Crisis Management

"The United States spent $75.1 billion last year on medical expenses, such as drugs, doctor visits and hospitalizations, related to obesity, according to a study published this month in the journal Obesity Research," the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. The study, financed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found that taxpayers paid half of the bill through Medicare and Medicaid programs.

"Tyson Foods has opened an office of Animal Well-Being, seeking to assure retail and food-service customers as well as consumers that it takes humane animal handling seriously," PR Week reports.
"Animal-rights groups fault large American meat and poultry processors for what they see as inhumane handling of animals. These groups have protested in public for years about the plight of animals raised by companies like Tyson.
... The new office will oversee audits of animal-handling practices and make them available to customers on request, but likely wouldn't publicly disclose audit results.

A news release from the Environmental Working Group reveals that "the chemical industry plans to conduct a covert campaign attacking the growing movement in California for more chemical safety testing, with tactics including the creation of phony front groups and spying on activists, according to an internal American Chemistry Council (ACC) memo. ...

Mexican restaurant chain Chi-Chi's has brought in CCG Strategic Communications to deal with PR crisis due to an outbreak of Hepatitis A linked to the restaurant, which has sickened 500 people and killed three in Pennsylvania.