Environmentally Friendly Bio-Hazard
This one’s for those of you who may have overindulged at dinner-time over the holidays. But be warned, it might make you lose whatever appetite you have left.
Sometimes apparently socially- or environmentally-progressive moves in the world of commerce end up violating other important values. This story is about an apparent attempt at “going green” that ended up hitting a few speed-bumps.
Check this story from Forbes.com:
Fill ‘Er Up With Human Fat
Liposuctioning unwanted blubber out of pampered Los Angelenos may not seem like a dream job, but it has its perks. Free fuel is one of them.
For a time, Beverly Hills doctor Craig Alan Bittner turned the fat he removed from patients into biodiesel that fueled his Ford SUV and his girlfriend’s Lincoln Navigator.
On the surface: neat idea, turning the result of excessive human consumption into a source of energy. But not so fast: the good doctor faced just a couple hurdles. One, as Forbes notes, took the form of a handful of patients unhappy with his medical (in)competency. The second hurdle had to do with health & safety regs: according to Wired.com, Bittner is under investigation by the California Department of Public Health. Surgical waste, after all, has to be disposed of according to pretty strict regulations in most places.
(Don’t be too quick to take this story at face value: Keith Barry at Wired.com: is suspicious of the whole story. In Fat-Fueled Ford Is Biodiesel Biohazard he suggests there’s plenty of reason to doubt the details. But it could happen….)
The Business Ethics Blog 
This physician has a history of false advertising regarding his “innovative” ventures. In 2003, as founder of Ameriscan, MRI screening clinics that marketed to the public, he was shut down after being sued by the California Medical Board and San Francisco D.A. MRI’s have not been shown to improve detection or outcome of cancerous conditions, the public had to shell out millions as health insurance co’s won’t pay and the public was exposing itself to unecessary radiation WITHOUT a physicians order or referral. So then he resurfaces in 2007 claiming he has been doing lipo for 10 years while trying to mislead the public into thinking he is board certified with the plastics association. WHILE claiming to convert FAT into vehicles that may not accomodate diesel fuels. Now he is suddenly in South America to offer starving masses liposuction. You be the judge.