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Consumer Health Digest #10-10
March 11, 2010
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by
Stephen Barrett, M.D., with help from William M. London, Ed.D. It
summarizes scientific reports; legislative developments; enforcement
actions; news reports; Web site evaluations; recommended and
nonrecommended books; and other information relevant to consumer
protection and consumer decision-making.
====================================================
Quackwatch and Dr. Barrett need your help in maintaining and
expanding their activities. If you haven't already done so, please
read
http://www.ncahf.org/digest09/09-45.html and send a contribution.
====================================================
Enzyme supplements fail to improve symptoms of autism.
A 6-month randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial has found
no benefit from administering digestive enzymes to children with
autism spectrum disorders. The study, which involved 43 children ages
3-8, found that the enzymes produced no clinically significant
improvement in behavior, food variety, gastrointestinal symptoms,
sleep quality, engagement with therapist, or the Language Development
Survey Vocabulary or Sentence Complexity Scores. [Munasinghe SA and
others. Digestive enzyme supplementation for autism spectrum
disorders: A double-blind randomized controlled trial. Journal of
Autism and Developmental Disorders, Mar 5, 2010. (Epub ahead of
print)]
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20204691###
Mail-order scammer gets 20-year sentence.Frank Sarcona (a/k/a Frank Sarcone), whose career as a mail-order
scammer spanned more than 30 years despite more than a dozen
government enforcement actions, has been sentenced to 20 years in
prison for a long list of crimes related to selling worthless diet
pills. Last October, Sarcona was convicted of 29 criminal charges
that included conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud; conspiracy to
commit money laundering; and multiple counts of mail fraud, wire
fraud, money laundering, misbranding of a food, and criminal contempt
of court. Court documents indicate that he defrauded more than
130,000 customers out of more than $7 million by making false claims
that LipoBan (a chitin product) would produce weight loss without
rigorous exercise or dietary change and that one user had lost "over
126 pounds in 120 days," which is way beyond what is humanly
possible. The case is remarkable because diet-pill scammers are
almost never criminally prosecuted and the 20-year sentence is one of
the longest ever issued for quackery-related activities. For details
of Sarcona's career plus examples of his ads, see
http://www.dietscam.org/reports/sarcona/sarcona.shtml###
Kevin Trudeau sentenced for contempt.Federal Judge Michael Gettleman has ordered infomercial scammer Kevin
Trudeau to serve 30 days in prison and pay a $50,000 fine. Last
month, Gettleman found Trudeau in criminal contempt of court for
publishing the judge's e-mail address and asking followers to tell
him how Trudeau had improved their lives. Trudeau apparently hoped
this would soften the judge, who was considering how much to fine
Trudeau for violating court orders to stop using false advertisements
to market products. The U.S. Court of Appeals has permitted Trudeau
to remain free until it considers his appeal of the contempt ruling.
A hearing is scheduled for April 8th.
###
Libel suit by antivaccination leader dismissed.The libel suit filed in December by Barbara Loe Fisher against Paul
A. Offit, M.D., Amy Wallace, and Condé Nast Publications has been
dismissed for failure to state a cause of action. Fisher is
co-founder and acting president of the National Vaccine Information
Center, which publishes a vast array of misinformation intended to
undermine public confidence in vaccines and the science-based
organizations that endorse them. The suit was triggered by Wallace's
article, "An epidemic of fear: One man's battle against the
anti-vaccine movement," in the November 2009 issue of Wired Magazine
in which Offit called Fisher a liar.
http://www.wired.com/images/press/pdf/waronscience.pdfIn discussing Offit's comment, the judge stated:
"The declaration 'she lies' is plainly understood as an outpouring of
exasperation and intellectual outrage over plaintiff's ability to
gain traction for ideas that defendant Offit believes are seriously
misguided and not as a literal assertion of fact. . . . In other
word, the remark by Defendant Offit is, on its face, merely an
'imaginative expression of contempt' felt toward his adversary, which
can only be viewed as 'an impassioned response to the positions taken
by [that adversary] and nothing more.'"
The judge concluded that, in the context of the article, Offit's
statement was an expression of opinion that has constitutional
protection and therefore is insufficient to support a defamation
claim.
http://www.casewatch.org/civil/fisher/dismissal.pdf###
Please help Simon Singh.
Simon Singh, who is being unfairly sued by the British Chiropractic
Association, has initiated a new petition to promote the repeal of
the UK's Draconian libel laws. More than 40,700 people worldwide have
supported it so far. Please sign the petition at
http://www.libelreform.org/sign , even if you signed the previous one.
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