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Consumer Health Digest #21-48
December 5, 2021
Consumer Health Digest is a free weekly e-mail newsletter edited by William M. London, Ed.D., M.P.H
http://www.calstatela.edu/faculty/william-m-london., with help from Stephen Barrett, M.D
http://www.quackwatch.org/10Bio/bio.html. 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. Its primary focus is on health, but occasionally it includes non-health scams and practical tips. To subscribe, click here
http://lists.quackwatch.org/mailman/listinfo/chd_lists.quackwatch.org###
Rise and fall of multilevel-marketed mud product spotlightedNBC News has reported on the recent rise and fall of Black Oxygen Organics (BOO), a product consisting of 4½ ounces of mud sealed in a sleek black plastic baggie that sold for $110 plus shipping. The report indicates how BOO has been promoted during the COVID-19 pandemic and how responses by critics and regulators appear to have caused its marketers, Black Oxygen Organics Canada
https://archive.md/NeV6x, to shut down.
[Zadrozny B. 'Magic dirt': How the internet fueled, and defeated, the pandemic's weirdest MLM
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/magic-dirt-internet-fueled-defeated-pandemics-weirdest-mlm-rcna6950. NBC News, Dec 2, 2021]
The report notes:
CEO and BOO formulator, Marc Saint-Onge, a seller of mud in various forms for 25 years, likes to be known as “the mudman.”
Saint-Onge described BOO as fulvic acid, a compound derived from decayed plants that was dug up from one specially selected Ontario peat bog.
Saint-Onge describes himself as an orthotherapist, naturopath, kinesitherapist, reiki master, holistic practitioner, herbalist, and aromatherapist.
In 1989, Canadian authorities prosecuted Saint-Onge for practicing medicine without a license and fined him $20,000 after which he took his clinic “underground.”
In 1996, the Calgary Herald reported that Health Canada forced Saint-Onge to pull an early version of his mud product, then called the “Anti-Rheuma Bath,” because he claimed it could treat arthritis and rheumatism.
The Black Oxygen Organics website, recently taken offline, advised visitors to drink, wear, and bathe in BOO.
Starting in May, social media posts tagged #BOO featured photos and videos of smiling people, mostly women, drinking Mason jars containing black liquid, slathering black paste on their faces and feet, and dipping babies and dogs in tubs of black water.
Testimonials on social media by BOO users have claimed a wide variety of benefits, including efficacy claims not substantiated by “competent and reliable scientific evidence,” as legally required.
Facebook has groups for both believers in BOO benefits and for activists critical of BOO.
Anti-vaccine activists and COVID denialists have joined groups that promote BOO.
Some BOO critics infiltrated the BOO community, signed up as sellers, and shared videos online about company sales meetings.
Videos debunking BOO are available on YouTube.
On September 23, 2021, Health Canada announced a recall
https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/advisory-blackoxygen-organics-recalls-fulvic-acid-tablets-and-powder-due-to-potential-health-risks-858215780.htmlof Black Oxygen Organics tablets and powders. It cited “potential health risks which may be higher for children, adolescents, and pregnant or breastfeeding women.” Health Canada also advised against taking those products.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has held BOO products at the border.
Just before Thanksgiving, the company announced in an email it was closing for good (without delivering BOO to sellers who had already paid thousands of dollars for it).
Tests of BOO for heavy metals suggest that Health Canada’s limits for lead and arsenic are exceeded by two and three doses per day, respectively.
A complaint
https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1pCIz37-yYgi0kAz7mNhLJd7dwhh0JC72was filed in November in Georgia’s Northern District court on behalf of four Georgia residents who had purchased BOO. The complaint claims the company negligently sold a product with “dangerously high levels of toxic heavy metals” that led to physical and economic harm.
A new Facebook group named “The Solution” hopes to create a new direct-sales company to market a fulvic acid product and a colloidal silver.
https://www.nccih.nih.gov/health/colloidal-silverDavid Gorski, MD, PhD has provided additional perspective on BOO plus background on fulvic acid quackery.
[Gorski D. BOO: or how "magic dirt" became a MLM miracle cure scam for COVID-19
https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/boo-or-how-magic-dirt-became-a-mlm-miracle-cure-scam-for-covid-19/. Science-Based Medicine, Dec 6, 2021]
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CFI sues for greater access to “Bible of Homeopathy”The Center for Inquiry has filed a lawsuit
https://cdn.centerforinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/33/2021/12/05201146/complaint_2021.pdfunder the Freedom of Information Act demanding the Department of Health and Human Services grant public access to the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia of the United States (HPUS). Under the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, a private entity, the Homeopathic Pharmacopoeia Convention of the United States, has the power to determine what constitutes a homeopathic “drug.” Homeopathic products can be sold over-the-counter without marketers first demonstrating their safety and efficacy. Homeopathy’s proponents claim, without evidence, that symptoms can be treated with dilutions of substances that cause the same symptoms in healthy people. Many homeopathic products are diluted to levels where not a single molecule of the “active ingredient” remains. The HPUS, which describes how ingredients are processed, is the official compendium of homeopathic ingredients. Annual subscriptions to the HPUS monographs costs $2,000 for a single user and $15,000 for corporate users. CFI asked for free access but was refused.
[Center for Inquiry sues HHS for access to ‘Bible of Homeopathy.’
https://centerforinquiry.org/press_releases/center-for-inquiry-sues-hhs-for-access-to-bible-of-homeopathy/CFI press release, Nov 29, 2021]
A brief animated video on CFI’s YouTube channel describes CFI’s other lawsuits against homeopathic marketers.
[CFI's battle against fake medicine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFhdJCmAG80&t=17s. CFI, Oct 22, 2021]
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Consumers defrauded by medical alert telemarketers get refundsThe Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is sending 71,899 checks totaling $1,808,260 to consumers, including many older Americans, tricked by New York-based Lifewatch, Inc. into paying for supposedly free in-home medical alert devices. The money for refunds is part of a stipulated order for permanent injunction and monetary judgment that settles charges brought jointly by the FTC and the Florida Attorney General’s Office
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2015/07/ftc-florida-attorney-general-sue-stop-deceptive-robocallsin 2015. The joint complaint
https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/documents/cases/150706lifewatchcmpt.pdfalleged:
Defendants bombarded consumers with at least a billion unsolicited robocalls to pitch supposedly “free” medical alert systems with pre-recorded messages claiming that Lifewatch’s medical alert system was endorsed or recommended by reputable organizations such as the American Heart Association.
The company’s telemarketers often told consumers that a medical alert system had been purchased for them, and they could receive it “at no cost, whatsoever.” Consumers eventually learned that they were responsible for monthly monitoring fees and that it was difficult to cancel without paying a penalty.
The Lifewatch defendants are now banned from telemarketing and prohibited from misrepresenting the terms associated with the sale of any product or service.
[FTC issues refunds totaling more than $1.8 million to consumers defrauded by Lifewatch, Inc.’s deceptive medical alert telemarketing scheme
https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/press-releases/2021/12/ftc-issues-refunds-totaling-more-18-million-consumers-defrauded. FTC press release, Dec 1, 2021]
The Office of the Minnesota Attorney General warns consumers
https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/publications/MedicalAlertScams.aspto hang up on robocalls offering supposedly free medical alert systems. The calls are used to convince consumers to disclose personal information that enables scammers to steal identities and drain bank accounts.
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Stephen Barrett, M.D.
Consumer Advocate
7 Birchtree Circle, Apt. 703
Chapel Hill, NC 27517
Telephone: (919) 533-6009
http://www.quackwatch.org (health fraud and quackery)
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