Posted on 04/05/2014 11:32:51 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Edited on 04/05/2014 11:33:44 AM PDT by Admin Moderator. [history]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is "pushing very hard" to release a proposed rule that would establish its authority over e-cigarettes, the head of the agency said on Thursday amid concerns the products pose a risk to children.
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg told senators at a Congressional budget hearing that it has taken too long to move the rule forward and that she expects the proposal to be ready for release "very soon."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
'Anyone' would be me.
I highly resent that government intends to interfere in yet another area of my life. It never ends, does it?
“There are legal precedents dating back to 1911 supporting the 1906 food and drug act as constitutional under the Commerce clause (Hipolite Egg Company v. U.S).”
Kind of like the legal precedents dating back to 1973 granting the Feds the right to regulate abortions, eh?
You think a prescription is required to buy a concentrator?
I’m sorry, but prescriptions regulate drugs, not machinery.
Your taxes pay for all that,but so do the smoker’s taxes. You might want to see what the state and federal governments are doing with the taxes that are put on cigarettes-—allegedly to defray health care costs. In MA it’s $34.00 per carton,roughly a 30% tax.
Where was the money from The Master Settlement spent? It was supposed to be to defray health costs for smoking related diseases. Gone into The Black Hole,I guess.
You are being cheated,and it’s by the government.
I can understand your anger though,I detest paying for anything that is alcohol related-—accidents,abuse of others,detoxes,welfare etc.
After 61 years of paying taxes it frustrates me too.
.
“pose a risk to children”
As always, we must curtail liberty in the interest of replacing parents with government rules.
Anything not banned is mandatory!
“There is not enough time in the day for the average person to inspect and test everything that would need to be inspected.”
If you feel safe by giving this responsibility to the government, then you are the naive person. They admit to an inspection regimen that hardly even qualifies as existing. I doubt that you have eaten a steak that was inspected ever in your life.
What they are able to do is target certain producers that fall out of favor with the local politicians and target industries that represent an opportunity to expand their beauracracy! While spending a lot on public employee benefits and pensions.
Shhh, quit proposing a logical proposal to create a new private industry! It isn’t as if DannyTN is all over this board espousing the need to bring industry back to the US or anything.....
“But I also think they do a lot of good.”
Name one good thing that either the EPA or FDA do that can not be done by the State’s themselves. I’d also wager that anything you name is already duplicated by the State’s, but can’t be completely certain. However, I am certain that they State’s would certainly pick up the positive aspects of those job killing departments known as the EPA and FDA.
They do more than that. They may not inspect all meat, but they do survey the meat packing plants. The odds that most meat I eat was packed at a plant that has been inspected by the USDA and conforms to standards is very high.
The also, in conjunction with the CDC, track food born illnesses back to the source. A feat that would be nearly impossible without these agencies and their regulations.
The U.S. has the 3rd safest food supply of all countries behind France and Israel and frankly people have wondered how we were possibly chosen 3rd behind those two.
Yet somehow we were able to survive as a nation for the first nearly 200 years of our country without the Nixonian establishment of the EPA!
Since you are such an ardent supporter of the EPA I don’t understand your continual harping on a need to bring manufacturing back to the US. The EPA has been the single biggest killer of manufacturing jobs in the US, so your support of such an organization is in direct opposition of your parroting of supporting manufacturing.
“The odds that most meat I eat was packed at a plant that has been inspected by the USDA”
That is actually very low.
“The odds that most meat I eat was packed at a plant that conforms to standards is very high.”
True, but not so much because of some threat of “getting caught by some FDA inspector,” instead it is more a matter of the meat producer not wanting to harm their customers.
The market is much more robust at self government than beaurocratic drones, yet you put your faith in government. The current face of big government should be enlightening to you, but I fear it is not.
No, it's actually extremely high. All meat packing plants get inspected, either by Federal or State inspectors. And the Feds supervise the state programs.
From the USDA site....
"American consumers can be confident that the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the public health agency in the USDA, ensures that meat and poultry products are safe, wholesome, and correctly labeled and packaged.
"Under the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Poultry Products Inspection Act , FSIS inspects all raw meat and poultry sold in interstate and foreign commerce, including imported products. The Agency monitors meat and poultry products after they leave federally inspected plants.
"In addition, FSIS monitors State inspection programs , which inspect meat and poultry products sold only within the State in which they were produced. The 1967 Wholesome Meat Act and the 1968 Wholesome Poultry Products Act require State inspection programs to be "at least equal to" the Federal inspection program. In states that choose to end their inspection program or cannot maintain this standard, FSIS must assume responsibility for inspection within that State.
