For people who say they love life so much they sure have a funny way of showing it. Why is the GOP always fighting against science and propping up business over people?
Experimental blood substitutes raised the risk of heart attack and death, yet U.S. regulators allowed human testing to continue despite warning signs, says a scathing new report.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration fell short, the report contends, even as red flags popped up during studies by five biotech companies. Rules barred the agency from releasing company trade secrets, and that kept some information hidden and may have led to unnecessary heart attacks and deaths, wrote the authors, who are government scientists and consumer advocates.
"There shouldn't be secret science," said the lead author of the report, Dr. Charles Natanson, of the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center. Safety data need "to be made public expeditiously so science can build on the mistakes" of previous research, he said.
Democrats are taking action and demanding basics such as mandatory food recalls by government and not food producers but the GOP remains happy with the old system despite countless food issues, sickness and even death. Of course food safety is going to cost money but so do hospital charges when people are sick.
The GOP and their do-nothing allies in business will always complain about costs but if they can't afford $2000 per site, there's a serious problem with their business model. Are they suggesting then that it's OK for thousands of American individuals to spend this kind of money at the hospital when they are rushed for salmonella or e.coli sickness? This is what they are suggesting and with the recession plus skyrocketing health care costs, the GOP is simply asking for too much out of average Americans.
In addition to the mandatory FDA recall powers, Congresswoman DeGette continues to push for traceability so that instead of shutting down all producers (such as spinach farmers) consumers and business alike will know where there are problems. Again, this seems like practical, common sense policy which is good news for everyone.
Shouldn't consumers be able to trust the food they are buying and shouldn't business want to avoid being dragged down because of the failure of other businesses? The only concern as the linked headline suggests, is whether business and the GOP will help consumers or ignore them, yet again.
Imagine that. This is yet another example of how the Bush/GOP-FDA has sided with business over consumers. They don't care if humans suffer the consequences as long as business gets what it wants. Having an effective FDA working for everyone costs money but there are just too many ongoing problems for consumers as a result of GOP hacking. Isn't it time we start considering individuals instead of just business?
A chemical in some plastic food and drink packaging including baby bottles may be tied to early puberty and prostate and breast cancer, the U.S. government said on Tuesday.
Based on draft findings by the National Toxicology Program, part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, senior congressional Democrats asked the Food and Drug Administration to reconsider its view that the chemical bisphenol A is safe in products for use by infants and children.
It's hard not to pass on at least some of the blame to the Bush administration and GOP who have systematically cut funding and resources to the bone. In addition, they've also made it a point to let industry "self regulate" instead of providing the oversight that Americans want and need. People expect business to get away with whatever they can and yes, they do exactly that. Even if information was passed to the FDA it's hard to see them even giving a damn because that might slow business. Merck is in a world of trouble but the Bush-FDA is certainly not looking very competent either. For all of the talk about how precious human life is by the GOP they sure don't treat it that way in the Bush-FDA.
The industry self-regulation game has been played and has failed. The trust-but-verify system implemented by the GOP no longer includes trust, nor do they have the budget to verify. Industry and their GOP lapdogs in Congress are completely uninterested in protecting the food source for Americans. Their policy is to churn out product as quickly as possible for as little as possible all with the understanding that the Republicans have stripped resources from the FDA, making it impossible to provide acceptable levels of monitoring.
Industry calls the downer cow video an anomaly though that doesn't explain the all too regular recalls across the factory food industry, does it? Industry knows that it has gamed the system and was not planning on Democrats stepping up pressure or dragging industry in front of Congress to explain their actions. At a very minimum we need what Congresswoman DeGette is asking for in Congress, which is to allow the US government to issue food recalls. Food safety is much too serious to be left to self-regulation.
It's refreshing to hear a voice of reason on such a critical issue Congresswoman DeGette may finally be helping Congress turn the corner on food safety. The current system has been cracking for a long time courtesy of the GOP "let industry self regulate" programs. Even the USDA and FDA are unable to make food recalls and instead, rely on the violators themselves to do this. Amazing, isn't it? To compound the problem, the Bush administration has equipped those federal agencies with industry people who are more interested in letting business do as they please rather than think of consumers. Budgets have been slashed, regulation has disappeared and the problem gets worse every year despite big talk by industry and their friends in the GOP.
DeGette's call for federal mandatory recall authority is the right thing to do for painfully obvious reasons. While I don't see the current administration showing any interest in taking action even if they did have the authority, we are only months away from a new administration that hopefully will care about consumers. The Big Food execs will continue to tell everyone that they are in control but history tells us something different. Providing regulation authority is a great first step.
Obviously the FDA isn't paying attention to the abuses by the pharmaceutical industry. They run tests to solve one problem and then out of the blue, they start selling it for yet another problem. Maybe it works out OK but maybe it doesn't. Keep in mind that the US spends more per person on pharmaceuticals than any other country on the planet. This move is all about keeping the money train moving and has very little to do about saving lives.
