LOS ANGELES (AP) - A marketing company for lap-band surgeries says it will revise its ads to properly disclose risks of the procedure.
In a letter to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, 1800 GET THIN President and CEO Robert Silverman says the company is currently changing billboards, radio and television ads deemed misleading by federal regulators.
The stomach-restricting bands limit food intake, and can have harmful side effects like irritation and infection.
As a critic of the ads' claims of easy payment through insurance and the emphasis on being thin rather than being healthy, Ridley-Thomas has suggested that the county address potential dangers with its own billboards and ads.
The Food and Drug Administration issued a letter last week to eight surgical centers and a marketing firm saying its advertisements were misleading.
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