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Walmart sham homeopathic products

Ranb

Penultimate Amazing
Ranb
Joined
Jul 25, 2003
Messages
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Location
WA USA
Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/

Pharmacy giants CVS and Walmart will have to face trials over claims that placing ineffective homeopathic products alongside legitimate over-the-counter medicines on store shelves deceives consumers into thinking that the pseudoscientific products are akin to evidence-based, Food and Drug Administration-approved drugs.
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Progress?

Ranb
 
Maybe. We'll have to see how it works out. See if the "consumer choice" argument gets any traction, because that's really all they've got.
 
Ranb said:
Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/



Progress?

Ranb
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I hope they lose that trial. Though I'd rather see homeopathy vanish altogether, I could tolerate having a homeopathic section in the store, but I've been in plenty of places where you have to sort through the stuff and read the labels to separate the real stuff from the bogus. Of course we should all do this anyway, but we shouldn't have to check to make sure it's even real.
 
Pharmacies in NZ sell that **** right alongside actual medicine.

Money wins.
 
Ranb said:
Walmart, CVS face trial for putting sham homeopathic products next to real meds
https://arstechnica.com/science/202...-sham-homeopathic-products-next-to-real-meds/



Progress?

Ranb
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I was just about to post this from The Center for Inquiry:

Score One for the Good Guys—A Major Battle Won in the Continuing War on Homeopathy Fraud

They have been working on this for some time.

CBC TV had a good show on this quackery in 2015.

Homeopathy - Cure or Con?

Little progress in Canada since. :(
 
It's a baby step of progress.

It's fine to smack down homeopathy and rail against it, but these products don't have "Homeopathic Medicine" in big letters on them, and Jo Public doesn't know anything about the law of infinitesimals when glancing at labels.
 
Sham homeopathic products? You mean they're not real homeopathic products?

For shame.
 
You want to cancel expensive sugar pills, simply because they don't work and probably contain toxics?
Why do you hate capitalism?
 
Sherman Bay said:
I am wondering how we can differentiate the REAL homeopathic solutions with the FAKE or COUTERFEIT ones.
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That's a pretty good question to put to any fan of homeopathy - "How would you know if you'd been given blank pills? What tests could a lab perform?". Or, at least, it might make them stop and think.
 
"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.
 
Trebuchet said:
"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.
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I nearly got into an argument with a daddy who asked the pharmacist in my presence where the homeopathic baby teething relief product was. I said, "you can save your money. It doesn't work you know." He said yes it does, paid his $36 and rushed out. So I did not have change to suggest he just massage his kid's gums.
 
Dave Rogers said:
No, it means double homeopathic. Sham homeopathic products are anything up to 100 times as effective as real homeopathic products.

Dave
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There must be a market for invisible homeopathic products.
 
Trebuchet said:
"Zicam" is a sham homeopathic product. It contains significant amounts of real zinc compounds, in 1X and 1C concentrations, but labels itself homeopathic to avoid regulation.
The homeo products that annoy me the most are the ones that are marketed for giving to children.
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High levels of zinc can be toxic, including loss of the sense of smell and other nerve damage. Just off the top of my head, I can recall two medical shows (House and Royal Pains) in which patients were suffering harmful neurological effects from zinc poisoning caused by overuse of denture adhesive. There have been real world lawsuits over damage caused by denture adhesive.
 
So could Zicam be exposing itself to lawsuits by falsely labeling it's Zinc treatments homeopathic? "Judge, it said homeopathic so I thought I'd really need thousands of doses!"
 
Armitage72 said:
High levels of zinc can be toxic, including loss of the sense of smell and other nerve damage. Just off the top of my head, I can recall two medical shows (House and Royal Pains) in which patients were suffering harmful neurological effects from zinc poisoning caused by overuse of denture adhesive. There have been real world lawsuits over damage caused by denture adhesive.
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That's what happened and why they changed the formulation. From Wikipedia;

In 2006, Matrixx Initiatives paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who said that the product destroyed their sense of smell[7] (medically termed anosmia), although the company did not admit fault.[15] As of 2009, "hundreds more such suits have since been filed."[7]
 
Mongrel said:
That's what happened and why they changed the formulation. From Wikipedia;

In 2006, Matrixx Initiatives paid $12 million to settle 340 lawsuits from Zicam users who said that the product destroyed their sense of smell[7] (medically termed anosmia), although the company did not admit fault.[15] As of 2009, "hundreds more such suits have since been filed."[7]
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This was not nearly enough to put them out of business unfortunately. After a bit of research (aka Googling) I see the company was sold to Church & Dwight in 2020 and Zircam brand products continue to be sold. Though, for some reason, Zircam does not appear on the Church & Dwight website where all their brands are listed.

