Archive: Annys Shin
Shoppers? Yes, They Still Exist
My colleague Kendra Marr was out chatting with shoppers yesterday -- yes, there are still some people shopping, though retail sales figures might have you thinking otherwise. Caleb Huey, a 19-year-old junior at American University, said he was feeling guilty about his new winter wardrobe, but he couldn't stop himself from blowing most of his paycheck from his job at a marketing company. "With the economic downturn, I've been shopping more," he said. "I makes be feel secure to go out and buy more things. I don't know why." In fact, while he was shopping in Georgetown yesterday, someone stole...
By Kathy Lally | October 9, 2008; 01:04 PM ET | Comments (1)
But Wait, There's Still More!
Kevin Trudeau doesn't understand the word, "No." A federal judge has banned him from infomercials for three years yet again. The ruling is the latest turn in a decade long quest by the Federal Trade Commission to stop Trudeau, who it says is "a prolific marketer who has either appeared in or produced hundreds of infomercials." The FTC filed its first case against him in 1998 over infomercials for products that he claimed could cause significant weight loss and cure addictions to heroin, alcohol, and cigarettes. Oh, and give users photographic memory to make it easier for them to remember...
By Annys Shin | October 8, 2008; 01:01 PM ET | Comments (0)
New Data on Children Killed by Unstable Furniture and TVs
On Wednesday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released new data showing that between 2000 and 2006--the most recent data available--there have been 180 deaths involving heavy furniture such as dressers or armoires, and televisions falling and crushing people. Eighty percent of the deaths involved children younger than 10. And there were 40 reports of tip-over deaths between 2005 and 2006 alone. And such accidents continue. Last Saturday, a nine-month old in Arizona died after a television fell and crushed her. There are various theories as to why there was a big increase. Don Mays of Consumers Union thinks it could...
By Annys Shin | October 2, 2008; 07:34 AM ET | Comments (2)
Is your child's booster seat safe?
Safety experts have singled out 13 child booster seats for not doing a good enough job of protecting children during a crash. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute said Wednesday that the booster seats for children ages 4 to 8 don't position them so they receive optimal protection from safety belts, which is their main purpose. The IIHS gave the thumbs down to the following models: Compass B505 Compass B510 Cosco/Dorel Traveler Evenflo Big Kid Confidence Safety Angel Ride Ryte Cosco/Dorel Alpha Omega Cosco/Dorel (Eddie Bauer) Summit Cosco Highback Booster* Dorel/Safety 1st...
By Annys Shin | October 1, 2008; 11:30 AM ET | Comments (0)
Cadbury Pulls Products in Asia Because of Melamine
Just got off the phone with a Cadbury spokeswoman in Britain who said the only region affected by the recall is Asia. However, she could not tell me where North American Cadbury products are sourced or where the ingredients for North American Cadbury products come from. She forwarded my question to another spokesperson. I'll let you know what they tell me. In the meantime, here is what is known so far, courtesy of the AP: HONG KONG -- A Cadbury spokesman says preliminary results show its Chinese-made chocolates contain the industrial chemical melamine. The spokesman said Monday it was too...
By Annys Shin | September 29, 2008; 10:53 AM ET | Comments (9)
Why Feb. 10, 2009 is the New Christmas
Today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission's general counsel Cheryl Falvey released a legal opinion on whether the new lead limit, passed as part of the massive product safety reform bill, applies to products that were made and shipped before the law took effect on Aug. 14. Before you fall asleep on me, this is not boring legalese. It means that after Feb.10, 2009, all products on store shelves must comply with a strict new lead limit of 600 parts per million. The limit applies to total lead content and not just lead paint. The Feb. 10 date was imposed by...
By Annys Shin | September 15, 2008; 01:28 PM ET | Comments (0)
Sparks Fly in the District
My colleague Jordan Weissmann reports that the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington health advocacy group, filed a lawsuit yesterday in an effort to stop MillerCoors LLC. from selling Sparks, its alcoholic energy drink, in the District. The suit alleges that Sparks contains ingredients -- caffeine, ginseng and taurine -- that have never been approved for use in alcoholic beverages, and that the government erred by allowing the the drink on the market. The suit, filed in DC Superior Court, accuses MillerCoors of actively marketing Sparks, which contains 6 percent alcohol, to underage consumers. The CSPI...
