Current Events in July 2017

GITI Tire (USA) Ltd. is recalling 394,378 Primewell Valera Touring II replacement passenger car tires, sizes 185/65R14 86H, 195/60R15 88H, 205/55R16 91H, 205/60R16 92V, 215/60R17 96H, and 235/60R17 102T.

The tires may develop cracks in the lower sidewall, potentially resulting in a loss of air.

A loss of air pressure may result in sudden tire failure, increasing the risk of a crash.

What to do

GITI will notify owners, and dealers will replace the recalled tires, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin July 20, 2017.

Owners may contact GITI customer service at 1-866-488-4737.

Arbitration clauses imposed by banks and credit card companies have in recent years blocked consumers from pursuing their day in court through class actions and other legal means. Today the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau took steps to restore consumers' rights.

It issued a rule that bans companies from using the aribtration clauses to deny consumers their day in court through class actions, lawsuits that represent large groups of people with the same problem.

"Arbitration clauses in contracts for products like bank accounts and credit cards make it nearly impossible for people to take companies to court when things go wrong," said CFPB Director Richard Cordray. "These clauses allow companies to avoid accountability by blocking group lawsuits and forcing people to go it alone or give up. Our new rule will stop companies from sidestepping the courts and ensure that people who are harmed together can take action together."

Consumer groups hailed the action, saying that "fine print" clauses have for too long deprived consumers of their rights.

"Rip-off clauses"

“Rip-off clauses in the fine print of consumer contracts may be the single most important way that big banks and financial companies have escaped accountability for cheating, conning, fleecing, defrauding and plundering consumers,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen.

“If consumers can’t join together to hold banks accountable through class-action lawsuits, then the banks’ appetite for swindling will know no bounds, as we have seen repeatedly. Today’s action by the CFPB is of paramount importance.”

While the arbitration clauses can block any lawsuit, companies almost exclusively use them to block class action lawsuits, the CFPB noted. With class action lawsuits, a few consumers can pursue relief on behalf of everyone who has been harmed by a company’s practices.

Lisa Donner, executive director of Americans for Financial Reform, said corporations have used arbitration clauses as a "get-out-of-jail-free card for lawbreakers.”  

“The consumer agency's rule will stop Wall Street and predatory lenders from ripping people off with impunity, and make markets fairer and safer for ordinary Americans,” Donner said. She cited Wells Fargo's use of aribtration clauses, which allegedly enabled the bank to hide its misconduct for years. 

The CFPB cited its study released in March 2015 which found that credit card issuers representing more than half of all credit card debt and banks representing 44 percent of insured deposits used mandatory arbitration clauses. Yet three out of four consumers the Bureau surveyed did not know whether their credit card agreement had an arbitration clause.

The 2015 study also found that the arbitration clauses:

• Deny consumers their day in court: The study showed that few consumers ever bring – or consider bringing – individual actions against their financial service providers either in court or in arbitration. Only about 2 percent of consumers with credit cards surveyed said they would consult an attorney or consider formal legal action to resolve a small-dollar dispute. As a result, the real effect of mandatory arbitration clauses is to insulate companies from most legal proceedings altogether.
• Avoid paying out big refunds: Individual actions get less overall relief for consumers than group lawsuits because companies do not have to provide relief to everyone harmed. According to the study, group lawsuits succeed in bringing hundreds of millions of dollars in relief to millions of consumers each year.
• Continue harmful practices: Individual actions might recoup previous individual losses, but they do nothing to stop the harm from happening again or to others. Resolving group lawsuits often requires companies to not only pay everyone back, but also change their conduct moving forward.

Public Citizen's Weissman said politicians should take note of today's action and support it.

"Elected officials from both major parties – almost all of whom have condemned the Wells Fargo and other egregious financial abuses – should embrace [the CFPB rule]. Those who denounce it should prepare to face the wrath of consumers fed up with widespread financial scams and shams.”

A recent class action lawsuit involving Remington rifles missed the target completely, according to 14 state attorneys general. They say that only 0.3% of 7.5 million rifles that are prone to fire accidentally will be fixed under the settlement. 

