The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is notorious for approving of medications without having a clue as to how they will affect the human body. Recently, the FDA has banned the sale of antibacterial soaps because of possible increased health risks that 19 ingredients could have. These 19 "antibacterials" are marketed as being more effective at killing germs than ordinary soap and water, but there is no science to back up this claim. It is noted that these ingredients can "disrupt hormone cycles and cause muscle weakness." Some manufacturers have replaced the banned ingredients with other chemicals and the FDA still doesn't know if those alternative ingredients are any better, but the FDA is giving companies another year to publish their results on their safety and effectiveness. This isn't the first time the FDA has been totally unreliable. Below is a list of several times the FDA has been a total joke.
1. Tylenol
After years of preaching that Tylenol was safe to use, scientists discovered that taking two more than the maximum dose of eight per day can cause liver failure. The FDA took so long to figure out that Tylenol could cause liver damage and other serious, potentially fatal health risks because they were under financial pressure and did not have enough manpower for their workload. Meanwhile, people took high doses of Tylenol, originally deemed to be "safe" because the FDA couldn't get the job done.
2. Antibiotics in farming industry
3. Artificial coloring "Red #3," Erythrosine
This red artificial coloring product has conclusively been shown to cause cancer in animals, and the FDA banned its use in cosmetics in 1990 but still allows it in our food because "Americans like their cherries red in a can." Twenty years ago, the FDA said it would take the necessary steps to ban Red #3 in food, but nothing has been done about it since.
4. Sulfites on vegetables
Sulfite preservatives were used on fresh produce upon approval by the FDA, but some people who consumed vegetables and other products that contained the sulfite preservatives had severe asthma attacks as a result. People died because of sulfite preservatives, but the FDA did not ban its use until five years later after a congressional hearing occurred on the subject.
5. Ammonia in meat
The FDA approved the use of ammonia in meat as a way of killing E. Coli bacteria. The addition of ammonia is what gives meat a "pink slime factor." Ingesting ammonia can be seriously harmful to your health, but it is the FDA's favorite way of treating meat for bacteria. To put this into perspective, ammonia is often found in products such as sunscreen, cleaning products, perfumes, and fertilizers.
I could go on forever about how many medications the FDA has approved only to find out years later that those same medications, meant to heal people, are causing more grave health problems than they originally had and more deaths. The FDA is deeply flawed and corrupted in the name of financial gain. So try this intriguing experiment: the next time you go to the grocery store, don't buy items whose ingredients you can't pronounce and see if consuming those products make you feel healthier!
