22 September 2011
Congressional investigators said today that promoters of health frauds and quack remedies were cheating elderly Americans out of more than $10 billion a year.
The House Select Committee on Aging, reporting on the results of a four-year investigation, said that merchants selling quack remedies were ''no longer quaint and comical figures'' but were well-organized, sophisticated, persistent entrepreneurs running a big profitable business.
The report estimated that elderly people spent $4 billion to $5 billion a year on bogus cancer cures, $2 billion a year on questionable arthritis cures and at least $2 billion a year on worthless products designed to counteract the effects of aging. The investigation was supervised by Representative Claude Pepper, Democrat of Florida, the former chairman of the committee.
Two Agencies Criticized
''The Food and Drug Administration, once a formidable force in controlling quackery, now directs less than 1 percent of its budget to the control of quackery,'' the report said. ''The Federal Trade Commission's efforts to control misleading advertising are even less significant and have diminished in recent years to the point where they are almost nonexistent.''
The report praised one agency, the United States Postal Inspection Service, as aggressively investigating quack products sold in violation of Federal law.
A spokesman for the food and drug agency said that in the last fiscal year it spent $1.8 million, or one-half of 1 percent of its $362.7 million budget, investigating quackery. Agency officials said they did not have enough money or employees to investigate ''economic frauds'' that posed no direct threat to customers' lives.
Neal J. Friedman, a spokesman for the trade commission, said the criticism of his agency was not justified. He said the agency had taken action to stop sale of several over-the-counter medications promoted through false advertising.
The report said that people 65 years old and older accounted for less than 12 percent of the nation's population but were the victims of 60 percent of all health-care frauds. Hearing Is Set by Panel
Mr. Pepper issued the report to draw attention to a hearing to be held Thursday by the Subcommittee on Health and Long-Term Care, of which he is chairman.
''Over 75 percent of the products reviewed by the committee,'' Mr. Pepper said, ''were found to be dangerous or potentially harmful. In addition to the loss of money paid for nonexistent cures, individuals who purchase these products are exposing themselves to hazards ranging from blindness to the acceleration of cancer, aggravation of arthritis, convulsions, heart palpitations, insulin shock and death.''
The report described numerous products sold as cures for arthritis. They included ''moon dust,'' which proved to be nothing more than sand; cow-manure poultices; copper and magnetic bracelets; an extract from from a New Zealand mollusk called a ''green- lipped mussel;'' New Zealand; a metal box containing a 150-watt light bulb called the ''spectrochrome;'' a device called the ''inducto-scope,'' said to relieve pain in the joints through magnetic induction, and the Kongo Kit, consisting of two hemp mittens that could be worn on the hands and rubbed over the afflicted parts of the body.
For cancer and diabetes there was a tube costing $300 that contained a penny's worth of barium chloride. It was called the ''miracle spike'' and was to be worn around the neck.
Some of the nostrums have been on the market for years, according to the report, and others have been removed from the market, under pressure from the Government, only to reappear a few years later in a slightly different form.
The study said there were hundreds of clinics in the United States and Mexico ''organized to distribute discredited and unproven remedies.'' Most, it said, offer diet therapy, potions and drugs.
''There is increasing evidence that a proper diet can reduce the risk of cancer,'' the report said. But it added that ''no diet cures cancer'' and some of the dietary regimens recommended by quacks are ''so nutritionally deficient or toxic'' that they have caused death or serious illness.
Mr. Pepper offered more than a dozen specific recommendations for combating such quackery. Congress, he said, should increase criminal penalties for the promotion of unproven remedies. The penalty, he said, should be increased to at least five years in prison and a $5,000 fine for each violation. Under current law, penalties vary, but rarely exceed one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.
The Florida Congressman said the Federal Government should develop the scientific capability to evaluate ''unproven remedies,'' so it would not have to rely so much on clinical trials sponsored by drug companies. In addition, he said the Government should establish a clearinghouse to collect and disseminate information about unproven remedies.
Congress, he said, should also give the Postal Service authority to issue civil subpoenas for books and records needed in investigations of mail fraud. State governments, he said, should establish or increase criminal penalties for the sale of quack remedies, strengthen laws against the unauthorized practice of medicine, and require charities and foundations to disclose more information about their own finances.