Grumpy Editor

Dr. Oz cites arsenic in apple juice, irks FDA --- and ABC

Dr. Mehmet Oz, the celebrity doctor of the syndicated “The Dr. Oz Show” on television and coauthor of a daily newspaper column, stirs things up on TV with his findings on arsenic content found in mostly imported apple juice, observes Grumpy Editor. 

After testing dozens of samples from three U.S. cities, Dr. Oz discovers some of the nation's best known brands of apple juice contain arsenic, a heavy metal known to cause cancer. 

That brought immediate reaction from the Food and Drug Administration, disputing Dr. Oz’s findings --- and from ABC’s health and medical editor, Dr. Richard Besser. 

An exchange of Dr. Besser, a former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Dr. Oz on ABC’s “Good Morning America": 

Besser: “ I’m very upset about this.  I think this was extremely irresponsible, putting out this kind of health warning, manufacturing a health crisis based on faulty, incomplete data.” 

Oz:  “We did our homework.  We spent a lot of time making sure we got our numbers right.” 

Dr. Oz stresses most apple juice is not all-American, pointing out 60 percent of apple juice, made from concentrate, is imported from China.

Grumpy Editor, in efforts to determine the source of apple juice from concentrate distributed by Kroger Co., for example, finds one has to examine the container very carefully.  The information is not on the wraparound label indicating nutrition facts and ingredients but is in tiny, easy-to-overlook print directly on the plastic container about an inch above the label.

Sure enough, it reads:  “Contains concentrate from Argentina/China.”

Arsenic, banned in the U.S., is not always regulated in other countries where it may be in the water supply or used in pesticides contaminating the juice you're giving to your children, says Dr. Oz. 

To settle the argument, rather than running a pros and cons story (and probably again in a few months), a major U.S. newspaper, magazine, wire service or TV outlet should independently test --- as a public service --- for arsenic content in apple juice and promote the results. 

Meanwhile, see Dr.Oz’s findings and more information at:

www.doctoroz.com/videos/arsenic-apple-juice

 

Joplin receives promises but scant rebuilding details

While the devastation by a massive tornado at Joplin is getting much coverage, little has been reported on aid --- financial and other --- from the Missouri city of 50,000, nine days after the twister struck and even after a Sunday visit by President Barack Obama, notes Grumpy Editor. 

About 8,000 homes and business are destroyed or damaged. 

Many soothing statements and promises from officials are reported, but much concrete information on getting Joplin back on track is missing.  Print and broadcast media should ask more questions starting with when and how.

Associated Press quotes President Obama, after touring the smashed area, vowing, “We’re not going to stop ‘til Joplin’s back on its feet.”  The New York Times reports Obama declaring, “The cameras may leave.  The spotlight may shift.  But we will be with you every step of the way until Joplin is restored.” 

Nice words.  But missing are details on a battleplan pointing the way on how Joplin gets back on its feet and is restored soonest. 

Closest to indicating financial help is a Wall Street Journal story last Thursday that mentions the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) “opened a mobile disaster recovery center in Joplin on Wednesday to assist tornado-tossed residents with requests for federal aid.”

Unlike hefty grants or billions in foreign aid, however, is that filling out FEMA paper work may lead to low-interest loans up to $200,000 to homeowners for repair or replacement of property.

Not much is being said about assistance to Joplin businesses.

Other than St. John’s Hospital, badly damaged by the tornado, storm-hit businesses in the city get scant coverage.

Over the weekend, St. John’s --- in action reminiscent of M*A*S*H, the 1972-1983 CBS-TV series about Army medics in a field hospital during the Korean War --- set up a temporary medical facility close to its badly damaged 10-story building.

Other research by Grumpy Editor finds the twister closed:

• Three Wendy’s/Arby’s Group restaurants.
• Two Walgreens stores.
• A McDonald’s restaurant.
• A Wal-Mart store with a lost roof.
• Two Commerce Bank offices.
• A Home Depot store.

Meanwhile, a General Mills plant experienced minor damage.

On the prompt progress side, a destroyed hair salon structure is being rebuilt, framing already in place --- with work started before FEMA came on the scene.

