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Show Advertising Claims Misleading Public Salt Lake City. Utah. July 17, 1979 -- Gasoline shortages as well as rising prices have prompted an increase in exaggerated and misleading advertising claims involving gas saving and emission control devices, according to Gerald B. McAllister of the Better Business Bureau of Greater Salt Lake. "We encourage media to obtain all the facts before deciding on the acceptability of such advertising." said Mr. McAllister. A "Media Bulletin," now being distributed by the Salt Lake BBB to newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations, states that in addition to exaggerated and misleading claims made for these products, "data offered of-fered to substantiate gas saving claims for a number of devices have often been inaccurate, outdated or otherwise insufficient." The bulletin cites past testing of fuel savers by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) that showed in most cases not enough improvement in gas mileage to justify the cost of purchasing pur-chasing and installing them. Final rules were issued by the EPA earlier this year which set test procedures and criteria for evaluating fuel economy improvement claims for such devices. Under the program, any manufacturer of a fuel saving device may apply to EPA for product testing, providing the device has already been tested in an EPA-approved laboratory. A review of the data follows and a decision is made whether or not EPA testing of the device is needed. Results of any EPA testing performed on gas saving devices, however, does not render government certification cer-tification or approval. The Salt Lake Better Business Bureau recommends recom-mends that before media accept advertising for devices which either claim to increase gas mileage or lower emissions, they require advertisers to submit conclusive, up-to-date, scientific test results to back up these claims. EPA testing has been cited as the preferred form of substantiation; sub-stantiation; the Federal Trade Commission plans to rely on the EPA test data in making decisions on whether or not given advertising ad-vertising is deceptive. The EPA is in the process of developing a similar testing program for gas tank addatives which are advertised ad-vertised as gas savers. Media are again urged to ask for and carefully evaluate any data on these devices before accepting advertising. |