It's not just the FDA it's starts at the President and goes through every agency and Congress!

Our government has become nothing but puppets controlled by Wall Street and big corporations !

Vote the Bums out in November !!!

Dr. Jeffrey Shuren and the other management personal at the FDA should be ashamed of themselves. They probably own stock in the companies that produce these machines. I think the same thing is happening with the vast number of new drugs the pharmaceutical industry is cranking out. It seem that within a year or two of a new drug hitting the market there are warnings about the side effects which in many cases are worse than the ailment they're claiming to cure. It's instances like this that leaves a black mark on science.

We need another regulatory renaissance and trust buster like Teddy Roosevelt!

Area 52

Vote the Bums out in November !!!

And who precisely should we vote in? Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration are guilty of having appointed crooks and allowing rediculous levels of conflicts of interest into our regulatory agencies!

Who still represents the American people? It seems that the only people that end up winning political primaries are the biggest sellouts among any of the sellouts brought to auction!

Here's some detail that the article did not tell you:

Dr. Julian Nicholas is an MD, PhD. That would indicate that he has the critical skillsets to design, conduct or evaluate clinical trials and interpret the data from those trials.

Dr. Jeffrey Shuren is an MD, JD. That would indicate he is equipped to sue physicians and that's about it. I certainly would not want a physician/lawyer treating me.

This illustrates what is wrong with the FDA ---- it takes considerable education to be able to have the skills that allow you to call yourself a researcher or scientist. Among them are some real biggies like statistics. There is nothing in an MD's training that makes them capable of conducting research or calling ones' self a scientist. In fact, MD's and J.D. (Juris Doctors - Lawyers) are very similar vocational degrees. Neither is a true academic degree.

One would expect a person to have a minimum of an MPH (Masters in Public Health) or a PhD (Doctor of Philosophy) in some relevant field in order to be doing research.

But the controlling people at the FDA are physicians --- an MD only or another degree that is not relevant --- and have not the vaguest idea of how to do science. This makes them easy prey for the drug and medical equipment who come in and say, "We will design, conduct and interpret a clinical trial for you since we have the expertise and you don't. But we'll put your name on it and you can get all the credit." So you have physicians "conducting research" and they have no idea what they are looking at. So the drug companies cherry pick data and suppress outcomes they don't want anyone to see and the physician lacks the skills to see what is going on. That's how you get drugs with dangerous side effects that the FDA never found out about or drugs that don't perform any better than a sugar pill or drugs that are significantly less effective than existing drugs but are approved anyway.

I'll bet you dollars to donuts that Mr. Shuren has his share of undisclosed connections to the for-profit medical industry and will go to work for some segment of that industry the day he retires from the FDA. That J.D. after the M.D. pretty much cinches that. The LSAT's select for people who see nothing wrong with manipulating the law so long as there is some way they can rationalize it as a "natural mistake."

We need to get all the MD's without research credentials out of the FDA. They are a corrupt influence on very vital science. They are literally killing people by the thousands. You have to remember that medical malpractice is the fifth leading cause of death in this country, and not even in the top ten in any other country in the world. One aspect of medical malpractice is drugs that are approved by FDA physicians who, if they had had the proper credentials, should have spotted that dangerous side effect or that purposefully skewed data or that strange demographic on which a drug was tested.

ron paul is as far as I can see not corrupt. granted he could become a lame duck president as both parties loathe him as he goes against the corporate/government power marriage.

ron paul 2012

end the fed

Dare to challenge Obamacare and you too will get "terminated"!!!! Trust us, the government knows what is best for you....

Todd,

Your post is garbage for several reasons. 1) This happened before the election. So it would have been Bushcare. Ooooops that is already taken by pubic trimming. 2) This has nothing to do with the current healthcare plans since neither private insurors or Medicare or Medicaid are likely to pay for it. 3) This has to do with evaluating the need for a procedure that exposes one to the radiation equivalent to 400 chest x-rays and has no significant benefit over more established procedures. 4) It is just another case of firing a whistle-blower from the Bush era. (You have to remember that AG Gonzales presented briefs to the SCOTUS in favor of firing federal whistle-blowers. and 5) Mr. Shuren has financial ties to AGT, Inc., a company which makes equipment and software for "virtual colonoscopies."