 

Trump’s actions provide humor at correspondents’ dinner

It would have been a rather dull White House Correspondents’ Association dinner Saturday night without mentions of Donald Trump, observes Grumpy Editor. 

Trump, a guest of the Washington Post, was on the receiving end of jokes from both President Barack Obama and NBC’s Seth Meyers, Saturday Night Live head writer and cast member. 

The annual event, with tickets at $250, placed Obama and Trump in the same ballroom at the Washington Hilton. 

The real estate mogul, executive producer and host of NBC’s The Celebrity Apprentice and would-be Republican challenger in the 2012 election sat with a stone face during most of the jabs directed at him while many of the 2,500 people in the audience giggled and laughed. 

In about the only animation expressed by Trump, he scratched his collar following one of the jokes directed at him. 

Much of the bits of humor aimed at Trump dealt with Obama finally releasing his long-form birth certificate from Hawaii --- something Trump took credit for. 

“No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than ‘The Donald,’” declared Obama, as Trump stared at the podium. 

Strangely, however, with most of the media and guests in attendance linked to Washington or the White House, Obama described the audience as, “This is a Hollywood crowd.” 

On a Fox Sunday morning program reflecting on the previous night’s humor, Trump said: "Well, I really understood what I was getting into.  I didn't know that I'd be virtually the sole focus…when you're leading in the polls that tends to happen.” 

All the jokes were inappropriate, he added, given the difficulties facing Americans, including $5 a gallon gasoline, clothing prices doubling and “all of the other problems.”

 

AARP faces ‘quality of life’ vs. ‘health rationing’ decision

AARP, the nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization for people age 50 and over --- “dedicated to enhancing quality of life for all as we age” --- may have to rework that self-description, following President Barack Obama’s recess appointment (avoiding Senate action) of Dr. Donald Berwick as head of  the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, suggests Grumpy Editor.

The membership organization for people age 50 and over may find itself losing additional members as health care for the elderly gets another whack.

(A year ago in just a 45-day period, AARP, formerly known as American Association of Retired Persons,  admitted it saw about 60,000 members quit the organization when its decision makers supported Obama’s health care overhaul.)

While some key newspapers and broadcast networks --- including the morning TV shows that often feature medical experts --- so far have neglected to explain what’s ahead in health care, a Las Vegas Review-Journal editorial yesterday pointed out:

“Dr. Berwick, who has just been put in charge of rationing Medicare and Medicaid services for about 100 million Americans, was in London in 2008, at a conference celebrating 60 years of socialized medicine in England --- a system where sick people now die waiting for treatment, where cancer and diabetes and heart disease survival rates are far below ours --- when he said we must realize that, ‘Sick people tend to be poorer and that poor people tend to be sicker and that any health care funding plan that is just, equitable, civilized and humane must, must redistribute wealth from the richer among us to the poorer and the less fortunate.’

“What Dr. Berwick wants to do --- on the model of the collapsing British system he so admires --- is to have government ration by perceived ‘need.’  If the ‘system’ can afford only a certain number of expensive operations per month, those who can thus be given more years of productive life will go to the front of the line.  Others die waiting.”

Gulp!

That looks bad for grandma and grandpa if they run into health problems.

Yet, rather than get into the medical rationing outlook that will affect millions of Americans, most major media devoted ample print space and airtime over the past week to report, rehash, repeat and rerun details on actress Lindsay Lohan’s jail sentence and phone recordings of actor Mel Gibson.

California spends $529 million on prisoners’ special care

Getting limited media coverage is a California report, released this week, that a whopping $529 million was spent on prisoners’ acute or surgical care by outside medical providers in the 2007-08 fiscal year, finds Grumpy Editor.

Imagine, go to jail and, with a medical problem, no worries with deductibles, copayments and hassles about coverage with insurance companies.

The cash-strapped Golden State tallied about one third of its 170,000 inmates received specialty care during that last reporting period.

Of those, 1,175 prisoners accounted for nearly 40 percent of specialty care spending, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.

Final year of health care for one of those inmates cost the state $1 million.

Health care ranked as a significant part of overall cost to house inmates in prisons, the report said.

Health care to inmates was classified in two versions:

•  Primary health care provided by medical staffs within the state’s institutions.

•  Contracted specialty health care through outside medical providers.