By Kathy Lally | September 9, 2008; 08:11 AM ET | Comments (0)
How the CPSC is like an Australian speed skater
If you never associated the Consumer Product Safety Commission with an Olympic athlete, let alone a gold medal-winning Olympic athlete, the agency has a little video clip to show you. Yesterday the agency kicked off an all-day meeting to discuss various issues involved in implementing the massive, recently passed product safety law with a recap of Australian Steven Bradbury's unlikely win in the men's 1,000 meter short track event at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Bradbury, to refresh your memory, won after Apolo Anton Ohno, who was favored to win, wiped out along with several other competitors. (Ohno managed to get...
By Annys Shin | September 5, 2008; 01:20 PM ET | Comments (0)
Nebraska Beef Pursues Church Ladies
A few weeks ago, I spoke with Bill Lamson, an attorney for Nebraska Beef, the Omaha meat packer that has had two large recalls this year of beef linked to two separate E. coli outbreaks, including one that sickened Whole Foods Market customers in two states. I found him to be exceedingly reasonable and pleasant to speak with. At the time, I asked him about the lawsuit that Nebraska Beef had filed against a church in rural Minnesota in connection with a cluster of E. coli illnesses two years ago among more than a dozen parishioners who ate at the...
By Annys Shin | September 3, 2008; 10:05 AM ET | Comments (0)
Raw Mexican Jalapeno and Serrano Peppers are Safe to Eat Again
So the salmonella saintpaul outbreak of 2008 is over. That is what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration just got done telling reporters. Because the illnesses have tapered off and because potentially contaminated jalapeno and serrano peppers are no longer in circulation in U.S. markets, FDA also lifted its warning against raw Mexican jalapeno and serrano peppers. It was a bit of an anticlimactic ending to the biggest salmonella outbreak in a decade. No wild pigs to blame--yet. The FDA's field investigation in Mexico is over but the agency is still analyzing what...
By Annys Shin | August 28, 2008; 01:01 PM ET | Comments (1)
Mom's Says No More Evian
News flash: Another retailer chain shrinks its carbon footprint -- and yours. This time, it's by banning imported bottled water from its shelves. Score another hanging chad-less point for Al Gore. No, it's not Wal-Mart. Or even Whole Foods Market. It's Rockville, Md. based MOM's - My Organic Market - with five stores in the DC metro area. On Tuesday, MOM's put out a press release subtitled "Local Organic Grocery Store Forgoes Profit in Favor of the Environment." Modest. I like it. "Once we thought about the amount of energy, oil, and water that go into producing, shipping, and disposing...
By Annys Shin | August 21, 2008; 07:05 AM ET | Comments (15)
Not-so-live blogging House Food Safety Hearing No. Two
Apologies for the delayed post. My air card died just as the produce industry was piling on the FDA and CDC. If you want to listen along, you can go to the House Energy and Commerce Committee Web site. The theme of today's hearing is "Lessons Learned" from the salmonella outbreak. So in that vein, I thought I'd write up my top five lessons learned. 1. Outbreaks don't respect state borders. I wrote Wednesday about a Colorado woman, Cheryl Grubbs, whose husband was an outbreak victim. She had trouble getting the attention of her local health officials partly because Colorado...
By Annys Shin | July 31, 2008; 12:44 PM ET | Comments (3)
BREAKING NEWS: Salmonella Saintpaul Found in Irrigation Water on Mexican Pepper Farm
Dr. David Acheson, who is the top food safety official at the Food and Drug Administration, has just told the House panel that they have found likely source of Salmonella saintpaul, which has eluded countless officials for weeks. "We have a positive sample in water used for irrigation and serrano peppers from the same farm that have matched outbreak strain," he said. Acheson says the FDA is now changing its warning to include Mexican Serrano peppers. The agency says consumers should now stop eating raw serrano peppers. Dr. Lonnie King of the Centers for Disease Control is testifying after Acheson...
By Annys Shin | July 30, 2008; 02:44 PM ET | Comments (8)
Live blogging the House's food safety hearing
Hello from the House Agriculture Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture That I Have Never Heard Of Until Now. I've threatened to live blog before and today I have finally procured a laptop and an air card. The point of this gathering today--and there is a second one tomorrow--is ostensibly to talk about the problems with tracing produce through the distribution chain in case of an outbreak or terrorist attack on the food supply. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control honchos have said the difficulty tracing tomatoes slowed the Salmonella saintpaul investigation. Other food safety...
