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Don’t Let the Economy Make You Sick Thursday, January 29, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in Mimi Johnson, National Consumers League, finances, health, the economy.
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by Mimi Johnson, Health Policy Associate

An article in last week’s NY Times outlines just how dangerous the poor economy can be on our health. A study, conducted nationally via telephone, reported that one in seven Americans under the age of 65 went without prescribed medication because they couldn’t afford it. What’s more alarming is that this number has likely grown since the survey was conducted in 2007 due to the current economic slump.

Among those surveyed, uninsured, working adults with at least one chronic condition were the most unlikely to fill a prescription. It is most important for this group of people to take their medications as directed, or their health will deteriorate and the cost of treatment will only increase.

It’s not only the uninsured who are affected by the rising costs of health care. The NY Times article states that “nearly one in four adults on Medicaid or state insurance programs said they’d had difficulty affording drugs.” And American veterans are among those most likely to forgo treatment as their co-pays rise.

Growing medical costs and diminishing medical coverage affect a majority of this nation; the National Consumers League is optimistic that a new Congress and Administration will address this serious problem. NCL is a member of Health Care for America Now, which calls for Congress to cover everyone with adequate insurance.

If you are among those who CAN afford to fill your prescription, it is important not only that you fill it, but that you also take the medicines as directed. It may seem like a good idea to conserve the meds in order to stretch the prescription between refills. But the costs – both to your health and your pocketbook – associated with NOT taking your prescribed medications are far greater than the costs of filling your prescription and taking your medications at the onset.

If you have questions, talk with your doctor. A study by the American Academy of Family Physicians found that doctors are often not very good at communicating the importance of taking your medicines as directed. As a consumer, it is your right and duty to ask the questions, prepare a medication list, and to work with your health care providers to understand how to incorporate the medication into your life. (You can learn more about this at the National Council on Patient Information and Education’s site here.)

The appropriate use of medication has long been an important issue to the League. In fact, we are currently in the planning phase of a national medication adherence campaign. If you would like to learn more about this campaign and our work on adherence, please contact NCL at (202) 835-3323, and ask to speak with our health policy department.

Recycle Your Cell Phone and Maybe Save a Life Thursday, January 22, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in Child Labor Coalition, Reid Maki, child labor, environment, global issues, social justice, telecommunications, worker's rights issues.
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by Reid Maki, Coordinator of the Child Labor Coalition

Each week, more than 2 million phones are de-activated. Did you know that fewer than 20 percent of them are recycled each year? According to Earthworks, a group involved in cell phone recycling, there are 500 million used cell phones either in landfills or sitting in drawers.

The phones are an environmental time bomb. “Cell phones contain toxic materials such as lead, mercury, beryllium, arsenic, cadmium, and antimony,” notes Earthworks. “If incinerated these substances can pollute the air, in landfills they can leach into groundwater. Many of the materials found in cell phones are also on the EPA’s list of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs). Because PBTs accumulate in fatty tissue of humans and animals, the toxins are gradually concentrated, putting those at the top of the food chain at the greatest risk, especially children.”

But there is another reason to recycle these de-activated phones: you may be saving a child’s life in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the central African nation formerly known as the Belgian Congo, where rampant war and violence have cost between five and six million lives in the last decade. More lives have been lost in the Congo through violence and war than in any other country in the world since World War II. And the nature of the violence has shocked the world. Rape has become a weapon of the civil war that grips the country to the extent that advocates in the country say it has become a “norm” — an estimated 200,000 women, including many children, have been raped in the conflict, according to the United Nations.

What do phones, war, and child safety have to do with each other?

The DRC’s mineral resources are among the richest in the world. According to one estimate, the Congolese—who on average earn less than 50 cents a day—are walking on ground containing more than $300 billion worth of minerals. And many of those minerals—Coltan, copper, and tungsten—end up in electronic equipment like cell phones and laptops.