The company continues to have problems with the FDA however. See: Zicam Extreme Congestion Relief Recall Issued Due to Contamination


Their court troubles continue. Although they seem to won the most recent round: Zicam Cold Remedy False Advertising Class Action Claims Tossed, For Now

I note the "For Now". ;)
 
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Ryan O'Dine said:
Thanks, now I've got a craving. I keep trying to mix my own sugar and toxics, but it either comes out too sweet or not toxic enough. I don't know how they do it.
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You're probably forgetting to bang it against a leather-bound Bible in between dilutions.
 
Buying homepathic remedies is a complete waste of money! Instead, drink ocean water! Everything is dissolved in it! You will be cured of everything! Order "Shemp's Homeopathic Ocean Water" now! Just $99.95 for a six-ounce bottle! Drink a bottle once a week and you'll never be sick again!
 
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shemp said:
Buying homepathic remedies is a complete waste of money! Instead, drink ocean water! Everything is dissolved in it! You will be cured of everything! Order "Shemp's Homeopathic Ocean Water" now! Just $99.95 for a six-ounce bottle! Drink a bottle once a week and you'll never be sick again!
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It's the anti-verse of sea salt. To be sold at a much higher price than "processed" salt because it contains all sorts of crap from the ocean.
 
bruto said:
Did you stir it in the right direction? Did you check the phase of the moon? Drug manufacture is not for amateurs!
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I can attest to the latter. I almost killed three innocent Scotsmen, enraged the Vice Provost of the American Earwig Appreciation Society, and generated 13,000 kilotons of scrapple in the most awkward of places all because I mistook liters for ounces.

Thank goodness water has a memory... I mean, a bad one!
 
bruto said:
Did you stir it in the right direction? Did you check the phase of the moon? Drug manufacture is not for amateurs!
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Who was the old poster who used to sign off all of her posts with "It's QUANTUM. people!" as though that explained everything? She always seemed exasperated that she had to explain how homeopathy "works" to everyone, as though her gibberish meant anything.

She always had an explanation for why it wouldn't work in a certain situation, because someone only shook it 99 times rather than a hundred, or did it at the wrong time.
 
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It's come to be a bit of a trope, but the reason the ocean isn't a giant homeopathic preparation is that it hasn't been succussed.
 
The first post I ever made here was about the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI) approving homeopathic remedies for use treating organically-raised livestock.
Before anyone says anything, the USDA definition of "organic" is grown, handled, and processed using only naturally occurring substances or a few pre-approved synthetic ones, like peroxyacetic acid as a sanitizer on food contact surfaces. Legally making an organic claim requires certification by the government or a federally accredited certifying body. It's not just an arbitrary marketing claim.
That still means that this organization was certifying tap water as only containing naturally occurring substances. No problem as long as you pay their certification fee. Until a sudden change last month, they would also certify cleaning products containing unapproved ingredients as long as steps were taken to ensure that the product never touched food, such as a potable water rinse of food contact surfaces to remove any residue. This product won't affect the food if it never touches the food. No, really?
 
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Any business that sells homeopathic products should be required by law to accept as payment for any other product they sell an envelop which once contained money.
 
arthwollipot said:
It's come to be a bit of a trope, but the reason the ocean isn't a giant homeopathic preparation is that it hasn't been succussed.
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Two words: underwater earthquakes! Now, I know what you're going to say: "But they need to be succussed on a leather-clad Bible." However, there are lots and lots of Bibles in the ocean from shipwrecks and garbage scows. :D
 
Galaxie said:
Two words: underwater earthquakes! Now, I know what you're going to say: "But they need to be succussed on a leather-clad Bible." However, there are lots and lots of Bibles in the ocean from shipwrecks and garbage scows. :D
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That's a good point.
 
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