While regular folks may tolerate the occasional sickness that follows a catered company event, church potluck, or dining on take-out or sit-down meals from all manner of meal providers, all-too-common food-borne illnesses must get greater attention from public health officials because of the major but less publicized damage that tainted foods can cause. Consider what….
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For happy holidays, ensure safety of gifts, decorations, food prep
With seasonal festivities getting into their full swing, be sure to take common sense steps to ensure that the holidays stay safe and healthy as well as fun. As the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has reported: “Unsafe toys, cooking fires, decorating, holiday trees and candles lead to thousands of injuries and deaths each year…..
Continue ReadingBiden nominates Robert Califf to reprise his Obama-era role as FDA chief
Robert Califf, a cardiologist and President Biden’s “new” nominee to head the federal Food and Drug Administration, is a familiar face around the agency and Washington, D.C. Califf served as the FDA commissioner before — winning U.S. Senate confirmation and holding the important post for the last year of the Obama presidency. He is 70….
Continue ReadingCut the salt in prepared and packaged food, U.S. urges makers and sellers
Americans of all ages adore fast food and prepared meals, but one of the lures is these tasty items are loaded with salt. Now federal regulators have proposed new guidelines that they say could save millions of lives by reducing the salt content of commercially prepared and packaged foods. The Food and Drug Administration’s standards,….
Continue ReadingFDA will keep bumbling until Biden and Becerra at least name agency’s chief
With the Biden Administration battling the coronavirus pandemic and Democrats in the throes of determining what could be big spending for major changes in the U.S. health care system, even the president’s biggest supporters are baffled why he still hasn’t nominated a commissioner to head the federal Food and Drug Administration. The FDA, entrusted to….
Continue ReadingPacific Northwest-scorcher shows climate change can create big health risks
Climate change — to those who indulge in counter-factual thinking and who hold anti-science beliefs — may be an abstraction and a mere theory. But weather extremes became a startling, real, and deadly health threat to tens of millions in a swath of the Pacific Northwest in this country and Canada. Days of unrelenting, record-shattering….
Continue ReadingBig freeze heats up need for emergency plans for individuals and institutions
The climate change deniers can holler their heads off. But for all too many people from coast-to-coast, Mother Nature’s fury is tragically clear — as is the importance of not only future thinking but also emergency planning, by individuals and institutions. This includes knowing common sense steps to safeguard one’s self and loved ones, in….
Continue ReadingBeware of toxic heavy metals in baby foods, congressional group warns
Although parents exult when their babies start eating solids, moms and dads may be dishing up for their little darlings unexpected and harmful ingredients in commercially prepared foods — heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium, and lead at levels that may exceed federal limits. A subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform received lots….
Continue ReadingU.S. rejects expert advice, keeps its diet-nutrition guidelines mostly the same
In yet another instance of disregarding fact-based advice, the Trump Administration, after hearing public comments and assembling a panel of diet and nutrition experts, has rejected their recommendations on how the federal government should update its counsel to Americans about optimizing their eating. The federal advisories, refreshed every five years by the U.S. Department of….
Continue ReadingPandemic prompts more focus on junk foods, shots, domestic abuse, booze
Stepped up vaccinations, bans on junk food for kids, worries about domestic abuse and booze consumption by men — yes, these seemingly disparate things have something in common. They’re all getting heightened attention from experts due to the coronavirus pandemic. Let’s start with a grito (a whoop) for the leyes antichatarra or anti-junk food laws….
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