Author Archives: Morgan O'Rourke

About Morgan O'Rourke

Morgan O’Rourke is editor in chief of Risk Management magazine and director of publications for the Risk & Insurance Management Society (RIMS).
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Breakfast in Crisis

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The massive flooding that hit the Atlanta area last September has led to an unexpected consequence for breakfast lovers everywhere — a shortage of Eggo waffles. According to the Kellogg Co., the flooding forced the closing of their Atlanta waffle factory and coupled with equipment problems in their largest waffle factory in Rossville, Tennessee, this means that there will be few Eggos to leggo until sometime next year.

According to an Eggo FAQ on Kellogg’s website:

Eggo is working around the clock to bring everyone’s favorite waffles back to store shelves as quickly as possible. We hope to regain full distribution of Eggo products by the middle of 2010. This is a top priority for Kellogg Company.

This is not the first time this year that a factory disaster was thought to be responsible for a shortage of tasty treats. Back in June, the New York Post reported that an explosion at ConAgra Foods plant in North Carolina would lead to a scarcity of Slim Jims. Panic was averted, however, when the reports proved to be unfounded and the company was able to keep Slim Jims on store shelves.

The Return of the Copper Thieves

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Back in the spring of 2008, with copper prices hovering around $4 a pound, copper thefts became a worldwide epidemic. And when prices fell to close to $1 a pound by the end of the year, thefts fell off as well. But now, as copper prices near $3 a pound, copper theft seems to be making a comeback.

In the past week alone, multiple thefts have been reported with thieves stealing wiring for highway lights in Reno, Nevada, AT&T phone lines in Atlanta and grounding wire for a hydro-electric sub-station in Canada. Thieves even took an entire bus station roof in Virginia.

While the thefts seem to yield only a few hundred dollars at a time, authorities are concerned because they can cause thousands of dollars worth of damages in the process. For instance, Reno authorities have had to struggle to repair the lights in darkened highways while AT&T has been so disrupted by phone line thefts that it has instituted a $3,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of copper thieves. And economic damages are not the only problem. Many thieves are not the most sophisticated and are willing to cut wires with little regard for the current running through them, risking severe burns and even death.

Although it seems somewhat mundane, copper theft has been a big problem for a while now. According to the Electrical Safety Foundation International’s 2008 Copper Theft Baseline Survey of Utilities:

  • 81.4% of utility companies were concerned about copper theft;
  • 95.1% had experienced copper theft in the past year;
  • 86.6% had a process in place to track incidences of copper theft;
  • Over the previous 12-month period, an estimated 50,193 incidences of copper theft occurred;
  • 7,919 of those incidences involved energized equipment;
  • The value of copper material stolen in the 12-month period was an estimated $20,167,738; (including the value of copper material, the impact of the copper thefts from utilities nationwide cost $60,397,818);
  • The number of outages due to copper theft was an estimated 456,210 minutes; 52 injuries nationwide; and 35 deaths.
    • According to the ESFI, at least 26 states have considered legislative action, such as the Copper Theft Prevention Act of 2008, that would would impose stricter penalties and regulations on metal recyclers and dealers who engage in copper transactions. 

    Toys in the Attic

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    The final price tag for Mattel’s 2007 recalls of Chinese-made toys that were found to contain lead paint could exceed $70 million after the toymaker and its Fisher-Price subsidiary agreed to settle a consumer class action lawsuit last week.

    The latest settlement puts an end to 22 lawsuits and provides refunds for toy buyers and reimbursement for any lead testing expenses they may have incurred after testing their children’s lead exposure.

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    Mattel will also create a new, court-monitored quality insurance program and donate 5,000 to the National Association of Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions.

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    The recalls prompted a new federal law mandating third party testing for lead and other harmful contaminants for all toy manufacturers (although the Consumer Product Safety Commission recently allowed Mattel to use its own labs) and was yet another example of the growing concern about the safety of Chinese-made products. In the past three years, consumers have seen defective tires and drywall, and contaminated toothpaste, pet food, milk, and medicine, in addition to the lead-painted toys, all of which were made in China.

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    Wii Terrorism

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    It sounds a little bit like something from 1984, but the Department of  Homeland Security is working on a project that will gauge a potential terrorist’s intent to do harm by examining physiological signs like heart rate, breathing, eye movement, body temperature and fidgeting. Some researchers are confident that these signals, when taken together, are even more effective security measures than the traditional methods of screening for explosives and weapons.

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    The project, called Future Attribute Screening Technology (FAST), has been incorporating commercially available sensor technology, such as thermal imaging, eye trackers, and, interestingly enough, everyone’s favorite hot holiday gift item, the Ninentdo Wii. Evidently project researchers modified a Wii balance board, a platform that gamers stand on to simulate movement in certain video games. The modified board can measure weight shifts and fidgeting, which could be indicative of nervousness and would indicate a need for secondary screening.

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    Some critics question the science behind the technology while others think it’s an invasion of privacy.

    “Nobody has the right to look at my intimate body functions, my breathing, my perspiration rate, my heart rate, from afar,” said Joe Stanley of the ACLU. “They need to use old-fashioned, shoe-leather law enforcement investigative techniques, chase down known evidence, known suspects and get out there and do a good, competent basic job in investigating terrorist groups.”

    FAST Project Manager Robert Burns disagrees.

    “We’re looking at signals you give off naturally. We’re not asking for any personal information. We’re not asking anything about you,” he said.

    Even if successful, FAST would likely not be implemented for a few years. Hopefully by then they will have figured out the only real flaw that I can see — how to tell the difference between a fidgeting terrorist and a nervous airplane passenger.

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    It might be a good idea to get a Wii and start practicing.