“The issue at hand here isn’t a simple product defect – it’s a fundamental flaw that has already claimed lives, and continues to put families at risk,” said New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman.

Remington denies the allegations and says it "stands behind the safety and reliability of its products." The company says the trigger defect affected a smaller number of models. 

The AGs have filed an amicus brief asking the Eighth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn the settlement, saying that there have already been numerous deaths and serious injuries because of the rifles' propensity to fire without the trigger being pulled.

They argue that although there is a simple replacement for the defective triggers, many rifle owners were not given legally required notice of the settlement. Those that were notified were not properly warned that their guns can unexpectedly fire without a trigger pull, the state AGs contend.

Aware of the problem

Documents filed in the case show that Remington has been aware of the defect for decades and has declined to fix it, for reasons that include potential exposure to personal injury liability and the cost of alternative trigger designs, according to the AGs' filing. In the intervening time period, there have been hundreds of reports of personal injuries, including deaths, as well as of significant property damage, they said.

Attorneys General have a responsibility to protect consumer class members under the Class Action Fairness Act ("CAFA"), which specifically establishes a role for Attorneys General in the approval process for class action settlements, they noted. 

The brief was led by Massachusetts and joined by attorneys general from New York, California, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Washington.

Amazon's third annual Prime Day is Tuesday, but just like Black Friday, things get started early. Sales available exclusively to Prime Members in 13 countries get started tonight.

Meanwhile, other retailers aren't just standing idly by. Toys R Us has announced all customers -- and its press releases emphasizes "all customers" -- will get 20% off the list price when they order online over a 36-hour period.

The sale, at Toysrus.com and Babiesrus.com, coincidentally, starts at 6pm ET tonight, three hours earlier than Prime Day, on thousands of products.

Walmart is not running any special promotion designed to go head-to-head with Prime Day, but its website is promoting a big sale on electronics, with savings of up to $30 on Google products.

The same is true for Best Buy, which is simply running its normal weekly specials on its website, including $150 off on an LG 55-inch 4K Ultra HD television set.

Preview of Prime Day deals

Meanwhile, Amazon has taken the wraps off some of its featured Prime Day deals. On Amazon products, you can save 50% on an Amazon Echo and get $15 off the smaller Amazon Dot.

Deals on TV sets include the newly released Element 55-inch 4K Ultra HD smart LED TV for $399.99; 25% off select TCL smart TVs, starting at $119.99 for a 28-inch model; $99 for a 32-inch 720p TCL TV; and a 40-inch 1080p TCL TV, for $199.99.

Other offerings include:

• 40-50% off on Prime Exclusive clothing, handbags, and more

• 30% off on select clothing, shoes, and more for men, women, kids, and babies

• One carat diamond stud earrings for 499.99 or ½ carat diamond stud earrings for $239.99

• 70% off on select Samsonite two-piece spinner sets

• 40% off on select furniture, mattresses, and rugs

• 20% off on nursery essentials

• $100 off on the Bissell multi reach cordless stick vacuum

The deals are only available to consumers who are members of Amazon Prime. The company says last year's Prime Day was its biggest single sales day ever, eclipsing Cyber Monday.

For some time now, consumers who needed a certain kind of service – ranging from automotive needs to computer and electronic assistance -- could visit Amazon and check out listings provided by third parties. Now, the online retailer figures it’s time to start offering services of its own.

According to a Recode report, Amazon will now be hiring and maintaining its own tech expert employees to assist consumers with setting up and installing smart home systems and other electronic gadgets in their homes. These employees will also be available for free 45-minute Alexa smart-home consultations, where consumers can ask questions and receive recommendations based on their needs.

The new offering caters to a growing interest for in-home services and smart home electronic features. Amazon will be charging $99 for installation services on products like the Ecobee4 – an Alexa-enabled smart thermostat – but multi-device setups and installations that take longer than an hour may be more expensive.

Experts point out that the new initiative finally brings it in line with services provided by other retailers. Best Buy’s “Geek Squad” has been around for nearly 15 years and similarly offers free smart-home consultations and paid in-home installation services.

The in-home services are currently available in seven markets in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Jose, and Orange County, Calif. Consumers who want to browse Amazon’s services and schedule an appointment can do so through the company’s website here.

