Archive for May 17th, 2010

May17

From BP to Avandia: Public Citizen’s media hits roundup

By: Arlene Tonoff

As government officials try to get to the bottom of who is to blame for the massive BP oil spill, Public Citizen has been featured in top media coverage of the catastrophe. Tyson Slocum, Public Citizen’s Energy Program director, has become a go-to guy on the issue, being interviewed on radio and television networks across the country. Slocum was featured on Bloomberg TV’s “Inside Track,” SiriusXM/POTUS radio talking about the government’s reaction to the spill and CBS Radio’s “The John Carney” show about BP’s history of safety records. He noted that BP has “one of the worst safety records of any oil company operating in America.”

Slocum made headlines in Canada and Cuba, as well. Slocum has been featured in a variety of articles from coast to coast including The New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Public Citizen also has been quoted on the issue by Reuters, Albany Times Union, Politico, The Washington Independent, The NACS, “The People’s Voice,” 2TheAdvocate.com and The Palestine Telegraph.

Also making headlines is Public Citizen calling on the Food and Drug Administration to stop the risky trail of GlaxoSmithKline’s diabetes drug, Avandia. The drug is believed to put patients at risk for heart attack and chest pain.

As Sidney Wolfe, director of Public Citizen’s Health Research Group, wrote in a letter to the FDA, which was quoted in a Reuters article:

The Avandia trial is “exposing thousands of high-risk patients with diabetes to a drug with an unfavorable safety profile and no clinical advantage over its comparator.”

Public Citizen’s efforts to stop the trial have gained international attention. Sidney Wolfe was quoted on CBC across Canada as well as in a Metro Canada Toronto story on the trial. The story gained attention in parts of Europe and was featured on Pharmacy Europe, a website for European hospitals and clinical pharmacists. Back in the States, Public Citizen was quoted in the Los Angeles Times, Post Chronicle, National Post, Business Spectator, and msnbc.com.

Public Citizen has also made headlines with many other issues including, the climate bill, Capitol Hill’s limits on lobbying and Florida’s doctor discipline system. Keep checking back for more!

Posted in: Energy, Environment, Health, Open Government, Pharmaceuticals0 comments

May17

Spill, baby, spill

By: Dorry Samuels


It doesn’t stop.  The oil from the spill, the stories about the environmental effects and BP’s blatant disregard for safety — it all keeps pouring out.

The Boston Globe‘s “The Big Picture” put out breath-taking, absolutely horrifying photos of what’s happening in the Gulf, including the one featured above. It’s really worth taking the time to scroll through them. And just think — those pictures were taken nearly a week ago. How bad is it now?

What else is happening down there?

  • “Scientists are finding enormous oil plumes in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, including one as large as 10 miles long, 3 miles wide and 300 feet thick in spots,” reports The New York Times. “The plumes are depleting the oxygen dissolved in the gulf, worrying scientists, who fear that the oxygen level could eventually fall so low as to kill off much of the sea life near the plumes.”
  • “Two refineries owned by oil giant BP account for 97 percent of all flagrant violations found in the refining industry by government safety inspectors over the past three years,” according to the Center for Public Integrity. OSHA classified most of the violations as “egregious willful.”
  • “It’s no longer mere speculation - the spill is far worse than the 1989 Exxon Valdez incident in Alaska,” wrote the Troy Media Corporation.

What can we do? We can hold BP accountable. Join Public Citizen in boycotting BP for three months. Sign the petition. Join the Facebook group. Make a difference.

Posted in: Activism, Energy, Workplace Health & Safety0 comments

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