Current Events in May 2014

BMW of North America is recalling 6,400 model year 2014 X5 SAV vehicles manufactured December 12, 2013, through March 10, 2014, and equipped with the Soft Close Automatic (SCA) option.

The rear side door lock mechanisms may not have been manufactured to correct tolerances and when the inside door handle is pulled, the previously engaged child safety lock can disengage.

A disengaged child safety lock would allow the rear seat occupant to pull the door handle twice and open the door while the vehicle is parked or in motion, increasing the risk of injury.

BMW will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the rear side door locks and any affected door locks will be replaced, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin in May 2014.

Owners may contact BMW customer service at 1-800-525-7417.

Here are a few civil liberty issues worthy of debate: do you have any right to privacy at all outside the confines of your home? Do police have the right to record and keep a permanent record of your whereabouts at all times? And if police do have this right, who else does?

These aren't merely dystopian sci-fi scenarios; modern technology makes them already commonplace. To offer just one example: Cameras mounted everywhere from moving police dashboards to stationary highway overpasses see and record every passing vehicle and license plate; many of these cameras also clearly show the driver as well.

There are undeniable crime-fighting advantages to this technology — for example, when a car is reported stolen, the ability to instantly scan all on-the-road license plates in a given area and compare them to the database of recently stolen vehicles makes it much easier to recover the stolen car and prosecute the thief.

But what about the vast majority of cars that were not stolen? And for how long should those recordings be kept?

Last July the ACLU argued that there was no need for police departments to keep license-plate camera recordings any longer than necessary to see whether a give car or license plate is on a “hot list” of stolen or suspicious vehicles.

How many such records police have regarding your whereabouts depends largely on where you live and where you drive. The ACLU's report “You are being tracked: how license plate readers are being used to record Americans' movements” includes a map showing a sampling of “retention policies” among various police departments that use license-plate scanners. In Minnesota, for example, the State Patrol deletes scanned license plate information after 48 hours, and has less than 20,000 “stored plate reads” on file at any given time, out of a total state population of 5.3 million.

Compare that to Jersey City, New Jersey, with a population of only 250,000 people: there, recordings of license plate scans are kept on file for five years, and there's currently an estimated 10 million “stored plate reads” on file.

Other police departments have no limits at all on how long they keep this data on file.

Legislator concerned

Last week the Los Angeles Times reported that at least one California legislator, state Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo), is concerned enough about private plate-scanning companies (though not necessarily public police departments) not only collecting such information, but selling it to anyone willing to pay.

Hill told The Times that, to illustrate the invasive potential of the scanners, he hired a private detective to track his wife's whereabouts (presumably with her consent). But the detective never had to actually “track” her; he merely paid to acquire her license plate records and learned where she drove and parked—including a particular gym 100 miles from her home.

In another incident, a man in San Leandro filed a public-records request and discovered that the public record includes photographs of his daughters standing in their driveway, alongside over 100 photos of the man's license plate in various locations.

This situation is hardly unique to California. In 2011, for example, Slashdot noted that “plate readers abound in [Washington] DC with little regard for privacy”; at the time over 250 scanners in the city and its suburbs were recording and cross-checking license plate data in real time.

As of 2012, the most recent year for which data is available, over 70 percent of police departments use similar scanners.

Private vendors

Of even greater concern, perhaps, is the notion that police departments who have such scanners might actually set fine-and-enforcement quotas in order to pay for them — or have the private scanner companies set those quotas for them. The Los Angeles Times reports that this might be happening already in Tempe, Arizona:

Last year, [private scanner/data company] Vigilant Solutions offered police in Tempe, Ariz., license plate scanners for free. But there was a catch, according to a copy of the offer obtained by The Times.

To keep the freebies, the Tempe department had to go after at least 25 outstanding "Vigilant provided" warrants each month. In general, such arrangements are paid for by private collection companies, which profit by going after warrants that result from people failing to pay municipal fines, said Brian Shockley, a vice president at Vigilant.

In the document, Vigilant assured the Tempe department that the offer was not an attempt to "unduly influence" its police work. But the company also warned that the free cameras would be taken away if the police department failed to meet its monthly quota.

Tables turned

However much police and other authorities might like keeping permanent records on what local citizens are doing anywhere in range of the scanners, police show far more recalcitrance at keeping tabs on themselves, even when they're on the clock.

Last month, for example, the LA Times ran an article about another police-and-recording issue: ever since last year, police in Los Angeles have been required to record their on-duty activities, via transmitters in their uniform belts, and dashboard cameras that come on anytime the car's siren or emergency lights are activated. However, an investigation showed that up to half of all such police cars mysteriously had their antennas break or go missing, so that the monitoring equipment didn't work.

Of course, this presumed dislike of being recorded is hardly limited to police in Los Angeles, or even in California.

On May 13, a mere three days before the LA Times story about state Senator Mateo and the license-plate scanners, Washington Post criminal-justice blogger Radley Balko wrote that “Despite court rulings, people are still getting arrested for recording on-duty cops,” and said:

… police in Chicopee, Mass., have arrested and charged a woman for allegedly recording her arrest with her cellphone surreptitiously.

When you see one of these stories, please remember that it is perfectly legal to record on-duty police in every state in the country. That includes states that require all parties to a conversation to consent in order for that conversation to be recorded.

