4 'green' claims to be wary of

Gas-saving magnets

Blending the boundary between green and recessionary trends, these products promise to help consumers reduce their gasoline consumption through the use of a super powerful neodymium rare earth magnets. Once clamped onto a fuel line, "this extremely strong magnet ionizes the gasoline, changing its molecular structure. By passing the fuel through a strong magnetic field, hydrocarbon groups or clusters are broken up, making the fuel easier to vaporize," says FuelMags.com, home of the FuelMag1 magnet device.

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The Web site promises gas mileage increases of up to 20%, a seeming bargain when factored against FuelMag1's price tag of $29.95.

The downside? It doesn't work. At all. True, neodymium is a very strong magnet. But that's about the only thing FuelMags.com and their similarly minded scammers got right.

In fact, the Federal Trade Commission brought a case against an analogous company, FuelMax, in 2004. While FuelMax denied the FTC's claims, it eventually settled for $4.2 million in 2006.

Why FuelMags.com and other so-called fuel-saving companies are still in business is a mystery. These fuel line magnets and other magnet-utilizing products are physically incapable of "ionizing" gasoline.

The purportedly gas-saving magnets are about as scammy as they come. There is absolutely no science to back up claims of their efficacy, and the magnets' association has become so tainted that similar magnetized products are actually trying to hide the fact that they include magnets. All FuelMags.com has to back up its pseudoscience is a feeble claim: "No Gimmicks, Schemes or Scams here at FuelMags.com . . . and that's a promise."

We're not buying it, and neither should you.

Sephora's 'natural standards'

The green cosmetics trend is riding high. But behemoth makeup retailer Sephora has taken a particularly dopey approach to the trend with its "natural standards" initiative.

Filed under the heading "naturally gorgeous," Sephora's manifesto claims that products sold in its stores that bear a green seal meet "high internal standards" and contain "the purest, most efficacious ingredients Mother Nature has to offer." Sephora's Web site boasts more than 1,400 products from more than 30 different brands with the "Naturally Sephora" seal.

The Web site astutely observes that "the term 'natural' is not regulated by the FDA," and thus the company "created (its) own standards for the natural products" it sells. You bet it did.

Turns out dozens of products Sephora considers "naturally beautiful" contain high levels of harmful chemicals and cancer-causing agents, according to the Environmental Working Group. The nonprofit organization provides information on virtually every cosmetic company, listing their products' ingredients and ranking them on a zero-to-10 scale based on the health threat they pose.

While this contradiction seems particularly ham-handed, it's difficult to believe that Sephora doesn't realize that many of its "green" products are anything but. After all, a cursory search reveals the truth about these products. Tarte's Vitamin-Infused Lip Gloss in "liquid sunshine" shade ranks a 6 at the Environmental Working Group's cosmetic database, putting it nearly at the "high hazard" level. At least 15 shades of Cargo's PlantLove lipstick line rank 5 on the group's hazard scale, putting it at a "moderate" level.

While this score is certainly not any worse than a conventional product, shouldn't a line whose mantra is "Red lips. Green conscience" and whose packaging bears a promising green "natural seal" be better than conventional so-called nongreen makeup?

Continued: Protection from nefarious characters

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