Fix the FDA

Delauro sums it up well: all the Bush Administration ever did was disregard the public in favour of industry and corporations.

Hi KT -- Hope you enjoyed the weekend. It looks like the Obama adminstration is going to have play "Whack-a-Mole" with virtually every regulatory agency. I agree that there has been so much neglect in this area, particularly with imports from China. Also the FDA could regulate tobacco in an effort to reduce smoking.
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There is the financial crisis, there is health care, there is stimulus, etc., etc. How does he prioritize? What Executive Order minefields has the Bush adminstration left behind to thawrt his efforts?
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As Oliver Hardy commented more tha once to Stan Laurel, here's "another fine mess' that has to be cleaned up.
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You know what else the FDA is a joke on? Nutritional Supplements. There are people every day taking all manner of "vitamins" and other supplements who don't have a CLUE what they are really taking. Look at the pro athletes that get positive tests from over the counter supplements that don't list the ingredients that are actually in the pills. Besides that a lot of supplement companies have different products coming off the same lines and they have a lot of cross contamination. But the FDA? They want no part in regulating these supplements. Mind you ephedra was on the market for YEARS as an OTC supplement. I myself took it plenty of times. But it was only after several athletes, most notably an offensive lineman from the Minnesota Vikings, died after taking supplements with ephedra in them that the FDA pulled those products off the market. Yet if you take any EAS product you still run the risk of taking some ephedra because they still make ephedra based products but they just don't sell them in the U.S. and again there is the cross contamination. Right now there are several NFL players facing suspension because they all took the same supplement, something called star caps I believe, that had something in it that wasn't on the label. And the funny thing is the NFL knew that the company that makes star caps was lying about what was in their product but the FDA didn't. Some how ill bet that the supplement makers were pretty big donors to GWB.

"Set it adrift" is an understatement.
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The agency and its mission has been actively undermined.

It's the same story over at the FTC. I attended an open workshop on green claims in the textiles and building industry this past summer, and the FTC reps there admitted they weren't enforcing existing regulations. In their words "It's not a rollover issue" if consumers are confused or put off by confusing or fraudulent claims about "green" products. But it IS an issue of consumer confidence and the future of the promised wonderfulness of the Green Economy if people view environmental claims as just so much snake oil. (Example: the sudden appearance of "bamboo" clothing and household textiles, which are actually just mislabeled rayon.)

(I realize I post on some pretty odd subjects; it all sorta makes sense once you know I am an American Studies professor with three degrees in textiles. I blog elsewhere on ethical consumption with an emphasis on clothing, and am on sabbatical writing a book on pink and blue. If you see me posting here, you can assume I am procrastinating.)

The Washington Post reported the other day that the incoming Obama administration has been scrutinizing the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and plans to give it a "facelift."
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First off, the likely plan is to break off the agency from the Department of Homeland Security, a move that by itself would help restore the pride that folks at FEMA felt when it was an independent agency.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/24/AR2008112402461.html

Oddly enough, the origins of the FDA are very convenient to cite if you want a quick example of why unregulated markets are not the panacea that true-believer Conservatives imagine. As in most things, the ideal is a proper balance between public stewardship and private self-interest. It's not coincidental that the balance hasn't been this askew since the last groundbreaking economic meltdown.
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http://www.fda.gov/oc/history/historyoffda/default.htm
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Adulteration and misbranding of foods and drugs had long been a fixture in the American cultural landscape, though the egregiousness of the problems seemed to have increased by the late 19th century (or at least they became more identifiable). By this time science had advanced significantly in its ability to detect this sort of fraud. Also, legitimate manufacturers were becoming more concerned that their trade would be undermined by purveyors of deceitful goods. Quinine-containing cinchona bark powder could be made less therapeutically effective--and much more profitable--by cutting it with just about anything, alum and clay masked poor wheat flour and thus netted a heftier return for the unethical company, and sufferers of any number of serious or self-limited diseases were relieved only of their finances by vendors of worthless nostrums. Even the so-called ethical drug firms were guilty of this practice.

