On average, backover car accidents kill some 230 people a year, mostly children and mostly in accidents in which a parent or another relative is driving, writes the New York Times in an Editorial. Another 18,000 people are injured annually in backover accidents. Yet the Obama administration has balked at carrying out a law that requires rearview technology in new cars…. One reason the industry doesn’t want mandatory rearview cameras is that it makes more money selling them as options. The added cost to a car is small — $160 to $200, according to a government estimate from 2010 — and that is surely too high now, given the technology’s declining cost.
Sugar Rush: Land Rights and the Supply Chains of the Biggest Food and Beverage Companies
A new report by Oxfam shows how one crop – sugar– has been driving large-scale land acquisitions and land conflicts at the expense of small-scale food producers and their families. Major food and beverage companies rarely own land, but they depend on it for the crops they buy, including sugar. These companies, says Oxfam, must urgently recognize this problem, and take steps to ensure that land rights violations and conflicts are not part of their supply chains.
FDA and Johnson & Johnson Fail to Act on Acetaminophen Risks
During the last decade, more than 1,500 Americans died after accidentally taking too much of a drug renowned for its safety: acetaminophen, one of the nation’s most popular pain relievers. Acetaminophen – the active ingredient in Tylenol, produced by McNeil Consumer Healthcare, a unit of Johnson & Johnson – is considered safe when taken at recommended doses. Yet a new investigation by Pro Publica shows that federal regulators have delayed or failed to adopt measures designed to reduce deaths and injuries from acetaminophen overdose, which the agency calls a “persistent, important public health problem.” The FDA has repeatedly deferred decisions on consumer protections even when they were endorsed by the agency’s own advisory committees, records show.
Four Alcohol Brands Dominate Popular Music Mentions
Four alcohol brands – Patron tequila, Hennessy cognac, Grey Goose vodka, and Jack Daniel’s whiskey – accounted for more than half of alcohol brand mentions in the songs that mentioned alcohol use in Billboard’s most popular song lists in 2009, 2010 and 2011, according to a new study published online by Substance Use & Misuse. The first study to examine the context of specific brand mentions in depth, researchers found that alcohol use was portrayed as overwhelmingly positive, with negative consequences rarely given.
New Report Says Eating More Fruits and Vegetables Can Save Lives and Money
The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new report The $11 Trillion Reward that demonstrates that new policies that increase consumption of fruits and vegetables can save lives and money. The report recommends national and local actions to achieve this goal.
California Legislature Considers 30 Gun Laws
The Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence has analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of 30 new guns laws under consideration by the California state legislature in 2013.
How a Cabal Keeps Generics Scarce
According to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, a group that maintains a closely watched drug-shortage database, reports the New York Times, 302 drugs were in short supply as of July 31, up from 211 about a year earlier. About a year ago, President Obama signed a law that was supposed to end chronic shortages of lifesaving drugs. But the critical lack of generic drugs continues unabated. It is a preventable crisis that is inflicting suffering on patients and, in some cases, causing needless deaths.
Trans Pacific Partnership Trade Pact Threatens Public Health
Two recent commentaries summarize the public health objections to the Trans Pacific Partnership, a new global trade pact now in its final stages of negotiation. An editorial in the New York Times argued that “American trade officials need to toughen their stance when Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations resume. They should be siding with the public and those concerned about public health, not the makers of products known to be lethal and highly addictive.” In an earlier Op Ed in the Times, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg asked “Why is Obama Caving on Tobacco?”. He wrote that “a deal that sells out our national commitment to public health, and forfeits our sovereign authority over our tobacco laws, does not merit the support of Mr. Obama; of the Senate, which would have to ratify it; or of the American people.”
Conflicts of Interest in Approvals of Additives to Food Out of Balance
A recent article in JAMA Internal Medicine concludes that between 1997 and 2012, financial conflicts of interest were ubiquitous in determinations that an additive to food was generally regarded as safe (GRAS). The lack of independent review in GRAS determinations raises concerns about the integrity of the process and whether it ensures the safety of the food supply, particularly in instances where the manufacturer does not notify the Food and Drug Administration of the determination.
Why South Africa’s Proposed Advertising Ban Matters
In an editorial in Addiction, David Jernigan explains that South Africa’s proposed ban on alcohol advertising in Africa is a bellwether for the continent, whose populations are already among the most adversely affected by alcohol use in the world. An advertising ban may give the public health community a chance to keep the abstainers abstaining, and to convince the heavy drinkers that there are better ways to live—and die.
Corporations and Health Watch 