Opinions
Opinions
| Date | Opinions | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 26, 2012 |
''Washington's election-year paralysis hurts the nation'' "A federal food safety law shifting the government's focus from responding to dangerous contamination to preventing it has been heralded as the most sweeping food security reform in decades. But 18 months after the law was enacted, the rules needed to put it into effect are nowhere to be seen. That inaction is just one example of a disheartening election-year paralysis in Washington." |
Food Safety |
| Jul 24, 2012 |
A Healthy Dose of Bipartisanship Passed by Congress on June 26 and signed by President Obama on July 9, the FDA Safety and Innovation Act will increase inspections of foreign manufacturers that supply 80 percent of the ingredients in our pharmaceuticals, putting American companies on the same footing as their foreign competitors. In addition, it requires drug makers to hold their suppliers to high standards. |
Medical Safety |
| Jul 17, 2012 |
"About six years ago my mother-in-law and I were both sickened by E. coli in bagged spinach we had in our home. I survived a painful illness, but my mother-in-law perished eight days after eating the tainted food." |
Food Hazards |
| Jul 16, 2012 |
''Delays and Difficulties in Assessing Metal-on-Metal Hip Implants'' More than 500,000 U.S. patients have received metal-on-metal hip prostheses, most of which were implanted between 2003 and 2010. These prostheses entered the market through the 510(k) pathway at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), whereby manufacturers need only demonstrate substantial equivalence to a device already on the market to gain approval. Unfortunately, there is now compelling evidence that these implants fail at a higher rate than hip prostheses made of other materials. |
Drugs and Devices at the FDA |
| Jul 11, 2012 |
''Resistance to antibiotics is becoming a crisis'' In an editorial stressing the need for new antibiotics, the Washington Post cites that some bacteria have become resistant to multiple antibiotics while the pipeline of new drugs is drying up. But a promising step by Congress could give pharmaceutical companies the incentive they need. |
Antibiotic Innovation |
| Jul 3, 2012 |
''Drug, device reform gets bipartisan push'' "The U.S. Supreme Court's eagerly awaited Affordable Care Act ruling unfortunately overshadowed the unusually bipartisan work underway at the U.S. Capitol last week, where Congress finalized sweeping legislation crammed with smaller-scale but still vital health reforms." |
Drug Safety, Drugs and Devices at the FDA |
| Jul 2, 2012 |
"The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in 1977 that it would begin prohibiting the use of some antibiotics in agriculture, but Congress objected and nothing happened. Since then, the need for restraint has grown. The wonder drugs of the 20th century have been so widely used that germs are becoming resistant to them, giving rise to “superbugs,” bacteria that are immune to one or more antibiotics. Tens of thousands of people die every year from hospital-acquired infections, the vast majority of which result from such resistant bacteria." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jul 1, 2012 |
''Next steps to thwart 'superbugs''' "An old saying goes, you don't miss your water till your well runs dry. When it comes to antibiotics, we're not only running out of water but there are no rain clouds on the horizon. The overuse and underdevelopment of these drugs have brought us close to the brink of a world without cures for deadly infections." |
Drug Manufacturing and Distribution, Antibiotic Innovation, Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jun 26, 2012 |
''Disclosure can address doctors' conflicts of interest'' Pew Prescription Project Director Daniel Carlat opines in the Philadelphia Inquirer: "Monetary relationships among doctors and drug and device companies are not inherently bad; in fact, they are crucial for advancing medical research and patient care. Yet they can also skew prescribing practices and research results. That's why transparency and education are such an elegant solution: They allow these often important relationships to exist, but only on the condition that other professionals and patients are fully informed about them." |
Medical Safety |
| Jun 6, 2012 |
''Ignoring salmonella inexcusable'' "Just when you think the Jack DeCoster egg empire couldn't look more rotten ... well, this just in: Court records managers at one of DeCoster's Iowa egg farms knew its hens were "almost certainly" laying contaminated eggs months before one of the nation's largest outbreaks of food-borne illness." |