Dirks--
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A primary source of market failure is asymmetrical information between seller and buyer of a good. Regulation of sellers goes back to medieval bazaars, where fair weights were certified.
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These policies, of course benefit honest traders. Otherwise they are driven out of business by people selling adulterated products.

I know its early and this is way off topic but I hope we will be discussing Barry McCaffery at some point today and how he sold out the American people, and the Military and even at times oddly enough Don Rumsfield, to line his own pockets all the while being allowed to do so by major television networks who of course are not even reporting the story. I wonder if TIME will be reporting on it or looking the other way like everybody else.
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P.S.
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I am listening to Sarah Failin Palin and she is totally recycling her stump speech and trying to make it apply to Saxby Chambliss. This is such an EPIC FAIL.

FTC
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And the EPA. I know people there. One would deliver a memo to a supervisor, saying the proposed policy change was illegal. The word from above was "Let them sue us. Implement it."
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And now the traditional blogospheric lament. Why didn't the media report on this while it was happening?
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More to the point, as George Lakoff has pointed out, this looks to the media and the Congress like three issues--the FDA, FTC, EPA--when it is in fact one issue.

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jayack: The agency and its mission has been actively undermined.
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Oh goodness gracious, no...actively? The principle is that the bad actors will weed themselves out of business because they are producing an inferior product. Whether an industry is regulated or not is irrelevant to the Market. As it concerns this baby formula-melamine issue, it should only take thousands of infant sicknesses and deaths in order for this principle to assert itself. They're only sacrifices on the altar of That Greater Glory, the Free Market.

Karen

Happy Birthday!!

Happy Birthday KT.

Altho' not the only ineffective department during the Bush 2 years I am amazed at how little fuss we have made when it comes to our food and medicines. So a timely review should be on the list of priorities. As sg noted above, I look in vain for a post on the Expert-Talking Head/Business/Military Connection set out by the NYT in much detail over Gen McCaffrey, a regular NBC type. I hope this will be up for discussion.

And, KT, Happy Birthday.

HBD, KT!

Thanks for your efforts.

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It's Karen's birthday? Hey - Happy Birthday; you share your bith date with:
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Bette Midler
Richard Pryor
Lee Trevino
Woody Allen
Lou Rawls
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and many others...

KT-
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Not planning to beat this to death; I thought the sarcasm was evident.
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Yes, when toxic toys came in from China, it was noted in the story that the inspection facility was laughingly small and ineffective. But we didn't see any 12 part Chanda Levin series on the illegal dismantling of the regulatory apparatus.
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Also didn't see two years of hearings on the same thing.
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As digby says, there are a lot of land mines laid.

OT and probably a little bit in bad taste
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But where is the poster who promised that the Hillary Clinton as SOS was baloney all because "Al Giordano said so"? It seems Al's batting average is tanking right about now.

KT -- Happy birthday! How does a new adminstration queue up its new staff to address these issues?

I have a serious question. When was the last time a new president was asked if the people in his cabinet would do what he told them to do? If anybody can remember another time it has happened I would love to know.

Elaine Shannon at Environmental Working Group here. I loved being at Time with Karen (Happy 26th Birthday!!!) and the rest of the Swampland crew, but I couldn't pass up the chance to hammer away at the environmental health issues that matter to every one of us. Especially our kids. Most especially now, when there's a real chance for change. Yep, we expect the new admin to give FDA a top-down bottom house-cleaning. But as you'll see on our website (ewg.org), we're not waiting for the new team to get rolling. Ken Cook, my boss, has written to all the major North American formula makers, asking them to tell the public what they're doing to keep the formula supply free of deadly melamine and other industrial chemicals. Ken's letter went out Wednesday. We're still waiting. If any of you want to lend your voices to the effort, you can write Karen here, write me on our site (enviroblog.org) and write the formula makers yourselves. The names and addresses are on Ken's letters at: http://www.ewg.org/node/27390
Elaine

Chris Matthews on the angry left being Obama's real problem Yeah that guy is REALLY trying to get elected to the Senate. lol