But beyond the disgust element was another more important question concerning borax: was it actually safe to eat? This troubling issue was the reason why squad members were imbibing the compound at Christmas, the reason for the Poison Squad experiments themselves. Established by a famously outspoken, crusading chemist from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Harvey Washington Wiley, the squads were also meant to answer another, larger question: were manufacturers actually poisoning the food supply?
posted by liketitanic
on Jul 12, 2011 -
19 comments
Should you be allowed unrestricted knowledge of your own genetic makeup? Or should your doctor be the one to decide how much you can know about your own genes? Currently
direct-to-consumer (DTC) genetic testing companies (such as 23andMe) allow consumers to discover which genes they have inherited. But some influential people are arguing that the general public is harmed by the ability to freely access this type of information. The American Medical Association is
urging the FDA to make it so that genomic information is only available to a person through a personal physician or medical counselor. As a counterpoint the geneticists at the Genomes Unzipped website provide a six point statement on why
People Have A Right To Access Their Own Genetic Information.
[more inside]
posted by Jason Malloy
on Mar 13, 2011 -
98 comments
Progesterone caproate injections have been used to reduce the likelihood of premature births in at-risk pregnant women for years. Up until now, the drug was custom-compounded by wholesale and specialist pharmacies, legally, but without federal approval. These injections cost between $5 and $15 a dose and were regularly reimbursed by insurance companies and Medicaid.
Last month, the FDA announced
their approval of a commercially produced version of the compound, to be marketed under the brand name Makena by a company called KV Pharmaceuticals.
No stranger to controversy and trouble, KV barely survived a rash round of
layoffs and wrongful termination lawsuits. Their former chief executive
now faces criminal charges surrounding the company's failure to notify the FDA that they were producing oversized morphine tablets.
(He could also do for a shave, it appears.)
Now, KV has announced that the new drug will be available at a cost of
$1,500 per dose,
bringing the total pregnancy term cost of treatment to $25,000-$30,000, from its former cost of $250-$300, a
100-fold increase—but it gets worse...
[more inside]
posted by disillusioned
on Mar 9, 2011 -
63 comments
POM Wonderful may not be so wonderful, but that might not be so surprising, given the history of
Stewart and
Lynda Resnick. The couple are involved with much more than pomegranate juice: they own
Fiji Water, pesticide manufacturer
Suterra, Paramount Agribusiness (source of
citris,
well-known pistachios and
other nuts), and
former owners of the Franklin Mint. This round with the Resnicks started in
February 2010, with a warning from the FDA, which lead to
a confusing bit of restraining order requested, then soon after requested to be withdrawn (with
fears of pushing the First Amendment too far). That phase is past, but POM Wonderful is now stating they believe "
very strongly in its first amendment rights to communicate the promising results,"
results which look similar to placebos taken by control subjects.
The FTC is not impressed.
posted by filthy light thief
on Sep 28, 2010 -
29 comments
"Starting Friday, Walgreens' shoppers can buy an over-the-counter
genetics test from
Pathway Genomics at 7,500 stores across the country. Priced at $20 to $30,
the kit claims to offer information on users' possibility of developing conditions like Alzheimer's disease, breast cancer, or diabetes. Access to the scientific analysis online, however, costs another $79 to $179"
* [
video | 02:31]. "But doctors and geneticists fear the worst for this new over-the-counter access to genetic testing. With no physician to interpret the results of the test, and no FDA regulation of how results are processed or delivered, there is the potential for consumers to misinterpret what their risk really means for their health and their lifestyle."
* [more inside]
posted by ericb
on May 11, 2010 -
47 comments
"Con men used to travel town to town hawking medical remedies said to be made of Chinese snakes.
Snake oil was useless and dangerous. So the FDA was created to put a stop to it and other food and drug scams. But, today,
quack medicine has never been bigger. In the 21st century, snake oil has been replaced by
bogus therapies using stem cells. Stem cells may offer cures one day, but medical charlatans on the Internet are making outrageous claims that they can reverse the incurable, from autism to multiple sclerosis to every kind of cancer."
