Aspartame: Sweet Taste of Cancer?
Aspartame, the artificial sweetener that turns up in countless diet food products, may not be healthy for you, especially if you consider cancer unhealthy.
A new study on aspartame conducted by the Ramazzini Foundation reveals that aspartame causes a dose-dependent increase in cancers (lymphomas, leukemias and breast cancers) when consumed at levels approaching those consumed by humans in diet soft drinks.
Now hold on here, aspartame is a product approved and staunchly defended by the FDA. Surely the FDA would never approve a product that was unsafe? In fact, the FDA initially banned the use of aspartame up until the 1980s because of uncertainties about its health risks, including evidence that it may cause brain tumors. It wasnt until 1981 that the FDA finally approved the substance. Who was the man responsible for finally pushing through FDA approval of aspartame? None other than Donald Rumsfeld.
Donald Rumsfeld was at that time chairman of GD Searle, the company that manufactured aspartame. Rummy became a member of Ronald Reagans White House transition team and hand-picked crony Arthur Hayes Hull Jr. to be the new head of the FDA. By July of 1981 aspartame was legal in dry foods and by October 1982 it was made legal for carbonated beverages (over the objections of the National Soft Drink Association).
While the recent flap over the New Zealand woman who overdosed on aspartame-flavored gum made a media splash, the clinical evidence of the dangers of aspartame is extensive and goes back decades. Ostensibly the FDA is there to protect consumers from dangerous food and drugs, but in light of other recent FDA screw-ups (painkiller Vioxx was on the market for years before being pulled off the shelves last year because it causes heart attacks and strokes) it may be that the FDA cant be trusted to look out for the nations health.
More Antiobiotic Resistant Illness Coming Right Up
Folks who were interested in FearTheReaper's post about antibiotic-resistant gonorrhea might find this little news story worth reading. The FDA is planning on approving one of the last-resort antibiotics for use in cattle -- despite the fact that there are a dozen other drugs that work on bovine respiratory disease (the disease the drug's to be used for), while the drug in question is a version of
the only effective treatment for serious infections in cancer patients and a reliable lifesaver against several other nearly invincible infections.
Humans have one last-ditch antibiotic, which the Feds are about to approve for use in cows -- who have twelve other drugs to treat the same illness.
Even better: once approved, there's nothing keeping people from putting the drug into cattle feed as a preventative.
Being realists, the FDA advisers in September said more than just no. They told the FDA that if it approves cefquinome, then it should at least impose limits to minimize the potential consequences. One suggestion was to explicitly preclude "off label" use of the drug -- that is, to tell veterinarians that it can be used only for bovine respiratory disease.
But Sundlof said that, under FDA rules, those decisions must be left up to veterinarians unless there is clear evidence that wider use is causing harm. . . . raising a point that opponents do not find very reassuring, he noted: "As soon as we have the first glimpse of evidence that off-label use of a drug is causing resistance, we have the authority to prohibit off-label use."
Of course, by that point, the horse -- er, I mean, cow -- will be out of the barn.
Bitch_PhD thinks even antibiotic soap should only be available to people who need it, and that using Purell is an anti-social act.
US Government Wants You to Eat Shit and Die
I wish that headline was hyperbole. Unfortunately, its not. While the Republicans controlled Congress food safety inspections dropped considerably due to years of stagnant spending. The FDA is only conducting 25% of food safety inspections of US produced food than it did three years ago. Overall, food inspections have been cut in half since 2003 and there are 12% fewer FDA employees in the field who concentrate on food issues.
We have a food safety crisis on the horizon, said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia.
The number of food contamination problems, like the recent spinach e-coli outbreak, are increasing. The FDA has taken to reacting to food problems, rather than preventing them. Which means more of us citizens get to die, then after they will look at what went wrong. This is exactly what has happened during the current peanut butter salmonella outbreak. 256 people have fallen ill in 41 states since August. FDA inspectors went to the ConAgra plant on February 14th; a day after the CDC told them that the companys peanut butter was the source of the outbreak. Inspectors had not been to the plant since February 2005.
This is all very bad, but expected with a government that gets on its knees and sucks the cock of every corporation it can find. But what isnt expected is the government being forced by a federal judge to LET a company test for mad cow disease. Yep, you read that right. The federal government was trying to stop a company from testing its own cows for mad cow disease.
The government wanted to stop Creekstone Farms Premium Beef from testing because larger companies were concerned that they would have to follow suit if Creekstone tested its beef and then advertised it as safe. The Agriculture Department threatened to prosecute Creekstone is it tested all of its cows. The department tests currently only 1% of slaughtered cows.
U.S. District Judge James Robertson ruled that the government does not have the authority to regulate the test. Robertson put his order on hold until the government can appeal. If the government does not appeal by June 1, he said the ruling would take effect.