By Annys Shin | July 30, 2008; 02:22 PM ET | Comments (3)
Found: Smoking Jalapeno
As reported Tuesday, the Food and Drug Administration has found the strain of salmonella that has been making people sick since April in a jalapeno pepper collected from a small Texas produce distributor. The FDA found the pepper by tracing back food eaten by people who got sick. The victims were part of one of the restaurant clusters FDA has been investigating, hoping to come across a lead like this one. Now the FDA can focus its efforts on where that pepper came from and hopefully find a source. So you don't get confused, there is a separate recall going...
By Annys Shin | July 23, 2008; 07:03 AM ET | Comments (36)
The Product Safety Bill: Not Done Yet
Last week, House and Senate lawmakers met for the second time to hash out their differences on product safety reform legislation. Remember that? Congress's attempt to protect us from lead paint on toys and dots that turn into the date rape drug when you swallow them? Anyway, while they whittled down the number of things they disagree about, they still haven't resolved everything. The outstanding issues include a ban on phthalates--chemicals that make plastic soft and have been linked to reproductive problems--and preemption. In English, that means whether some of the new standards and testing protocols that will go into...
By Annys Shin | July 21, 2008; 12:05 PM ET | Comments (1)
Tomato Salad for Everyone
So the latest in the salmonella outbreak last week was the Food and Drug Administration lifting their warning about certain types of tomatoes. All we know at this point is tomatoes on the market are safe because there is no way they could be coming from farms that were shipping tomatoes back in April when people first started getting sick. FDA and the Centers for Disease Control are not saying tomatoes weren't responsible for the outbreak, only that the ones on the market now are safe. They are "seriously considering" the possibility that jalapeno peppers as well as tomatoes may...
By Annys Shin | July 21, 2008; 07:42 AM ET | Comments (115)
Latest in the Salmonella Outbreak
With the tally of ill people brushing up against 1,200, the folks trying to figure out--and stop--the source of the salmonella outbreak are hoping a new set of interviews in New Mexico and Arizona will provide more leads. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, along with state health officials in the two states and the Indian Health Service, are talking to people who fell ill after June 1. For anyone who has been following the outbreak investigation closely, this doesn't sound that earth shattering, but it could prove fruitful. All of the folks...
By Annys Shin | July 17, 2008; 02:13 PM ET | Comments (1)
Here's the Beef
Happy Monday folks. Sorry I've been radio silent for a week. I had a lot of tomatoes and pepper news to weed through. And beef news too, which is what I'm going to tell you about today. Last Friday, the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer and Under Secretary for Food Safety Dr. Richard Raymond announced the agency would soon begin disclosing the names of retailers that receive recalled meat but only in situations where there's a high chance of people getting sick from eating the recalled meat. Raymond has been pushing for this rule for two years. Two. And...
By Annys Shin | July 14, 2008; 10:34 AM ET | Comments (41)
Meanwhile, in Nebraska...
With tomatoes getting all the attention--or should I say Mystery Produce--you may have missed the latest ground beef outbreak in the Midwest. On Thursday, Nebraska Beef, an Omaha-based meat packer, said it was recalling 5.3 million pounds of hamburger meat that it produced since in mid-May after it was linked to an outbreak of E. coli O157:H7 in Ohio and Michigan. The Kroger grocery chain which bought from Nebraska Beef is pulling ground beef from stores across the country. This was an expansion of a recall announced Monday of only a half a million pounds. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's...
By Annys Shin | July 5, 2008; 04:39 PM ET | Comments (33)
Toy Chests Are Not Toys
I know everyone is probably gone for the Fourth, but a recall just flashed over my e-mail that I thought you might like more info about. Bayside Furnishings of San Diego said yesterday it is recalling 9,350 LaJolla Boat and Pirates of the Carribean Twin Trundle beds after a 22-month-old boy died when the lid of a toy chest that is at the end of the bed fell on his neck and strangled him. The beds were sold at Costco, Costco.com and furniture retail stores from January 2006 through May of this year for between $700 and $1,400. Bayside is...
By Annys Shin | July 4, 2008; 07:36 AM ET | Comments (0)
Blogging the Product Safety Bill Conference
I should probably call this entry retrospective blogging on the product safety bill conference since it took place at 4ish Wednesday and will continue after Congress returns from the July 4 recess. Not much news came out of the event, where members from the House and Senate were supposed to resolve differences between each chamber's version of product safety reform legislation. They didn't finish Wednesday and will meet again in July. Despite keeping us in suspense for who knows how much longer, the lawmakers were at least kind enough to have the meeting in a room big enough for the...
