Wednesday, February 1, 2012

More Tid Bits

Health News - Smoking ban fuels rise in 'secret smokers'

A poll of 2,000 people, conducted by One Poll on behalf of the Co-operative Pharmacy, found that one in 12 respondents now have a home smoking ban in place.

More than half (57 per cent) of smokers said they now keep their habit a secret, with 21 per cent hiding their smoking from their partner and 19.6 per cent from their children.

Evidence and Tobacco

Edwards worries about FOREST's framing of tobacco control as an issue of freedom versus authoritarianism; he later suggests emphasizing "how tobacco control measures are pro-freedom by freeing smokers from an unwanted addiction, and by protecting our children from the risk of addiction and premature death." I can buy arguments about the conflicting freedoms of smokers and non-smokers in public spaces, but framing pure paternalism as being freedom-promoting is Orwellian. 

Sugar can harm like alcohol and tobacco, regulate it: article says

 At a minimum, the U.S. Food and Drug Administrationcould remove fructose from its list of itemsGenerally Recognized as Safe. That would force food makers to seek an FDA review of products with added sugars.
  “The food industry knows that it has a problem,” the authors write. “With enough clamour for change, tectonic shifts in policy become powerful.”

This time the FDA just nakedly says in court documents that the agency wants to protect the market for FDA-approved drugs. No more beating around the bush—their agenda is right out in the open! This appears to be a novel interpretation of the Food Drug and Cosmetic Act (FD&C), as evidenced by the government’s failure to cite any judicial precedent for their argument.