Police arresting citizens for recording them while on duty is such a commonplace event, despite its legality, that there are entire websites dedicated to showcasing the most recent examples. At the same time, anti-police-corruption groups like Copblock.org urge people to “Film the Police.”

It's also quite affordable these days to outfit your car with a dashboard camera or other recording equipment of your own – which is helpful if you want to turn the tables on the police who are monitoring and recording your whereabouts, but won't do anything to prevent them monitoring and recording you in the first place.

If you're a DirecTV subscriber, you may soon be an AT&T customer. And if you're an AT&T U-verse customer, you could soon be getting your TV channels via satellite.

It's all because AT&T has agreed to buy DirecTV for $49 billion, potentially giving it 26 million cable TV subscribers, second only to Comcast and Time Warner, which would have about 30 million in their proposed merger goes through.

Both deals are contingent on regulatory approval. The AT&T transaction was approved by both the AT&T and DirecTV boards in special Sunday meetings.

Consumers were not exactly gleeful about the announcement. 

"Have had a Uverse account for about three years now. The service is continuously interrupted," said Theresa of Buena Park, Calif., in a review submitted to ConsumerAffairs. "I have a pixelated TV almost every week I need to reboot one or more of my 5 boxes. ... ATT is just too big and busy to care that my reception sucks. They will however call write and text me to tell me my bill is ready."

For Christina of Carlsbad, Calif., U-verse interruptions are more than just an inconvenience. She said she had been without cable for two days.

"My box died and when I call Customer Service they said they will mail me one, the need didn't justified a service call. So in the middle of getting ready to evacuate because of the Poinsettia Fire, I couldn't watch the news."

Tom of Minneapolis said he has been a DirecTV customer for more than a decade but had to cancel his service when he moved to a building that doesn't allow satellite dishes.

"I'd rather keep their service, but that sentiment went away when I heard I would be charged $20 for each of the 6 months left on my contract. I would have switched back as soon as I could, but won't go back now. I will no longer be someone who recommends their services either, but will turn on them to become a detractor."

Urge to merge

Why this sudden urge to merge? It's mostly because the TV business is changing faster than anyone expected -- sort of like climate change. Streaming video is becoming a threat to cable -- but only if it can acquire the first-run, top-tier programming that for the last few decades has been tied up by cable channels like HBO.

To acquire the best content, and to have the wherewithal to produce their own first-rate content, distribution companies need to bulk up, so that they can wrestle the best deals out of content producers and produce the revenue they need to brew their own.

This is not a new problem. Ben Franklin dealt with it back in the 1700s. He started with a print shop, then began publishing a newspaper, then a magazine and, finally, got himself appointed Postmaster of Philadelphia, enabling him to give his competitors the dead letter treatment and basically creating America's first vertically integrated media empire. 

It was, says Franklin biographer Walter Isaacson, "an early example of the tension that often still exists between those who create content and those who control distribution." ("Benjamin Franklin: An American Life," Simon & Schuster).

AT&T may be reading from Franklin's primer but the scale is quite a bit bigger. The acquisition would give AT&T a nationwide wireless network, a nationwide satellite video distribution system and 70 million household broadband subscribers. 

Not bad for a company that was broken up into little pieces 32 years ago because it had gotten too big. 

Effect on consumers?

What it means for consumers, at least initially, is that you can expect AT&T to begin offering service bundles that include satellite TV. That could mean existing Uverse customers would get their TV shows by satellite while enjoying faster broadband service if cable programming is removed from Uverse.

Nothing much more significant than that is in the cards in the short-term, most observers think. AT&T, of course, spins it as a dream-come-true for consumers.

"DIRECTV is a great fit with AT&T and together we’ll be able to enhance innovation and provide customers new competitive choices for what they want in mobile, video and broadband services," said Randall Stephenson, AT&T Chairman and CEO. "This is a unique opportunity that will redefine the video entertainment industry and create a company able to offer new bundles and deliver content to consumers across multiple screens – mobile devices, TVs, laptops, cars and even airplanes."

AT&T said it would commit to abide by net-neutrality rules, invest in rural broadband and spend at least $9 billion in an upcoming government auction of wireless airwaves.

To give some indication of the financial challenges facing the average consumer, a survey finds money worries have become a significant distraction for employees during working hours.

Not Facebook, not chain emails, not weight loss – worries about money.

Although many U.S. businesses have recovered from the Great Recession many of the people who work at those businesses haven't. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) says those worries are now a huge drain on employee productivity.

Highlights

Here's what the 2014 SHRM survey Financial Wellness in the Workplace found:

• Seven out of 10 human resource professionals said that personal financial challenges have a large or some impact on their employees' performance.
• More than 40% said employees' difficulty in covering personal expenses is having a workplace impact.
• Almost 40% of employees are facing greater personal financial challenges now compared with the onset of the recession in 2007.
• Nearly 25% of human resources professionals said employees are experiencing more personal financial challenges now compared with 12 months ago.

And that's just the HR professionals who are attuned to the financial difficulty their employees face. Others could be clueless.

The survey also uncovered this alarming fact -- employees were 60% more likely to tap their retirement account for a loan than in previous years and 44% more likely to ask for a hardship withdrawal from retirement savings.

Bad for business

This isn't just bad for individual employees, SHRM warns. It's bad for business.