* Video
Part 1 [13:15] ||
Part 2 [11:49].
[more inside]
posted by ericb
on Apr 18, 2010 -
33 comments
The
US Food and Drug Administration started regulating the labeling of food, beverages, and medicines after the passage of the 1906
Pure Food and Drug Act, and added food coloring and cosmetics with the 1938
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act. They have just released a new website, the
FDA Notices of Judgment Collection, 1906-1963, containing data from thousands of cases of mislabeled or misadvertised products and drugs, available in multiple forms (text, PDF, metadata XML, .TIF image, etc.), with searchable archives. Poking around in the data will yield information on cases ranging from
misbranding methamphetamine tablets, to quack
"Film-O-Sonic" devices, to
bacteria-laden unproven abortifacients sold over the counter, to
purported "4-way" cures for baldness, to
hunks of radium sold for putting in your drinking water to "stimulate the sex organs" (judged against for stating an unproven use, not for actual danger of product). Organized by
the FDA's history office, the new database is a fascinating resource for historians, public safety advocates, researchers, and librarians.
posted by Asparagirl
on Apr 6, 2009 -
28 comments
Foodies, gourmands, and gluttons! Courtesy of those muckrakers at the New York Times, consider
this recent op-ed piece. For those still pissed about the Times cheerleading us into Iraq, skip it and just dig
this handbook from your federal watchdogs to determine just how much rat shit may have been in those beanie-weenies you enjoyed cold from the can last night at 1:34a.m. Handy alphabetization makes finding your favorite processed foods easy as pie.
posted by barrett caulk
on Feb 14, 2009 -
23 comments
The single-shot Palm Pistol... The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted a conceptual, ergonomic 9mm handgun — designed for people crippled by arthritis, muscular dystrophy, or similar conditions that render them too weak to operate normal handguns — as a Class 1 Medical Device.... doctors could eventually write prescriptions for it and then be reimbursed by Medicare.
posted by blaneyphoto
on Dec 8, 2008 -
61 comments
A nation of outlaws. A century and a half ago, another fast-growing nation had a reputation for sacrificing standards to its pursuit of profit, and it was the United States.
posted by Kirth Gerson
on Aug 27, 2007 -
18 comments
In January 2006, small amounts of genetically engineered rice turned up in a shipment that was tested ... by a French customer of Riceland Foods, a big rice mill based in Stuttgart, Ark. Testing revealed that the genetically modified rice contained a strain of Liberty Link that had not been approved for human consumption. What's more, trace amounts of the Liberty Link had mysteriously made their way into the commercial rice supply in all five of the Southern states where long-grain rice is grown. Aventis Crop Science had contracted with a handful of farmers to grow the rice, which was known as Liberty Link because its genes had been altered to resist a weed killer called Liberty, also made by Aventis. Then, the French pharmaceutical giant that owned Aventis Crop Science decided to sell the U.S. biotech unit and abandon the very emotional business of reengineering the foods we eat. "We didn't want to take any chances," says a former Aventis executive. "We burned and buried enough rice to feed 20 million people." Last November, the USDA retroactively approved the Liberty Link rice for human consumption.
posted by Kirth Gerson
on Jul 23, 2007 -
92 comments
TSA Alert: US Bans Vegemite. Is it because this yeast extract
tastes bad? Do the
Marmite^ people have some sinister influence? Has Australia
offended our government somehow? How is it that a product that has been around for
80 years suddenly becomes forbidden? Who would ban a product that can help prevent
neural tube defects (e.g., spina bifida)?