Food Safety |
| May 22, 2012 |
''Opinion: OMB should release new food safety rules'' "Six months ago, the Food and Drug Administration met the deadline set by Congress to complete a set of proposed rules for implementing the landmark Food Safety Modernization Act of 2010. It submitted those proposals to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review. They haven't been seen or heard of since." |
Food Hazards |
| May 19, 2012 |
''Eric J. Greene: Landmark food law in political limbo?'' "When President Barack Obama last year signed a bill hailed as a milestone in food safety, he stood at an exceedingly rare intersection where persuasive majorities of businesses, policymakers and consumers wanted the same thing." |
Food Hazards |
| May 9, 2012 |
''Mad Cow Is Reason to Change Rules, Not Swear Off Beef'' "The U.S. needs a more efficient overall inspection regimen. Of the 35 million cattle slaughtered each year, only 40,000 -- much less than 0.1 percent -- are tested." |
Food Hazards |
| Apr 27, 2012 |
"While the first lady, Michelle Obama, champions the issue of healthy food, the rest of the administration does not seem to have gotten the message." |
Food Hazards |
| Apr 19, 2012 |
"A 20-state outbreak of salmonella, which includes Pennsylvania, demonstrates the pervasiveness of food-borne illness, the vast scope of the challenge to ensure safe food, and the federal government's slow pace of implementing reforms." |
Food Hazards |
| Apr 15, 2012 |
"Two important events in recent weeks a regulatory guideline and a federal court decision have raised hopes that progress can be made in curbing the widespread use of antibiotics ... " |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Apr 9, 2012 |
''Sushi Poisoning Reminder That Food System Needs Overhaul'' "Reports last week of a salmonella outbreak, possibly related to sushi, serve as a timely reminder of why the Obama administration must expedite a plan to modernize the country’s food-safety regulations, which haven’t been updated since the Great Depression." |
Food Hazards |
| Mar 23, 2012 |
''Editorial: Crack down on counterfeit drugs'' Strong, national 'track and trace' system is overdue. |
Drug Safety |
| Feb 27, 2012 |
"The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that a recent outbreak of illnesses caused by the bacteria E. coli O26 has been linked to eating raw clover sprouts served at Jimmy John's restaurants in six Midwestern states." |
Food Hazards |
| Jan 24, 2012 |
''Food safety auditors too tied to industry'' "The first hints of trouble came last Sept. 2. Trackers who watch for outbreaks of dangerous diseases noticed that seven people in Colorado had come down with listeriosis, a potentially fatal food-borne illness. Within two weeks, federal authorities had tracked the culprit — contaminated cantaloupe — to Jensen Farms, a small Colorado grower." |
Food Hazards |
| Jan 24, 2012 |
''Food safety is more than about audits'' "Food safety has always been the highest priority for the people who grow, ship and sell our nation's fresh fruits and vegetables. Recognizing there is no one solution, we take a holistic approach to food safety, constantly strengthening best practices, identifying knowledge gaps, creating new guidance on growing, handling and processing, and developing new "field to fork" training programs." |
Food Hazards |
| Jan 20, 2012 |
''Who Else Is Paying Your Doctor?'' "It took longer than expected, but the Obama administration is finally poised to enact badly needed regulations requiring that the manufacturers of drugs, medical devices and medical supplies disclose all payments they make to doctors or teaching hospitals." |
Conflicts of Interest |
| Jan 13, 2012 |
''Fatter cows, sicker people'' "The FDA has restricted the use of a minor antibiotic used by the meat industry. It's a small step to counter the widespread overuse of antibiotics on healthy animals, which helps create antibiotic-resistant bacteria that harms humans." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jan 10, 2012 |
"Last week, the Food and Drug Administration took a small step toward reducing the routine use of antibiotics in livestock, a practice that creates drug-resistant pathogens and threatens the effectiveness of some antibiotics in human medicine." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jan 7, 2012 |
"A nonprofit research center based in Phoenix analyzed 80 brands of beef, pork, chicken and turkey in five cities -- and found that 47 percent contained staphylococcus aureus, which can cause everything from skin infections to pneumonia to blood poisoning. Of the staph germs detected, half were antibiotic-resistant." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
