Opinions
Opinions
| Date | Opinions | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
''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 |
''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 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 |
| 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 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 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 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 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 |
| 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 |
| Mar 23, 2012 |
''Editorial: Crack down on counterfeit drugs'' Strong, national 'track and trace' system is overdue. |
Drug Safety |
| 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 |
