Consumer Safety
Four Wisconsin in-home child care providers match sex offender addresses
“An audit of the Wisconsin Shares program released Wednesday found four cases where the addresses of in-home child-care providers matched those of registered sex offenders,” according to a report by Raquel Rutledge and Stacy Forster of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The audit was launched in response to an earlier Journal Sentinel story that showed nearly…
Read MoreChemical industry fought ban of bisphenol A
Reporters Meg Kissinger and Susanne Rust of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reviewed thousands of pages of public records, from IRS documents to financial disclosure filings, to get inside the chemical industry’s push to fight a ban on bisphenol A, a chemical used in hard, clear plastics, including baby bottles. Their analysis showed the industry has…
Read MoreFDA inspection failed to catch tainted syringes
An investigation co-published by the Chicago Tribune and ProPublica reveals that the Food and Drug Administration failed to prevent the distribution of tainted syringes linked to several deaths and serious illnesses. “Three months before the pre-filled syringes were shipped in October 2007, an FDA inspector visited the plant in North Carolina where they were made.…
Read MoreFood safety becoming responsiblity of the consumer
Following a mysterious outbreak of salmonella in 2007 linked to pot pies from ConAgra Foods, corporations have moved to place the responsibility for “food safety” on the consumer through warnings and instructions on how to prepare processed food items. The New York Times reports, “Increasingly, the corporations that supply Americans with processed foods are unable…
Read MoreHandicapped accessibility a problem at many CTA stations
An investigation into the handicapped accessibility of Chicago Transit Authority stations by a team of reporters from Columbia College Chicago found that “41 percent of the stations designated fully accessible were not.” Using FOIA, the students reviewed over 2,000 ADA-related complaints filed against the CTA from Jan. 1, 2004 through Feb. 28, 2009. Some of…
Read MoreFDA wants states to monitor their own inspectors
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration wants states to assess their own inspection programs, even after Georgia’s failed to prevent a salmonella outbreak traced to a Blakely peanut plant, exposing broad gaps in the nation’s food safety system,” according to an article by Alan Judd of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Food safety experts question the efficacy…
Read MoreJunk-mail contests exploit consumers
Abigail Goldman of the Las Vegas Sun explored the prevalence of direct-mail contests and sweepstakes that make big claims but use small type to disclose the odds of winning. According to the article, “These halfhearted disclosures make the contests perfectly legal and perfectly manipulative, at least according to consumer advocates, who argue that the schemes…
Read MoreFlorida ‘Pill Mills’ thrive
A two-part series in The Miami Herald explains how Florida storefront clinics exploit the market for narcotic painkillers. Scott Hiassen reports, “Experts blame these clinics for a startling rise in prescription-drug overdose deaths in Florida, including a 107 percent jump in oxycodone deaths in two years….Yet, regulators and police can’t control the problem — handcuffed,…
Read MoreProblems plague Georgia’s food safety system
A report by Alan Judd of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reveals that the food safety system overseen by Georgia’s Agriculture Department is riddled with problems. Only after a fatal outbreak of salmonella was tracked to a Georgia peanut processing plant did the Agriculture Department develop guidelines for inspecting such plants. “The lax oversight of Peanut Corp.’s…
Read MoreFederal car seat tests results raise safety questions
A Chicago Tribune investigation raises serious questions about the rigor of safety standards for infant car seats. Thirty one such seats either flew off their bases or exceeded injury limits in a series of frontal crashes conducted by federal researchers using 2008 model year vehicles. The test results were never publicized. Car seat manufacturers question…
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