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Quotes about Medical Devices from the world's top natural health / natural living authors

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"Bisphenol A (BPA), discussed earlier in the section on "gender bender" effects, is another plasticizer, one frequently used in the manufacture of polycarbonate water, baby, and cosmetic bottles, food can linings, microwave oven dishes, dental sealants, and medical devices. In addition to the effects outlined previously, exposure to very low levels in pregnant rodents ?2,000 times lower than the Environmental Protection Agency's "safe dose" ?resulted in sexual abnormalities in the rodents' offspring (33,34)." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"While other state employees were banned by law from accepting gifts valued at more than three dollars from any industry, the state-employed physicians were accepting tens of thousands of dollars from companies making drugs and medical devices. The drugmakers paid the academic physicians to give speeches about their products, to sit on their advisory boards, and to work for them as "consultants." In 2006 some Iowa professors were working for a half dozen or more companies at a time." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.) "The companies striving to sell us as many pills, medical devices, and hospital stays as possible have goals that conflict with a basic tenet of medical intervention: do not overtreat. Instead, the medical marketers of the twenty-first century work by the advice given to displaymen employed by the nation's department stores in the early 1900s as they learned to seduce the masses into buying more shirts, dresses, and toys. "Sell them their dreams," a radio announcer urged a convention of displaymen in 1923. "Sell them what they longed for and hoped for and almost despaired of having . . ." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.) "The global pharmaceutical giant had paid to become an influential player inside the state's most important hospital, but so too had dozens of other firms manufacturing drugs and medical devices. To solicit the industrial money, the university created an "office of corporate partnerships." It also set aside land for "a research park" on campus, where companies could rent office space and laboratories and easily interact with the faculty." - Melody Petersen, Our Daily Meds: How the Pharmaceutical Companies Transformed Themselves into Slick Marketing Machines and Hooked the Nation on Prescription Drugs (Get the book.)

"Health Care Without Harm was pushing hospitals to phase out medical devices made of vinyl plastic, which created dioxin when manufactured and burned, and which also had a second problem: they leached phthalates into patients. Vinyl medical devices such as IV bags were softened with di-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), a close cousin of the phthalate Jane found in the nail polish." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"DRUGGING THE WATCHDOGS Within the FDA, the doctors, scientists, and statisticians are dedicated to making sure the data about drugs and medical devices presented by manufacturers justify their claims of safety and efficacy. But the FDA is understaffed, underfunded, and under pressure, according to its own employees. Even worse, the FDA has fallen under the influence of the drug and medical-device industries, so much so that it was labeled "a servant of industry" by Dr. Richard Horton, the editor of the British journal The Lancet." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"FDA's legal authority over cosmetics is comparable with its authority over FDA-regulated products, such as foods, nonprescription drugs, and nonprescription medical devices." Why would the industry's mouthpiece be telling consumers something so blatantly false? The FDA has never "routinely" tested cosmetics and personal care ingredients or products. The agency does not even require that manufacturers prove their ingredients and products are safe for human use and health." - Samuel S. Epstein, Randall Fitzgerald, Toxic Beauty: How Cosmetics and Personal Care Products Endanger Your Health . . . And What You Can Do about It (Get the book.)

"What is needed, the editors continued, is for Congress to establish an "independent drug safety board" to track the safety of drugs and medical devices after they are approved for use. Above all, "this agency must be completely independent of influence from the pharmaceutical industry, biotechnology firms, and medical device manufacturers."52 If the connections between the companies and their regulators are suspicious, so are the ties between the industry and physicians. The pharmaceutical industry employs about 88,000 sales representatives, which comes to about one for every five physicians." - Gerald E. Markle and Frances B. McCrea, What If Medicine Disappeared? (Get the book.)

"The largest drop in warning letters occurred at the Center on Devices and Radiological Health, which is responsible for ensuring the safety of medical devices. Despite growing reports of malfunctions in medical devices such as pacemakers and defibrillators, the Center on Devices issued 65% fewer warning letters in 2005 than in 2000. 2. FDA headquarters officials have routinely rejected the enforcement recommendations of career field staff." - Mike Adams, Natural Health Solutions (Get the book.)

