Saturday, June 14, 2008
Friday, June 13, 2008
Probe Reveals Hundreds of Expired Products at CVS, Rite Aid
Statewide Sweep Uncovers Medication Sold More Than Two Years After Expiration Date
By MARCUS BARAM
June 12, 2008 —
A statewide sweep by New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo found that more than half of CVS stores and 43 percent of Rite Aid stores were selling expired drugs, milk, eggs and baby formula.
In some cases, over-the-counter medication was being sold two years after the expiration date, according to Eric Corngold, the head of the economic justice unit in Cuomo's office.
Cuomo says he intends to sue both chains for patterns of violating federal, state and local law that do not permit the sale of expired products and plans to seek injunctive relief.
Since March, prompted by complaints from consumers, dozens of undercover investigators visited close to 1,000 stores and detected an "egregious pattern at CVS and Rite Aid" of selling expired products, said Corngold at a news conference in New York this morning.
Expired products were sold at 142 CVS stores and 112 Rite Aid in 41 counties across the state, Corngold said.
Investigators found similar problems at other pharmacies and stores but "we determined that CVS and Rite Aid posed more of a threat to consumers in terms of number and frequency of expired products on the shelves," said Cuomo.
"This is about not getting what you paid for and that you may be buying products that are ineffective or even harmful."
Asked about whether investigators had uncovered any motivation behind the sale of expired products, Cuomo said, "Whether it's mismanagement or malicious intent, the law is clear and that's what we're going to enforce."
In recent years, several investigations have found both major chains selling expired products.
In March, inspectors for the Fairfield Department of Health in Pennsylvania found 100 expired baby food items at six stores, including 38 at a CVS in Lancaster.
At the time, CVS spokesman Mike DeAngelis told the Lancaster Eagle-Gazette that the company makes every effort to "rigorously review thousands of items" to ensure that expired products aren't sold in stores.
Five years ago, a similar investigation by Cuomo's predecessor, Eliot Spitzer, found that nearly one in three retail stores sold expired products. Among them were three CVS and three Rite Aid stores.
In 1999, Rite Aid paid $1.5 million in civil penalties and restitution after a California district attorney charged it with selling more than 200 expired products, including baby formula, children's analgesics and a 12-pack of condoms, at 50 stores.
Cheryl Slavinsky, a spokeswoman for Rite Aid, said that the chain received a letter from Cuomo about the investigation this morning and that they are taking the "allegations very seriously."
She explained that the chain has always had policies not to have outdated products on shelves and that they are checking products in the more than 5,000 Rite Aid stores in 31 states and Washington, D.C.
The chain is retraining its stores on their policies and procedures since "they obviously are not being followed," said Slavinsky.
In a statement emailed to ABC News, CVS spokesman DeAngelis said that Cuomo's findings were "unacceptable to us."
He added, "Our policy is to remove items before they go beyond the expiration date. We will work aggressively to ensure that our review and removal procedures are followed consistently in all of our stores.
While we did not receive formal notification from the Attorney General until this afternoon, we will cooperate fully with his Office in this matter."
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
Central bank body warns of Great Depression
The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), the organisation that fosters cooperation between central banks, has warned that the credit crisis could lead world economies into a crash on a scale not seen since the 1930s.
In its latest quarterly report, the body points out that the Great Depression of the 1930s was not foreseen and that commentators on the financial turmoil, instigated by the US sub-prime mortgage crisis, may not have grasped the level of exposure that lies at its heart.
According to the BIS, complex credit instruments, a strong appetite for risk, rising levels of household debt and long-term imbalances in the world currency system, all form part of the loose monetarist policy that could result in another Great Depression.
The report points out that between March and May of this year, interbank lending continued to show signs of extreme stress and that this could be set to continue well into the future.
It also raises concerns about the Chinese economy and questions whether China may be repeating mistakes made by Japan, with its so called bubble economy of the late 1980s.
EDITORS NOTE: Quite a few comments have been made that there is no direct reference to the Great Depression in this month’s BIS report.
While this is strictly true, BIS warned in June 2007 - just before the Credit Crunch really hit - that the global economy was vulnerable to a major economic set-back because of extraordinary exposure to collateralized credit.
BIS directly made references to the 1930’s as an example of a similarly serious credit bubble, and this month’s BIS report describes the conditions of this being lived out.
So, to be pedantic, the warning “BIS warns of Great Depression” is actually a year old already. What BIS discusses now is the fragility of existing conditions of the fall-out from a massive credit bubble bursting - which has already been made clear across their reports historically can be similarly referenced to the 1930’s, though stated in a typically conservative and non-alarmist language.
Even what optimism BIS had about a weak recovery to the end of May 2008 have been dashed by extreme shorting of financial stocks across the US and UK - Lehman Brothers, HBOS, and property developers such as Barratts, have all taken extreme beatings in June 2008.
So back to the headline - BIS have indeed already warned of repeat of conditions that could be as extreme as the Great Depression, and are now describing that process as we move through it.
In the meantime, unemployment is already on the rise on both sides of the pond, and the analogy some people have concerns about I’m afraid are still salient.
- Brian Turner, Editor, Banking Times.
Wednesday, June 11, 2008
Toyota to start lithium-ion battery output in 2009
Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Wednesday its battery joint venture with Matsushita Electric Industrial Co (6752.T) will start full-scale production of lithium-ion batteries in 2010 as it aims to roll out more electricity-driven cars over the next few years.