"FSIS does allow under a final rule State-inspected establishments with 25 or fewer employees to ship meat and poultry products in interstate commerce because of a new voluntary cooperative agreement program. Meat and poultry products produced under the program that have been inspected and passed by designated State personnel will bear an official Federal mark of inspection and will be permitted to be distributed in interstate commerce. FSIS will provide oversight and enforcement of the program.
"In these efforts to protect the safety and integrity of meat and poultry products, FSIS works with many other agencies, including other agencies within the USDA, State inspection programs, the Food and Drug Administration of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Environmental Protection Agency.
"Since the Federal inspection program began at the turn of the twentieth century, the meat and poultry industries have grown and changed significantly. In the early 1900's, most meat came from local slaughter plants and was used locally. Further processing was limited to simple products such as sausages. Today, however, a wide variety of meat and poultry products are on the market. Animals are slaughtered and meat is processed in sophisticated, high-volume plants. The meat is often shipped great distances to reach consumers.
"As the industry changed, FSIS began changing inspection. In earlier days, the primary concern of the inspectors was animal diseases, and they relied almost exclusively on visual inspection of animals, products, and plant operations. However, refinements in animal production reduced disease and created a more homogeneous animal population. Thus, the concerns of today's inspectors are broader and include unseen hazards such as microbiological and chemical contamination.
"The requirements in the "Pathogen Reduction; Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP) Systems" final rule are designed to minimize the likelihood of harmful bacteria contaminating raw meat and poultry products. However, some bacteria could be present and might become a problem if meat and poultry are not handled safely. To assist food handlers, the USDA requires that safe handling instructions be put on all packages of raw and not fully cooked meat and poultry.
"FSIS's HACCP Systems mandate measures to target and reduce the presence of pathogenic organisms in meat and poultry products. These measures include FSIS testing to verify pathogen reduction performance standards are being met; plant microbial testing to verify process control for fecal contamination; written sanitation standard operating procedures (SOPs); and a mandatory HACCP system in all meat and poultry plants. The implementation of HACCP by FSIS helps ensure the safety of the meat, poultry, and egg products supply. To learn more, visit FSIS's Web page on HACCP.
"Every establishment is required to reassess the adequacy of its HACCP plan at least annually and whenever any changes occur that could affect its hazard analysis or alter its HACCP plan. The establishment may reassess its HACCP plan, or plans, any time during the calendar year to meet the annual reassessment requirement.
"Meat that has been federally inspected and passed for wholesomeness is stamped with a round purple mark. The dye used to stamp the grade and inspection marks onto a meat carcass is made from a food-grade vegetable dye and is not harmful. (The exact formula is proprietary/owned by the maker of the dye.) The mark is put on carcasses and major cuts. After trimming, the mark might not appear on retail cuts such as roasts and steaks. However, meat that is packaged in an inspected facility will have an inspection mark which identifies the plant on the label.
Hey, you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelet!
Report: EPA tested deadly pollutants on humans to push Obama admin’s agenda
-snip-
The Environmental Protection Agency has been conducting dangerous experiments on humans over the past few years in order to justify more onerous clean air regulations.
The agency conducted tests on people with health issues and the elderly, exposing them to high levels of potentially lethal pollutants, without disclosing the risks of cancer and death, according to a newly released government report.
These experiments exposed people, including those with asthma and heart problems, to dangerously high levels of toxic pollutants, including diesel fumes, reads a EPA inspector general report obtained by The Daily Caller News Foundation. The EPA also exposed people with health issues to levels of pollutants up to 50 times greater than the agency says is safe for humans.
-end snip-
No the EPA has not been the single biggest killer of manufacturing. Lowering the import tariffs has been the single biggest killer of manufacturing.
The EPA may raise the costs, but that doesn't kill an industry. Letting third world countries compete for free when they don't have to play by the same rules does kill industries. Charging U.S. manufacturers more in taxes than we charge foreign producers in tariffs kills industry. Letting communist countries like China use their slave labor rates to undermine our industries kills industries.
No the EPA has not been the single biggest killer of manufacturing. Lowering the import tariffs has been the single biggest killer of manufacturing.
The EPA may raise the costs, but that doesn't kill an industry. Letting third world countries compete for free when they don't have to play by the same rules does kill industries. Charging U.S. manufacturers more in taxes than we charge foreign producers in tariffs kills industry. Letting communist countries like China use their slave labor rates to undermine our industries kills industries.
The fact is that government agencies are subject to the President's commands and to checks and balances.
The fact is that government agencies are subject to the President's commands and to checks and balances.
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