"Business leaders should be troubled that many of our nation's workers continue to face financial hardships and related stress, especially during working hours," said Shawn Gilfedder, President and CEO McGraw-Hill Federal Credit Union, which sponsored the SHRM survey. "Companies can and should take action to help employees effectively address their financial concerns, which will help improve the lives of workers and their families and also help strengthen company performance."

How do money-worried employees impact a firm's bottom line? This video, produced by a provider of corporate financial wellness programs, illustrates it pretty well.

Story continues below video.

Financial education

What can companies do? There are "financial wellness" education programs that can give employees tools and support to manage their personal finances. Some companies have provided them but others haven't – in part because they might be viewed as too costly.

"With the influence that financial challenges have on employees and their performance, the survey suggests that employers will find value in offering financial education to their workforce," said Bruce Elliott, SHRM's manager of compensation and benefits.

Gilfedder says there are actually some financial wellness programs that carry no cost to the employer. Many credit unions offer these no-cost programs, as do some financial services firms.

Gilfedder suggests companies that implement these programs can help reduce employee financial stress, enhance employee retention, build loyalty and ultimately, improve company productivity and performance. 

I'm about as pale as you can get without crossing the line into albino territory, which means I sunburn ridiculously easily, so I genuinely wish there existed a product that let me visit the beach without having to re-apply abrasive sand-infused sunblock every five minutes. However, the “drinkable sunscreen” you may have heard about via overly credulous media sources or email-forwarding friends isn't it.

A handful of media outlets — including the not-exactly-known-for-reliability Daily Mail — have reported that a semi-miraculous new sunscreen is on the market: no more smearing slimy goop all over yourself, just swallow a teaspoon of “Harmonized H20” sunscreen water and an hour later your skin will be protected from sunburn thanks to the power of “vibrations” and “frequencies” and “harmony.” (Remember: despite words like “frequency” and “harmony,” this is not an article about music theory, radio broadcasting or any other sound-oriented thingamawhat, but an alleged oral sunscreen.)

Here's what the Frequently Asked Questions page on Harmonized H2O's website has to say about its product offerings:

Harmonized water is a combination of waters that contain different vibrational frequencies. Unlike structured water, which addresses the tendency of water molecules to cluster together, harmonized water describes the frequencies that water carries in its proton/electron outer shell. Water has the ability to carry “frequency messages” for extended periods of time and we have found that some of these messages harmonize internal imbalances in our body.

Translation: impressive-sounding pseudoscientific gobbledygook meaning nothing.

Watery messages

Also, that bit about water carrying “messages” sounds an awful lot like homeopathy, the field of pseudoscientific quackery which claims that water can not only “remember” the qualities of substances it once came into contact with, but those substances actually gain in strength the more they're watered down.

Is “harmonized water” merely the latest homeopathic scheme? The FAQ page addresses that as well:

How does it compare to homeopathic remedies?

Under the premise that homeopathic remedies contain little-to-no physical characteristics of the original substance that was succussed, the water is somewhat “harmonized” by the original substance. However, we at Harmonized Water, LLC do not use succussion to create our waters. We use a frequency generator and special devices to achieve much greater efficacy and specificty. [sic]

“Succussion” is the word homeopaths use to describe the watering-down process, which is often measured in “centesimals” or C-units, referring to a dilution of one part per hundred:

Suppose, for example, you have a glass of ordinary red wine, and want to dilute/strengthen it according to homeopathic principles. If you combine one drop of wine with 99 drops of water, you get 1C wine, which is 99 percent water and 1 percent wine.

Combining one drop of 1C wine with 99 drops of water makes 2C wine, which is 99.99 percent water and 0.01 percent wine. One drop of 2C added to 99 drops of water makes 3C, which is water containing 0.0001 percent wine, and so on.

By the time you reach 12C you crash against the physical barrier of Avogadro’s limit, meaning your 12C wine probably doesn’t contain even a single molecule of actual red wine. … if homeopathic principles are correct, that 12C glass of tap water will make you far more intoxicated than would the same amount of actual 100 percent wine, 30C makes you exponentially drunker than 12C, and by 200C you’ll presumably die of alcohol poisoning without downing a single actual molecule of booze.

Inner harmonies

Granted, homeopathic believers say succussion requires more than merely watering down a substance; it also requires that the watered-down substance be shaken in a certain magic beneficial way. Thus the difference Harmonized H2O draws between their products versus homeopathic stuff: they “use a frequency generator and special devices” to shake stuff in a certain magic beneficial way without watering it down.

The company also claims that if you try their products and they don't work, noise pollution might be to blame: “... some of us have 'noise pollution' where we are overwhelmed with disharmonic frequencies and so the beneficial frequencies are less impactful. However, the overwhelming majority of consumers will notice obvious benefits.”

Sunburn protection isn't the only watery benefit Harmonized H2O claims to sell; its online shopping page offers a wide range of 100 ml water bottles including “Cramp Free,” which allegedly “Harmonizes Menstrual Cycle,” “Anti-T" which “Harmonizes Ovarian Concerns and Elevated Testosterone Levels,” “Hangover” which “Harmonizes Alcohol Side Effects,” “Vigor” which is good for “Low Energy, Activates Men's Hair, Libido,” and so forth.

These all cost $30 each, except for the “Inner Harmony” bottle which offers “Daily Body & Skin Wellness, Organ & toxin protection, Digestive Health, Mental Well-Being” for $50.