Personal finance and wealth managers are looking over their shoulders these days. The automation that has crept into all phases of industry is getting into their space too.

Machines that pick investments and manage portfolios are known as robo advisors. They use computer algorithms to manage investments, usually at a lower cost than a human advisor.

Proponents say investors not only save on fees, the machines provide features like automatic portfolio rebalancing and tax loss harvesting.

In a recent study of the most popular robo advisors, personal finance publisher NerdWallet picked Wealthfront and Betterment as the best overall. Both won points for their low account minimums, ease-of-use, and cool features.

But some investors may need that human interaction. The Pennsylvania Department of Banking and Securities advises investors to ask seven questions before signing up with a robo advisor.

"While these online services may provide short-term convenience, investors should evaluate robo advisors in accordance with their long-term investment goals," said Pennsylvania Secretary of Banking and Securities Robin Wiessmann.

Investors should stay engaged

And while robo advisors offer a lot of services usually reserved for wealthy investors, Wiessman says it's still important for investors to stay engaged and not depend entirely on a machine.

The questions Wiessman says need answering are:

1. What are your investing goals and how do you want to reach them?
2. What are the costs of using a robo-advisor compared to using a human advisor?
3. Is your personal information safe with a robo-advisor?
4. Are you willing to stop or decrease the amount of investing advice you receive through human interaction?
5. What are the different approaches to investing used by different robo-advisors?
6. Is your money being directly invested or sent to other funds ("feeder funds") that might charge additional fees?
7. Is the robo-advisor properly licensed?

Wiessman says no matter whether your advisor is a person or a robot, investors still need to clearly understand what is being done with their money. And it may take a little sleuthing.

"The relationships between robo-advisors, investment products, fees, and other companies and funds are not always clear,” she said. “Investors should always investigate before investing."

Gonorrhea may soon be resistant to all major antibiotics, health officials warn. The World Health Organization recently reported three confirmed cases of the sexually transmitted disease that did not respond to even last-resort drugs.

"We need new tools and systems for better prevention, treatment, earlier diagnosis, and more complete tracking and reporting of new infections, antibiotic use, resistance and treatment failures" said Marc Sprenger, director of antimicrobial resistance at the WHO.

WHO says it is finding widespread resistance to older and cheaper antibiotics. Some countries – particularly high-income ones, where surveillance is best – are finding cases of the infection that are untreatable by all known antibiotics.

"These cases may just be the tip of the iceberg, since systems to diagnose and report untreatable infections are lacking in lower-income countries where gonorroea is actually more common," said Dr. Teodora Wi, Medical Officer, Human Reproduction, at WHO.

Women at risk

Gonorrhea can infect the genitals, rectum, and throat. Complications disproportionally affect women, including pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancy, and infertility, as well as an increased risk of HIV.

Decreasing condom use, increased urbanization and travel, poor infection detection rates, and inadequate or failed treatment all contribute to the increase.

Health officials say the R&D pipeline for gonorrhea is relatively empty, with only three promising new drugs in various stages of development: solithromycin, zoliflodacinm, and gepotidacin.

Development is slow because antibiotics aren't very attractive for drugmakers. Treatments are taken for only a short period of time compared to drugs for chronic diseases. Also, antibiotics become less effective as bacteria develop resistance to them, meaning that drugs become obsolete quickly.

Prevention offers the best near-term option, WHO officials say. Condom use and careful sexual practices can prevent most cases of the disease. Today, lack of public awareness, lack of training of health workers, and stigma around STDs are barriers to effective prevention.

The Trump Administration is thinking of giving a pass to luxury automakers whose cars fall short of U.S. fuel economy standards. Brands like Jaguar, BMW, and Porsche would be the beneficiaries. 

The luxury marques have paid the biggest fines in the past, largely because their cars tend to be gas-guzzlers and they don't make super-efficient compacts -- which would help keep their average down -- or light trucks, which are largely exempt from the regulations.

The fines that have been levied in the past are scheduled to more than double in the 2019 model year, but a statement from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Friday said the agency may give the carmakers a break, Bloomberg reported.

