Health Protection and Drug Safety
The Issue:
Be it pharmaceutical drugs, products of genetic engineering, livestock hormones and antibiotics, the blood supply or asbestos, there’s no longer a clear line between government regulators and industry. Government regulators should be implementing and enforcing regulations and industry should be left to promote itself. Societies must keep promotion and regulation of industry under different roofs or they get disasters like bad blood and Mad Cow disease. If the Krever Commission into the blood disater taught us anything, it’s that we have to regulate in the interest of the public, not in the interest of the regulated. Unfortunately, we have no such regulatory system in Canada.
Resources:
HEALTH CANADA’S “TECHNICAL CONSULTATIONS ON REGULATORY MODERNIZATION”
- Critics irked by federal drug talks Postmedia News, January 20, 2011
- Too many drugs allowed on market: MP CBC News, January 20, 2011
- A Bitter Pill. Consultations on drug safety stacked in favour of industry. Ottawa Citizen, January 19, 2011
- Drug safety: Health Canada thanks you for not enquiring, The Hill Times, January 17, 2011
- Backgrounder, Canadian Health Coalition, January 19, 2011
- New Report: Health Canada putting profit before health in drug regulation harmonization, CCPA, January 19, 2011
Topic: ‘Smart’ Regulation and the new book Ill-Health Canada
Source: Ken Rockburn Show
Guest: Michael McBane of the Canadian Health Coalition
PART #1
PART #2
Ill-Health Canada Putting Food and Drug Company Profits Ahead of Safety, 2005 (Order your copy today!)
Risk First, Safety Last! A Citizen’s Guide to Health Canada’s Health & Safety First ! A Proposal to Renew
Federal Health Protection Legislation, Canadian Health Coalition, 2004
Open Letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin Canadian Health Coalition, 2004
Media:
New Drugs and Safety: What Happened to New Active Substances Approved in Canada Between 1995 and 2010? Archives of Internal Medicine, October 2012
Since when is food safety up to the public? Globe and Mail, October 23, 2012
Walkom: The link between drug fast-tracking and Canada’s XL meat scare Toronto Star, October 10, 2012
XL Foods workers feared raising food safety concerns Globe and Mail, October 9, 2012
Massive Alberta meat recall is Harper’s Walkerton moment Toronto Star, October 3, 2012
Are we medicating a disorder or treating boyhood as a disease? Globe and Mail, October 19, 2010
Federal scientists go public in face of restrictive media rules (Public Science.ca) Globe and Mail, October 18, 2010
Shifting to food industry self-monitoring may be hazardous CMAJ, September 16, 2008
Conservatives’ pro-industry approach compromises food safety, Dion says Globe and Mail, 2008
Medical journal demands listeriosis inquiry Canwest News, 2008
Listeriosis moved to the back burner, access to info requests withheld Globe and Mail, 2008
Cost to label genetic food is overblown Montreal Gazette, 2007
Processed meat linked to stomach cancer CBC News, 2006
Frankensteer CBC’s Passionate Eye, August 2005
Health law may protect Ottawa The Globe and Mail, November 10, 2003
The fox is in the hen house Winnipeg Free Press, 2003
GM Food: Good PR is Growing THIS Magazine, May/June 2002
GM Food Labelling: A Growing Debate CBC Marketplace, March 6, 2002
The Real Dope of Beef Hormones Calgary Herald / Montreal Gazette, 2001
Mad Cow in Canada: Backgrounder Canadian Health Coalition, 2001
Health Protection Branch – A Very Nasty Business Ottawa Citizen, November 21, 1998
