Consumer Confidential: Toys, toys and soda pop

Here's your wonderfully Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Get the lead out. That's the message from the California attorney general's office to six major retailers found still to have toys on their shelves containing lead. "These products must be removed from store shelves at once to protect our kids from toxic lead exposure," Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown told Walmart, Target, TJ Maxx, Sears, Walgreens and Tuesday Morning. More info is available here.

--Speaking of which, the Consumer Products Safety Commission is trying to get the word out to parents about new federal rules regarding toy safety. Here's what they have to say.

--Don't go looking to Costco if you want to score some Coke (as in cola). The retail giant has removed Coca-Cola products from its shelves because of a pricing dispute with the sugar-water maker. Both sides are trying to remain diplomatic amid the spat, but it's clear things have escalated to an ugly level. Maybe not a bad time to try some fruit juice instead.

-- David Lazarus

  

Consumer Confidential: Foreclosures, cleaning products and video games

Here's your thick-as-Thursday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- Things are still tough on the housing front but maybe not as tough as before. Market researcher RealtyTrac said foreclosure filings were down 3% last month from the month before, but were up 19% from a year earlier. Analysts say we aren't out of the woods yet, but the trend line suggests that the housing market is gradually improving. About time too.

-- Is it possible to keep your home too clean? A new report says yes. The group Women's Voices for the Earth says many households overdo it with disinfectant products, making people more vulnerable to asthma, hormone imbalances and other health problems. "Companies are working hard to convince consumers, and especially moms, that they need to regularly disinfect every surface in their homes to protect their families from illness," Alexandra Scranton, a staff scientist with the group. "But that’s simply not true, and it may not be healthy."

-- I wrote the other day about visiting with people in line at a Best Buy store for the latest "Call of Duty" video game. Today, I can close the loop by reporting that Activision Blizzard sold $310 million worth of games -- 4.7 million copies -- within the first 24 hours of "Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2" going on sale. And that's just in North America and Britain. Could it be that a few of us have some aggression issues to work out?

-- David Lazarus

Most Wal-Mart stores to stay open overnight on Thanksgiving

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will keep most of its U.S. stores open overnight on Thanksgiving to lessen the Black Friday frenzy that led to the trampling death of a store employee a year ago, the company said today.

The retail giant is hoping that the extended hours will prevent long lines from forming because shoppers will be able to wait inside the stores before the chain’s day-after-Thanksgiving specials go on sale at 5 a.m.

Black Friday, which falls on Nov. 27 this year, is notoriously the most hectic shopping day of the holiday season, with shoppers pushing and jostling for deals on electronics, apparel and toys. Last year, a mob of bargain-hungry Black Friday shoppers stormed a Wal-Mart in Valley Stream, N.Y., trampling temporary worker Jdimytai Damour.

Some industry watchers are worried that crowds could be even more aggressive this year, as frugal shoppers have indicated they will rely heavily on discounts and specials.

In addition to keeping stores open, the Bentonville, Ark.-based chain has store-specific safety plans in place and is also planning to spread out its deals around its stores to better control crowds, company spokeswoman Daphne Moore said. 

“Customer and associate safety is a top priority for us, and this year is no different,” she said.

-- Andrea Chang

Caption: Shopper America Payan buys groceries and household items with her two sons at a Wal-Mart in Rosemead. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Consumer Confidential: Strollers, shakes and spam

Here's your make-my-Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Heads up if you've got a little one. Maclaren, which makes some very popular strollers, has recalled about 1 million folding strollers that can cut or even cut off kids' fingertips. So far, the company says mishaps have resulted in at least 12 kids' fingertips being amputated. The kids apparently get their fingers caught in side hinges when the stroller is being opened or closed. For more info, check out www.maclaren.us/recall or call 877-688-2326.

--The economy might still stink, but things are looking up at the golden arches. McDonald's says its global sales rose 3.3% last month as consumers worldwide answered a hankering for Big Macs, fries and shakes. This was especially the case in Asia, the Middle East and Africa, where sales jumped 4.7%. Who says the United States isn't spreading sunshine throughout the world?

--The website Tagged.com has agreed to pay $500,000 to the New York attorney general's office to settle charges that it routinely hijacked people's e-mail accounts and sent marketing pitches to everyone they know. This is a relatively common ploy among social-networking sites and has sparked outcry among many Net users. If you've had a similar experience with either Tagged.com or some other site, don't hesitate to let California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown know about it.

-- David Lazarus

Program takes on fearful flying

Can an application on an electronic hand-held gadget really change your life? Whoopi Goldberg says it can.

The Academy Award-winning actress and co-host of ABC’s “The View” claimed her fear of flying kept her off airplanes until she tried an application developed for Virgin Atlantic Airways for the iPod and the iPhone called Flying Without Fear.