"Seeking comment on the inflationary adjustment will allow stakeholders to provide input and provide NHTSA additional information to inform the agency's decision regarding how the CAFE civil penalty should be adjusted for inflation," NHTSA said in a statement.

"Good news for the auto industry"

Since the mid-1970s, automakers have been fined $55 for each mile-per-gallon shortfall, multiplied by the number of vehicles sold in that model year. Congress in 2015 instructed all federal agencies to update their civil penalty formulas to reflect inflation, and NHTSA proposed to increase the fine to $140 per mpg shortfall, per vehicle sold.

Automakers have paid nearly $900 million since 1975, when the fuel economy program went into effect. 

The Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers praised the NHTSA announcement as "good news for the auto industry and consumers."

The automakers' pleas have fallen on deaf ears in the past, but the Trump White House has been busily slashing regulations and the auto industry appears to be next in line. The Trump Administration is also giving automakers extra time to dispute EPA standards for curbing greenhouse gas emissions.

There's good news for people looking for a job, or hoping to change jobs.

Last week's release of the June employment report showed strong job creation, and a survey by employment site CareerBuilder suggests that trend will carry through the rest of the year.

The survey found 60% of companies plan to hire full-time, permanent employees in the second half of 2017, a double-digit increase from last year.

Thirty-six percent of companies said they plan to hire permanent part-time employees between now and the end of the year, while 42% revealed plans to hire temporary, or contract employees. In all three categories, hiring is expected to increase over last year.

Matt Ferguson, CEO of CareerBuilder, says the hyper-partisan political atmosphere may be having a polarizing effect, but it hasn't distracted businesses from their growth plans. He says it's good news if you're looking for a job.

"Job seekers stand to benefit not only from having more options, but also from the growing intensity in the competition for talent,” Ferguson said. “Employers are moving quickly to recruit candidates and they are willing to pay more across job levels.”

There's greater competition for talent

How much more? If you're a job seeker, Ferguson says you don't need to be shy when discussing salary. Among a group of hiring managers spotlighted in the survey, 72% said they believe it will be necessary to pay higher wages to attract the right talent – even for entry-level employees.

Not surprisingly, information technology (IT) is the area where expected hiring is the greatest. But manufacturing, healthcare, and financial service jobs are also expected to be plentiful.

Areas where employers say they plan to take on additional personnel include skilled trades, software as a service, cybersecurity, sales, talent management, managing and interpreting Big Data, social marketing, and e-commerce.

In terms of geographic breakdown, more than 50% of all companies in each region of the country plan to add personnel between now and the end of the year, but the West leads the country with 67%.

General Motors is recalling 768 model year 2016-2017 Buick Envisions.

An accessory NSV Universal Tablet Holder may have been installed incorrectly onto the front seat head restraints, preventing the head restraint posts from fully engaging in the seat back.

If so, the head restraints would fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 202a, "Head Restraints."

If the head restraint posts are not fully engaging in the seat back, the head restraint may loosen or dislodge, increasing the risk of injury in a crash.

What to do

GM will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the head restraints and tablet holders for the correct installation, reinstalling them as necessary, free of charge. The manufacturer has not yet provided a notification schedule.

Owners may contact Buick customer service at 1-800-521-7300. GM's number for this recall is 17239/17258.

American Honda Motor Co. is recalling 3,927 model year 2018 Honda Odyssey vehicles.

The seat belt tongue for the third row center seating position may not be compatible with the latch, preventing the seat belt from latching securely.

As such, these vehicles fail to comply with the requirements of Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) number 208, "Occupant Crash Protection."

If in the event of a crash, if the seat belt cannot restrain securely, the occupant has an increased risk of being injured.

What to do

Honda will notify owners, and dealers will inspect the third row center seat belt to make sure that it has the correct tongue, replacing the seat belt, if necessary, free of charge. The recall is expected to begin July 24, 2017.

Owners may contact Honda customer service at 1-888-234-2138. Honda's number for this recall is KF7.

CORRECTION: Earlier versions of this story said there are three hotels and no cars on Catalina Island. In fact, there are several hotels and a few cars. 

There is something about island vacations. Surrounded by water, an island offers a refuge from the hustle and bustle of modern life.

