Consumer alert!

Warnings have been circulating on the Internet recently about children suffering alcohol poisoning from ingesting hand sanitizer.

One story is about a 4-year-old who became sick when she apparently licked her hands after using sanitizer in her elementary school classroom. Another details the story of a toddler who went to the hospital after drinking sanitizer.

Hand sanitizers are in lots of schools these days because they’ve been shown to be much more effective germ-killers than plain soap and water. BUT THEY AREN’T MEANT TO BE SIPPED, so keep them out of the reach of youngsters who might not know any better.

The story about the girl licking her hands and becoming stuporous might be true if she had gobs of sanitizer on her hands that she licked off. But it would be unlikely to happen if she used the sanitizer normally. One of the main ingredients in sanitizers is ethyl alcohol — the same ethanol made from corn and used as a gasoline additive. But the stuff starts to evaporate almost immediately when you start rubbing your hands together. It’s unlikely that using sanitizer properly and licking hands would get any child drunk.

Drinking sanitizer, especially if a toddler does it, has the potential to kill because the alcohol contained in a few ounces of sanitizer is about the equivalent of a stiff drink. Poison control centers each year report a handful of instances in which children become sick (drunk really) after ingesting hand sanitizer. That’s why the bottles say “Keep out of reach of children except when under adult supervision.”

More information about this issue is available here.

Consumer Action, a consumer advocacy group, just released its annual credit card survey. It’s important reading for anyone who wants to use credit cards, but don’t want to be taken for a ride.

The survey discusses many of the finer points that consumers often overlook in credit card agreements.

One part of the survey also has a listed of cards in various categories that have the lowest rates.

MousePrint, a Web site that specializes in dissecting the tiny print in advertising, has this revealing information about Cingular text messaging service:

Have you seen the Cingular commercial (”BFF JILL”) where a distraught mother gets a huge cell bill because her daughter is sending text messages to her best friend, Jill, fifty times a day?

The solution, according to Cingular, is to get “unlimited texting, just $5 more a month.”

When our trusty mouse looked on Cingular’s website, there seemed to be no unlimited text messaging plan for only $5 extra beyond the cost of a regular calling plan. How could this be?

*MOUSE PRINT:

Those tiny words at the bottom seem to say “with qualified messaging package.” In other words, it appears you not only have to buy a monthly cell calling plan, but also a monthly messaging plan, and then you have the option to pay $5 more to convert that messaging plan into an unlimited plan.

The least expensive plan gives you 200 messages for $4.99, but for $9.99 — $5 more — you get unlimited mobile to mobile text, picture and video messages.

So does that mean you can send all the text messages you want to anyone you want? One would think so, except for how Cingular defines “mobile to mobile.”

Now Cingular wireless subscribers can exchange unlimited text, picture and video messages! Instant Messages, alerts, off-network, premium messages, and messages to/from non-Cingular customers will be deducted from your Messaging Starter allowance.

Translation: That means you only get unlimited messaging to other Cingular customers. What if you want unlimited messaging to anyone? That costs $19.99.

While many people may have understood the commercial to say that unlimited messaging to anyone was only $5 a month, the truth is, it is actually four times that price.

TCBNT (Thanks Cingular, But No Thanks)

[Your comments on this advertising campaign are welcome below, but those not related to the BFF Jill ad will be deleted as this is not a message forum to bash Cingular.]

Your cell phone bill might be going up soon.

The Michigan Senate on Thursday approved a bill that would tack at least 19 cents a month on your cell phone or VOIP phone bill to pay the cost of enhanced 911 service.

Landline phone customers now pay 29 cents a month to subsidize the system. The sense is that this is discriminatory and all phone service customers should help foot the bill for emergency phone service.

The legislation would attach the fee to all phone service, but lower the fee to 19 cents for everyone.

Seems fair, but some might argue that cell phone users are more apt to use 911 to help save lives because they see more accidents and other emergencies to report to authorities than phone users at home.

The more hours of TV that kids with Type 1 diabetes watch, the less they are able to maintain good blood glucose control, according to a study published in the June issue of Diabetes Care.

The study by Norway researchers found that the more television a child or adolescent watched, the higher the child’s average blood glucose level measured. Young people who watched less than an hour a day scored an average level of 8.2 percent on a test that measures how well blood glucose is controlled over several months. Those who watched up to two hours daily scored 8.4 percent; up to three hours 8.7 percent; up to four hours 8.8 percent; and those who watched more than four hours of TV a day scored 9.5 percent.The ADA recommends keeping the levels at 7 percent or below.

The study noted that “children and adolescents in the U.S. spend more time watching television than any other activity except sleep” and that they may spend more time watching TV than going to school. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends chilldren spend no more than two hours daily watching TV.

Connecticut’s attorney general has filed a lawsuit against Best Buy, claiming the electronics retailing chain misled consumers by having in-store computerized kiosks that displayed higher product prices than the chain showed for the same products on its national Web site. He alleges it’s a form of bait-and-switch.

Though acknowledging there were some instances of confused prices, the chain denies the claims of wrongdoing and said it has addressed the issue with greater employee training.

Gasoline prices in the Monroe area are averaging about $3.48 a gallon and look like they’ll be going higher as Memorial Day dawns. The highest price in the area already is at $3.65.

The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill that would provide stiff federal penalties for gasoline sellers who gouge consumers after the government declares an “energy emergency.”

The legislation also gives state law enforcement officials more latitude to go after price gougers.

The legislation still needs approval of the Senate, though some form of approval is likely given the continued rise in gasoline prices.

This comes after a Government Accounting Office report that oil company consolidations and mergers are a major factor in the price increases we’ve been seeing recently.

For a look at the GAO report, click here.

For U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell’s take on the problem, read his statement.

For a summary of the bill, click here.

For the text of the bill, click here.

The Food and Drug Administration has approved the sale of a contraceptive pill that you take once a day

That’s right, there’s no period associated with the above sentence.

Read about it here.

Federal officials testified today before U.S. Rep. John D. Dingell’s House Committee on Energy and Commerce.

They talked about what the agency is doing to keep on top of fluctuating gasoline prices and then ventured a guess as to why prices have risen so much recently. It sounds vaguely familiar:

“ . . . The lion’s share of the recent increase in gasoline prices appears to be attributable to three factors: refinery outages, increased demand for gasoline, and decreased gasoline imports.” Increases in crude oil prices have played a relatively minor role in the increase, according to the testimony.

To read a synopsis of the testimony, click here.