Toyota, the world's top maker of gasoline-electric hybrids, is keen to bring such vehicles into the mainstream by lowering their cost premium as more consumers around the world demand higher fuel economy amid record-high energy prices.
The battery venture, called Panasonic EV Energy Co, currently produces nickel-metal hydride batteries used in Toyota's hybrid vehicles, and is building two new factories to bring annual output capacity to 1 million batteries around 2010.
Toyota, which put the world's first hybrid car on the road in 1997, has a goal of reaching global annual sales of 1 million hybrid vehicles soon after 2010, more than double what it sold last year. It has sold a total 1.5 million hybrids since the first Prius hybrid was launched over a decade ago.
Many big automakers are working in partnership with battery makers on developing vehicle-use lithium-ion batteries, which can store more energy in smaller, lighter packages and are seen as crucial for extending the cruising distance of purely electric vehicles. Such batteries are commonly used in laptops and mobile phones.
Toyota, the world's biggest automaker, also said in a statement it would establish a battery research department later this month to develop next-generation batteries that would outperform lithium-ion batteries.
Domestic rivals Nissan Motor Co (7201.T) and Mitsubishi Motors Corp (7211.T) have joint ventures with the NEC Corp (6701.T) group and GS Yuasa Corp (6674.T), respectively, to mass-produce lithium-ion batteries from next year.
Toyota has said it will use lithium-ion batteries in a rechargeable, plug-in hybrid vehicle due for launch for fleet customers in Japan, the United States and Europe by 2010.
"We plan to use both nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion batteries, choosing the appropriate option depending on the vehicle," President Katsuaki Watanabe told a news conference to outline Toyota's environmental activities.
Toyota has not said if it will use lithium-ion batteries in its third-generation Prius, widely expected for launch some time next year, but the start of full-scale battery production suggests it could be used soon.
To help reach its hybrid sales goal, Toyota plans to start production of its Camry hybrid model in Thailand and Australia over the next two years, it said on Tuesday.
Toyota is due to showcase new hybrid-only models, under both the Toyota and Lexus luxury brands, at the next Detroit auto show in January.
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Michael Watson)
Japanese Automaker, U.S. Firm Team Up To Convert Cars to Electric Power
by Liu Enming, Voice of America
"Our car is very different from a gasoline car in that it uses no gasoline, it's all electric, lithium battery and with a proprietary battery management system by Hybrid Technologies," Ron Cerven said.
Ron Cerven is a project development engineer at Hybrid Technologies, a research and development company focusing on electric vehicles powered by lithium batteries. The cars, like the Toyota Yaris, look like any other until you peek under the hood. Inside, the gas-powered engine has been replaced by a powerful electric motor that is powered by a stack of lithium batteries.
In the company's plant in Morrisville, North Carolina, many familiar car models are being transformed into electric vehicles: The Toyota Yaris, Chrysler PT Cruiser and the SmartCar.
Cerven says the electric cars offer consumers a brand-new driving experience. "The first time you ever drive an electric car, (you notice) how much road noise you hear from tires and stuff," Cerven said.
"That's because you are not used to, even though you don't realize the exhaust isn't very loud or the gasoline motor isn't very loud, you don't realize that actually it is. Very smooth, very quiet, they take off real smooth, they accelerate. One thing that an electric motor has is a very large torque band."
Cerven says not only do the cars save gas — they are also low-maintenance. "Maintenance-wise, the majority of the stuff we took out is what needed to be maintenanced. You have no spark plugs, no oil filters, and no air filters, all that stuff went away. So your maintenance costs are very much lower than what [you] originally had," he said.
Cervan says the cars powered by Hybrid Technologies are a big leap forward from earlier electric vehicles.
Cervan says, "I think in the past, the electric vehicle ware held back by the batteries. Battery technology in the past 10 years has come a long way. We were running at about 600 pounds [72 kilograms] of batteries to get the same mileage we use to be running at about 2,400 pounds [1088 kilograms] of batteries," he said.
Cerven says lithium powered cars are just as powerful as vehicles fueled by gas. For example, with ten packs of these lithium batteries, a PT Cruiser can accelerate to 100 kilometers per hour in seven point two seconds, rivaling the performance of a six cylinder, gas-powered car. A six-hour electrical charge provides enough power to drive the car nearly 200 kilometers.
Pointing to vehicle that looks like an updated Jeep, Ceven says, "this one was designed for military. To fit in an aircraft it has a very small cargo area."
"This vehicle is very fast and agile, 87 miles an hour [140 kilometers per hour] almost 200 miles [320 kilometers] on the range but fits in a five foot-by-five foot [1.5 meter by 1.5 meter] container. So it's very easy to deploy."
These electric vehicles are not cheap. But Linda Hill, the marketing and public relations manager of Hybrid Technologies, believes after factoring in the gas and maintenance savings over seven to 10 years, she believes the vehicles are competitive.
Hill says, "We want to make lithium powered, electric-powered vehicles [a part of the] mainstream in America, moving towards more electric-powered vehicles, electric-powered products, and electric-powered energy."
To watch a video of these cars, click here.
Reprinted from Voice of America, a multimedia international broadcasting service funded by the U.S. government through the Broadcasting Board of Governors. VOA broadcasts more than 1,000 hours of news, information, educational, and cultural programming every week to an estimated worldwide audience of more than 115 million people.