“The program works, I was a skeptic,” she said in a statement.

The Flying Without Fear “app” costs $4.99 and uploads onto iPod and iPhone devices. The program begins with an introduction from Sir Richard Branson, Virgin Atlantic’s president, and includes a video-based explanation of a flight, frequently asked questions, relaxation exercises and fear therapy, plus a “fear attack” button with breathing exercises for emergencies.

There may be one snag to this program: Most airlines make passengers put away all electronic devices during takeoff and landing. If you feel a panic attack coming on during takeoff, you’re going to have to wait until the plane reaches cruising altitude before you can switch on your iPhone to begin your breathing exercises.

But if Whoopi can do it, so can you.

--Hugo Martin

Photo: Richard Branson. Credit: Getty Images

Consumer Confidential: Credit cards, muscle carts and car seats

Here's your woe-it's-Wednesday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

• Fedmeister Ben Bernanke says the Federal Reserve may speed up new credit card regulations -- or maybe not. Amid efforts by lawmakers to get tough new laws on the books, Bernanke said it's possible that the Fed's own efforts could arrive sooner than their current arrival date of Feb. 22. But he's concerned that banks need sufficient time "to allow for an orderly transition and to avoid unintended consequences, compliance difficulties and potential liabilities." I say: Get some darned safeguards in place and worry about consequences and difficulties later.

• The Consumer Product Safety Commission says it'll take a closer look at so-called ROVs, or off-road recreational vehicles. The four-wheel contraptions, which look like golf carts on steroids, have been responsible for more than 100 deaths since 2003, the agency says. ROV-makers have proposed voluntary safety regulations, but officials say those rules don't go far enough. So the commission will now explore its own crackdown. How hard can this be? Write some rules that keep people from dying. Is this something that really needs to be negotiated?

• Car seats are great ... in cars. On the dining room table? Not so much. That's the conclusion of a new study which found that more than 43,000 kids ended up in the emergency room between 2003 and 2007 after falling in car seats placed atop tables and other high surfaces. The problem, of course, is that kids wriggle and jiggle, and can send unsecured car seats tumbling. Note to parents: Keep the car seat in the car. Keep the kid in a crib or down on the floor.

-- David Lazarus

Consumer Confidential: Toys, tricks and trash

Here's your make-my-Monday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

--Toys R Us is making it easier to buy big stuff. The company has unveiled an interest-free layaway plan for larger items such as bikes and cribs ahead of the holiday season. Effective immediately, customers can place such items on hold and make a series of payments until the item is paid for in full. Then you can have your thing. This has been a popular ploy among retailers at times in the past and is now making a recessionary return with some major chains, including Sears and Kmart. Toys R Us said it decided to climb aboar the layaway express after being asked to do so by customers.

--Be careful buying any product online that purports to diagnose, prevent, treat or cure H1N1 flu. That's the word from our friends at the Food and Drug Administration, which recently sampled some of the offerings available on the Net and found questionable ingredients from questionable places. Moreover, the FDA says the websites it purchased the samples from vanished shortly after the transaction was completed. Want to protect yourself from swine flu? Get a flu shot.

--In other FDA news, the agency has put up a website to help people dispose of outdated and potentially dangerous drugs. Certain meds should be flushed down the toilet to prevent them from being taken by others (although what this will do to the alligators in the sewer, the feds don't say). Others can be thrown out in the trash. Check the site to find out which med should get which treatment.

-- David Lazarus

Flying into the flu season

A woman sleeps on a nearly vacant American Airlines flight from Miami to Mexico City during an outbreak of the H1N1 flu in April. Credit: Brennan Linsley/Associated Press.

Television news shows and newspaper headlines scream about the potential dangers of the swine flu, also known as H1N1, and there you are, contemplating a trip for the upcoming holidays.

So, you ask yourself: Am I safe from airborne germs in the confined cabin of a crowded passenger jet?

In the past few months, the topic of air quality on airplanes has come up repeatedly, most noticeably when Vice President Joe Biden told a television audience last spring that he was advising family members to avoid confined spaces such as airplanes and subways for fear of contracting the flu from a sneezing passenger.

Airlines have straddled the line between taking big, noticeable steps to quell passenger fears and underplaying the threat to avoid sparking a panic.

For example, airports from Anchorage to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., have placed alcohol-based hand sanitizing lotion in dispensers in high traffic areas. Many airlines are also wiping down the interior of the planes with strong disinfectant between flights.

Southwest Airlines has removed all pillows and blankets — potential germ traps — from daytime flights.

Virgin America has added sanitizing gel and antibacterial wipes on its planes.