Of course, if you seriously, sincerely and truly believe that “frequency” and/or the lack of “harmony” are to blame for whatever ails you, it's much cheaper (and probably better for the environment, too) to make a one-time purchase of 20 bucks or less and buy yourself a pitch pipe. If your computer has decent-quality speakers, there's a free online pitch pipe available here.

E-cigarettes have been losing much of their initial luster as a safer alternative to tobacco as one study after another finds some new problem with the electronic nicotine burners. 

The latest is something of a shocker: researchers say e-cigarettes appear to increase the virulence of drug- resistant and potentially life-threatening bacteria, while decreasing the ability of human cells to kill these bacteria.

"As health care professionals, we are always being asked by patients, "Would this be better for me?" lead investigator Laura E. Crotty Alexander, M.D., said. "In the case of smoking e-cigarettes, I hated not having an answer. While the answer isn't black and white, our study suggests a response: even if e-cigarettes may not be as bad as tobacco, they still have measurable detrimental effects on health."

Crotty Alexander and other researchers at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS) and the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), tested the effects of e-cigarette vapor on live methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and human epithelial cells.

MRSA commonly colonizes the region of the nasal passage where the bacteria and the cells that line the passage are exposed constantly to inhaled substances such as e-cigarette vapor and cigarette smoke.

"The virulence of MRSA is increased by e-cigarette vapor," Crotty Alexander said. Exposure to e-cigarette vapor increased the virulence of the bacteria. However, she added, the vapor did not make the bacteria as aggressive as cigarette smoke exposure did in parallel studies her group conducted.

Early warnings, not much action

Scientists have been warning of potential health hazards in e-cigs for years but the popularity of the devices has continued to grow amid light regulation.

In 2010, researchers at UC-Riverside concluded that e-cigarettes are potentially harmful and urged regulators to consider removing e-cigarettes from the market until their safety is adequately evaluated.

Last month, a CDC study reported that calls to poison control centers shot up from 1 per month in September 2010 to 215 per month in February 2014. The number of calls per month involving conventional cigarettes did not show a similar increase during the same time period.

Also in April, a study published in the academic journal Clinical Cancer Research finds that the vapor from e-cigarettes damages human cells in much the same way as the smoke from traditional cigarettes. Scientists at Boston University grew a batch of human bronchial cells in the presence of e-cig vapor and another batch in the presence of tobacco smoke. The result: the two batches of cells showed similar patterns of gene expression, which can cause the mutations that lead to cancer.

In March, a University of California San Francisco study found that e-cigs may be a new route to conventional smoking and nicotine addiction. UCSF researchers found that adolescents who used the devices were more likely to smoke cigarettes and less likely to quit smoking. 

Study details

To conduct the e-cigarette vapor experiment, the researchers grew MRSA in culture with vapor concentrations similar to inhalers on the market. They tested first for biochemical changes in the culture known to promote pathogen virulence and then introduced epithelial cell- and alveolar macrophage-killing assays.

The researchers looked at five factors that contribute to MRSA virulence: growth rate, susceptibility to reactive oxygen species (ROS), surface charge, hydrophobicity and biofilm formation. In particular, e-cigarette vapor led to alterations in surface charge and biofilm formation, which conferred greater resistance to killing by human cells and antibiotics.

Crotty Alexander said that one possible contribution to the increased virulence of MRSA was the rapid change in pH induced by e-cigarette vapor. Exposure changed the pH from 7.4 up to 8.4, making the environment very alkalotic for both bacterial and mammalian cells. This alkalosis stresses the cells, giving them a danger signal, leading to activation of defense mechanisms. The bacteria make their surface more positively charged, to avoid binding by the lethal antimicrobial peptides produced by human innate immune cells. The bacteria also form thicker biofilms, increasing their stickiness and making MRSA less vulnerable to attack.

These changes make MRSA more virulent. However, when MRSA is exposed to regular cigarette smoke, their virulence is even greater.

Cigarette smoke induces surface charge changes 10-fold greater than that of e-cigarette exposure, alters hydrophobicity and decreases sensitivity to reactive oxygen species and antimicrobial peptides.

In a mouse model of pneumonia, cigarette smoke exposed MRSA had four-times greater survival in the lungs, and killed 30% more mice than control MRSA. E-cigarette vapor exposed MRSA were also more virulent in mice, with a three-fold higher survival.

Unfortunately, while e-cigarette vapor is increasing bacterial virulence, Crotty Alexander has found that the vapor is also decreasing the ability of human epithelial cells to kill pathogens.

The study was presented at the 2014 American Thoracic Society International Conference.

Just out of college in the 1960s and 70s, many Baby Boomers moved into group houses as they were starting jobs and careers. It provided instant friends in a strange city while making rent dollars go farther.

Guess what? Now that Boomers are entering retirement they're doing it again, influencing a significant post-recession housing trend.

AARP recently noted the trend of women over 50 becoming roommates – either buying a place together or sharing the rent of an apartment or house. Just as when they were younger the move has a dual purpose – camaraderie and economy.

By AARP's count 4 million women over age 50 live in U.S. households with at least two women age 50-plus, and that number can be expected to rise. The National Center for Family & Marriage Research estimates 1 out of 3 Boomers will likely grow old without a spouse. Women tend to live longer than men and over the last quarter century the 50-plus divorce rate has doubled.

