of severe liver and kidney problems in people who had used the two products. In one case, a liver transplant doctor reported that a 38-year-old male patient who had used the products had to be hospitalized with severe liver dysfunction and acute kidney failure which required dialysis.

While legal steroids entail risks, unknowingly taking supplements that contain illegal compounds is even riskier because the drugs come with unknown risks, according to Dr. Pieter Cohen of the Harvard Medical School. When prescribing similar drugs for men who have a deficiency, doctors closely monitor patients to avoid higher-than-normal hormone levels, but designer steroids have not been studied for safety. Cohen added that while there is no research showing that the new compounds are safe in humans, there is evidence that analogs of pharmaceutical compounds have let to life-threatening diseases that required transplantation in the past.

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb

Federal Agency Withheld Data On The Risks Of Distracted Driving

Greg Webb — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:32:27 GMT

In 2003, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration proposed a long-term study that would determine the danger posed by cell phone use behind the wheel; they began the study after evidence showed multitasking was a serious and growing threat on the roadways. This study’s research and warnings regarding the use of phones were not released until recently, however, because the agency was scared the findings would anger Congress, thus jeopardizing billions of dollars in funding. The information was only released after two advocacy groups filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit for the documents.

The documents in question revealed that highway safety experts estimated that in 2002, cell phone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents. The researchers based the fatality and accident estimates on studies that quantified the risks of distracted driving and the assumption that at any given time, six percent of drivers were talking on the phone; the agency now estimates this number has risen to about twelve percent. Researchers also shelved a draft letter prepared for the Transportation Secretary. The letter was to be sent to states in an attempt to warn officials that hands-free laws were not enough to solve the problem because it’s the conversation itself that keeps drivers from paying full attention to the road, not just holding the cellphone itself. Due to their conclusions, the researchers asked that drivers not use wireless communication devices while driving unless it was an emergency. Because researchers did not want to anger the appropriations committee, however, this report was swept under the rug.

The former head of the agency claims he was asked not to make the research public to avoid antagonizing members of Congress who warned the agency to stick to its policy of gathering safety data and not lobbying states. Critics say this rationale has led to many unnecessary lives being lost and the innovation of a culture of behind-the-wheel multitasking. Many claim this problem is as bad as drunk driving and the government is attempting to cover it up. Supporters of the agency argue Congress had nothing to do with the decision to not publicize the information; they claim no public health agency would allow its research to be suppressed for political reasons. This research mirrors many that describe the dangers of multitasking while driving. Research shows, for example, that drivers talking on the phone are four times as likely to get in an accident as those who are not, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol level.

Not all of the research went unpublished. The safety agency did put over 150 scientific articles on its website describing how talking on the cell phone while driving impairs the brain’s reaction time; these articles, however, did not contain the summaries written by researchers. This, one researcher claims, took the teeth out of the findings.

To view the documents that were released, please click here: documents.nytimes.com/documents-from-the-u-s-department-of-transportation-s-national-highway-traffic-safety-administration

Originally posted at InjuryBoard by Greg Webb