But don’t panic, says the Air Transport Assn. of America, the trade group that represents most major airlines. You are at no greater risk breathing the air inside an airplane cabin than you are in a crowded office or theater, the group says.

David A. Castelveter, ATA’s spokesman, said studies show that passenger cabins are not a breeding ground for pathogens and that most passengers are not worried about catching a disease while flying.

“The myth is that you are more susceptible to influenza if you get on a plane,” he said. “That is not the case.’’

Medical research seems to support Castelveter. A 2005 report in the Lancet, a widely read medical journal, concluded that “the environmental control system used in commercial aircraft seems to restrict the spread of airborne pathogens, and the perceived risk is greater than the actual risk.”

The air supply system in a passenger plane draws air through the engines. The air is heated, cooled and --in many cases  -- passed through a high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filter before it is pumped into the cabin. Most commercial aircraft recirculate 50% of the air, while the other 50% comes fresh from the exterior.

The Lancet study found no evidence that the air supply systems can spreading germs and pathogens throughout an airplane cabin.

But the Lancet report and other medical studies on the subject also caution that the air filtration system can’t save you if you are seated within a few feet of a coughing, sneezing, influenza-spewing passenger — the exact scenario that keeps Joe Biden awake at night.

To combat such a scenario, airlines urge passengers to stay home if they feel ill. Don’t worry about losing out on the cost of an airline ticket, said Anthony Black, a spokesman for Delta, the world’s largest airline. If you miss your flight because of illness, he said, the airline will work with you to recover the cost. (You may have to produce a note from your doctor, he added.)

But if a coughing, sneezing passenger takes a seat next to you, the airline attendants can move that passenger to another part of the plane or offer the passenger an influenza mask.

“Our employees are watching passengers for flu-like symptoms and if someone potentially has H1N1, we will bring that passenger to the attention of our medical professionals. We will take action,” said Castelveter.

In the midst of all this talk about airborne germs, a British company, BAE Systems, recently unveiled a new air-management system for airplanes that it claims will kill 99.99% of bio-hazards and particles. The AirManager system uses an electrical field that breaks down and destroys airborne pathogens, contaminants and toxins, and has been successfully tested on Boeing 757 airliners in Europe, according to a company statement.

Several airlines in the U.S. and Europe have expressed interest in the system, according to a spokesman for BAE Systems, who declined to name the airlines. But so far, none of them are ready to announce a fleet-wide installation of the system.

When asked about BAE’s new system, Castelveter said: “We are very comfortable with the airline systems we have today.”

-- Hugo Martin

Target settles CPSC allegations of selling toys with lead paint in $600,000 fine

Target Corp. has agreed to pay a $600,000 fine for allegedly violating the federal lead paint ban for toys, the Consumer Products Safety Commission said.

The civil penalty is a part of a settlement between the Commission and the Minneapolis, Minn., retailer that stems from accusations by the agency that Target knowingly imported and sold multiple toys with paint or other coatings containing illegal amounts of lead from May 2006 to August 2007.

The agency also accused Target of failing to prevent toys or other children’s products with lead in them from being imported or sold in its stores, which created a risk of lead poisoning and children's health problems.

As a part of the settlement, Target has denied Commission allegations that it broke any laws.

Target voluntarily recalled the toys in question, including Anima Bamboo Collection Games, Happy Giddy Gardening Tools, Kool Toyz and Sunny Patch Chairs, the agency said.

Lead has been banned from toy paint since 1978.

-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles

Photos: Recalled Kool Toyz products (top) and Anima Bamboo Collection Games (bottom). Credit: Consumer Product Safety Commission

Consumer Confidential: Cars, Kindles and credit

• The president of Toyota Motor Corp., Akio Toyoda, said it was "extremely regrettable" that an American family died in a crash believed to have been caused by a faulty floor mat. That's commendable, as far as it goes. But such language is standard among Japanese execs and politicians whenever something goes wrong. More important is what Toyota will do about the problem. So far, no word of a recall or any other measure.
• Amazon.com says it will no longer remove any books from people's Kindle e-book readers without their permission. The decision follows an outcry over the online bookseller deleting copies of George Orwell's "1984" from Kindles due to a copyright issue. Amazon's new policy is intended to help settle a lawsuit brought by Kindle users. Orwell would be pleased.
• California Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown has filed suit against two businessmen who run a "credit repair" company. Brown says the two -- Todd Swick and Michael Sardo -- have ignored repeated warnings that they must register their business with the state and post a $100,000 bond. He says the lawsuit is intended to make sure that all credit repair firms follow the law. Here's a tip: The only one who can repair your credit is you. Don't pay fees up front to any company saying it can help.

-- David Lazarus