Not long ago, the Federal Trade Commission identified four priorities in its work against false advertising and marketing. Two of those priorities stand out: bogus health claims and "greening."

Nutty health products and claims are familiar to anyone with an e-mail address. Either in the inbox or the junk box, depending on how good your spam filter is, there will be ads promising effortless weight loss, improved sexual performance, cures for cancer or diabetes, thicker hair, bigger muscles, surefire ways to get turn your hobby into a high-reward career, mortgage relief, debt consolidation and convenient payment plans for new windows and roofs.

Some of the e-mails are annoying. A lot of them are illegal. Most are unethical and some – the cancer cures and mortgage refinance offers – are illegal, unethical and immoral. They prey on the particular vulnerabilities where hope meets desperation and the builders of those scams deserve to live in the hottest cells of Dante’s prison.

"Green" claims don't hold a candle to promises of curing cancer, but the FTC is taking a hard look at exactly what "green" means in product marketing. The same product packaged in a smaller bottle creates less waste – but does that make it a green product? Is a recyclable container better than a recycled-content one? And what does "all natural" mean anyway? Poisonous mushrooms and the flu virus are natural.

I'm glad there are more green options and I'm really glad that consumers are rewarding companies that produce greener alternatives by buying their products. I'm also glad that the FTC is taking a hard look at the green claims swirling around. All of us who choose to buy a product that is greener than the alternatives deserve to get a product that really is greener than the alternatives.