Many human rights advocates believe that the DRC’s vast resources are the underlying cause—and sometimes the direct cause—of the wars and violence that have ripped through the country in waves for decades. Many of the warring groups finance their armies with trade of the mined materials. In some cases, children are forced to mine the minerals—as well as gold and diamonds—out of the earth. Some work willingly, but are far too young to perform work as dangerous as mining, especially in a war zone. According to the U.S. Department of Labor’s Findings on the Worst Forms of Child Labor, 40 percent of boys and girls between age 10 and 14 work in the DRC, despite laws that say no child under the age of 15 should work.

Often the children are re-victimized when they are forcibly turned into child soldiers.

The constant war has led to a breakdown of society, causing a witches’ brew of lethal health problems that, according to the New York Times earlier this year, was killing 45,000 Congolese every month. “The mortality rate in Congo is 57 percent higher than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, the survey found. Particularly hard hit were young children, who are especially susceptible to diseases like malaria, measles, dysentery and typhoid, which can kill when medicine is not available,” reported Lydia Polgreen in January. Nearly half of the more than five million dead were children under the age of five.

In addition to the human toll, the mining of these minerals has also led to a reduction of gorilla habitat, endangering some of the world’s most magnificent animals.

The world, for the most part, turns a blind eye to the turmoil in the Congo. However, there are groups—at least a couple of dozen around the country—doggedly pushing the mining companies and the electronics companies to set up a mineral tracing system so that minerals from areas of conflict can be barred from the world markets. Senator Sam Brownback (R-Kansas) introduced legislation in the last Congress toward that goal. The National Consumers League (NCL) has recently joined the effort to bring about a tracing system along with the International Labor Right Forum, a member of the NCL-coordinated Child Labor Coalition and one of the lead organizers of the effort.

Before you throw that old cell phone in the trash, remember the true value of the mineral contents in terms of the lives lost and damaged in mining areas. Please recycle.

[If you can’t find a recycling site in your area, Earthworks provides free shipping for recycling phones. EPA also has links to corporate recycling programs at its site.]

1/20/09: A Day of Reflection Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in National Consumers League, Sally Greenberg, social justice, worker's rights issues.
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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

The crowds in Washington DC were thick with people from all over America, indeed, from all over the world and all roads led to the Mall on this historic day in Washington DC and in America, the swearing in of America’s first African American president, Barack Obama. The sense of optimism and hope for a new direction was palpable in those streaming downtown as I walked with my friends and family from Washington’s Dupont Circle neighborhood toward the Mall. The night before, I and many Washingtonians, whose city was virtually shut down for the four-day weekend that included Martin Luther King Jr. Day on January 19, followed by the Inaugural Day, had attended parties and events from the National Archives to the Washington Convention Center to the National Portrait Gallery to the many hotels and restaurants.

I couldn’t help thinking of Florence Kelley, the National Consumers League’s first leader and General Secretary. One hundred years ago, in 1909, Kelley helped to create the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and thereafter became a lifelong friend and ally of W.E.B. DuBois, the black visionary and leading voice for civil rights at the beginning of the 20th century. At Kelley’s death, DuBois gave a eulogy for her, saying: “Save for Jane Addams, there is not another social worker in the United States who has either had her insight or her daring, so far as the American Negro is concerned.” Kelley came by her civil rights ideas naturally; her father, a Philadelphia Congressman and impassioned abolitionist, William “Pig Iron” Kelley, and her great aunt Sarah Pugh was a Quaker and fierce opponent of slavery.

The League, under Kelley’s leadership, was unique among both union and women’s groups in championing the cause of equal rights for black Americans. League leaders argued passionately for better pay and working conditions for blacks and particularly for black women, who were the lowest paid workers of all.

The spirit and great works of Kelley and the other leaders of the National Consumers League throughout our 109 year history – from First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and consumer and labor leader Esther Peterson – are with us on this historic occasion as we welcome our new President and his family to Washington DC and look forward to working with him on behalf of workers and consumers across America.