Plethora of websites

Other evidence of this Boomer housing trend can be found online, with the growth in websites matching up potential Boomer roommates. Roommates4Boomers.com, a site specifically designed for women over 50, launched in April.

Founder Karen Venable says most women drawn to the site so far are motivated by a desire to show their “radical” side and reinvent themselves. Companionship and economics, she says, figure less into the equation.

"This is so much in keeping with what we know about Boomer women today," Venable said. "Over-50 women today are fierce, independent, active, connected, and believe in having fun."

Venable says 8,000 Boomers turn 65 every day so this roommate trend is only going to grow. One in 3 Boomer women are single and 1 in 6 have no children.

Not exactly new

While unrelated seniors living together is a growing trend, the practice is not exactly new. Don't forget the 1980s television comedy “Golden Girls,” featuring four senior women living together. In the 1970s there was “The Odd Couple.”

The New York Foundation for Senior Citizens is also no newcomer on the scene. It has operated its Home Sharing program for three decades, matching more than 2,000 people in New York City.

Foundation officials say the program has allowed many seniors to remain in their homes in spite of rapidly rising rents and real estate taxes in the nation's most expensive housing market.

Senior organizations have begun organizing meetings where women interested in roommates gather. Venable says such face-to-face encounters may be valuable for information and support but could prove awkward.

"Frankly, using group meetings to find roommates makes me uncomfortable," she said. "It would be kind of like going to a singles bar. You put yourself out there as wanting a roommate. It can be awkward if one woman is interested in pairing up and the other isn't."

Like online dating

Selecting roommates online can be a lot like online dating, with the same amount of caution and discretion required. Sooner or later you going to have that face-to-face encounter.

Selecting a roommate when you're in your 50's or 60's isn't all that different from selecting a roommate when you were in your 20's. Personality and compatibility are still very important.

In the meantime, builders are undoubtedly taking notice of this trend. Expect to see more homes and condos with two or more master suites in one-level layouts, providing ample personal space for two independent Baby Boomers.

In fact, we may already be seeing it. The Commerce Department reports that residential construction activity surged in April. Housing starts for single-family homes were up only slightly. There was a big increase, however, in apartment and condo construction.

Marijuana may help reduce frustration with traffic congestion but it's not doing much to increase traffic safety in Colorado, where a new study finds a dramatic increase in the proportion of marijuana drivers involved in fatal traffic accidents since the commercialization of medical marijuana there in mid-2009.

University of Colorado School of Medicine researchers used data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System covering 1994 to 2011. They analyzed fatal motor vehicle crashes in Colorado and in the 34 states that did not have medical marijuana laws.

They found that fatal motor vehicle crashes in Colorado involving at least one driver who tested positive for marijuana accounted for 4.5 percent in the first six months of 1994; this percentage increased to 10 percent in the last six months of 2011. 

The increase in Colorado was significantly greater compared to the 34 non-medical marijuana states from mid-2009 to 2011. The researchers also reported no significant changes over time in the proportion of drivers in a fatal motor vehicle crash who were alcohol-impaired within Colorado and comparing Colorado to the 34 non-medical marijuana states.

Stacy Salomonsen-Sautel, Ph.D, who was a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Pharmacology, is the lead author of the study, which is available online in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Christian Hopfer, MD, associate professor of psychiatry, is the senior author.

While the study does not determine cause and effect relationships, such as whether marijuana-positive drivers caused or contributed to the fatal crashes, it indicates a need for better education and prevention programs to curb impaired driving.

You probably don't think of windshield washer fluid as pleasant but it may come as a surprise to learn that it is a possible source of the bacteria that can cause Legionnaire's disease, a severe form of pneumonia.

But that's what researchers reported recently at the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology as they outlined a study that found the bacteria in nearly 75% of school buses tested in one district in Arizona.

"Washer fluid spray can release potentially dangerous numbers of these bacteria into the air. These results suggest that automobiles may serve as a source of transmission for Legionella infections," said Otto Schwake, a doctoral student at Arizona State University, who presented the research.

Legionella bacteria are commonly associated with the cooling towers found in large-scale air conditioners and hot tubs. They are not spread from person to person but instead are transmitted via mist or vapor containing the bacteria. The name comes from a large group of American Legion members who became ill at a 1976 convention at the Bellevue-Stratford Hotel in Philadelphia.

The results presented come from a series of experiments conducted in the summer of 2012. Schwake and his colleagues attempted to grow Legionella bacteria in a variety of different washer fluid preparations.

They found that the bacterial concentrations increased over time and they were able to maintain stable populations for up to 14 months. In the second study, they tested the washer fluid from school buses in central Arizona and found culturable Legionella in approximately 75% of the samples.

"This study is the first to detect high levels of Legionella in automobiles or aerosolized by washer fluid spray," says Schwake. "While potential transmission of a deadly respiratory disease from a source as common as automobile windshield washing systems is significant, the study also points to the fact people can be exposed to pathogens -- particularly those occurring naturally in the environment -- in previously unknown and unusual ways."

General Motors is recalling 8,208 model year 2014 Buick Lacrosse vehicles manufactured January 29, 2014, through March 31, 2014, and 2014 Chevrolet Malibu vehicles manufactured February 7, 2014, through March 31, 2014, and equipped with 17-inch front brake rotors.