Blame the FDA, whose has ruled that folate (
folic acid) "should be kept under 1 mg per day ... because higher intake may complicate the diagnosis of
pernicious anemia, one form of vitamin B12 deficiency, which especially affects older people." Of course pernicious anemia is rare (less than 10-20 cases/100,000 people per year in the US), as is the Vegemite market. But when has logic ever dictated policy. The
international fallout has already started:
"I am never going to America", vows Xochiquetal, while a commenter at Geelong blogger Bernie Slattery’s site foresees US regulators going even further down the road to absurdity, "Americans don’t know what they’re missing … they’ll be banning Tim Tams next."
If the government wanted to ban something Australian, the least they could have done is started
here.
posted by scblackman
on Oct 23, 2006 -
47 comments
Feeling sick and thinking of buying over-the-counter cold medicine like Sudafed or Claritin-D? Be prepared to wait in line at the pharmacy counter, show a photo ID, and sign a log book. The
nationwide restriction of medication containing pseudoephedrine or ephedrine begins this weekend. Why? Those 2 ingredients are used to make
meth.. (NPR audio
piece).
posted by jaimev
on Sep 27, 2006 -
136 comments
[NewsFilter] A partial victory for public health over politics. Amazingly, the FDA has finally, after 3 years of wrangling, approved over-the-counter sale of Plan B, an emergency contraceptive pill. The victory is partial because you need to be 18 or older to purchase it without a doctor's note. If you're under 18, you need to still have documentation from your physician (or nurse practitioner). The politics behind the approval process were laid bare in this (sincerely)
fascinating GAO report [note: links to .pdf file]. I also hope that OTC approval will
avoid this.
Plan B previously discussed on MeFi here.
posted by scblackman
on Aug 24, 2006 -
65 comments
"In 2006, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
distributed a 38-question survey to 5,918 FDA scientists to examine the state of science at the FDA. The
results paint a picture of a troubled agency: hundreds of scientists reported significant interference with the FDA’s scientific work, compromising the agency’s ability to fulfill its mission of protecting public health and safety."
posted by daksya
on Jul 20, 2006 -
25 comments
This is not good news. U.S. health officials have issued a warning about possible birth defects in infants born to women who take the antidepressant Paxil during the first trimester of pregnancy.
posted by lilboo
on Sep 29, 2005 -
38 comments
Your mother was right. You can go blind from doing that. Federal health officials are examining rare reports of blindness among some men using the impotence drugs
Viagra and Cialis. Since it doesn't actually do anything,
Enzyte should still be safe.
posted by hipnerd
on May 27, 2005 -
20 comments
Singaporean scientists
genetically modify zebra fish to detect water pollutants by turning fluorescent. An American company realizes there's a consumer market for novelty glow-in-the-dark fish,
and starts selling the US's first genetically modified pet. While the FDA, which oversees GM animals,
'finds no reason to regulate', California's Fish and Game Commission
bans sales in the state over ethical concenrns, and a coalition of watchdog groups
files suit to support a national ban.
A year later, GloFish are still on sale, and
California's reconsidering its sales block. With the first GM pet quietly swimming into homes, and others (
like hypo-allergenic cats) close behind, are we ready for a designer pet invasion?
posted by thomascrown
on Dec 20, 2004 -
51 comments
Chemical heads Your hair is drab. Dull. Needs more volume. Needs less frizz. It needs something. Maybe it needs
cetyl alcohol. Mixed with a dash of
propylene glycol, and how about a little
butane, or
acrylamide?
Once upon a time, people lathered, rinsed, never repeated, and went on their merry bad-hair days. Then, science and chemistry specialized the way folks condition and shine.
Companies began creating new compounds so they could design products for specific hair types. Now,
some consumer groups worry about the mix of chemicals: they point to incomplete labeling and little government oversight of the cosmetics and hair industry, accusations the
Food and Drug Administration does not deny.
"The FDA needs to define what is safe to put in these products, and come up with standards," says Tim Kropp, a senior scientist with the
Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit consumer organization in Washington that helped produce a study on problem ingredients in everyday products. "
There are no safety standards in place."
(to access main link, a little help from BugMeNot).
More inside.
posted by matteo
on Oct 4, 2004 -
18 comments
