Firewall

Email this page to a friend

Want news about Firewall and more e-mailed to you? Click here for free email alerts

You: Staying Young: The Owner's Manual for Extending Your Warranty Mehmet C. Oz., M.D. and Michael F. Roizen, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

In our bodies, we can't firewall ourselves with complete virus protection— that's the price we pay for not living in a bubble. We interact with all kinds of germs, bacteria, viruses, fungi, parasites, and other invaders that want to feed off our insides. Their main points of entry are the skin, the lungs, and the gut, which is why those organs have developed mechanisms to protect us from personal invaders. Most of us know the stakes: When invaders get the best of us, we're more vulnerable to colds, infections, and more serious disease.

The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases Philip Yam See book keywords and concepts

Hansen referred to the BSE firewall as a picket fence; because of the disease's long incubation time, we will have to wait until the latter half of this decade to know for sure that BSE didn't slip through the gaps. Despite gaps in the firewall, the risk of BSE appearing in the U.S. is probably low. Given that sporadic CJD strikes one in a million people apparently at random, is it reasonable to assume the same goes for cattle, resulting in an American mad cow? "It's not reasonable to assume," Paul Brown explained.

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It Marcia Angell, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

Like the Health and Human Services inspector general, the accrediting commission seemed to endorse the notion that drug companies can both market and educate, the only problem being that they need to be clearer about when they are doing which—they need a firewall. But in fact, there can be no firewall, because drug companies are not really in the education business. (If they were, they would sell their educational programs, not give them away or pay people to accept them.) The problem with separating the educational programming from the marketing programming is that it is really all marketing.

The Pathological Protein: Mad Cow, Chronic Wasting, and Other Deadly Prion Diseases Philip Yam See book keywords and concepts

Completing the BSE firewall are the U.S. Customs Service, which screens goods entering the country, and the USDA's Food Safety Inspection Service (FSIS), which monitors the safety of meat, poultry, and some egg products. These measures have made the risk of a mad cow outbreak low, concludes a November 26, 2001, report by researchers from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis and Tuskegee University's Center for Computational Epidemiology.8 In 1998, the USDA asked these researchers, led by George M. Gray, to assess the effectiveness of the regulations in preventing the spread of BSE.

Despite gaps in the firewall, the risk of BSE appearing in the U.S. is probably low. Given that sporadic CJD strikes one in a million people apparently at random, is it reasonable to assume the same goes for cattle, resulting in an American mad cow? "It's not reasonable to assume," Paul Brown explained. "It's reasonable to ask the question, whether spontaneous disease occurs in other mammals at the same rate. If it's the same rate, I'm not sure we'll ever find the answer.

Food Politics Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

A related reform would be to erect a higher and stronger "firewall" between Congress and regulatory agencies. This kind of reform might benefit industry as well as the public, because it would allow companies to compete from the same starting point. To achieve this firewall, Congress would need to reconsider the provisions of laws affecting FDA functions—especially the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) and the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 (FDAMA)— that so handicap the agency's ability to regulate the food and supplement supply.

The Truth About the Drug Companies: How They Deceive Us and What to Do About It Marcia Angell, M.D. See book keywords and concepts

To erect a firewall between illegal inducements and education, the inspector general advised drug companies "to separate their grant-making functions from their sales and marketing functions." The dubious premise that drug companies can be engaged in both education and promotion at once was not questioned. But it is not really possible for companies to promote their drugs, which means touting only their favorable effects, and to provide impartial information, some of which might be unfavorable.

But in fact, there can be no firewall, because drug companies are not really in the education business. (If they were, they would sell their educational programs, not give them away or pay people to accept them.) The problem with separating the educational programming from the marketing programming is that it is really all marketing. The Patient Channel's marketing director, Kelly Peterson, was much closer to the mark when she solicited drug company advertising by saying it would allow companies to "directly associate their products with a particular condition in a hospital setting.

Prescription for Dietary Wellness: Using Foods to Heal Phyllis A. Balch, CNC See book keywords and concepts

These organizations say that they have a "multiple firewall" system (including feed bans, import controls, and a surveillance program) that can keep it from spreading. While experts say no cows in the United States currently have mad cow disease, a similar disorder known as wasting disease has been found in the wild deer and elk in South Dakota, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Nebraska, and parts of Canada. At the present time, there is no "fix" for BSE. cure illness, but are fed to healthy pigs, chickens, and cattle to speed their growth and prevent disease.

Food Politics Marion Nestle See book keywords and concepts

Some journals go to great pains to erect a "firewall" between their editorial and business functions, but this barrier is all too easily breached. One reason for the breach is that advertisers contribute to the financial health of academic as well as popular journals. The American Dietetic Association, for example, reported an income of about $3 million from its journal in 1999.

At the very least, this sponsorship causes considerable discomfort to the editorial side of the firewall. Papers presented at conferences sponsored by food companies are sometimes published as supplements to nutrition journals, and the companies also underwrite the costs of publication. In 2000, for example, companies such as Wyeth Nutritionals, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Mead Johnson, and the International Nut Council helped support publication of supplements to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

To achieve this firewall, Congress would need to reconsider the provisions of laws affecting FDA functions—especially the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) and the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 (FDAMA)— that so handicap the agency's ability to regulate the food and supplement supply. Congress needs to allocate more funding for the agency's regulatory missions—not less as has been its recent practice.

Food Revolution: How your diet can help save your life and our world John Robbins See book keywords and concepts

But as Newsweek noted in a March 12, 2001, cover story on Mad Cow disease, "In truth, however, America's safeguards and surveillance efforts are far weaker than most people realize." The expected rate of occurrence of CJD (the human variation of Mad Cow disease) has been 1 in 1 million people. Up until the advent of Mad Cow disease, CJD was, literally, a "one-in-a-million" disease. Yet in one U.S. study, when people diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease (whose symptoms can be difficult to distinguish from CJD) were examined after death, 5.

FAIR USE NOTICE: The research quoted here is provided under the protection of Fair Use provisions and published by the 501(c)3 non-profit Consumer Wellness Center for the purposes of public comment and education. Authors / publishers may submit books for consideration of inclusion here.

TERMS OF USE: Read full terms of use. Citations of text from NaturalPedia must include: 1) Full credit to the original author and book title. 2) Secondary credit to the Natural News Naturalpedia as a research resource and a link to www.NaturalNews.com/np/index.html

This unique compilation of research is copyright (c) 2008 by the non-profit Consumer Wellness Center.

ABOUT THE CREATOR OF NATURALPEDIA: Mike Adams, the creator of this NaturalNews Naturalpedia, is the editor of NaturalNews.com, the internet's top natural health news site, creator of the Honest Food Guide (www.HonestFoodGuide.org), a free downloadable consumer food guide based on natural health principles, author of Grocery Warning, The 7 Laws of Nutrition, Natural Health Solutions, and many other books available at www.TruthPublishing.com, creator of the earth-friendly EcoLEDs company (www.EcoLEDs.com) that manufactures energy-efficient LED lighting products, founder of Arial Software (www.ArialSoftware.com), a permission e-mail technology company, creator of the CounterThink Cartoon series (www.NaturalNews.com/index-cartoons.html) and author of over 1,500 articles, interviews, special reports and reference guides available at www.NaturalNews.com. Adams' personal philosophy and health statistics are available at www.HealthRanger.org.