Not Running a Hospital: Scary spam

Friday, November 30, 2007

Scary spam

I received the following comment on this blog:

Ephedra Diet Pills Still Available

I take the ephedra diet pill in the morning and again at noon. I make sure I take the pills at least a half hour before the big turkey meal mom cooks. This system works good for keeping the weight off around Christmas, too.

For more Info visit: [omitted].

The linked site then has all kinds of articles about how epedhra should not have been taken off the market and is good for you. But I don't think there is much to controvert the decision of the US government to ban this substance in 2004.

Shortly before the ban, I went to the funeral of a 31-year-old man who had decided he was not thin enough and started taking ephedra. He went to sleep one night and did not wake up the next morning.

I know we cannot control what is out there, but this one is kind of scary.

3 comments:

Daisy Razor said...: Oh, Paul. If that freaks you out, don't ever, ever search the term "pro-ana."; November 30, 2007 8:39 PM
Max said...: Why do you want governement to control what people do with their OWN life.

Ban on marichuana, ban on anabolic steroids, now ban on this. While cigarettes still legal. If you want be objective at least look at leading death rate causes and you will figure that before banning the things above you should ban fast food , smoking and , most importantly , cars!.

What the heck is wrong with you people wanting big daddy to control everything; December 06, 2007 4:56 AM
Anonymous said...: 'This might be one of the reasons'

Times of India 2nd DEC 2007...

Dumbed-down FDA puts US consumers at risk: Panel

Washington: A loss of scientific expertise at the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) is threatening American lives, advisers to the embattled consumer protection agency conclude in a report.
Food safety in particular is in crisis, concludes the nearly yearlong review by scientists from leading universities and industries the FDA regulates. Scary headlines from recent years—heart-damaging drug side effects, deadly E coli in spinach, pets dead from chemically spiked food, toxic toothpaste—have triggered growing questions about FDA’s ability to safeguard the public. Indeed,
the new report is the latest in a list of outside reviews to conclude the cash-strapped FDA has trouble keeping pace with the $1 trillion worth of consumer goods it regulates.
Congress has enacted 125 statutes giving the FDA new or expanded responsibilities since 1988, without enough funding to cover the extra work, the report said. The FDA has about the same number of employees today as 15 years ago, and its budget has lost the equivalent of $300 million to inflation.
At the same time, increasingly sophisticated scientific expertise is required to oversee increasingly complex medical therapies and imported foods. The report found FDA is unable to recruit and retain leading-edge scientists in key areas. The report cites an Institute of Medicine estimate that the $1.8 billion FDA budget needs a boost of at least $350 million to address drug safety, and a food industry appeal for $450 million more to improve food safety. AP; December 07, 2007 2:45 AM