FURMAN

Hair Analysis Lab Shut Down (1985)

In 1984, the Federal Trade Commission charged Arthur Furman, two members of his family, and their companies with marketing hair analysis tests with deceptive claims that they could identify mineral imbalanced and provide a reliable basis for recommending dietary supplements. The complaint, which was accompanied by a request for a temporary restraining order, revealed that the lab reported wildly results on six identical submitted by the FDA and that the results also differed from those found by the FDA’s own lab. The judge granted the temporary restraining order and, in 1985, agreed with the FTC and issued a permanent injunction barring the defendants from “holding themselves out . . . to persons other than health professionals, as being able, on the basis of hair analysis, to measure …