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08.09.2009 9:01 pm

Freshening up food safety

Peanuts from this Georgia company were recalled because of possible salmonella contamination in January.

Peanuts from this Georgia company were recalled because of possible salmonella contamination in January.

U.S. food safety laws are like an egg-salad sandwich that’s been left too long in the sun: Once perfectly good, it now is apt to make you…

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07.20.2009 9:00 pm

Agricultural misuse of antibiotics threatens human health.

Piglets are injected with antibiotics in this Post-Dispatch file photo.

Healthy piglets are injected with antibiotics in this Post-Dispatch file photo.

Pop quiz: Most antibiotics in the United States are used for (a) healthy farm animals or (b) people with potentially life-threatening infections?
The answer, by a long shot, is healthy farm…

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06.25.2009 9:01 pm

Big Tobacco: Regulated, but not vanquished

The federal government finally will regulate cigarette manufacturing and marketing. That’s long overdue, as anyone familiar with the tobacco industry’s shameful history can attest.
President Barack Obama — an occasional smoker who admits that he still struggles daily with his nicotine…

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06.03.2009 9:00 pm

Tobacco should be regulated like the drug it is

Indian children where skull masks at an anti-tobacco rally in Calcutta.

Indian children where skull masks at an anti-tobacco rally in Calcutta.

Cigarettes are a potent delivery device for the drug nicotine. But unlike most other drugs in widespread use, nicotine isn’t regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
This week, the…

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04.02.2009 9:00 pm

America’s food safety system needs a top-to-bottom overhaul

Safeguards that are supposed to protect Americans from tainted food are obsolete, ineffective and in urgent need of revision.
More than a dozen federal agencies are responsible for some aspect of food safety. Among them is the U.S. Department of Agriculture,…

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02.11.2009 9:00 pm

Drug makers pay to keep generics off the market

Competition makes some companies trim costs, others cut prices. Then there’s the strategy allegedly adopted by Solvay Pharmaceuticals: Pay off your competitors.
Solvay makes a prescription drug called AndroGel, a synthetic form of testosterone. It’s used by men with cancer, HIV or…

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02.02.2009 9:00 pm

Protect Americans from unsafe food

Once upon a time, Americans were concerned about unsafe food being sold to the public. So they created a food protection system that was the envy of the world.
Then one day, someone decided government isn’t the solution to our problems, government…

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10.02.2008 7:19 pm

Friday editorial: (Supreme) drug court

Is there anyone left in America who still thinks that just because a medication is approved for sale by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration it’s perfectly safe and without product defects?
If so, he or she should type the words…

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06.12.2008 9:01 pm

Friday editorial: Rotten tomatoes

tomatoes_opt.jpgTomatoes are the new spinach. They’re this year’s peanut butter and imported seafood, the latest in a painfully long line of potentially tainted foods to turn up on market shelves.
By now, it should be painfully obvious to consumers, grocers and…

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05.27.2008 9:00 pm

Wednesday editorial: Overdue watchman


chantix_opt2.jpg

The world’s premier drug regulator, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, has an almost impossible job. Before a new drug can go on the market, the FDA must assess its safety, and its only guide are studies involving at most…

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05.15.2008 9:01 pm

Friday editorial: Ask your doctor about ______!!

drugs_opt.jpgSurely you’ve seen the television ads, the ones with attractive and carefree people gamboling through fields of flowers thanks to Miracle Drug X, or kayaking up a river thanks to Miracle Cure Y. Life would be better if only your…

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