Drug Safety
When it comes to prescription drugs, we have a policy of the drug is guilty until proven innocent. This is a conservatively safe policy especially when you consider:
- A given drug is used by only a small segment of the population.
- Usually a patient only takes a drug for a short period of time.
- The drug may be used even if it has side effects since the patient may desperately need it.
- The patient and doctor are keenly aware of the drug and are on the lookout for untoward effects.
- The drugs are exhaustively tested for safety.
However, when it comes to industrial chemicals we have a cavalier policy of innocent until proven guilty. This is a dangerous policy especially when you consider:
~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)
- There are over 100,000 industrial chemical introduced into the environment which get into food.
- There is no testing done except to estimate gross toxicity.
- Since many chemicals mimic hormones, they can have untoward effects in minute doses.
- All plants, all animals and all people are exposed, over and over their entire lives, womb to tomb. If they are allergic, tough!
- Some chemicals accumulate in the environment or in the body.
- Some chemicals cause obesity, diabetes or cancer. They are not immediately obviously toxic.