The vehicles may have had brake rotors intended for the rear of the car accidentally installed on the front. The rear rotors are thinner and may result in a front brake pad detaching from the caliper. That could result in a sudden reduction in braking, lengthening the distance required to stop the vehicle and increasing the risk of a crash.

GM will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the front brake rotors, and install the correct rotors with new brake pads, as necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin around May 29, 2014.

Owners may contact General Motors customer service at 1-800-521-7300 (Buick) or 1-800-222-1020 (Chevrolet). GM's number for this recall is 14128.

Transatlantic Foods of New York is recalling approximately 222,000 pounds of pork and poultry products that did not receive the full benefit of inspection, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced today.

The company operates two establishments -- one in Scranton, Pa. and another in Andover, N.J. The Andover establishment had not been issued a USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) Grant of Inspection. Thus, FSIS inspection program personnel were not assigned to the establishment.

However, it was producing product and using labels approved for use by, and bearing the establishment number of, the Scranton, Pa., establishment. Products produced without inspection are considered unfit for human consumption and must be recalled. In addition, products were produced in undisclosed locations without the benefit of inspection.

There have been no reports of illnesses due to consumption of these products.

The products subject to recall include:

Duck fat

• 7-oz. tubs of “Aux Delices des Bois Natural Duck Fat” with package code (T-001 through 365; H-001 through 365; or F-001 through 136)

Bacon

• 10-oz.  packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Artisanal Uncured Bacon Herbes de Provence Uncured Bacon” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• 10-oz. packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Artisanal Uncured Bacon Farmhouse Country Uncured Bacon” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• 10-oz. packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Artisanal Uncured Bacon Southwestern Style Uncured Bacon” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• 10-oz. packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Artisanal Uncured Bacon Pepper & Garlic Uncured Bacon” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)

Fresh sausage

• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Breakfast Sage Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Breakfast Sage Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Brooklyn Lager Cheddar Bratwurst” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Brooklyn Lager Cheddar Bratwurst” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Pork Brooklyn Bratwurst” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Pork Brooklyn Bratwurst” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chorizo Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chorizo Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Irish Banger Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Pork & Broccoli Rabe Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Pork & Broccoli Rabe Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Cheese & Parsley Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Cheese & Parsley Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Pork & Smokey Bacon Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Pork & Smokey Uncured Bacon Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Hot Italian Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Hot Italian Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Sweet Italian Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Sweet Italian Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Fresh Kielbasa” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chicken Breakfast Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chicken Breakfast Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chipotle Honey Flavored Chicken Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chipotle Honey Flavored Chicken Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chicken Spinach & Feta Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chicken Spinach & Feta Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Buffalo Style Chicken Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Buffalo Style Chicken Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Turkey Breakfast Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chicken Marsala & Mushrooms Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chicken Marsala & Mushrooms Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Aux Delices des Bois Chicken Apple Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)
• various weight packages of “Chestnut Valley Chicken Apple Sausage” with package code (T-001 through 365 or H-001 through 290)

The duck fat included in the recall was produced from January 2012, through May 2014, and bears the establishment number “P-39954.”

The remaining products were produced prior to October 18, 2013, and bear the establishment number “Est. 33806” or “Est. 45100,” “P-33806” or “P-45100” inside the USDA Mark of Inspection.

These products were shipped to retail, internet and wholesale locations nationwide.

Consumers with questions regarding the recall can contact Amy Farges at (212) 330-8285 extension 1003.

Nissan North America is recalling 211 model year 2014 LEAF vehicles manufactured February 28, 2014, through March 12, 2014.

The front structural member assembly may be missing welds, which could reduce the structural integrity of the vehicle if the vehicle is involved in a crash, increasing the risk of injury to the vehicle's occupants.

Nissan will notify owners, and dealers will inspect to see if any of the welds are missing. Any vehicle missing welds will be replaced, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin by mid-June 2014.

Owners may contact Nissan at 1-800-647-7261.

Hyundai Motor Company is recalling 137,500 model year 2011-2014 Hyundai Tucson vehicles manufactured January 3, 2011, through December 23, 2013.

The air bag assembly installed in the steering wheel in the affected vehicles may come loose from its mounting, which could increase the risk of injury to the driver in the event of a crash.

Hyundai will notify owners, and dealers will inspect and tighten the bolts that secure the driver's air bag assembly, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin by the end of June 2014.

Owners may contact Hyundai customer service at 1-800-633-5151. Hyundai's number for this recall is 118.

Exmark Manufacturing of Beatrice, Neb., is recalling about 5,300 Quest ZRT riding mowers in the U.S. and Canada.

The riding mower’s steering assembly can fail and cause riders to lose steering, posing a crash hazard.

There have been nine incidents with the riding mowers, including one back injury.

This recall involves 2009 and 2010 model year Exmark Quest ZRT mid-mount riding mowers. The mowers are red and gray. Exmark is printed on the side and Quest is printed on the front of the riding mowers. The model and serial numbers are on a metal plate behind the seat on the left hand side. The following models and serial number ranges are included:

About 2,200 Quest 2009 and 2010 ZRT riding mowers were recalled in May 2012 for a different hazard.

The mowers, manufactured in the U.S., were sold at hardware, lawn and garden, rental equipment stores and others nationwide from April 2009, through October 2010, for between $4,600 and $6,000.

Consumers should immediately stop using the recalled mowers and contact an Exmark dealer for a free repair.

