Opinions
Opinions
| Date | Opinions | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 6, 2012 |
''The F.D.A.’s Token Gesture'' "After withdrawing its own 34-year-old request/promise to restrict the routine use of penicillin and tetracyclines in farm animal feed, the F.D.A. made it crystal clear that, despite the increasingly common threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria in supermarket meat, it would leave the regulating up to industry itself." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jan 6, 2012 |
''FDA takes step in right direction'' "Wednesday's announcement that federal drug regulators will now require U.S. farmers and ranchers to limit their use of certain antibiotics in cows, pigs, chickens and turkeys is a long overdue positive ruling that should help reduce the growing threat that antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections pose to humans. Welcome as the edict is, it does not go far enough. Additional restrictions or, preferably, bans on their use are necessary to properly safeguard public health." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jan 6, 2012 |
''Antibiotics and agriculture'' "Federal drug regulators Wednesday announced new rules requiring farmers and ranchers to restrict their use of a critical class of antibiotics known as cephalosporins in cattle, pigs, chickens and turkeys." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jan 6, 2012 |
"No act of Congress, no executive edict, no environmental permit or court ruling, has the power to overturn the laws of nature. Two recent news items illustrate why this matters." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Dec 25, 2011 |
''Speed up work on payment disclosure'' "Two-and-a-half months after blowing a congressional deadline, federal officials have finally gotten around to rolling out the Physician Payments Sunshine Act -- a historic new law requiring medical device and pharmaceutical industries to disclose payments to doctors." |
Conflicts of Interest |
| Nov 23, 2011 |
''Learning from listeria outbreak'' "Prosecutors may not end up filing criminal charges against operators of a Colorado farm whose tainted cantaloupes are suspected of killing 29 people." |
Food Safety |
| Nov 11, 2011 |
''Listeria outbreak cries for changes, not hysteria'' "The cantaloupe-caused outbreak of listeria created a tragedy for those infected by the bacteria and for their families. As of the end of last month, the death toll had risen to 28, the number of reported illnesses had climbed to 133, and one infected woman miscarried." |
Food Safety |
| Nov 5, 2011 |
''N.Y. has to really study gas drilling impact'' "When Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he would let science and health concerns drive his decision about issuing permits for hydraulic fracturing natural gas wells, we were encouraged. When we read the draft Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement prepared by the state Department of Environmental Conservation, however, that encouragement evaporated." |
Health Impact Assessment |
| Oct 27, 2011 |
"The deadly Listeriosis outbreak tied to Colorado cantaloupe is unusual Never before in the U.S. has this disease been known to spread via whole fruit, federal officials say." |
Food Safety |
| Oct 19, 2011 |
''Thinking outside the doctor’s office to build a strong, healthy nation'' "The most urgent health problems facing our nation — such as obesity, asthma, diabetes, heart disease and injuries — are shaped more by where we live and work than by what happens in the doctor’s office or hospital." |
Health Impact Assessment |
| Oct 18, 2011 |
"Among the hazards that face Americans each day, eating cantaloupe is low on the list for anyone who isn't allergic to it. Yet 23 people across the country died recently, and hundreds of others were sickened from eating cantaloupes contaminated by listeria." |
Food Safety |
| Oct 14, 2011 |
"Cantaloupe is the latest food contamination scare for American consumers. With at least 23 deaths from listeria linked to Colorado cantaloupes, it is the deadliest U.S. outbreak of foodborne illness in a quarter century." |
Food Hazards |
| Sep 30, 2011 |
''Lessons of the Listeria Outbreak'' "The deaths caused by listeria bacteria on cantaloupe is a warning that both the food industry and the government need to do more to protect the public." |
Food Hazards |
| Sep 20, 2011 |
''Safer drug supply requires update to our regulation'' "Americans might expect their prescription drugs to be “Made in the U.S.A.,” but just like clothing or electronics, their medicine is increasingly produced in developing nations. In fact, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, at least 80 percent of the ingredients in U.S. drugs now originate overseas. This could be real cause for concern." |
Drug Safety |
| Sep 16, 2011 |
''Killing Jobs and Making Us Sick'' "'In January, Mr. Obama signed a food safety law that provides broad new authority to the Food and Drug Administration,' wrote Robert Pear in Friday’s Times, in an article about the Congressional appropriations mess. But House Republicans, he added, had voted 'to cut the agency’s budget.' |
Food Hazards |
| Sep 4, 2011 |
''Congress must maintain funding for food safety'' "My 3 year old daughter Aly ate E. coli contaminated food in the summer of 1999 and died as a result. Her story is proof that deadly pathogens lurk in the foods we eat every day." |
Food Hazards |
| Aug 29, 2011 |
Distribution System OK, But it Can be Exploited Drug distribution may involve many trading partners, which can make it difficult to determine the products’ sources or authenticity. Medicines are often bought and sold across state lines; moved in whole or partial lots; and repackaged or relabeled. These practices may be appropriate, but bad actors also may exploit vulnerabilities in this system. |
Drug Safety |
| Aug 16, 2011 |
''Putting politics into food safety'' "A civilized, educated nation that embraces lax food safety regulations is a nation willing to accept the consequences of contaminated food. That willingness can be deadly. That’s not the path the United States should take." |
Food Hazards |
| Aug 6, 2011 |
"Scientists have warned for decades that routinely feeding antibiotics to poultry and livestock would lead to new strains of antibiotic-resistant bacteria." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Aug 6, 2011 |
''Our View: Food safety program cuts mindless, shortsighted'' "For the last month we have heard more than we needed to know about the nation's debt, and our government's inability to bring spending under control." |
Food Hazards |
| Jul 24, 2011 |
''The end of the era of antibiotics'' "For decades, we have lived in blissful ignorance of the infectious diseases that tormented earlier generations. Just take a pill, or get a shot, and they will go away. But the miracle drugs are starting to fail, even for common diseases - and we have ourselves to blame." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jul 19, 2011 |
"To me, the biggest issue is not whether pigs are raised organically or "naturally"; it's whether they're raised well." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| Jun 11, 2011 |
"The deaths of 31 people in Europe from a little known strain of E. coli have raised alarms worldwide, but we shouldn't be surprised. Our food often betrays us." |
Food Safety |
| Jun 2, 2011 |
''The High Cost of Cheap Meat'' "The point of factory farming is cheap meat, made possible by confining large numbers of animals in small spaces. Perhaps the greatest hidden cost is its potential effect on human health." |
Antibiotics in Food Animal Production |
| May 1, 2011 |
''Health Impact Assessments Are Needed In Decision Making About Environmental And Land-Use Policy'' "The importance to public health of environmental decisions—including those about land use, transportation, power generation, agriculture, and environmental regulation—is increasingly well documented. Yet many decision makers in fields not traditionally focused on health continue to pay little if any attention to the important health effects of their work." |
Health Impact Assessment |