A 2006 study estimated that more than 20 percent of all prescriptions written by doctors were for unapproved uses.
But drug makers have in the past abused doctors’ discretion by telling them that some medicines were appropriate for patients in whom the drugs may have caused more harm than good. In 2004, Pfizer paid a $430 million fine to resolve criminal and civil charges that it marketed its epilepsy drug Neurontin for conditions in which the company’s own studies suggested that the drug was ineffective.
For years I've heard people talking about the parallel rise of weight gain and fake food such as sweeteners and other strange concoctions produced by the chemical industry. There has been little interest on the part of the current administration to study or report facts related to the impact of fake food but this Purdue study raises some interesting questions. Maybe when we have an administration that is curious about something(science, food, economy, foreign policy, pharma, anything) we might start to discover what is really going on with what we're putting in our bodies.
The report, published in Behavioral Neuroscience, presents some counterintuitive findings: Animals fed with artificially sweetened yogurt over a two-week period consumed more calories and gained more weight — mostly in the form of fat — than animals eating yogurt flavored with glucose, a natural, high-calorie sweetener. It's a continuation of work the Purdue group began in 2004, when they reported that animals consuming saccharin-sweetened liquids and snacks tended to eat more than animals fed high-calorie, sweetened foods. The new study, say the scientists, offers stronger evidence that how we eat may depend on automatic, conditioned responses to food that are beyond our control.
Naturally, the FDA says everything is just fine but we all know the Bush FDA is about as (pro-industry) one-sided as they come. The only time the Bush FDA ever contradicts business is when they've been forced due to death and/or successful class action lawsuits. Meanwhile, back in the real world, there is a brewing controversy over phthalates in baby products.
The study’s lead author, Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana, a University of Washington pediatrician, said, “The bottom line is that these chemicals likely do exist in products that we’re commonly using on our children and they potentially could cause health effects.”
Babies don’t usually need special lotions and powders, and water alone or shampoo in very small amounts is generally enough to clean infant hair, Sathyanarayana said.
Concerned parents can seek products labeled “phthalate-free,” or check labels for common phthalates, including DEP and DEHP.
But the chemicals often don’t appear on product labels. That’s because retail products aren’t required to list individual ingredients of fragrances, which are a common phthalate source.
This becomes an even larger problem when the FDA and other governmental organizations approve drugs too easily thanks to heavy influence from the pharmaceutical industry. It's true that Big Pharma can provide benefits but it all seems to be completely out of control at this point. It should make us all uncomfortable that the industry carries so much sway with doctors, patients and government approval. Let them prove their worth with science, not cash. This study is from the UK, but could just as easily be in the US, Canada or Europe.
GPs should be made to declare the gifts they receive from drug firms, following revelations that one in five is more influenced by drug reps than official advisers when prescribing, MPs say today.
Do we ask doctors to publish the "gifts" they receive from the industry? Do we ask Big Pharma to publish this? Doctors should not be extensions of Big Pharma and if they continue like this, they are going to continue to lose credibility with patients. This is a deadly serious problem that needs to be reviewed.
I wish I could say this is unbelievable but this is just another example of how Bush has ruined the FDA and sided with industry, again. Americans (and Europeans and everyone else who has been asked) have strongly rejected the idea but that doesn't matter. The business lobbyists want to do this so they will. Don't like it? Tough. Afraid of the consequences of eating Franken-food? I don't care what these political hacks at the FDA say, I don't believe them.
But it will be hard to tell which foods do contain ingredients originating from cloned animals. The Food and Drug Administration ruled that labels won't have to reveal whether the food comes from cloned cows, pigs or goats, or the clones' offspring, because those ingredients are no different than meat or milk from livestock bred the old-fashioned way.
"We found nothing in the food that could potentially be hazardous. The food in every respect is indistinguishable from food from any other animal," FDA food safety chief Dr. Stephen Sundlof said. "It is beyond our imagination to even find a theory that would cause the food to be unsafe."
Every time I read about the US economy running on the backs of consumers - 70% of the economy comes from consumers - I scratch my head and wonder how the system has become so rigged against them. Is Congress going to lend a helping hand and demand proper labeling or are consumers going to get shafted again?
Now that the EU is joining the US with moving towards allowing franken-food, let's be sure to have everything properly marked. Penalties for not marking or incorrectly marking should be extremely painful to business. If the government scientists want to let this happen - despite massively high numbers not in favor - let them clearly mark the franken-food and see how the market responds. Besides marking, there should be no option to buy a market with below profit margins.
Go ahead and put it out there and allow consumers to make this call. Something tells me it will go the way of Olestra if consumers are warned. Let the governments who are allowing this serve it to themselves and be guinea pigs for thirty years. Afterwards we can have a nice study and see the results, but don't ask consumers to be testers for the Big Food industry, yet again. Isn't it time that our governments start thinking about people instead of business?
