Mugging Soap: The Left Finds Cash In Bubbles
by Kerri Toloczko“In recent injury/product liability news, the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) filed a lawsuit against the FDA alleging it failed to regulate toxic substances in certain consumer products.”
Thus began the latest manufactured consumer crisis illustrating the powerful union between radical environmentalists and the trial bar. Add a sympathetic Congressman and a manipulative triad is born.
Product liability wrangling follows a clear path – first the setup, then vague accusations of the product’s damaging properties followed by class action cash flow.
In just one sentence, the above blog comment posted by Texas personal injury law firm captures the essence of how product liability wrangling starts – and, ultimately, why.
Despite a forty-year record of reducing germs, slowing their transfer and being deemed safe by the FDA and EPA, the latest victim of the NRDC and friends are antimicrobial products – particularly those with ingredients Triclocarban and Triclosan.
These synthetic antimicrobial agents kill or retard the growth of fungus, mildew and bacteria in commercial and consumer products including hand soap, toothpaste, cosmetics, restaurant equipment, air conditioning coils, surgical scrubs and the Swiss Army Knife.
In early 2010 — and with no scientific backup — Congressman Ed Markey (D-MA) sent one letter to the CEOs of thirteen companies with Triclosan products urging them to remove it from the manufacturing process, and another to the FDA, asking the agency to ban it. A month later Mr. Markey introduced a bill aimed at antimicrobials, instructing EPA to list 100 substances that “may” be in drinking water and could “possibly” be harmful or better yet, have a “similarity” to a substance that does. And test them all– at taxpayers’ expense.
The bill had only five co-sponsors and went nowhere, but served as the setup.
Last summer the NRDC formalized its attack on antimicrobial products by filing suit against the FDA for not taking action against Triclosan. The FDA is reviewing the compounds, noting since it first investigated them in 1978, there is no evidence that they poses any threat to consumers or the environment.
The trial lawyers’ new target alert was issued shortly after the NRDC request. As with other consumer products where no actual victim can be found, some trial lawyer somewhere will soon file suit against antimicrobial manufacturers based on “government actions” (FDA’s ongoing study) or “false” marketing (“you failed to warn us on the dangers of this product even though there aren’t any.”)
To ensure success, the NRDC has wisely sprinkled former staff members all over the Administration and Capitol Hill. When Congressman Markey served as Chair of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, he hired a former NRDC legislative director as a chief counsel.
Another former NRDC attorney is an Associate Administrator at EPA, while others work on environmental issues for former Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Energy and Commerce Chair Henry Waxman (D-CA.)
The NRDC also has a history of benefitting financially from product liability schemes. Its most notorious incident occurred in 1989 when it claimed a chemical used in ripening apples was a potent carcinogen and responsible for many childhood cancers. Although lab tests showed merely a theoretical risk required consuming 5,000 gallons of apple juice a day, it was a successful campaign for NRDC – but cost American apple growers jobs and an estimated $200M.
A subsequent memo from NRDC’s public relations consultant (who previously worked for several Marxist governments) published in The Wall Street Journal gave insight into the revenue side of unfounded product safety accusations: “We designed (the Alar campaign) so revenue would flow back to the NRDC from the public … to date there has been $700K in net revenue from it.”
In 400 BC, Hippocrates made the startling announcement that diseases do not come from the Gods. During the 1840’s, Hungarian physician Ignaz Semmelweis insisted on hand washing to see if it reduced incidents of post-operative infections. It did.
Since the early 1900s when communicable diseases like Diphtheria, Tuberculosis and Dysentery were the leading cause of death, antimicrobial agents of all types have radically decreased the incidence of these illnesses while acting as a teaching aid for hand washing and cleaning the cutting board after slicing chicken.
It’s clear who the losers in this soap war will be – consumers, and workers employed in the manufacture of antimicrobial products.
A consumer survey released earlier this year by opinion research company Fabrizio Ward makes clear that on antimicrobial products, it’s the American public against coercive utopians and trial lawyers: 74% of adults use antibacterial soap, 83% oppose government banning it, and 66% would be ticked if they did. A full 84% had no safety concerns with antimicrobials and tagged them as “very useful” in hospital and clinical settings.
As usual, the people are smarter than their government. Lets hope they prevail.
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38 Comments
The Apple Growers should have sued the NRDC for 200 Billion.