Consumers may contact Exmark at (800) 667-5296 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. CT Monday through Friday.

BMC of San Diego, Calif., is recalling about 160 Alpenchallenge, Masschallenge and Urbanchallenge bicycles with Aprebic forks

The bicycle forks can crack or break above the brake mount posing a fall hazard to consumers.

There are no reports of incidents or injuries.

The recall involves certain models of Alpenchallenge, Urbanchallenge and Masschallenge bicycles equipped with full carbon Aprebic bike forks model ACC-A704DN50B.  The fork model number is printed behind the top arch. Specific bicycle models included in the recall are Alpenchallenge AC01 105 Tiagra, Alpenchallenge AC01 Rival, Masschallenge MC01 Team and the Urbanchallenge UC01 Alfine 11. Both the Alpenchallenge and Urbanchallenge bicycles include the 2012 and 2013 model years. The Masschallenge bicycle includes model year 2012. The model year is printed on the top tube of the bike. The bicycles come in black and yellow, or black and red color combinations.

The bicycles, manufactured in Taiwan, were sold at authorized BMC bicycle dealers nationwide from December 2011 to June 2013 for about $1,000.

Consumers should immediately stop using these recalled bicycles immediately and contact their local BMC authorized dealer for instructions on receiving a replacement fork.

Consumers may contact BMC at (800) 819-4262 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

Some things need to be handled quickly. Just ask General Motors, which today agreed to pay a $35 million fine and streamlining its internal recall process. The fine is the maximum allowed by law.

The fine was announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx, after a federal investigation of GM's handling of faulty ignition switches in Chevrolet Cobalts, Saturn Ions and other models.

“Today’s announcement puts all manufacturers on notice that they will be held accountable if they fail to quickly report and address safety-related defects,” Foxx said in prepared remarks. 

“We have learned a great deal from this recall,” GM CEO Mary Barra said. “We will now focus on the goal of becoming an industry leader in safety. We will emerge from this situation a stronger company.”

The company is also accruing fines of $7,000 per day for not answering all of the questions put to it by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The company says it is waiting for its internal investigation to be complete before it tries to answer all of the questions.

GM had earlier conceded that it knew about the problem in 2004 and was also aware of at least 13 deaths that have been attributed to the faulty switches, which can cause the engine to shut off without warning, leaving occupants without airbags and other safety features.

It took GM nearly a decade to recall the 2.6 million cars with the defective switch. Since then, it has recalled millions of other models to fix assorted other problems. 

Tougher penalties sought

While today's $35 million fine is a record, Foxx urged Congress to increase the penalties that could be levied in similar cases to $300 million.

He said that would send "an even stronger message that delays will not be tolerated.”

Federal law requires all auto manufacturers to notify NHTSA within five business days of determining that a safety-related defect exists or that a vehicle is not in compliance with federal motor vehicle safety standards and to promptly conduct a recall. 

“No excuse, process, or organizational structure will be allowed to stand in the way of any company meeting their obligation to quickly find and fix safety issues in a vehicle,” said NHTSA Acting Administrator David Friedman. “It’s critical to the safety of the driving public that manufacturers promptly report and remedy safety-related defects that have the potential to lead to deaths or injuries on our nation’s highways.”

The problem

The issue with the ignition switch is that it can shut down the engine if it is jiggled or bumped, allowing the switch to move from "On" to "Acc" (accessorry). When that happens, the engine shuts down, the airbags become inoperable and the driver loses such safety features as power assist to the brakes and power steering.

As replacement parts begin to trickle in to dealers, GM has advised owners of the recalled vehicles to avoid putting more than one key on their key ring, to reduce the weight on the switch. It also advised drivers not to bump the switch with their knee -- advice that's not always easy to follow, especially for tall drivers. 

"Old GM"

While dealing with the federal investigation of its actions, GM has also been dealing with a barrage of class action and mass tort lawsuits. It has been trying to deflect those lawsuits using a strategy related to the company's bankruptcy in 2009, basically claiming that today's General Motors is not the same company that built the Cobalts and Ions.

That was "Old GM," the predecessor to today's "New GM," the company argued. A bankruptcy court ruling on that issue is pending.

Smoking can cause high blood pressure. So can drinking too much alcohol. Being overweight and consuming too much sodium also greatly increases your risk.

Beyond that, doctors have been puzzled when hypertension shows up in people who don't smoke, drink, or have poor diets. But gradually new potential triggers are emerging.

Researchers publishing their results in the American Heart Association journal Circulation have advanced the theory that living on a street with a foreclosed home can cause your blood pressure to rise.

Specifically, the researchers say that a foreclosed property may cause a neighbor's systolic blood pressure, the top number in a blood pressure reading, to rise.

Stressing over the neighborhood

Stress has always been a hypertension risk factor but the study takes health in a new direction. Instead of blood pressure being influenced by an individual's personal behavior, the researchers suggest that environmental factors play a bigger role that previously believed.

It may have taken the 2008 housing collapse to bring it to light. Because of the massive scale of the U.S. housing crisis public health officials have tried to reach a better understanding of how foreclosure activity might impact health.

The number of foreclosures spiked in the United States in 2007-10 when more than 6 million homeowners fell behind on their mortgages and banks took ownership of the homes, or foreclosed.