On several island retreats, there is no sound of traffic, except for the occasional golf cart. Here are three island destinations where you leave your car at home.

Bald Head Island, North Carolina

In recent weeks there has been excitement about a new island suddenly poking its head above the Atlantic, off the coast of North Carolina. While it has captured much of the media's attention, it is adjacent to a much larger island with lots more amenities, at the southern tip of North Carolina's Outer Banks -- Bald Head Island.

To get there, you take a 20-minute ferry ride from the mainland, then rent a golf cart and take a tram to your accommodations. Most rental accommodations include the use of one or more golf carts as part of your stay.

The island is all about relaxation. There is a challenging George Cobb-designed golf course and white sandy beaches, but much of the island is set aside as a nature preserve, with a wide variety of wildlife, including nearly 200 species of birds, dolphins, loggerhead turtles, alligators, deer, foxes, and an amazing variety of fish.

Most of the accommodations take the form of beach houses, adding to the island's residential ambiance. Besides getting around in a golf cart, you can rent all types of bicycles to go exploring.

There's a market to pick up items to prepare meals at home, but there are also plenty of dining out options, including those found at the Bald Head Island Club. A temporary club membership comes with several rental options.

Mackinac Island, Michigan

On Michigan's Mackinac Island, located in Lake Huron at the tips of Michigan's Upper and Lower Peninsulas, it's almost like stepping back in time. As the island's tourism bureau explains, cars never replaced the horse and carriage and corporations never replaced family ownership of accommodations.

"You have Fudge Stores where box recipes never replaced our 19th Century recipes," the bureau explains. "You have a place to leave your routine, discover the rhythm of waves and horse-clops and a place that getting to is half the fun."

Accommodations include hotels, bed & breakfast, condos, and cottages and homes, all family owned. You won't find a franchise on the island. The massive Grand Hotel lives up to its name, and should be seen, even if you don't stay there. It was voted Travel+Leisure Family magazine’s best resorts for families and kids.

You can board a ferry for the island from either Mackinaw City on the Lower Peninsula or St. Ignace on the Upper Peninsula, both accessible from I-75.

Catalina Island, California

In the Pacific Ocean, just 22 miles southwest of Los Angeles, lies Catalina Island, the southernmost of California's Channel Islands. The island consists of two towns, the incorporated town of Avalon on the east end, and unincorporated community known as Two Harbors to the west. The towns lie in the shadow of a towering rugged wilderness with majestic beauty, owned and operated by the Catalina Island Conservancy.

Catalina is another island where there are few cars. Visitors and residents alike get around by foot, bicycle, or golf cart.

There are several hotels. The Mt. Ada offers sophisticated luxury, the Pavalion has proximity to the beach, and hotel Atwater offers value. In Two Harbors, accommodation choices include Banning House Lodge, Villa Santa Rosa, and Villa Santa Cruz.

To reach the island, you can take a passenger ferry from Newport Beach, Dana Point Long Beach or San Pedro, Calif. You could also fly in via helicopter, private plane, or sail over on a private boat.

To slow climate change, lawmakers in a handful of states are proposing bills or passing laws that convert their local electricity grids to renewable sources.

In California, a bill signed into law several years ago mandates that half of the state’s electricity must come from wind, solar, geothermal, or biopower by 2030. And the California state senate recently approved a bill that would make that goal even more ambitious. Should Senator Kevin de León’s bill get signed into law, the California electric grid would depend completely on renewable energy by 2045. 

The promise of a no-fossil-fuels-required grid is already helping drive the campaign to replace gas-powered vehicles with electric cars. So now, some activists and people working in the “green” technology world are targeting another common source of greenhouse gas emissions: home and commercial appliances that run on gas. 

"Electrifying buildings is really the next frontier,” Rachel Golden, an organizer with Sierra Club’s California chapter, tells ConsumerAffairs.

Advocates push renewables, gas industry pushes renewable gas

The Sierra Club and National Resources Defense Council are currently lobbying California regulators to encourage consumers and businesses to switch from using gas-powered stoves, water heaters, and pool pumps to stoves, heaters, and pumps that run on electricity. The groups have not yet introduced all the specifics, but their proposals will likely include more rebates. 