Just as the Bubble Makers can sue the NRDC for many Billions of Dollars, as well as sue the United States Federal Government for man Billions of Dollars.
Once the Federal Government is out Trillions over Law Suits there will be no money left for the FDA, EPA and all the other 3 letter Agencies.
Only when there is no Federal Government will Americans be safe from the Federal Government.
TORT REFORM NOW!!!
Why do we allow these shill lawyers to continue to tank good companies for their own wealth?
Besides, without anti-microbial soap we'll all smell so… so……. European…
Heh, heh… something else to add to my list to hoard… with the light bulbs…
WHAT A COUNTRY!!!
Hey! Lawyers gotta eat! And they eat a lot! So lay off, OK?
/sarc off
Between the looters and the moochers, we are now well past 51% of the population. It's only a matter of time, now.
Sounds like somebody's job security more than a real threat.
If they are smart they will begin work on a "new" product with a "new" name . . .
The government does this every chance it gets:
Don't like this war, we will give you another one! Don't like that one you are sure to like this one! No returns or exchanges are accepted and no guarantee of results of replacing regimes with drug dealing king pins and left over "freedom fighters who just want democracy." And it goes without saying we are not liable for any harm we may do to future generations for fighting for one side of the same muslim/arab coin in a ham fisted way in perpetuity.
Why am I not surprised to see Markey and Waxman mentioned in this scam? Pelosi is just a bonus.
I'm building a tract of Flintstone homes if anyone is interested. They'll be all the rage in a couple of years.
Contract one before June and I'll throw in the bird doorbell and the elephant car washer free!
A mite breezy come November, though….
"The FDA is reviewing the compounds, noting since it first investigated them in 1978, there is no evidence that they poses any threat to consumers or the environment." — Tolocszko
Ah, the lie. See the problem is, the FDA originally looked only at the substances themselves and not what happens to them when they interact with their environment.
Based on new research, the Saudi government has banned triclosan from cosmetics and similar products because, when combined with chlorinated water, it can produce the carcinogen dioxin. The Canadian Medical Association has called for a ban, based on this same research.
Triclosan (which runs down the drain into our waterways) also has been found to rapidly accumulate in the tissues of fish — and on up the food chain. Is this bad? Who knows? Again, no one knows how the metabolites of triclosan interact with other substances. But it has at least the potential to be a problem.
So congrats, Breitbart, on a one-sided article. At least pretend that your audience can grasp both sides of a case and decide for themselves. Clearly, you are afraid of the choices people will make when given all the facts. To ridicule one side of an argument is one thing, to completely pretend that no other argument exists is a whole new level of dishonesty.
ok, Chicken Little, so noted. now go back to your bomb shelter and leave the rest of us the hell alone.
Yeah so let's hurry to regulate something that may or may not happen to fish and in the process transfer tons of wealth from consumers to shill lawyers and put people out of work to boot! You liberals won't be satisfied until we are all helpless morons wearing fig leaves , wallowing in dirt and dying at the age of 30 if we're lucky! Maybe then your frigging planet will be safe and you and your dear government will leave us alone! MAYBE!
I refuse to believe the FDA tested anything without doing so in combination with other compounds. Besides that, most any product found around the house "could be" carcinogenic with the right mix and quantity. What do you want to do? Live under a rock? Oddly, there are things there that can cause cancer. Catch me a fish, in the wild, loaded up with dioxin produced by Triclosan mingling with chlorinated water and you might have a point. As it stands, the benefits of it's use far outweigh "may have an effect". If it requires more study, fine but, leave well enough alone until then. This is mindful of the whole Gorebull warming, change, disruption crap! While you are waiting, I suggest you join your friends, http://jammiewearingfool.blogspot.com/2011/04/com...
HAHA Something extraordinary that liberal Californica has on the rest of the country. Actually several remarkable voter initiatives- mostly held up in court. The first, we already voted out tort lawsuits and put a limit to damages. Also, we've voted out Affirmative Action, Gay marriage, rights to illegals. Then we vote in a bunch of lefty politicians. There's something way out of whack on the left coast.
attention NRDC: the reason people get cancer is because, thanks to modern medicine, they live long enough to get it!
" If it requires more study, fine but, leave well enough alone until then."
Um, read much? The FDA is doing exactly what you advise. It is studying the matter, based on the new research (that this author dishonestly claims doesn't exist). It hasn't changed anything.
