Pyrex Danger!

The update from Consumer Affairs is that Pyrex poses a deceptive safety risk to Americans and regulators are not doing anything about it:

It has been nearly three years since ConsumerAffairs.com first reported that consumers were being cut and burned by exploding Pyrex bakeware. The company was quick to deny the problem and government safety regulators seemed untroubled by the reports.

Three years later, not much has changed.

World Kitchen is the manufacturer of Pyrex and seems to think the problem is with the consumers.

On the front of a new Pyrex dish ConsumerAffairs.com purchased, the product’s label clearly states that it is “freezer safe … microwave safe … dishwasher safe … oven safe.”

But the fine print on the back tells a different tale:

“Avoid severe hot and cold temperature changes. … Use minimum amount of cooking time. … No stovetop, broiler, toaster oven, microwave, browner or any other direct heat source. … Do not add liquid to hot dish or place hot dish or glass cover in sink, immerse in water or place on cold or wet surfaces.”

How telling that they market the product up front for all the uses that the fine print on the back actually forbids. It is clearly unethical and deceptive to say something is safe for microwave and then warn people not to use the microwave, but here is something even worse:

“We cannot speculate on how someone was using their bakeware, and whether or not they were using it correctly,” wrote Bryan Glancy, World Kitchen spokesman. “Without examining the product, there is no confirmation that the product involved was Pyrex bakeware (as opposed to another manufacturer’s product). For this reason, unsubstantiated and unconfirmed reports of breakage should not be used as the basis for any conclusions to be drawn about Pyrex products.”

Why would people be complaining to Pyrex about other glass products that explode? How common is such confusion? I bet it never happens, but even if it happens once why try to use it as a primary reason to dismiss ALL consumer complaints? World Kitchen should setup a method to examine the product to confirm genuine Pyrex. Moreover, why speculate? Test bakeware using the claims from consumers and reveal the results to show safety. Perhaps even better is to use a 3rd party independent testing lab like Consumer Affairs.

The real issue here is that Corning licensed the Pyrex name in America to World Kitchen in 1998, and manufacturing quality/costs have declined. Corning licensed the Pyrex name to a different company in Europe, Arc International, and they have not had any of the same complaints or problems with exploding dishes.

Arc International’s Pyrex dishes cost about double what World Kitchen’s do in the U.S., but ConsumerAffairs.com has only one exploding Pyrex complaint from any country in the E.U.

ConsumerAffairs.com has complaints from every major English-speaking country where World Kitchen products are sold, including Canada, New Zealand and Australia.

Apparently Pyrex is now found in 80 percent of American homes, and yet the US Consumer Product Safety Commission refuses to respond to requests for information or complete an investigation of World Kitchen Pyrex.

The glass experts concluded that the only Pyrex dish any of them would use would be one purchased before 1998. Otherwise, they’re cooking with metal.

I just threw away all my American Pyrex brand dishes. European standards have proven themselves to be more oriented towards consumer safety, rather than profit for executives, so I now buy European certified products whenever possible. Either way you look at it the money for products now goes to foreign companies, but at least products certified in Europe are more likely to be safe.

Identity Theft Enforcement and Restitution Act

Tech Target reports that HR 5938 has been sent to the president for signature. This bill was actually written to authorize $4 million a year to pay for the protection of VP Cheney after he leaves office, but it also contains provisions of S 2168 related to cyber-crime:

“The key anti-cybercrime provisions that are included in this legislation will close existing gaps in our criminal law to keep up with the cunning and ingenuity of today’s identity thieves,” Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), sponsor of S. 2168, said in a prepared statement.

The legislation gives identity theft victims the ability to seek restitution in federal court for the loss of time and money spent restoring their credit. It also enables federal prosecution of cybercrime not involving interstate or foreign communication, and eliminates the requirement that damage to a computer exceed $5,000 before charges can be brought for unauthorized access to a computer. Leahy said the bill protects innocent people from “frivolous prosecutions” by clarifying that the elimination of the $5,000 threshold only applies to criminal cases.

In addition, the bill tackles the botnet problem by making it a felony to use spyware or keyloggers to damage 10 or more computers, regardless of the total amount of damage caused.

The legislation also makes it a crime to threaten to steal data from a computer. This provision expands current law, which only allows prosecution of criminals who try to extort companies by threatening to shut down or damage a computer.

This is big news for investigators and forensics. It also is probably big news to the Cheney family. Given the odd juxtaposition, it is hard not to compare how much money is earmarked for fighting cyber-crime in America versus paying for Cheney’s personal safety.

$700b bailout transparency

Craig Newmark points out that Americans can actually read the details of the bailout packages:

Want to know what’s in that $700 billion bailout legislation for the mortgage companies? What should be in the legislation? The folks at Sunlight have posted publicmarkup.org both the Administration’s bill and one being offered by Senator Chris Dodd in a way so that you can read and comment on them section by section.

Thanks Craig!

Polluted Water in America ruled OK by EPA

The first paragraph of AP News says it all:

The Environmental Protection Agency has decided there’s no need to rid drinking water of a toxic rocket fuel ingredient that has fouled public water supplies around the country.

This is a completely baseless and counterproductive decision, as the movie FLOW illustrates.

The AP article says the EPA claims to have used a risk calculation that decided Americans do not deserve the cost of cleanup:

The EPA document says that mandating a clean-up level for perchlorate would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.”

In other words, the government does not want to spend its money on cleanup of a toxin that they are primarily responsible for dumping into the water. The EPA is harming national security.

Lenny Siegel, director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight in Mountain View, Calif., added: “This is an unconscionable decision not based upon science or law but on concern that a more stringent standard could cost the government significantly.”

The Defense Department used perchlorate for decades in testing missiles and rockets, and most perchlorate contamination is the result of defense and aerospace activities, congressional investigators said last year.

The Pentagon could face liability if EPA set a national drinking water standard that forced water agencies around the country to undertake costly clean-up efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning EPA’s conclusions about the risks posed by perchlorate.

Fortunately, states are acting on their own to set a health standard for drinking water that includes a limit on perchlorate. The states do not seem to be as biased towards protecting the Pentagon budget in their calculations.

California uses 6 parts per billion as a level of concern, whereas the US Navy uses 24 parts per billion. The problem with perchlorate is that it travels through water into plants, milk, and people; even nursing babies are at risk:

A chemical pollutant that is commonly found in water supplies could harm nursing babies, even lead to mental impairment in extreme cases.

Perchlorate-an industrial pollutant linked to thyroid ailments-has been found in US drinking water and a survey is currently under way to find out its extent and impact in the UK.

Now it has been discovered that it becomes actively concentrated in breast milk, according to a team at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, New York, and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Baltimore.

Today perhaps you can feel lucky that you don’t live in a city like Rialto, California (that has 22 wells contaminated with perclorate and one registering 10,000 ppb) but tomorrow you might be wondering why the EPA does not want to protect you and your family from danger.

The EPA should immediately go after the sources of contamination, public and private, and declare levels above 6 ppm an unacceptable risk to American safety and security. Keep in mind that the cost of cleanup will decrease significantly if the EPA takes a stand on this issue — demand for new cleanup technology will spur innovation.