"Device makers do even better: About 30 percent of the thirty billion dollars we pay for such implantable medical devices as vena cava filters, cardiac defibrillators, artificial hips, and cardiovascular stents is profit. Drug and device makers say they need high profit margins in order to fund their research and development; anything that threatens their margins, they argue, could stifle innovation, and they routinely lobby Congress whenever it looks as if legislation in favor of technology assessment might pass." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"For example, Biosun candles are very popular in Europe because they do not have any chemical pesticide & fungicidal residues and carry the prestigious CE mark (93/42-EEC class 11a) for medical devices in Europe. Food and Drug Administration regulations prohibit ear candles from being sold or advertised in America as medical devices. There is a wide range of training for practitioners; some simply have started practicing after being patients. CAUTION is advised since there have been reports of burns and damage to ears from inexperienced therapists and improper use of materials." - Alan E. Smith, UnBreak Your Health: The Complete Guide to Complementary & Alternative Therapies (Get the book.)

"One reason it's surprising that new machinery is adopted so quickly in medicine is that unlike technology in almost any other industry, new medical devices and equipment don't lower costs. In an industry like, say, steel, investing in expensive technology like automation ultimately brings down production costs by eliminating expensive labor. In health care, by contrast, technology generally drives costs upward. Health care economists say that's not a bad thing." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.) "The seven hundred billion dollars we currently spend on unnecessary care doesn't just go down the drain—it goes toward paying for drugs and medical devices, which are manufactured by American workers. It helps pay the salaries of doctors, hospital administrators, nurses, orderlies, and pharmacists. It covers part of the cost of hospital beds and the construction of new hospital wings, which are built by American construction workers. It helps support the insurance industry and the salaries of all the clerks who shuffle those mountains of paperwork." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"Approval is even more likely for medical devices than it is for drugs.69 In particular, NRC found that "when the FDA schedules meetings for several of its advisory committees, the outcome is al- most certainly going to be FDA approval for the products under review." But when the advisory committees unexpectedly vote against drug approval, that does not detain the agency: "even lopsided votes against approval apparently do not have much weight, since the FDA subsequently approved many of those products." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"Today, doctors routinely prescribe drugs, perform procedures, and use medical devices and tests on the basis of evidence that sometimes has only a little more science to support it than the contagion theory. They recommend the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test, even though there is little to suggest that it reduces a man's chances of dying from prostate cancer prematurely." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"The Congress of the United States has vested in one person the enormous power to regulate everything we consume and use for our sustenance and health—all food, drugs, cosmetics, biologies, medical devices, and dietary supplements. There is little real check on the exercise of the FDA Commissioner's discretion, not from the Courts, not from the Congress, and not from the President. The union of legislative and executive powers within FDA has yielded corruption, as the founders predicted, in the form of industry favoritism. Likewise, the DEA has one all powerful head in its Administrator." - Jonathan W. Emord, The Rise of Tyranny (Get the book.)

"After new drugs and medical devices are introduced to the market, the manufacturers go to great lengths to convince health care professionals that their products should be used for an ever-expanding range of symptoms. The case for implantable defibrillators is a perfect example. A patient of mine, Mr. Peters, is a 78-year-old easygoing retired mechanic who has been living alone since his wife passed away. A few years ago he was hospitalized for what turned out to be a small heart attack." - John Abramson, Overdosed America: The Broken Promise of American Medicine (P.S.) (Get the book.)

"Device makers do even better: About 30 percent of the thirty billion dollars we pay for such implantable medical devices as vena cava filters, cardiac defibrillators, artificial hips, and cardiovascular stents is profit. Drug and device makers say they need high profit margins in order to fund their research and development; anything that threatens their margins, they argue, could stifle innovation, and they routinely lobby Congress whenever it looks as if legislation in favor of technology assessment might pass." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"Food and Drug Administration—believe it or not—gave Derma Sciences, a New Jersey-based manufacturer of wound-care products, clearance to sell Manuka wound and burn dressings as medical devices. Now Manuka honey can officially be used in wound and burn care in the United States. Manuka honey has already been used as wound dressing for several years in Great Britain, Australia, and its native New Zealand. Canada also approved it for use as an antimicrobial dressing in early 2007. Honey used to be a standard conventional therapy in fighting infection up until the early 20th century." - Andreas Moritz, Timeless Secrets of Health & Rejuvenation: Unleash The Natural Healing Power That Lies Dormant Within You (Get the book.)

"The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation's food supply, cosmetics and products that emit radiation.5 The key words in this description of the agency's mission are "protecting the public" and "assuring safety." After celebrating 100 years of service to our country, the FDA cannot predict the long-term effect of any drug, nor can the agency guarantee the safety of the drugs they approve." - Craig Pepin-Donat, The Big Fat Health and Fitness Lie (Get the book.)