You might want to look up the word r-e-v-i-e-w.
And your "refusal to believe" means nothing. You conservatives refuse to believe in evolution, Obama's birth certificate, that tax cuts don't pay for themselves etc. etc. Let's not start getting into all the science and math of the reality based world you people just refuse to believe.
Anything the left can do to destroy the economy of the USA, they will. Banning these products will put thousands of people out of work but it does work well with Obama's plan to limit health care. People will be sicker, they can be denied coverage. Let the culling of the herd the left wants so much be done, but it could be their child, mother, father, or themselves that suffer.
If triclosan creates dioxin it should be regulated. Only a chimp would think otherwise.
However, you miss the point. The FDA is reviewing the matter, which is the opposite of "hurrying to regulate something."
And if we liberals "won't be satisfied until we are all helpless morons wearing fig leaves," consider this liberal satisfied. All you are missing is your fig leaf.
Yeah, because my comment was so alarmist.
So please explain to me why the rates of skin, colo-rectal and kidney cancers are increasing among people under 40?
See, this is why the NRDC hires smart people who, you know, actually care about facts and data.
By leaving well enough alone I'm refering to the lawsuit already filed. Why would they do that if research was ongoing? Just like Alar and DDT. Get rid of them without a real basis to do so and, in the case of DDT, allow millions to die.
For the record, I believe in evolution, Zero hasn't shown his actual birth certificate and tax cuts do pay for themselves, spending doesn't. Never owned a check book, have you?
It's called vote/voter fraud. It's very hard to carry out on a state-wide basis.
Run for your lives!! The sky is falling!!
/chicken little
Quote your source, please.
Ya can't sue city hall. They are us.
People must take an active part in their freedom or it is soon lost. Elections have consequences.
"The country" is us.
One little piece at a time.
Hyup, and we got a massive amount of it too be sure. The legistrative districting here is soo insane to keep incombants safe, you'll have the district lines spreading 40miles, crossing over streets, picked up on others- nobody REALLY knows who their senitor is.. I could immagine it's easy to fool the voters. We voted in redistricting several elections ago, but for some odd reason there's been a lot of feet draging to get it started.
We got alot of troll activity, possibly in response to Dana's damage to Wonkette. Make sure to thumb up a friend today. He may need it.
Now that illegals are going back to Mexico in troves- (not enough jobs or handouts to keep sending moneys back I suppose. There could possibly be more money to be made in Mexico right now!) Someone has to work the fields…
Maybe if they bathed themselves with one of these germ killing soaps, these scum would be removed and leave a clean and sparkling world behind.
"As usual, the people are smarter than their government."
The politicians, bureaucrats and lawyers aren't doing this because they're stupid. They're doing it because they're crooked and greedy. Whether or not antibacterial soap actually is harmful has nothing to do with it.
The NRDC need.s to be sued out of existence and someone needs to wash Progressing's mouth out with triclosan and chlorinated water, introduce him to the food chain (shark tank) and study the results..
Push Back: Americans for a free market withour pirates of corruption. I see the future; I have a dream: where citizens join together and sue the crap out of Corruptors of Capitalism. Our system needs defending against home-grown and foreign radicalized Pirates. Each state should assemble the needed skills from unemployed skill sets. Turn the tide and sue the Pirate federations off the face of this Free Market.
No lawsuits, bring out the gallows for all of them. We know who they are and what they want to do to this country. It is treason and they should suffer the traitor's fate.
Progressing, do you live in a filthy pigsty? Do you stink? Because if you don't then you aren't walking the walk. Of course most likely you do.
One small grain of deceit, uncovered in the sea of corruption, it is as vast as the poverty and hardships it creates, the same as the government, which is partnered in it!!! The predator appears as the victim and/or it's savior, the medicine becomes the poison!!!
You can watch what George Soros is doing on this website which tracks the buy & sell of his stocks:
http://www.gurufocus.com/StockBuy.php?GuruName=Ge...
When men sell their souls to gain the whole world, they ususally find out the world is a very dirty and infectious place. "It was soap poisoning" indeed.
"For the record, I believe in evolution, Zero hasn't shown his actual birth certificate and tax cuts do pay for themselves, spending doesn't. Never owned a check book, have you?"
Game, set, match.
Well done, Nick. Well done.
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