This entry was posted on 4/28/2008 8:16 PM and is filed under uncategorized.
27 April 2008
III of III. Health and The Hyphenation Trail: It's All About the Loops
I have stressed PFLs (Positive Feedback Loops) as not only a favorable, but more importanlty, a viable and a very real choice available to all. Unfortunately today, there is too much focus in feeding NFLs (Negative Feedback Loops), especially as America's 'dirty laundry' is being aired in the news today:
1) About 889 out of 1,586 EPA scientists surveyed in the summer of 2007 admitted they "experienced political interference in their work" (Judy Pasternak, "Political pressure reported at EPA: Survey of scientists says more than half experienced interference in last 5 years," Los Angeles Times & San Francisco Chronicle, 24 April 2008). Apparently, such allegations are not new:
"During much of the Bush administration, there have been reports of the White House watering down documents regarding climate change, industry language inserted into EPA power-plant regulations, and scientific advisory panels' conclusions about toxic chemicals going unheeded."
2) While the Canadian government is poised to declare bisphenol-a (B.P.A.) - a chemical widely used in plastics for baby bottles, beverage and food containers, and food can linings found to cause neural and bodily changes in animals - toxic, the US Department of Health and Human Services' National Toxicology Program is only calling for "further research on the chemical" (Ian Austen, "Canada Likely to Label Plastic Ingredient 'Toxic'," The New York Times, 16 April 2008).
3) Four executives at two US companies who imported toothpaste from China containing the poison diethylene glycol were criminally charged, according to the Los Angeles city attorney (Louise Story and Geraldine Fabrikant, "4 Executives Are Charged Over Tainted Toothpaste," The New York Times, 7 March 2008). Distributed to prisons, luxury hotels, hospitals, and discount stores, the poison was found in almost one million tubes of toothpaste in about 34 countries.
As if this all is not bad enough, it gets worse, and these are real killers:
1) The SEC and a Canadian regulator have accused drug maker Biovail and four executives of accounting fraud, including three accounting schemes from 2001 to 2003 to disguise the company's true financial condition (Ian Austen, "US and Canda Accuse Drug Maker of Fraud," The New York Times, 25 March 2008). The reason one executive at Biovail gave for the company's financial shortfall (about $15M to $20M) is akin to 'the dog ate my homework':
"...most of the earnings shortfall...was ultimately found to be caused by delayed, but accident-free, truck shipments to Chicago from a Biovail plant in Canada.
They missed the quarter simply because the trucks came too late."
Ahem, since when is tardiness an excuse for accounting fraud?
2) Through MRI tests, the FDA discovered that a critical blood thinner linked to nineteen deaths "contained a possibly counterfeit ingredient that mimicked the real drug" (Gardiner Harris and Walt Bogdanich, "Drug Tied to China Had Contaminant, FDA Says," The New York Times, 6 March 2008). According to reports, Baxter International purchased the "possibly counterfeit ingredient" from Scientific Protein and sold the finished product. Aside from death, other reported side effects from the product include difficulty breathing, nausea, vomiting, excessive sweating, rapidly falling blood pressure, and life-threatening shock.
After the time of Harris' and Bogdanich's report, more findings circulated, including contamination in eleven countries and 81 deaths in the US alone (Gardiner Harris, "US Identifies Tainted Heparin in 11 Countries," The New York Times, 22 April 2008).
How much longer must we wait and how many more fatalities must we report before this poison is removed from use?
3) Not to be outdone, Eli Lilly, Merck, and Schering-Plough, have pulled off real doozers:
a) Eli Lilly systematically hid the risks and side effects of its best-selling schizophrenia medicine, Zyprexa, causing may patients using the drug to develop diabetes (Alex Berenson, "In Trial, Alaska Says Lilly Concealed Risks of a Schizophrenia Drug," The New York Times, 6 March 2008). According to company memos and e-mails, Eli Lilly executives were concerned as ealy as 1999 that Zyprexa's sales would be negatively affected if doctors knew the drug caused diabetes. From a July 2001 memo from a company executive, it stated they were "betting the farm on Zyprexa".
b) As a result of its heinous deeds, Eli Lilly was sued by the state of Alaska for knowing about the adverse side-effects and playing them down for the past decade (Alex Berenson, "One Drug, Two Faces," The New York Times, 25 March 2008). From the trial, side-effects of the drug were disclosed: severe weight gain, diabetes, sharply higher cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the blook, and heart disease.
c) A panel of four cardiologists announced that Merck's Vytorin and Schering- Plough's Zetia - both widely prescribed for lowering cholesterol - may not work and should only be used as a last resort (Alex Berenson, "Doubt Cast on 2 Drugs Used to Lower Cholesterol," The New York Times, 31 March 2008).
d) In Merck's Vytorin and Schering-Plough's Zetia trial, it was found that they, like Eli Lilly, deliberately delayed the release of trial results proving that the drugs do not work - almost two years after the trial was finished (Alex Berenson, "Accusations of Delays in Releasing Drug Results," The New York Times, 1 April 2008).
Fraud, crime, failure, and the NFLs.
There is a choice...
...either requires the same amount of energy...
...it is up to you...
Ultimately, it is all about the loops...
...sooner over later, it ends up becoming kharma...