Currently, the California Public Utilities Commission will give residents a rebate if they purchase an energy-efficient stove. But the wording of the commission’s rebate test limits those cash incentives only to consumers who go from a traditional stove to a better one that runs on the same fuel. Californians who want to switch fuels, or go from a gas stove to a more efficient electric version, are not eligible for those same rebates, the Sierra Club’s Golden says.

Her group wants to change that, but she says any changes face opposition from the Southern California Gas Company, the region’s natural gas provider. “We need to be electrifying our residential and commercial buildings in order to achieve our 2050 climate goals. So far the state has done very little to make this happen," Golden says. "We're concerned that there has been a lot of pressure from SoCalGas and others.”

SoCalGas has not yet returned an interview request. But the utility company's website describes natural gas as the best, cleanest form of energy and also promotes something they call “renewable natural gas.” Renewable natural gas “can help reduce the need for other fossil-based fuels while boosting our supplies with a locally sourced renewable fuel,” the company writes.

"Renewable gas" is limited

Jimmy O’Dea, a vehicle analyst with the Union of Concerned Scientists, says that what the industry calls “renewable gas” is something researchers refer to as biomethane.

The fuel in that case is created by capturing methane that leaks from wastewater treatment plants, dairy manure, or landfills, the three major sources of methane pollution. Stopping that methane from escaping into the atmosphere is an important step towards halting global warming, but according to the Union of Concerned Scientists report, that “renewable” natural gas still only provides limited amounts of fuel. 

"If you were to capture all the biomethane from those three sources in California, you could meet about 3 percent of the state's current demand for natural gas across all sectors,” O’Dea tells ConsumerAffairs. 

His group is not involved with the current campaign in California to promote electric appliances. But O'Dea says it makes sense for states converting to clean electricity to promote electric appliances.

"That's the hope, if homes and businesses were switching to electric appliances, that that's accompanied by a grid that's getting cleaner," O’Dea tells ConsumerAffairs. "Switching appliances that use natural gas to electric would certainly reduce the state's consumption of natural gas."

Stove pollution?

It’s well-established that the process of drilling for or transporting natural gas often causes methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to leak into the atmosphere. Those leaks can happen at amounts initially too small to notice, or all at once. Residents of Porter Ranch, a wealthy community in Southern California, are still recovering from a massive methane leak that began in October 2015. The disaster known as the Aliso Canyon blowout occurred after a SoCalGas storage well blew out, releasing more than 100,000 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere.

But the idea that stoves or other gas-powered appliances themselves also directly pollute the environment and warm the planet is something that has received little attention. According to the Sierra Club, fugitive methane emissions from appliances contribute more annually to global warming even than the Aliso Canyon blowout. 

While research on the direct environmental effects of appliances is limited, a few researchers have looked at the effect that stoves have on the person who is cooking and the air quality indoors. Cooking on either an electronic stove or a gas stove can pollute a person's home with carcinogens. But the research suggests that gas stoves are a little worse.

“Gas burners also release additional ultrafine and fine particles, oxides of nitrogen, and carbon monoxide from the combustion of gas that add to indoor air pollution,” Dr. Richard Cors, an environmental engineering professor at the University of Texas, explains via email. Using a stove hood that vents to the outdoors, or keeping the windows open while cooking if you don’t have a stove hood, are the best and easiest ways to keep those carcinogens and fine particles out of the home, he adds.

In terms of the bigger climate picture, switching to appliances that run on electricity is just one piece of the puzzle. It’s for that reason that the Sierra Club isn’t launching an “electrification” campaign in states where much of the electricity still comes from coal.

​Agnes​ ​Lobscheid,​ ​another​ ​researcher​ ​who​ ​has​ ​studied​ ​the​ ​effects​ ​of​ ​gas​ ​stoves​ ​on​ ​indoor​ ​air pollution,​ ​agrees​ ​that​ ​electric​ ​appliances​ ​are​ ​only​ ​as​ ​good​ ​as​ ​the​ ​grids​ that ​they​ ​get​ ​their​ ​energy​ ​from.

