Okay, raise your hands if the first thing you thought when you heard about IOGEAR's Germ Free Wireless Laser Mouse was "That probably uses an unregistered pesticide that warrants government involvement." Yeah, that's what we thought -- but it appears some freak concerned citizen had your best interests in mind, because the EPA just fined IOGEAR $208,000 based on a tip that the company's Germ Free keyboard and mice peripherals were violating the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act. Apparently no one ever verified that the titanium dioxide and silver nanoparticle compound on the mice is actually effective at killing nasties, and even if it is, it's illegal to sell pesticides without Uncle Sam's blessing. IOGEAR's stopped claiming that the products kill germs and forked over the cash, but it's not clear if the products still have the coating on them. Either way, you should probably start washing your hands more, Mr. Filthy.

[Via Nanotech Project]

Giving an animal a phone to tote around and monitor pollution is one thing, but hooking up a critter to your cellphone sans wires sounds like a much more viable solution to keeping track of filthy surroundings. UC San Diego's Squirrel -- which sounds an awful lot like a project UC Berkeley was working on -- is a Bluetooth-enabled, palm-sized sensor that currently measures carbon monoxide and ozone, but eventually will be able to "sample nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide in the air, as well as temperature, barometric pressure, and humidity." After sampling, the device then utilizes a software application dubbed Acorn to allow the user to "see the current pollution alerts through a screensaver on the cellphone's display." Furthermore, the program can periodically upload the captured data to a public database operated by the "California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology (Calit2), which is funding Squirrel's development." Of course, cleaning up the mess that these monitors will inevitably find is an entirely different matter.

[Via MedGadget]

Nothing, we mean nothing, says success like rollin' in a big fat Hummer eh sparky? Only thing is, you can't stand the thought of those accusatory stares from your fellow highwaymen as you lumber along sucking-up fuel. Well, we guess you never heard of the Mileage Maximizer then? Don't sweat it, 'cause two friendly Detroit, rock city Hummer dealerships have, and they'll happily sell you the $190 wonder mod while touting its 30% increase in fuel efficiency. The promotion has been so successful at selling new Hummers in fact, that these boys are now considering expanding the modification to more stores and vehicles. Sure, GM and Hummer officials don't endorse the application of the "Vortex Valve" to the vehicle's intake manifold and may not even honor warranties. And just you never mind that no one will stand by those unofficial claims of increased efficiency or that tampering with the emission controls on EPA certified vehicles is, ehem, illegal. You go right on feeling better about yourself... after all, you tried, right?

It's been a year since we first heard that ionic air purifiers can actually make air quality worse, and that finding has now been confirmed by a peer-reviewed, government-funded study. According to the study, which appears in the Journal of the Air & Waste Management Association, using an ionic ozonolysis air purifier in a sealed room can lead to ozone levels as high as 350 parts per billion, a level equivalent to a Los Angeles Stage 2 Smog Alert. The EPA has already come out against ozone-producing air purifiers, saying that they have "little potential to remove indoor air contaminants."

Update: As pointed out below in comments, the study quoted above apparently referred to both ionic air purifiers and ozone generators. However, many media outlets, including LiveScience (our source for this post), conflated the two. According to lead researcher Sergey Nizkorodov, a chemistry professor the University of California, Irvine, "ionic air purifiers do emit ozone. [But] none of the ionic air purifiers produce enough ozone when they are used properly to exceed smog alerts." LiveScience has since added a correction, which can be viewed here.