Drugged-Up Nation
Charles Barber : Water
America is literally awash in antidepressants. Blame the surfeit of drugs in our system on a confusion between illness and suffering.
2008
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FDA Puts Medical Test Subjects in Danger
Sonia Shah : Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Research subjects in developing countries--often the poorest, the sickest and with the fewest options--become more vulnerable.
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Toy Story
Daphne Eviatar : Globalization
An eviscerated Consumer Product Safety Commission means American children still face perils from their toys.
2007
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Toxic Toys
As safety scandals dampen the public's appetite for cheap imports, the European Union is raising doubts about standards and oversight in the US toy industry.
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The High Price of Beauty
Virginia Sole-Smith : Feminism & Women
A scourge of health problems has nail salon workers wondering about the industry's safety standards.
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What Causes Cancer? Probably Not You
Barbara Ehrenreich : Food & Nutrition
The perennial temptation to blame disease on sin or some grave moral failing just took another hit.
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High Impact: What Football Owes Its Players
Congressional hearings about head injuries in the NFL raise questions about the consequences for old-timers and present-day players.
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How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits
Wounded soldiers returning from Iraq are increasingly being wrongly diagnosed by the military, which prevents them from collecting benefits.
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Dying for a Home
The shoddy construction of FEMA's trailers has led to an epidemic of respiratory illness among Katrina refugees.
2006
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The False Bird Flu Scare
Dr. Marc Siegel : Health Care Policy
The United States has fueled a worldwide overreaction to the threat of a bird flu pandemic, putting AIDS, malaria, malnutrition and other crucial global health programs at risk.
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Don't Blame Environmentalists for Malaria
Tina Rosenberg is wrong to argue in the New York Times that environmentalists who fought to limit the use of DDT have contributed to the worldwide spread of malaria.
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Avian Flu Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Large factory farms, not migratory birds, are now seen as breeding grounds for the avian flu virus. Donald Rumsfeld is getting rich off his investment in Tamiflu. Can this pandemic get any crazier?
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SpongeBob SquarePants, Health Risk
Nicholas von Hoffman : Advertising
The Center for Science in the Public Interest is suing Kellogg and Viacom for using cartoon characters to brainwash kids into consuming mass amounts of junk food.
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Eating Ourselves to Death
Nicholas von Hoffman : Food & Nutrition
The toxic food industry is fueling a preventable epidemic of diabetes. Most vulnerable are poor children, barraged with ads urging them to eat the sugar and grease-laden food that will eventually kill them.
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Unequipped to Cure
Dr. Marc Siegel
Vaccine production in the United States is in an alarming condition--with drug-makers wedded to outmoded techniques and government more focused on terror than pandemics.
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Hunger Is Not a Place
Frances Moore Lappé : Economic Development
It's not true that only the rich can help the poor. We must work to empower nations like Bangladesh that are addressing the problem of hunger by creating networks of schools, health training and micro-loans.
2005
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Germ Boys and Yes Men
Stewart Simonson is a former Amtrak corporate attorney with zero medical experience. So why is he in charge of emergency health and bioterrorism in the federal government?
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Scare Scenario
Dr. Marc Siegel
It has all the makings of a horror flick, but panic over a possible bird flu pandemic is following a time-honored script: sensational media reports, profit-hungry drug manufacturers and politicians eager to capitalize on fears.
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The Red Cross: A Question of Competence
Linda Heller : Conservatives & The American Right
The Gulf Coast hurricanes have raised new questions about the integrity and competence of the American Red Cross to respond to national emergencies. In this report from The Nation archive, Linda Heller raised early alarms. July 1, 1996, issue
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'The Constant Gardener': What the Movie Missed
As Big Pharma increasingly turns to the Third World to test its products, this lush film will spark outrage, but glosses over the constant vigilance necessary to police drug trials.
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Avian Flu: A State of Unreadiness
America remains unprepared for a possible avian flu pandemic.
This week: Imagining a new new deal, with Howard Zinn, Frances Moore Lappe, Andrea Batista Schlesinger, Eric Schlosser and...FDR himself. Plus: Ennis Carter and Stephen Duncombe on the political propaganda legacy of the WPA. (13mb mp3)
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