By Annys Shin | June 27, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
The CPSC Channels Gallagher
So I was watching the Today Show this morning with the babe and the hub (the hub was watching it to catch a glimpse of a Redskins player who was a groomsman in a Today Show-sponsored wedding) and I was pleasantly surprised to catch a segment starring Consumer Product Safety Commission spokeswoman Julie Vallese and an exploding watermelon. The soon-to-be-exploded watermelon. (Annys Shin) With July Fourth around the corner, the CPSC is out with its annual "fireworks can blow your fingers off" message. And what better way to get the attention of the target teen audience, or rather their parents...
By Annys Shin | June 25, 2008; 10:05 AM ET | Comments (1)
What's That Smell?
What do rubber duckies, shower curtains, and air fresheners have in common? If you said phthalates, you'd be right! The Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the Alliance for Healthy Homes is suing the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency saying it should require manufacturers to test household air fresheners for safety and to disclose their chemical ingredients. The lawsuit is based on a 2007 NRDC analysis of more than a dozen common household air fresheners, which found that most contained phthalates, chemicals that may affect hormones and reproductive development in children and infants. The back story is this: The...
By Annys Shin | June 20, 2008; 07:36 AM ET | Comments (0)
Is It Curtains for Your Shower Curtain?
I'm back from the City of Brotherly Love for my sister-in-law's wedding. And in my inbox this morning, I see the Great Plastic Safety Debate raged on in my absence. The subject this time is shower curtains. The opening salvo came from the Falls Church-based Center for Health and Environmental Justice, which put out a report saying that that new shower curtain smell is not so good for you. CHEJ hired an independent lab to test several shower curtains purchased at big box stores for various chemicals and heavy metals. The lab found the shower curtains contained phthalates, a chemical...
By Annys Shin | June 18, 2008; 09:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
You Say Tomato, I Say Salmonella
Hi. Your food safety nerd here checking in. (Aren't you so glad Nancy and Ylan are writing now too so you don't have to read about bugs in your food all the time?) I've been keeping an eye on this salmonella outbreak linked to tomatoes and after a few updates, it looks like it's finally hit the big time. The Food and Drug Administration yesterday issued a broad warning, telling consumers not to eat raw Roma, red plum or red round tomatoes, or products that contain these types of raw red tomatoes unless the tomatoes are from the following places:...
By Annys Shin | June 9, 2008; 11:07 AM ET | Comments (86)
USDA Rescinds "Raised without Antibiotics" Label from Tyson Chicken
I bring you an update on the Tyson Foods "raised without antibiotics" labeling case. The back story, briefly, is that Tyson was selling chicken under the label "raised without antibiotics." The U.S. Department of Agriculture, which oversees meat and poultry, signed off on the use of the label. Tyson's competitors, Sanderson Farms and Perdue Farms, cried foul (excuse my word choice) and challenged Tyson's use of the label in court and with the USDA. A federal judge in Baltimore ruled last month that Tyson had to stop using the claim in its advertising. That brings us to this week. Tyson...
By Annys Shin | June 4, 2008; 07:08 AM ET | Comments (0)
Check Those Pool Drains
The opening of our neighborhood public pool this past week got me thinking about the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Safety Act, which I wrote about a few months back. The bill requires operators of public pools and spas to install drain covers to prevent the suction of the drain from pinning children underwater, among other provisions. It was named for the granddaughter of former Secretary of State James Baker who died in 2002 after she became entrapped by a spa drain. The bill came close to becoming a casualty of one Senator's crusade against irresponsible spending by Congress, but...
By Annys Shin | June 3, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Babies v. Rubber Duckies: Round One
In all the fuss over whether to officially consider the polar bear an endangered species, environmentalists and wildlife enthusiasts have apparently overlooked another equally endangered creature: the rubber ducky. Or so says a group called Consumers for Competitive Choice (C4CC). C4CC, which says it is "an alliance of consumer organizations with one million members throughout the United States," has launched a campaign entitled "Save the Rubber Duckies!" Why, you ask, are these creatures in need of saving? Does it have something to do with global warming? Or predators perhaps? Or is their natural habitat being destroyed and replaced by soaking...
By Annys Shin | May 22, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Should You Care About Buyouts?