“It would not help the environment and protect human health and reduce the effects of climate change if everyone switched to electric appliances yet the electricity to fuel the appliances was generated by coal,” Lobscheid says. “Moving pollution ‘upstream’ helps no one and certainly doesn't protect the environment or protect public health.”

California today officially listed glyphosate, the key ingredient in Monsanto’s Roundup weedkiller, as a chemical known to cause cancer under the state’s Proposition 65 law. The widely used herbicide must now carry a label warning California consumers that it can cause cancer in people.

It's the first time a governmental authority anywhere in the world has issued a regulation based on Roundup’s potential carcinogenicity. The state had earlier announced its intention to do so but was delayed by a court challenge filed by Monsanto, which manufactures Roundup. The challenge was dismissed last week.

Monsanto issued a statement in response to the court's ruling, calling it "unwarranted on the basis of science and the law."

The California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) still must set a limit for acceptable daily exposure to the herbicide. Scientists at the agency have proposed a limit of 1.1 milligrams a day – 127 times less than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s legal allowance for the average-sized adult.

Good but not enough?

The Environmental Working Group urged the state to go further and set much lower exposure limits to protect the health of children and fetuses.

“With this action today listing glyphosate as a cancer-causing chemical, California continues to lead the nation in implementing laws to protect human health and the environment,” said EWG President Ken Cook. “This is a significant blow to Monsanto, but a victory on behalf of the public, which could set the stage for similar actions in other states across the nation.”

EWG said the state should set a much lower limit for glyphosate – no more than 0.01 milligrams per day – which would protect all Californians, including children.

“While we applaud today’s action, we do believe the state can take additional steps to further protect its most vulnerable populations from this dangerous chemical,” said Cook.

Targeted by environmentalists

Glyphosate has been a target of environmentalists and some health officials since the World Health Organization (WHO) issued a finding in 2015, saying the substance is “probably carcinogenic.”

Monsanto sued California 18 months ago to block it from adding Roundup to the Proposition 65 list of chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, and other reproductive damage. Prop. 65 requires the state to label all substances identified as carcinogenic or dangerous to the reproductive process.

Monsanto filed the suit in Fresno County, Calif., maintaining glyphosate is not harmful. The use of the chemical has increased in recent years, as agricultural operations have used it on a variety of crops. Consumers are likely most familiar with it as the active ingredient in the weedkiller Roundup, used to control unwanted vegetation in suburban lawns and driveways.

The company said California's Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment tested glyphosate in 1997 and 2007 and found it did not present a cancer risk to humans.

If you're 65 or older, it's very important for you to remain upright.

Falls are a common danger facing people as they age, and a new study shows the importance of avoiding that first one.

The findings, published this week in Annals of Emergency Medicine, showed that more than half the seniors who went to the emergency room (ER) because of a fall either had additional falls, had to be hospitalized, or died within six months.

"Our study shows an even higher rate of adverse events than previous studies have," said lead study author Jiraporn Sri-on, MD, of Navamindradhiraj University in Bangkok, Thailand.

Role of medication

And if an older person happened to be taking psychiatric medication or a sedative, he or she was even more likely to quickly suffer fall-related adverse effects.

"This is concerning because these types of drugs are commonly prescribed for elderly patients in community and residential care settings," Sri-on said.

The study looked at patients 65 or older who were treated in the ER for injuries as the result of a fall. It found that a small minority -- 7.7% -- developed adverse events within a week. For most, it took a little longer for other problems to develop. More than 20% reported additional issues within 30 days while 50% suffered an additional setback within six months.

The statistics

Within that period, 22.6% had at least one additional fall, 42.6% had to revisit the ER, 31.1% required a hospital stay, and 2.6% died.

Sometimes, a fall by an elderly person is caused by an underlying medical condition. The fall is simply a symptom of a larger problem.

But the researchers say medication no doubt plays a significant role in raising the risk. They say besides taking psychiatric drugs or sedatives, patients taking five or more medications were more likely to suffer a fall.

The study concludes that ER personnel have a huge opportunity to reduce the adverse event rate among older patients who have fallen. A simple step, the researchers say, would be to follow existing fall guidelines and educate older patients on safety steps to reduce future falls.