Rousing and readable: sure to brings smiles at the FDA and howls of protest from industry lobbyists.
Chicanery, greed, politics, battles won and lost: welcome to the Food and Drug Administration.
New York Times science reporter Hilts (Memory’s Ghost, 1998, etc.) has no doubts about the need for an independent FDA to protect the public’s health, and he has no qualms about identifying the forces that have attempted to thwart its mission. From passage of the Food and Drug Act of 1906, shortly after Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle aroused public outrage over the meatpacking industry, to passage of the Kefauver-Harris amendments in 1962, spurred by furor over the thalidomide disaster, Hilts shows how commerce, politics, and events have shaped the evolving role of the FDA. Born in the Progressive Era as the US Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Chemistry but hobbled by minimal budgets and authority, the FDA had little effectiveness until the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938, sparked by public concern over children’s deaths caused by sulfanilamide, gave it the job of checking drugs before they went to market. Hilts examines the growth of the giant pharmaceutical industry, the rise of a conservative movement opposed to government regulation, and the policies and styles of FDA commissioners. He shows how controlled scientific studies became the standard for determining a drug’s safety and effectiveness and how the often-beleaguered agency’s professionalism was established. Among the many battles he recounts were those over package-insert information, nutrition labeling on processed foods, silicone breast implants, development of AIDS drugs, and recall of drugs hazardous to health but profitable to pharmaceutical companies. Common sense, says Hilts, demands that businesses, whose first job is profits, be countered by a regulatory agency whose first job is public safety. As imperfect as the FDA is, he states, duly noting the payoff scandals of the late 1980s, its work remains essential.
Rousing and readable: sure to brings smiles at the FDA and howls of protest from industry lobbyists.Pub Date: April 2, 2003
ISBN: 0-375-40466-X
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2003
BOOK REVIEW
A superb work that paints the resilient athlete as a fierce competitor and an unforgettable sportsman.
Heartfelt biography of a Texas football star whose life was cut short by cancer.
Inspired by interviews with coaches, teammates and friends and a 1971 autobiography, award-winning sportswriter Dent (Twelve Mighty Orphans: The Inspiring True Story of the Mighty Mites Who Ruled Texas Football, 2007, etc.) tracks Freddie Joe Steinmark’s early years and burgeoning career with the Texas Longhorns. From his childhood in 1950s Denver, Colo., Steinmark’s interest in sports flourished, carefully groomed and profoundly encouraged by his father, a self-made athlete turned cop who’d sacrificed a professional baseball career to raise his son. “A small child with fragile bones” yet dubbed “a born winner” by early mentors, Steinmark’s diminutive stature proved a surprisingly suitable match for his steely, fearless determination on the field. Dent budgets his narrative wisely, proffering equal parts sports achievement and personal accomplishment in tracing his subject’s incremental ascent to greatness as he earned the admiration of fellow teammates like star quarterback Roger Behler. As the Longhorns’ “golden boy” key safety, the “155-pound peach-fuzz kid” exhibited drive and tireless perseverance on the gridiron, making him a respected letterman under Coach Darrell Royal. However, soon after a game-saving field performance, Steinmark suffered a crushing blow when he was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer that would eventually claim his life at 22. Dent also includes the story of Steinmark’s shyly romantic courtship of high-school sweetheart Linda Wheeler, an intensive love that endured throughout their tenure together at the University of Texas. The author also bolsters the biography with a fond foreword from current Texas head coach Mack Brown, who, to this day, continues to memorialize Steinmark’s legacy by bringing his photograph along to the team’s away-games.
A superb work that paints the resilient athlete as a fierce competitor and an unforgettable sportsman.Pub Date: Aug. 16, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-312-65285-2
Page Count: 307
Publisher: Dunne/St. Martin's
Review Posted Online: June 7, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2011
Authoritative and, most helpfully, accessible.
Self-help guide for diabetes sufferers, mostly in question-and-answer format, with an emphasis on helping racial and ethnic minority diabetics.
Coleman is a pharmacist with a doctorate in her specialty, Gavin a Ph.D. and M.D. Aside from acknowledgments and a foreword signed by Gavin alone, their voices and expertise are indistinguishable, offering lucid, simple solutions for diabetes patients. Gavin relates watching his great-grandmother endure debilitating pain as a result of diabetes while he visited her as a youngster. He remembers hearing adults mention that sugar killed her, and he wondered how something that tasted sweet could cause so much harm. As an adult, he realized that his great-grandmother's affliction could be controlled through treatment. The authors focus on Type 2 diabetes, the most common form in minority populations. An estimated 18.2 million Americans are diabetic, with perhaps 5 million unaware of their situation. About 11 percent of U.S. diabetics are African-American, and about 8 percent are Latino. The question-and-answer format begins with an overview section about diabetes, with an emphasis on risk factors. Section Two covers management of the disease, including nutrition, exercise, blood-testing, oral medications and insulin use. In addition, the authors continually recommend smoking cessation, as well as instructing patients on the readiness of self-treatment. Section Three explains the complications—high blood pressure, high cholesterol and heart disease—that could arise if the condition remains untreated or treated ineffectively. The questions in all of the sections are worded simply, and the answers are usually free of medical jargon. Though the sudden shifts in tone and voice are occasionally jarring, the writing remains clear enough to distill the facts. The real downside here, though: patronizing, laughable illustrations that degrade the overall product.
Authoritative and, most helpfully, accessible.Pub Date: Jan. 31, 2004
ISBN: 0-9746948-0-0
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 27, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Follow
Popular in this Genre
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Sign in with GoogleTrouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
bookshelf
