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Re: Snake Oil



At 10:52 AM 1/9/00 -0800, Raymond A. Rogoway wrote:

>I think it's our responsibility to deal with "JUNK SCIENCE" in the
>classroom.

"And, after saying this, and commending himself most
devoutly to his Lady Dulcinea, desiring her to succor
him in that trance, covering himself well with his
buckler, and setting his lance on his rest, he spurred
on Rozinante, and encountered with the first mill that
was before him...."

While you're at it, would you like a truckload of genuine FDA-approved
snake oil? Try this:
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/096_home.html

Notable passages include:


>In 1938, Sen. Royal Copeland of New York, the
>chief sponsor of the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic
>Act and a homeopathic physician, wrote into the
>law a recognition of any product listed in the
>Homeopathic Pharmacopeia of the United States.
>The Homeopathic Pharmacopeia includes a
>compilation of standards for source, composition
>and preparation of homeopathic drugs.
>
>FDA regulates homeopathic drugs in several
>significantly different ways from other drugs.
>Manufacturers of homeopathic drugs are deferred
>from submitting new drug applications to FDA.
>Their products are exempt from good
>manufacturing practice requirements related to
>expiration dating and from finished product testing
>for identity and strength. ...
>
>"The reasoning behind [the difference] is that
>homeopathic products contain little or no active
>ingredients," explains Edward Miracco, a
>consumer safety officer with FDA's Center for
>Drug Evaluation and Research. "From a toxicity,
>poison-control standpoint, [the active ingredient
>and strength] was deemed to be unnecessary."
>
>Another difference involves alcohol. Conventional
>drugs for adults can contain no more than 10
>percent alcohol, and the amount is even less for
>children's medications. But some homeopathic
>products contain much higher amounts because
>the agency has temporarily exempted these
>products from the alcohol limit rules.
>
>"Alcohol is an integral part of many homeopathic
>products," says Miracco. For this reason, the
>agency has decided to delay its decision
>concerning alcohol in homeopathic products while
>it reviews the necessity of high levels of alcohol.
>
>....
>
>The 1995 retail sales of homeopathic
>medicines in the United States were estimated at
>$201 million and growing at a rate of 20 percent
>a year, according to the American Homeopathic
>Pharmaceutical Association. The number of
>homeopathic practitioners in the United States has
>increased from fewer than 200 in the 1970s to
>approximately 3,000 in 1996.