Sou8nds to me like just another crooked physician/lawyer protecting his "sponsor." (I have decided that sponsor is a good name to call those who own public officials as toys.)

Chris, under Bush? This story said last Sept. Is that wrong? Maybe this shows that the president has less sway in these departments than people think.

Nicholas, now a physician at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, said he and eight other staffers raised their concerns with the division’s top director Dr. Jeffrey Shuren last September.

And --

The American Cancer Society and the American College of Radiology endorse the procedure for its potential to boost screening for colon cancer, the country’s second leading cancer killer.

But some insurers and the government’s own Medicare program refuse to pay for the procedure, questioning its effectiveness and the rationale of exposing healthy patients to radiation.

So there are two camps, and very big at that.

Sorry, I got carried away and ahead of myself.

This thread is about medical x-rays, and I was on my soapbox about the safety of the x-rays being used in the body scanners at airports.

My apologies to everyone.

dont worry the scanners at the airport are safe....uggghhhh can we believe a word anyone says? this is the exact reason you dont get the government involved in everything. they have the power to squash what they dont like. If we just dealt with the corporations we could fight and get somewhere.....the corporate/government marriage is just too much to fight.

I can attest that the scanners at the airport are effective and pretty much safe. I used them in Afghanistan for 6 months and didn't see any adverse affects. I did manage to catch a suicide bomber in time though......

Radiation from cell phones is in the microwave range of the electromagnetic spectrum. More and more studies are suggesting a connection to brain tumors.

Radiation from CT scans and nuclear stress tests on the heart far exceed the minimal x-radiation received from chest x-rays or dental films. http://content.nejm.org/cgi/content/full/357/22/2277/T1

Simple solution for you then...Don't go to the Dentist. Brush, Floss, and lay off the sugary stuff. Don't dip or chew tobacco and you will probably be OK.

Problem solved!

I don't disagree that there are many overdoses when it comes to CT scans, x-rays or other radiation based studies, but WHY there are many overdoses may surprise you.

As it stands right now, there is no mandatory/regulated education needed to work in this area. A CT tech can be a high school graduate who started working as a transporter in a hospital, then was moved over to work CT. While there is nothing wrong with not going to college, personally I only want people who are TRAINED and EDUCATED to work with radiation to be administering radiation. Many people do go to school to get the specific training, however, it is not required to get the job. There is a bill in congress (I think?) called the RADCARE bill that will state that only people trained to work with radiation are allowed. This bill has been shoved to the back of the room due to all the healthcare bills being pushed through recently.

Also, you shouldn't worry about the radiation you receive from a dentist's x-ray, you're only being exposed for a matter of seconds. You should worry about the techs who are standing there all day being exposed to small amounts over a long period of time.

I wouldn't trust the FDA either. Big Pharma pays the FDA to try to get rid of formulary pharmacies, the ones that compound prescriptions to the doctors orders. Also, they've been working many, many years to get rid of all kinds of alternative drugs and therapies. Every so often, us regular joe's have to sign petitions to prevent the FDA from outlawing these alternatives or at least lessen the blow to these options. It is a constant battle with them because the FDA favors those who pay them the most - and that is mostly corporations! And, it didn't just start with this administration. Throwing the bums out? They've been around for decades.

this is exactly the reason people to not have big government. when are people going to realize this?

The FDA is a government scam! You are responsible for your well-being. Exercise hard & eat well (only natural foods grown from the ground in natural forms). Remember: if man makes it, don't eat it! This includes medicines. Keep it natural; you'll be much better off....

you should trust them...scientists have got it all figured out that it is safe. its amazing they cant see something as small as a ct and its affects but we are to believe them when it comes to something as massive as global warming....or global cooling 30 years ago.

can anyone say SHEEP