Bitter Fruit for Consumers from the Google Money Tree Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in John Breyault, finances, fraud, the economy.
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money_treeBy John Breyault, Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications and Fraud

When the economy goes into the tank, scammers seek to take advantage of consumers desperate for some extra cash. Unfortunately, due to trying economic circumstances, we find that consumers who would likely otherwise shy away from dubious business opportunities become more susceptible to them.

One such case involves a company advertising itself as “Google Money Tree,” which operates a site called www.googlemoneytree.com. Over the past two months, NCL’s Fraud Center has received more than a dozen consumer complaints via our online complaint form. In addition, blogs and message boards focusing on publicizing work-at-home scams have noted numerous complaints about the company.

The scam appears to work like this:

  • The victim receives an email or sees an ad offering a substantial weekly salary earned simply by “Posting on Google.”
  • The victim is then directed to a download site where they enter in their contact information to receive a “Google Money Tree Kit” for “free” (though a $3.88 shipping and handling charge applies).
  • Customers who enter their credit card information to order the kit are charged the $3.88 shipping and handling fee.

Sounds great, right? Ready for the Google Money Tree to start sprouting your riches?

Not so fast. Unfortunately, numerous consumers have reported that they receive nothing and are subsequently charged a $72.21 fee for access to the Google Money Tree. When they call to dispute the charge, they are told that they agreed to the monthly fee when they signed up to receive the kit and didn’t call to cancel within seven days.

It’s hard to believe that many consumers would have fallen for this trick if the $72.21 fee was readily disclosed. Where is this fee listed? Why, in hard-to-read grey text on a white background at the bottom of the page (above the attention-grabbing red “Check This Out!” sign pointing to photos of a Range Rover, mansion, and island retreat), of course! As stipulated, agreeing to receive the kit gives the consumer a 7-day trial access to the Google Money Tree private Web site where, presumably, the secrets of getting rich quick with Google will be revealed.

The Devil is in the Term and Conditions

As with most dubious work-at-home schemes, the devil is in the details; or in this case, the “terms and conditions” section. There, in tiny font, the red flags abound. First, consumers are alerted that the use of the Google Money Tree involves a negative option, a bill practice that has been deemed unethical by some (since the customer must “opt out” in order to avoid getting billed). The Federal Trade Commission enforces strict rules about how negative option billing programs can be advertised and disclosed via the Prenotification Negative Option Rule, which “requires companies to give you information about their plans, clearly and conspicuously, in any promotional materials that consumers can use to enroll.”

Second, the “Disclaimer of Warranties and Liability” section seems at odds with the advertised purpose of Google Money Tree. Specifically, the fine print states that:

“This Site is for informational purposes only, and is intended to provide helpful and informative material on the subjects addressed. googlemoneytree.com does not provide legal, financial, or any other kind of professional advice or services. To make sure that information or suggestions on this site fit your particular circumstances, you should consult with an appropriate professional before taking action based on any suggestions or information on this site.”

The Google Money Tree Web site advertises that this is a “limited time offer” and that consumers should “act now!” Why then, are consumers advised to “consult with an appropriate professional” before taking any action (presumably to include investing money) that Google Money Tree advises?

Finally, there is the dreaded “Consent to Binding Arbitration Before the American Arbitration Association,” clause which essentially prevents a consumer from trying to get their money back from Google Money Tree in court.

Sleuthiness!

The dubiousness of Google Money Tree does not end at the Terms and Condition section. Since we’re inquisitive types, we took it upon ourselves to look a bit deeper into Google Money Tree. First, we checked with the Better Business Bureau of Southern Nevada (Google Money Tree is registered to a P.O. Box in Las Vegas). Lo and behold, Google Money Tree has an “F” rating with the BBB due, in part, to six complaints against the company. The good folks at the BBB told us that Google Money Tree does not have a valid business license and that they began receiving complaints about the business in November 2008, which is incidentally around the same time that our Fraud Center began receiving complaints as well (are we surprised?).

We also checked out the inference on Google Money Tree’s advertising Web site that they were written up in the New York Times and USA Today. The only “mention” of Google Money Tree in either publication was a November 12, 2008 story in the New York Times that mentions how a former Google employee’s friends call him “the Google money tree.” If this is what the operators of googlemoneytree.com feel amounts to an endorsement by the paper of record, they really are ambitious.

