Dear Ms. Chae, I am writing in response to the article about recalling the OTC drug ingredient. The findings were scheduled to be published in December, but were issued early due to the importance of the results. We, and the FDA, will never know about these people, simply because the OTC medications for colds and appetite supressants are so common, taken by so many people, and when one or more of them might have had a serious problem, no one would have thought to connect it to a common cold preparation. But I do have an opinion on changing names to make things sound better than they are. We all are familiar with pasteurization as a process that destroys the nasty bugs in milk, making it safe for us to drink.
Lawmakers think so, and they blame it on irradiation, the word.
A spending bill that President Clinton recently signed into law directs the agency to come up with the wording by early 2002. It's construed by some consumers as a warning. It is the agency's mission to ensure that these products are safe, effective, and are produced under sanitary conditions. In addition, all product packaging and labeling should be truthful, informative, and not deceptive in any way. As reports of birth defects linked to Accutane came in to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in the 1980s, officials there vigorously debated whether to pull the acne drug from the market, The Dispatch has learned.