Excuse my absence. I am just back from the wilds of Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. Okay, it wasn't really wild, but I did see some buffalo. Anyway, while I catch up, I thought I'd bring up something I wasn't able to delve into before I left. I wrote not long ago about Bain Capital's buyout of Bright Horizons Family Solutions, the nation's largest provider of employer-sponsored child care. The Service Employees International Union , which doesn't represent any Bright Horizons employees but has decided to speak up anyway, is worried the buyout will be bad for workers and parents....
By Annys Shin | May 19, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (3)
Regretting Extra Therms Among Other Things
A couple of weeks ago, I did a piece on how to go about buying natural gas and electricity from someone other than your old utility. Soon after, I got a call that I think highlights an element of so-called energy choice that I touched on indirectly in the story: buyer's remorse. It's not a sensation that usually accompanies the reading of an electric bill, but several of the folks I talked to for the story--including those who saved money--experienced some share of regret. The Northern Virginia woman who called me has been buying from an alternative gas supplier for...
By Annys Shin | May 7, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (2)
The Global Food Crisis
Today, my colleague Jane Black from the Food section has dropped in to share what she learned while working on a piece for the Post's Global Food Crisis series on local shoppers trying to rein in their growing food bills. She picked up some tips on how to reduce food costs and she's been kind enough to share them with us. Take it away Jane: Since last March, the price of a dozen eggs has jumped 36 percent; a gallon of milk is up 23 percent. Bread, meat and other staples are up, too. New studies show that shoppers are...
By Annys Shin | May 1, 2008; 07:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
FDA takes a look at BPA
Ever since the National Toxicology Program (NTP) said two weeks ago that there is "some concern" for neural and behavioral effects in fetuses, infants, and children from bisphenol A (BPA), a widely used compound in hard plastic food containers, one retailer after another has pledged to pull BPA from baby products and consumers have been eyeing their water bottles, their kid's binky, and their Tupperware uneasily. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulates the use of BPA in products that come into contact with food, such as baby bottles and baby formula cans. When my colleague Lindsey Layton first reported...
By Annys Shin | April 28, 2008; 11:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
Is There Such a Thing as Too Much Choice?
I've been delving into the process of finding alternate suppliers of electricity and gas, known as "energy choice." Apparently, there are some brave souls out there who have put in a good chunk of their time figuring out where to get the best deal for their electricity and gas needs. It involves calling the various licensed suppliers, getting rate quotes and comparing those to the rate your utility is offering. If you go with the alternates, you can sign up for a variable or fixed rate for a certain number of months. Before you renew, of course, it's wise to...
By Annys Shin | April 23, 2008; 07:05 AM ET | Comments (0)
Would You Like Your Steak Adulterated?
Just in time for grilling season.....last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture hosted a confab at the Holiday Inn in Georgetown on E. coli O157:H7 in beef. (Yes, you can spend two days talking about the effects of fecal matter in meat.) The big topic of discussion was the recent news that the USDA's Food Safey Inspection Service was considering treating E. coli O157:H7 found on intact meat or primal cuts used for roasts and steaks as an adulterant. Currently, it's only considered an adulterant in ground beef. To part the weeds for you: Making someting an adulterant has legal...
By Annys Shin | April 14, 2008; 08:00 AM ET | Comments (0)
How to Cook a Cattle Head
Sorry, you'll have to indulge me for a second. On Friday, the USDA announced that a Kansas beef packer was recalling cattle heads because the tonsils had not been removed from all of them. The tonsils are removed to reduce the risk of mad cow. Despite the tonsil situation, there is an extremely low risk of any human illness resulting from this particular set of cattle heads because the cattle were all younger than 30 months old. Anyhow, the mad cow part was not what got my attention. What grabbed me was the cattle head part! I figured it had...
By Annys Shin | April 8, 2008; 09:21 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Pervasive Plastic Bag
We're getting some company here at The Checkout. As of today, I'm being joined by two of my colleagues, Ylan Q. Mui, who covers retail for the newspaper, and Nancy Trejos, who writes about personal finance. We'll be taking turns on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, so check in when you can. We'll also weigh in when news breaks or we find a really juicy story that we can't wait to share. As always, feel free to write to us at thecheckout@washpost.com. Here's Ylan, taking on reusable shopping bags. I jumped on the eco-bandwagon two years ago and bought my first...
By Annys Shin | April 7, 2008; 08:00 AM ET | Comments (26)
