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Dorothy Copus Brush Newspapers on their way out? I doubt it Unless you read newspapers thoroughly you
miss many interesting things that appear inside in very small
stories. Following are two examples of news from the medical
world that were buried deep inside the paper I have saved all sorts of things most of my
life. Maybe it was because I was a child of the depression or
because I came from a long line of savers. In my family nothing
was ever discarded if another use could be found for it. From the time I became a housewife, I never
threw away that wad of cotton companies used in medicine bottles
to keep pills from jostling each other. No, I saved every hunk
of cotton and found many uses for it when sterilized cotton was
not needed. I was disturbed when that useful bit of cotton became
the subject of many comedians' jokes. Just as I feared, those jokes made an impression
on the financial heads of pharmaceutical companies. In the past
several years the cotton has been disappearing. Then in late
September last year a tiny item appeared inside the paper with
the official word. The head of technical operations at Bayer
Corp. quietly admitted the company had stopped using cotton wads
in their medicine bottles. The practice had started in 1914 but in early
1999 it was decided aspirin held up just fine without the cotton.
He explained it was only tradition anyway. So what's wrong with
tradition? It seems if tradition interferes with the bottom line
financially tradition goes. Recently this headline over a small story
inside the news pages caught my attention "Fluoride
Found in Soft Drinks." Anyone who has lived in or near a
town debating whether fluoride should be added to the water system
knows what a divisive issue it is. A study on soft drinks was made at the University
of Iowa's College of Dentistry by Dows Institute for Dental Research.
Significant amounts of fluoride content were found. This finding
became important because they found in their study that children
are drinking more carbonated beverages today. Now those who oppose the use of fluoride can
do battle on another front. Speaking of the pharmaceutical world, something
new has been added to their commercials. As though they weren't
irritating enough, especially at evening meal times, something
new has been added. First we hear all the crowing about the wonders
of their medicines but that is followed by a long list of side
effects that could happen. Was a law passed decreeing they must do this? Somewhere in the ivory towers of officialdom the pressure must have been applied. Another example of citizens being protected by the elected or appointed. My TV mute button is getting lots of use these days. |