Last week, plaintiffs suing G.M. asked a Federal District Court to find that the company and its lawyers engaged in criminal or fraudulent activity by covering up the defect, reports the New York Times. That, the plaintiffs say, allows the court to lift the veil of confidentiality over their communications. This request presents a significant threat that could reveal even more embarrassing information about how the automaker’s lawyers dealt with the defect.
Round Up of Recent Coverage on Monsanto’s Campaign to Block GMO Labelling
Monsanto, the world’s largest producer of genetically modified seeds and herbicides, is campaigning for a federal law to block state and local GMO labelling laws. Here are a few recent stories on the campaign and its response.
Continue reading Round Up of Recent Coverage on Monsanto’s Campaign to Block GMO Labelling
Dollars for Docs: How Industry Dollars Reach Your Doctors
An updated analysis of the federal database on pharmaceutical industry payments to doctors by Pro Publica shows that 768 doctors received payments on more than half of the days in 2014. More than 14,600 doctors received payments on at least 100 days in 2014.
Nader talks car safety on 50th anniversary of ‘Unsafe at Any Speed’
Without Ralph Nader and his 1965 book Unsafe at Any Speed, the cars we drive today would be vastly different from the ones we take for granted. The Chicago Tribune interviews Ralph Nader on the book’s legacy.
Newsweek Pakistan forced to apologize for love song to the Marlboro Man
The Network for Consumer Protection, a Pakastani consumer protection organization, has won a judgment against Newsweek Pakistan for publishing an article that both implicitly and explicitly promoted tobacco use and the use of Philip Morris products. In the opinion of the Inquiry Commission of the Press Council of Pakistan, this violated the country’s Ethical Code of Practice.
“Tobacco control advocates are celebrating the ruling,” says Dr Ehsan Latif, Director of The Union’s Department of Tobacco Control, “because it strikes back against the tobacco industry’s use of opinion pieces by influential people as a means to circumvent laws, such as Pakistan’s, that ban tobacco advertising.”
The offending article, “My Favorite Mistake: When Syeda Abida Hussain Fell in Love with the Marlboro Man”, is a first-person testimonial by the well-known Pakistani politician that dwells more on the upside of her “mistake” than any downside to smoking. Although the tone is light, she paints a highly misleading picture: attributing some of her success in politics to her husky smoker’s voice, pointing out that her non-smoker father died of cancer at 55, and poignantly describing sharing a last cigarette with her mother just six hours before she died at the much older age of 76.
The article appeared on 24 February 2012 and TheNetwork for Consumer Protection filed a complaint immediately, but the final ruling of Islamabad Inquiry Commission of the Press Council of Pakistan only came on 17 June 2015. While Newsweek Pakistan’s Editor-in-Chief Fasih Ahmed denied that there was any violation if the article was read correctly, the Commission found against it and ruled that the magazine must publish an apology promptly on the same page and space.
Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups are Shaping the Story of Food
A new report by Friends of the Earth, “Spinning Food: How Food Industry Front Groups and Covert Communications are Shaping the Story of Food,” documents unprecedented levels of spending from front groups, trade associations, anti-GMO labeling campaigns, and vast corporate marketing budgets aimed at defusing public concern about the risks of chemical-intensive industrial agriculture and undermining the reputation of organic food.
U.S. Chamber of Commerce Works Globally to Fight Antismoking Measures
From Ukraine to Uruguay, reports the New York Times, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and its foreign affiliates have become the hammer for the tobacco industry, engaging in a worldwide effort to fight antismoking laws of all kinds, according to interviews with government ministers, lobbyists, lawmakers and public health groups in Asia, Europe, Latin America and the United States.
Bad Medicine: How the pharmaceutical industry is contributing to the global rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs
SumOfUs.org is a global movement of consumers, investors, and workers all around the world, standing together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable and just path for our global economy. The executive summary of their new report Bad Medicine is below and the full report is here.
The effective treatment of infections and diseases, which has been taken for granted for decades, is under threat. The emergence of virulent strains of drug-resistant bacteria, commonly known as superbugs, is prompting scientists and medical practitioners around the world to warn of a return to the pre-antibiotic era and a looming public health disaster.
Health Advocates Remake Coke Ad
Center for Science in the Public Interest has remade Coca-Cola’s iconic “Hilltop” ad with a new message. The new video is health advocates’ latest salvo in their campaign to reduce the incidence of soda-related disease in America and around the world.
Danger Behind the Wheel: The Takata Airbag Crisis and How to Fix Our Broken Auto Recall Process
A new report from the Democratic members of the Senate Commerce Committee finds that Takata, the manufacturer of defective airbags that have killed several users, was aware, or should have been aware, of serious safety and quality control lapses in its manufacturing plants as early as 2001.
Corporations and Health Watch 