Researchers looked at data from 1,740 participants in 1987-2008 who were part of the Framingham, Mass., Heart Study. They distinguished between bank-owned foreclosures that typically sit vacant and foreclosures purchased by third-party buyers, which are generally put into productive use.

Proximity matters

They found that for every vacant foreclosed property within 328 feet of a participant's home there was an average increase of 1.71 mm Hg in systolic blood pressure. If a property was purchased and occupied there was no difference.

The findings have renewed focus on the role that stress plays in hypertension.

"The increases in blood pressure observed could be due in part to unhealthy stress from residents' perception that their own properties are less valuable, their streets less attractive or safe and their neighborhoods less stable," said Mariana Arcaya, study lead author and Yerby Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Harvard Center for Population and Development Studies. "Safety could also be a concern that affects their ability to exercise in these neighborhoods."

Increased awareness needed

The takeaway from this, according to Arcaya, is that healthcare providers should be aware of real estate trends in the areas they serve. Patients living in neighborhoods still recovering from the housing crisis may need extra monitoring.

High blood pressure, often called “the silent killer, affects nearly 76 million people in the United States. It's a major contributor to heart disease and stroke.

While stress is a risk factor that should get more attention, doctors continue to link the condition lifestyle choices, particularly diet.

Phosphate link

Scientists in Austria recently identified a hormone, FGF23 (Fibroblast Growth Factor 23), as a trigger for elevated blood pressure. When the level of FGF23 is raised, as through a high phosphate diet, calcium and sodium accumulate, putting strain on the cardiovascular system.

Foods that are rich in phosphate – things like cheese, Parmesan, cola, baking powder and most processed foods – are triggers for FGF23.

When large quantities of phosphates are consumed, production of the FGF23 hormone is stimulated, which has a negative effect on the cardiovascular system.

Reinhold Erben, the head of the Unit of Physiology, Pathophysiology and Biophysics at the Vetmeduni Vienna, says consumers should control their phosphate consumption, since it is now shown to be important to health.

Here's a wild thought. Maybe one reason the economy has never really taken off since the Great Recession is consumers are just buying less stuff. Maybe they're doing without or making things themselves.

Look at the incredible popularity of websites like Pinterest. Millions of consumers use it to learn how to make all kinds of products, from food to apparel.

Consumers are drawn to it because they believe the homemade version costs less and is better than what you would buy in a store.

Research project

Researchers at Virginia Tech decided to put that theory to the test.

For their empirical study researchers in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences decided to build a homemade stink bug trap and compare it to one you could buy in a store.

They felt the choice was timely since stink bugs may be an especially annoying pest this season. With warmer weather they are just now coming out of the crevices of homes where they have been hiding out during the winter months.

Hardware stores sell stinkbug traps, some of which can be rather pricey. While some models cost around $25 others can cost $50 or more. The objective is to lure the bugs into the trap where they can be killed.

Homemade design

The research team came up with a homemade design that it found to be a lot cheaper and more effective. It consisted of a foil roasting pan, water, dish soap and a light placed over the pan to attract the bugs.

According to the researchers the homemade trap eliminated 14 times more stink bugs than store-bought traps. The only cost was the price of a roasting pan, dish soap, and a light, all which homeowners may already own.

To carry out the study, the researchers enlisted the help of homeowners who were annoyed by the infestation of stink bugs in their houses. They were assigned to evaluate different types of traps for ridding homes of bugs.

Other advantages

The traps were used in 16 houses over two years. The researchers found the home made versions were not only more effective but had clear advantages.

"Currently there are no in-home insecticides labeled for use against brown marmorated stink bugs, so that presented us with a challenge," John Aigner, a doctoral student in the Department of Entomology. “The homemade trap is not only inexpensive, it is also pesticide-free.

Making your own stink bug trap might be cheap and effective but not everyone has a problem with insects. But making a product yourself instead of buying it clearly has appeal, especially when it comes to food.

Greatist.com features “45 Healthy Foods to Make and Never Buy Again,” including pita chips. It features a recipe for pita chips that it says costs 41 cents per 2 ounce serving, compared to 77 cents for a commercial brand.

Natural Living Ideas offers advice on replacing 10 common household products with Castile soap – everything from dog shampoo to dishwasher soap.

Trends come and go, but Trend Reports suggests the do-it-yourself trend has legs. In fact, it's becoming a growing industry.

“While it was the recession that gave rise to DIY projects, it looks like this industry is gaining ground,” the company says.

The Better Business Bureau reported on Friday that a venerable old scam has made its reappearance on Facebook this week: the “shutdown scam,” where you see what looks like an official-looking Facebook notice, possibly even from Mark Zuckerberg himself, claiming that your Facebook account will be deactivated in a couple of days (May 18 is the specific date mentioned in the BBB's latest warning) and the only way you can save your account is if you “register” it.

So you either click on the offered link, or copy and paste an address into your browser, and you end up on a third-party site answering questions that give the scammers all the information they need to take over your Facebook account.

If you see such a come-on announcement on your Facebook feed, you can report it to legitimate Facebook authorities through their spam-report link here.

That link is only specific to Facebook, but the BBB also offered a piece of advice useful to avoid scams on all websites, not just Facebook: “Don't take the bait. Stay away from promotions of 'exclusive,' 'shocking' or 'sensational' footage. If it sounds too outlandish to be true (um, like a gigantic website shutting down on a week's notice), it is probably a scam. “