In the 1980's there was a television commercial for a fast food chain, where a little old lady went up to the food counter, held out a tiny burger on an enormous bun and said, "Where's the beef?" It may lose something in the telling but it was wonderful and a cultural catch phrase for some time after that.  When someone felt they had gotten far less than what they paid for the question was, "Where's the beef?"

That's especially relevant at the FDA where E. coli beef is on the recall list for a second time in two months.  It isn't the first life threatening recall by the FDA recently either.

The irrepressible bad news about the the foods began last year with the E. coli spinach. An organic crop contamination was traced back to a factory farm, manure runoff.

But the FDA inspections to guard against tainted food were not working.  The farms and processing facilities for the spinach are checked an average of once every four years and that's where the trouble really begins.

The problem is not limited to the contamination but to a system of factory food production that squeezes extra pennies of profit at the risk of health.

Since last summer's e-coli spinach and Taco Bell closings we saw tainted dog foods laced with chemicals.  Everything from chemo drugs to antifreeze turned up in discount toothpastes and upscale body products from China.

Adding to the anxiety, Fisher Price and Mattel toddler toys with unsafe levels of lead paint poured in across product lines and distribution outlets.  It was massive, 800,000 items were found to be at risk, but why? 

Cost cutting corporate policies that have a price in public health and this morning I set out on a very specific search; a hunt for the corporate links to the massive recalls of beef to see where the money trail led.

What I stumbled across made me hotter than a hornet.  Steam practically blew out of my ears, not because it was so different from the normal abuse of public trust and lack of oversight we've come to bank on but because it was published on the 25th of September, less than two weeks ago and I never heard a word. 

"Women of child bearing age might not know that the common prescription drugs they take could cause birth defects should they become pregnant. That's because most doctors don't take the time to council patients on potential drug side-effects when they prescribe medications.

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) does classify drugs according to their risks for birth defects. But a busy doctor, under pressure to see as many patients as possible, might not take the time to look up a drug's FDA classification. A wide range of prescription drugs, including some antibiotics, acne medicines, cholesterol drugs, sleep aids and blood thinners, are known to carry a high risk of birth defects.

In a study of nearly 500,000 women, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center found that nearly half were not told by their doctors that a particular prescription drug caused birth defects. As a result, a patient might not have taken precautions to avoid becoming pregnant while taking such a medication."

This is 100% preventable.  If we one whit cared about protecting lives as much as profits, this is the simplest issue to address.  Since it is relevant to everyone in the public we inform the whole Nation, not when it's after the fact like tainted toys and beef but before the problems occur.

Tomorrow's babies are everyone's future; they come from every part of the Nation and the affected are all who take prescription drugs. I'm not up for the exact math but it's got to be worth having labels added to every Rx medication warning that woman who may become pregnant risk serious effects to their unborn children. Even people who know a woman who may become pregnant might like to know and pass the information along.

Whether its the lead in the baby toys, the e-coli in the factory farm beef processed in the Sinclair style slaughterhouses staffed by illegals, the Monsanto factor in your food or the drive through doctor visits with pages of microscopic print listing warning of dire and deadly consequences, the fact is Uncle Sam is watching out for the corporate friendsters. And you, my fellow Americans, are on your own to protect yourselves.

We need to go back to relationships based on trust, not sticker price because those low prices have a high cost that isn't reflected until it's already paid.  There's a wonderful site, Newsinferno.com, that does easy searches of the FDA recalls and other such things.  It's a better consumer tool so it's the link for the FDA quoted passage and you can navigate from there like a charm.  Knowledge is power, go arm for battle, eat well and enjoy!

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written by Allena Rose Tapia, October 11, 2007

"I'm not up for the exact math but it's got to be worth having labels added to every Rx medication warning that woman who may become pregnant risk serious effects to their unborn children"

Ok, I'm really confused, as every Rx I've ever had has had about 10 stickers on it saying all these warnings, including that. ????