The Bottom Line: Avoid

For all intents and purposes, Google Money Tree looks like an extremely dubious enterprise, operating on the edge of being an out-and-out scam. Consumers should be on the watch for any get-rich-quick scheme, particularly those that promise large paydays in exchange for up-front investments in “training kits” or “educational materials,” especially if they involve recurring monthly fees. Because Internet companies like Google are respected names, scam artists frequently make use of their names to try and associate themselves with such companies’ good reputations. Remember to check out ANY company with the Better Business Bureau before sending them money and always, always, ALWAYS read the fine print. Finally, consumers who feel that they’ve been scammed by Google Money Tree or ANY scam should file their complaint at NCL’s online complaint form.

Elizabeth Warren’s Financial Services Product Safety Commission Proposal Monday, January 12, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in Sally Greenberg, finances, the economy.
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by Sally Greenberg, NCL Executive Director

Can a faulty toaster be compared with a faulty credit card? Several weeks ago at the Consumer Federation of America’s annual gathering on financial services, I heard Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren speak on just this topic. Warren, who wrote an article for Harvard Magazine called “Making Credit Safer: The Case for Regulation,” is recommending a radical new system for protecting consumers from credit card and other debts that are dangerous to their financial health. The new regime would be the financial equivalent of the Consumer Product Safety Commission – the independent federal agency that regulates the safety of 15,000 consumer products all of us use daily. Warren would call the new agency the “financial services product safety commission.”

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Consumer Czar Buzz Tuesday, January 6, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in National Consumers League, finances, legislative issues, the economy.
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You may have heard that,  a few weeks ago, a bunch of national public interest groups (including the National Consumers League) sent letters to Congressional leaders and President-Elect Obama calling for new pro-consumer policies that would help American consumers and workers on “pocketbook issues” and help heal our economic woes.

The groups recognized the threats against consumers’ rights and standards of living, including the mortgage meltdown, crazy high gas prices, fears about import and food safety, and unaffordable healthcare. When you think about it, things are pretty bad for us consumers these days.

One of the big things the groups (Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, the National Association of Consumer Advocates, the National Consumers League, the National Consumer Law Center, Public Citizen, and the U.S. Public Interest Research Group) are demanding is that the new Administration put a Consumer Czar in the White House.

The groups’ demand for a Czar is starting to get a little attention: the New York Times supported it in an editorial, the Consumerist has mentioned it, and the Wall Street Journal has blogged about it.

A little history: The United States Office of Consumer Affairs (USOCA) was established by Executive Order by President Nixon. Under pressure from Congress, the Clinton Administration allowed the office to be closed. The consumer groups are calling for the office to be reinstated as it existed under the Carter Administration, the time when it was most effective.

Under the Carter Administration, the director of the Office of Consumer Affairs had regular and direct access to the President. The office gave a voice to consumers and balanced and supplemented the ever-present and extremely well funded business lobby and Department of Commerce. The office was instrumental in victories for consumers, including: energy-efficiency labels on products; a program that simplified English in government documents; consumer rights regarding overbooked airline flights; a cooperative bank that would offer low-interest loans to public-interest groups; and increased competition in the trucking industry.

No wonder these groups are calling for a Consumer Czar! Show your support for these efforts today!

Cough, Cold, and Headaches: What’s a Mom or Dad to Do? Monday, January 5, 2009

Posted by savvyconsumer in Rebecca Burkholder, health, kids, safety.
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If you are the parent of a young child, chances are you’ve encountered some sniffles this winter–or will before too long. But for those who have been paying attention to the debate about cough and cold medicines and whether they are safe for fighting kids’ colds and flu, you may be as confused as ever.

NCL’s Rebecca Burkholder recently worked with our friend Helen Osborne, at the Boston Globe’s On Call Magazine, who just published an excellent article laying out the complicated issue for parents and explaining actions and information from the Food and Drug Administration. Read it here.