Recently in Public Policy Category

The debate rages on among the presidential candidates as to whose health care plan is more practical and affordable – and, therefore, ultimately more universal. Meanwhile, Massachusetts already has a universal health care plan – and its costs keep going up. To control insurance expenditures that have been escalating since the universal coverage went into effect in the state, Massachusetts Senate President Therese Murray has proposed cost-control measures such as having an annual public hearing with health care providers to examine what’s driving up costs; requiring all medical practices to put their records online to reduce error; and prohibiting drug companies from trying to win business by giving gifts to doctors.

The pharmaceutical industry may soon have another way to boost profits, thanks to a proposed loosening of "off-label" marketing regulations by the FDA. Off-label use means prescribing a medication for a purpose other than as originally approved by the FDA. For instance, the FDA approved Prozac for use in treating depression, and yet many doctors prescribe Prozac to treat other conditions such as menopausal symptoms, insomnia, and pain.  Likewise, Botox has approval for use in beautifying patients, but it's often prescribed to treat migraines. And the drug Adderall, approved only for use in controlling hyperactivity, has been widely prescribed to control childhood obesity.

Here's yet another disturbing story about meat, right on the heels of last week's post on a related topic. According to the Los Angeles Times, several members of Congress last week called for an independent investigation into the safety of beef supplied to public schools, responding to concerns raised by a horrifying video showing sick cows being tortured enroute to the slaughterhouse. The video, filmed at one of the nation's largest meat suppliers, shows weak and sick cows unable to stand and being subjected to torture in order to force them to walk. Regulations require that cows walk from one pen to the next to prove that they are healthy enough to slaughter. According to ABC News, Hallmark/Westland Meat Company, where the footage was shot, "is the No. 2 supplier of beef to a USDA program that distributes the beef to needy families, the elderly, and also to schools, through the National School Lunch Program."

Carnivores now have something to worry about beyond cholesterol and saturated fats. It seems that the juicy red appearance of meat at your grocery store may, in fact, be a lie. When left in a butcher's case without packaging, meat retains its red color only a few days before starting to go rancid and turning gray-brown. That's just not long enough to allow for distribution and warehousing -- let alone end sales at the supermarket. So how is it that the meat at the grocery store retains its fresh rosy glow for weeks on end? According to a recent article in USA Today, the secret lies in infusing the packaging with carbon monoxide -- a widely used practice. It seems that dosing the meat with carbon monoxide keeps it looking good for at least 20 days -- double the amount of time achieved by other packaging methods. That's also about nine times the number of days beyond when it goes rancid naturally.

A recent article in the Chicago Tribune (not to mention on the Chicago lawyer's Injury Board site -- under the heading General Negligence) reveals that the nation's first official program intended to document hospital safety issues remains mired in bureaucratic and financial chaos five years after launch, with no findings yet published. In fact, staffing hasn't even been completed yet, and one of the three major components of the program hasn't yet established ground rules or appointed an advisory group.

The program was established by the Illinois state legislature in 2003 to provide the public with reliable and detailed information about the track record of various hospitals within the state, and to serve as a model of accountability for other states to emulate. Three separate studies were included in the initial plan:

Yesterday, health council members in New Jersey passed a resolution requiring that all children over the age of six months who attend daycare or preschool must have flu shots.  The vote took place at an open meeting where numerous parents opposed to the policy voiced concerns about the link between vaccinations and autism, but their protests apparently didn't dissuade the panel.  In fact, three additional new vaccinations were approved for mandatory administration, including one for pneumonia, one for meningitis, and an additional booster shot.  The recommendations go to the state commissioner for health for final approval next week.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist by nature. I don't buy into vast governmental intrigues designed to undermine our health or conceal UFO invasions. That doesn't mean, however, that I'm naïve, and that I don't understand how much influence money has on government decisions.

In an attempt to raise the nation's historically low rate of breast-feeding, federal health officials commissioned an attention-grabbing advertising campaign to convince mothers that breast feeding was good and that formula feeding posed significant health risks. The ads featured photos of insulin syringes and asthma inhalers topped with rubber nipples. But those ads never went very far. Why?

The Denmark National Food Institute recently concluded a study that indicates that hermetically sealing cheeses, lunch meats, and the like in plastic vacuum packs on your grocer's shelf may be ramping up the potency of Listeria bacteria 100-fold, turning it into a super killer. The purpose of the vacuum pack, of course, is to protect the food from contamination and to seal it off from oxygen, which can contribute to spoilage -- and shorter shelf life. Unfortunately, that oxygen deprived environment is a bonanza for Listeria monocytogenes, a bacterium that thrives in low oxygen and environments and kills 25 percent of the people it infects.

Over the past few months Chinese products (and Chinese food imports in particular) have taken a beating in the world press.

So how bad is it?

The simple truth is that no country in the world can guarantee their products to be 100% safe. Yes, but isn't food from China more dangerous than from anywhere else?

Not necessarily.

An Associated Press review  of 57 government nutrition education programs (including videos of dancing fruit, prizes for eating well, and even giving away free fruits and vegetables in school – all at a cost of over $1 billion a year) found overwhelming failure when viewed against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity. In some cases, the children became even less willing to eat good food by the end of the program. Pundits have immediately chimed in with their theories as why the programs have failed, including: