Health

Costly Silence

by Bob Burton — October 4, 2008 - 6:14am

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence (NICE), a UK government agency charged with deciding whether drugs should be subsidized by the British government, has been criticized by some patient groups for refusing to approve new and expensive drugs.

Main Source: 
The Independent (UK), October 1, 2008

The Beginning of the End of Cigarettes for Sale in Pharmacies?

by Anne Landman — October 2, 2008 - 2:32pm
  • Topics: Ethics, Health, Tobacco

    • On October 1, 2008, the city of San Francisco put a law into effect that prohibits the sale of cigarettes in pharmacies. Walgreens drug store chain and Altria/Philip Morris have filed lawsuits against the city over the measure. In a September 30, 2008 statement about the new law, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom related the city's simple rationale: "Pharmacies should be places where people go to get better, not where people go to get cancer."

    It's Not Rocket Science

    by Diane Farsetta — September 24, 2008 - 4:35pm

    The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is poised to end "a six-year-old battle between career EPA scientists" who want to regulate a chemical linked to thyroid problems in pregnant women and children, and the White House and Pentagon, where officials oppose setting a drinking-water safety standard for the chemical, perchlorate. Guess who's likely to win?

    Main Source: 
    Washington Post, September 22, 2008

    A Veneer of Health

    by Judith Siers-Poisson — September 24, 2008 - 3:15pm

    The Burson-Marsteller PR firm did pro bono communications and media relations support for America's Health Care at Risk: Finding a Cure, which is billed as "a bi-partisan conference bringing together major stakeholders in the health care debate for a high-level dialogue aimed at generating real and lasting solutions." While organizers of the conference were thrilled to have the free help, they may have been wise to check on B-M's health credentials.

    Main Source: 
    Bulldog Reporter Daily 'Dog, September 17, 2008

    Rick Berman Gets Fat off the Obesity Industry

    by John Stauber — September 24, 2008 - 7:02am

    Kevin Anderson, blog editor for the UK Guardian, was bemused by an advertisement posted in the Washington DC subway. "This ad of a man's beer belly stuffed with bills railing away against trial lawyers probably makes little sense to the average American. ... Figuring out who is behind ads like this is even more interesting. The ad highlights an innocuous sounding website www.ConsumerFreedom.com (because who would be against consumer freedom?). What is this group?

    Main Source: 
    The Guardian (UK), September 23, 2008

    Whatever Industry Wants

    by Sheldon Rampton — September 23, 2008 - 9:09am

    Public interest groups, including the Center for Science in the Public Interest, are blasting the Food and Drug Administration for relying on industry-funded studies in evaluating the safety of bisphenol A, a chemical widely used in food packaging materials.

    Main Source: 
    Integrity in Science Watch, September 22, 2008

    An Unhealthy Impact on Local Reporting

    by Diane Farsetta — September 15, 2008 - 10:46am

    "A hospital complains about a reporter and pulls ads from the paper. The paper reassigns him. The paper -- offered three chances -- declines to deny that one caused the other," summarizes the Columbia Journalism Review. CJR was following up on a Wall Street Journal article about Carilion Health System, which is Roanoke, Virginia's sole healthcare provider.

    Main Source: 
    Columbia Journalism Review, September 9, 2008

    They Don't Need No Sponsored Health Education

    by Diane Farsetta — September 3, 2008 - 1:46pm

    Corporate-funded "educational" materials about healthy eating distributed to British schools have been criticized by Britain's Food Standards Agency, the Department of Health and dieticians' groups. "It's bad nutritional advice, which could give children wrong ideas about food at a very impressionable time," said Richard Watts of the Children's Food Campaign. The campaign is "assembling a dossier" on such materials, to prod the government to act.

    Main Source: 
    The Observer (UK), August 31, 2008

    Best-Selling Cholesterol Drugs Found Ineffective

    by Anne Landman — September 2, 2008 - 12:53pm

    Three million people worldwide are taking the new, heavily advertised anti-cholesterol drugs Zetia and Vytorin, despite a lack of clinical evidence that they reduce cardiovascular disease or heart attacks, or help patients live longer.

    Main Source: 
    New York Times, September 1, 2008
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