"The world very much wants new drugs and medical devices to succeed,' he says. 'Anyone who speaks out is cast as a heretic standing in the way of progress.' The immediate effect of Topol's action in highlighting safety concerns about this hugely popular class of drug was to invite criticism from consultants. He was described as a 'luddite' in the Wall Street Journal and portrayed as having a financial incentive, which he did not. 'You are putting yourself at risk when you speak out in the public interest,' he says. " - Jacky Law, Big Pharma: Exposing the Global Healthcare Agenda (Get the book.)

"At the end of 2006, the National Toxicology Program in the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences concluded that the risks from DEHP exposure from medical devices had reached the highest levels of scientific apprehension—known in the toxicological trades as "serious concern." "There is serious concern," states the National Toxicology Program assessment, "that certain medical treatments of male infants may result in DEHP exposure levels that adversely affect development of the male reproductive tract." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"The FDA is responsible for protecting the public health by assuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, our nation's food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation. The FDA is also responsible for advancing the public health by helping to speed innovations that make medicines and foods more effective, safer, and more affordable; and helping the public get the accurate science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to improve their health.77 I have no criticism of that statement." - Dr. Timothy Scott, America Fooled: The Truth About Antidepressants, Antipsychotics and How We've Been Deceived (Get the book.)

"The same month the CDC released its findings about phthalates in people, an expert panel at the US National Toxicology Program expressed "serious concern" that phthalates leaching from vinyl medical devices could harm the reproductive organs of critically ill male infants receiving medical treatments. The NTP scientists said the animal studies on phthalates were likely to predict human health impacts, and they were concerned that healthy male fetuses and infants could be harmed if they were exposed to phthalates by non-medical sources while in the womb or during the first years of life." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.) "FDA's legal authority over cosmetics is comparable with its authority over other FDA-regulated products, such as foods, nonprescription drugs, and nonprescription medical devices. Well, not really. These claims were posted on the CTFA website as of January 2007.4 In reality, cosmetics are the least regulated products at the FDA. The agency does not routinely safety test cosmetic products; and unlike drugs, the agency doesn't require manufacturers to demonstrate cosmetic products are safe. CTFA has fought long and hard to keep it that way." - Stacy Malkan, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry (Get the book.)

"He had been CEO of a successful, if unsexy, company that made medical devices. At Merck it was clear he had no problem cutting costs and focusing on the pragmatic issues at hand. If a line of research was going nowhere, it was time to shut off its lights. If layoffs were in order, so be it. To the Merck board, Gilmartin was the perfect antidote to Vagelos, in substance and even in style. Where Vagelos had grown aloof, and, in his later years, highhanded, Gilmartin was congenial, down-to-earth; he was your laconic but kindly Irish uncle who always brought you the best present at holiday time." - Greg Critser, Generation Rx: How Prescription Drugs are Altering American Lives, Minds, and Bodies (Get the book.)

"Jurisdiction over phthalates in the United States is scattered: the EPA has responsibility for phthalates released into the environment; the FDA for medical devices like intravenous tubes; the National Institutes of Occupational Safety and Health for workplace exposure (there appear to be higher pancreatic cancer rates among phthalate workers).26 In each agency, U.S. policy makers are confronted with a powerful industry lobby that has largely succeeded in shaping a regulatory culture that imposes an obstacle course of cost-benefit analyses before acting. "If you're a U.S." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"One reason it's surprising that new machinery is adopted so quickly in medicine is that unlike technology in almost any other industry, new medical devices and equipment don't lower costs. In an industry like, say, steel, investing in expensive technology like automation ultimately brings down production costs by eliminating expensive labor. In health care, by contrast, technology generally drives costs upward. Health care economists say that's not a bad thing." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

"FDA's legal authority over cosmetics is different from other products regulated by the agency, such as drugs, biologies, and medical devices," reads a statement by the agency's Bureau of Colors and Cosmetics. "Cosmetic products and ingredients are not subject to FDA pre-market approval authority. . . . Cosmetic firms are responsible for substantiating the safety of their products and ingredients before marketing."9 The FDA makes one exception to this open door: it does require premarketing review for color additives. The closest U.S." - Mark Schapiro, Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products and What's at Stake for American Power (Get the book.)

"Today, doctors routinely prescribe drugs, perform procedures, and use medical devices and tests on the basis of evidence that sometimes has only a little more science to support it than the contagion theory. They recommend the prostate-specific antigen, or PSA, test, even though there is little to suggest that it reduces a man's chances of dying from prostate cancer prematurely." - Shannon Brownlee, Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine Is Making Us Sicker and Poorer (Get the book.)

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