The good ol' Bush-FDA. They're always there for industry, when industry needs them. Just don't ask them to care about safeguarding the food for consumers though. I know it's asking for a lot, but could the Democrats in Congress back up the broad majority of Americans who hate this idea? Would this be asking too much?
The Food and Drug Administration is expected to declare as early as next week that meat and milk from cloned animals and their offspring are safe to consume, the Wall Street Journal reported without naming its source.
Lives are at risk because the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is woefully behind in the latest scientific advances and is underfunded for its vast responsibilities, an expert panel will tell the FDA on Monday.
In a 56-page report titled "FDA Science and Mission at Risk," which has been posted online, officials will hear that inadequate staffing and poor retention, out-of-date technology and a general lack of resources mar the agency's ability to do its job.
The FDA regulates products ranging from pharmaceuticals and medical devices to food and cosmetics, representing about $1 trillion, or a quarter of every dollar spent in the U.S.
The FDA's chief commissioned the report to assess whether its scientific expertise can support its regulatory mission.
"FDA's inability to keep up with scientific advances means that American lives are at risk," said the report, written by a subcommittee to the Science Board, an expert advisory group.
Shocking, isn't it? And here it sounded as though China was the root of all problems despite evidence to the contrary such as problems with US food sourcing. A core issue with the problems whether they are US-based or foreign based is that everyone wants the cheapest price possible and while sure, you can find cheap, but that doesn't mean you will find quality. The regular problems with e. coli in beef are connected with the cheap labor and fast pace of processing in the slaughterhouses. Problems with mad cow are connected to cheaper feed being given to cows. The problems are similar whether in the US, China or other countries who want to compete in the global food market.
Higher price will not guarantee superior quality, as the cat food problems have shown, but our constant demand for the lowest price carries a cost. Chopping the FDA and USDA budgets only adds to the problem, but again, the GOP wanted to cut costs without a care for the repercussions to consumers.
Considering the extensive problems in recent months (years, really) it should come as no surprise that someone is planning to highlight the fact that their products do not contain no ingredients from China. China, along with plenty of help from the corporate world who wanted more profit as well as under-funded regulators who were cut to the bone by the GOP Congress, has created this mess so they should have to deal with the global black eye. The main issue I have with it is that it does let the other participants off the hook and it also is blind to comparable issues with sources from other countries.
While in Vietnam a few years ago, there was still a lot of talk within certain communities about eating certain foods (root vegetables, for example) because of continuing problems with Agent Orange in the soil. In southern Vietnam is was still common enough to see young victims of that destructive chemical so it did give reason for pause when eating. Vietnam is now a very active exporter of food to the world as are many other traditionally poor countries who have begun exporting in recent years when US regulations have crumbled. Maybe export food from Vietnam or elsewhere is perfectly fine, I have no idea, but I do have a complete lack of faith in the FDA and USDA to police those imports. In truth, I have a lack of faith in those organizations to monitor food from anywhere, the US included.
"China free" is understandable, but it still does not replace a funded and legitimate regulatory system for all Americans.
I don't know, do they really think it's necessary to sell food and worry about what they are including on the box? Profit is profit and paying attention to the potentially deadly chemicals might negatively impact the bottom line and then what happens? Consumers are so fussy these days, wanting un-tainted food that doesn't include banned chemicals and wondering if their dog or cat might die if it eats some high priced pet food. C'mon people, their are executive bonus' to think about here.
With everyone complaining about wanting safe food, Big Food says they are now testing. Aren't we all lucky to have such thoughtful companies on our side? What would we do without them?
China has done an amazing job of selling to the world though their efforts at managing public relations when dealing with a crisis have been lacking, still stuck in the old communist days of the past when you didn't need to justify anything to anyone. Let's just say "I know it's laced with banned chemicals but business is business" might not be a winning strategy with the rest of the world. Consumers elsewhere do have a voice that is eventually heard.
The FDA and US import regulators might be coming around with their own previously pathetic strategy of being a punching bag and accepting any old box of rubbish. When importing billions of dollars worth of goods, this does provide leverage with demanding quality so maybe, just maybe, they are starting to understand that point. Now if we can see progress from import companies and bottom line focused big business start to care about quality, we'll be rolling.
In another time, I might have been willing to give the FDA the benefit of the doubt, but after recent actions and inactions, their word and authority no longer means much. ExperTox, the Texas lab that identified acetaminophen in various pet food products that were provided to them both directly from producers as well as concerned pet owners, stands by its test results despite the FDA disputing their findings. The lab is under confidentiality agreements so they are limited with what details can be provided to the FDA though ExperTox has offered to share data samples with the FDA but so far the FDA has failed to make contact. (H/t to Richard C.)
