The Survive and Thrive Boomer Guide

Most sunscreens contain possible harmful ingredients or don’t protect well from the sun, consumer group analysis shows

Researchers from the Environmental Working Group found that two-thirds of sunscreen products it analyzed offer inferior sun protection or contain worrisome ingredients, such as oxybenzone.

On Wednesday, the EWG released its 13th Annual Guide to Sunscreens, which rates the safety and effectiveness of more than 1,300 SPF products, including sunscreens, daily moisturizers, and lip balms with SPF values. SPF means sun protection factor.

In February, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration released a proposal for updated sunscreen regulations. It’s a big step toward cleaning up a poorly regulated industry, with much-needed reforms that would better protect public health, said Nneka Leiba, director of the EWG’s Healthy Living Science program. Only 40 percent of the products on the EWG’s list contain active ingredients that the FDA has proposed are safe and effective, based on the agency’s new draft rules, according to the EWG’s assessment.

Marine coolers are being recalled by Igloo due to entrapment and suffocation hazards

Igloo is recalling about 60,000 marine elite coolers.

The cooler’s stainless-steel latch can automatically lock when the lid is closed, allowing a person to become locked inside the airtight container, resulting in entrapment and suffocation hazards.

Igloo has received one report of a child who became entrapped in the cooler before being freed by an adult.

Jury awards couple $2 billion in lawsuit against Roundup

For the third time in less than a year, a California jury issued a verdict against Bayer-Monsanto, finding that the company’s Roundup weedkiller caused cancer in a California couple and awarding them $2.055 billion in damages.

The jury in Alameda County Superior Court found on Monday that glyphosate, the main ingredient in Roundup, was the cause of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in both Alva and Alberta Pilliod of Livermore, who have used the herbicide since the 1970s.

It’s the third trial since August 2018 in which a jury found that glyphosate caused cancer. More than 13,000 similar lawsuits have been filed against the company.

FTC halts huge Pointbreak Media robocall scheme

At the Federal Trade Commission’s request, a federal court judge ruled against nine defendants and approved six settlement agreements with 11 others ending the massive Pointbreak Media robocall scheme.

In May 2018, the FTC charged the Florida-based defendants with operating a telemarketing scam that targeted small business owners with false threats of removal from Google’s search engine and false promises of unique keywords to make the business appear prominently in search results. The FTC also alleged the defendants wrote themselves $100 checks from more than 250 businesses’ checking accounts without the business owners’ knowledge.

The FTC amended its lawsuit in July 2018 to add violations of the Telemarketing Sales Rule, because the defendants robocalled more than 74 million consumers and called more than 14 million numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry.

Tell federal consumer protection agency to support strong action against payday lenders

Photo: Aliman Senai

In 2016, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau approved protections against payday debt traps with triple-digit interest rates, requiring lenders to make sure customers have the ability to repay the high interest rates.

But earlier this year, the new CFPB director reversed course.

The CFPB plans to roll back the heart of its own protections against sky-high payday loan interest rates, but maybe enough comments from the public could stop officials from revoking these important rules, said Elise Orlick, director, US-PIRG.

The CFPB is accepting public comments until May 15. Click here to fill out a form to send the CFPB your opinions.

States sue 20 generic drug companies and 15 executives for allegedly conspiring to fix prices for more than 100 drugs

A 44-state coalition of attorneys general is suing Teva Pharmaceuticals and 19 of the nation's largest generic drug manufacturers alleging a conspiracy to increase prices and reduce competition for more than 100 generic drugs.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court, also names 15 individual senior executive defendants, leaders of the conspiracy, who were responsible for sales, marketing, pricing, and operations. The drugs make up billions of dollars of sales in the United States, and the alleged schemes increased prices affecting the health insurance market, taxpayer-funded healthcare programs such as Medicare and Medicaid, and individuals who had to pay artificially-inflated prices for their prescriptions drugs.

All types of drugs were included – tablets, capsules, suspensions, creams, gels, and ointments – as well as many classes of drugs – statins, ace inhibitors, beta blockers, antibiotics, anti-depressants, contraceptives, and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. The drugs treat a range of diseases and conditions from basic infections to diabetes, cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, HIV, ADHD, and more. In some cases, the coordinated price increases were more than 1,000 percent.

After one fatality, South Shore Furniture chest of drawers recalled due to tip-over hazard

South Shore Furniture is recalling about 310,000 Libra style three-drawer chests in the United States and about 6,900 in Canada.

The recalled chests are unstable if they aren’t anchored to the wall, posing serious tip-over and entrapment hazards that can result in death or injuries to children.

South Shore has received two reports of tip-over incidents involving the recalled chests of drawers. One report stated that a child received bruises on his leg and scratches. Another incident reported a fatality involving a two year old and an unanchored, empty three-drawer chest.

How to plan a cruise

Going on a cruise is quite an adventure, I learned as a first-time cruise goer in late March. It was a seven-day cruise to the Caribbean with stops in Jamaica, Grand Cayman Island, Costa Maya, Mexico, and Cozumel, Mexico.

The purpose of the cruise was to celebrate my sister’s 80^th birthday. My niece arranged the cruise, so all I had to is get out my credit card and pay. And pay I did.

Since it’s an expensive and time-consuming endeavor, here are tips to help you have the best cruise possible:

Decide where you want to go.

The possibilities are endless, with a cruise industry expanding its offerings to serve 28.5 million passengers a year. Once an unusual sight, you now see cruise ships in many major ports. The Caribbean, Alaska, and the Mediterranean are the most popular destinations.

Crowdfunding scheme operator who failed to deliver charged by FTC

The operator of a crowdfunding scheme who told consumers he was raising money to develop a high-tech backpack and other products, but failed to deliver any of the products and instead used most of the funds for himself, is being sued by the Federal Trade Commission.

In its lawsuit, the FTC alleges that Douglas Monahan and his company iBackPack of Texas, raised more than $800,000 from consumers through four crowdfunding campaigns. Monahan falsely claimed the funds would be used to develop products such as the “iBackPack,” which would include batteries for charging laptops and phones, cables, and a Bluetooth speaker.

“If you raise money by crowdfunding, you don’t have to guarantee that your idea will work,” said Andrew Smith, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “But you do have to use the money to work on your idea – or expect to hear from the FTC.”

Be careful using Angie’s List, consumer group warns

Angie’s List, an online rating service, has many shortcomings in addition to potential value to consumers, according to a Consumer Federation of America report.

Angie’s List, founded in 1995, was originally supported mainly by annual consumer subscriptions and prioritized service to these subscribers. Today, while consumers can join for free, Angie’s List gets almost all its revenue from advertising purchased by some of the local businesses that the online service lists and rates. Angie’s List recommends and gives preferential treatment to these advertisers and that can easily mislead consumers into thinking these businesses are the best ones and should be selected.

The report, “Angie’s List: An Evaluation of Its Usefulness for Consumers” shows that these profiled businesses are often not those rated the most highly by consumers and by a nonprofit rating group.