The Agriculture Department cut testing for mad cow by 90% last July because they claimed widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
So, there it is, your Bush administration at work, doing what it can to allow you to die so meat companies can make as much money as possible.
FearTheReaper will be appearing at the San Jose Improv April 13-15.
FDA Trying To Kill Us Via Cows
The FDA is preparing to approve an antibiotic used in cattle, despite warnings from FDA advisors and health groups. The antibiotic treats a pneumonia-like disease in cows and is described as highly potent. Critics are concerned that if the drug is approved it will result in health problems for humans.
The drug, called cefquinome, belongs to a class of highly potent antibiotics that are among medicine's last defense against several serious human infections. No drug from that class has ever been approved in the United States for use in animals.
The American Medical Association and about a dozen other health groups are warning the FDA that the drug would speed up resistance to that particular class of antibiotic. An FDA advisory board also voted last fall to reject a companys request to market the drug for cattle. Both fear that it would create superbugs that could be spread to people.
But the FDA is still on track to approve cefquinome this spring. Why? Because the system is set up in favor of the drug companies.
"The industry says that 'Until you show us a direct link to human mortality from the use of these drugs in animals, we don't think you should preclude their use,'" said Edward Belongia, an epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation.
In the mid-1990s the FDA approved an antibiotic for poultry against the recommendations of health experts. It didnt take long for doctors to hospitalize people suffering from diarrhea due to bacterial strains resistant to the drug. At that point the FDA asked for a ban, which went into effect in 2005. The damage, however, is irreversible.
But, hey, at least the cows wont be coughing.
FDA Goes to Plan B
Pending an absurdly long reviewing process for a drug that essentially has been on the market for years (in the form of taking several birth control pills at once,) the "morning after pill," Plan B, had finally been approved by the FDA for over the counter sales - but only for those over 18.
The Food and Drug Administration approved an application today making the long-debated emergency contraceptive Plan B, commonly known as the "morning-after pill," available without a prescription to women 18 and older.
The FDA said Barr Laboratories, the maker of Plan B, could begin selling the drug, but only at pharmacies and health clinics. Women purchasing the drug will have to show proof of age.
While this is great news, once again the Luddites are at it, and they fought tooth and nail to keep this from happening. Fortunately to no avail.
Many social conservatives in and out of Congress have battled to keep the drug from becoming available without a prescription. Some say that could encourage promiscuity, and others say use of the pill causes a very early abortion. Their position had for almost three years trumped an overwhelming medical and scientific consensus that the drug could be safely dispensed by a pharmacist without a prescription.
[...]
The group Concerned Women for America has led the opposition to wider availability of Plan B, and its president, Wendy Wright, criticized the administration last week for its apparent change of position. She called for von Eschenbach's nomination to be withdrawn, citing his "pandering to political activists and a drug company."
"The FDA would be overstepping its precedent and authority to make Plan B available nonprescription," Wright said on the organization's Web site. "It defies common sense to allow easy access to a high-dose drug, based on the age of the person who buys it, when a low dose for anyone . . . requires medical oversight."
Feigning "concern" for young woman is a nice way of making it seem like these groups actually want to do something besides stick their noses into people's bedrooms and force them to live their lives according to some outdated, twisted interpretation of Christianity. The real irony here is that these are the very same groups who vehemently oppose abortion - and increasing the availability of Plan B means fewer abortions because of fewer unwanted pregnancies. They can't even make the argument that because "life begins at conception" that this pill somehow causes an abortion because it prevents fertilization from ever happening, though it's not stopping some of them from doing just that.
So a victory for progressives, and one that should be noted was significantly aided by Hillary Clinton, despite her love/hate relationship with many liberals.
FDA Considering Approval of the Morning After Pill
The FDA says it's moving closer to approving Plan B for over-the-counter use. The announcement came as a surprise, as the approval process has been bogged down by controversy for years.
Some conservatives say easy access to Plan B will be the gateway leading to slutty sin, while many religious folks call it a form of abortion.
In a statement, acting FDA commissioner Dr. Andrew von Eschenbach said discussions between the government and the drug's manufacturers could be completed in weeks.
However, the change of heart has some Democrats suspicious. Von Eschenbach is President Bush's nominee to head the FDA. Confirmation hearings begin Tuesday.
Two committee Democrats, Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York and Patty Murray of Washington, called today's FDA letter a "delay tactic" and promised to continue blocking von Eschenbach's nomination until the FDA actually approves over-the-counter sales of Plan B.
"Rather than moving this process forward and doing right by the American people," the two senators said in a joint statement, "the administration is continuing to play a game of smoke and mirrors."
The battle over Plan B has jeopardized von Eschenbach's confirmation at a time when many believe the agency needs permanent leadership to keep up with scientific developments and to resolve questions about its oversight of prescription safety. The FDA has been considering Plan B's fate since 2003.
Even if approved, most likely Plan B would be available without prescription only to women over 18 years old.
The drug maker's ad