Bottled Water, Microhoo and New Policy at the FDA
Critics of the bottled water industry call for federal labeling requirements.
Microsoft and Yahoo begin the process of seeking federal approval for their announced business partnership.
The Food and Drug Administration’s new head vows to speed up inspections and warnings issued to drug companies.
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1. SAFETY
Critics of the bottled water industry call for federal labeling requirements.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Director of Risk and Environmental Policy Angela Logomasini on why labeling won’t make bottled water any safer:
“…according to EPA, the risks of tap water are underestimated. In fact, agency officials believe that millions of Americans suffer from acute gastrointestinal illness every year from drinking tap water. Not surprisingly, the CDC recommends bottled water for people with compromised immune systems. As a result, government mandate labeling won’t make the water safer, and it won’t educate consumers on the risks. However, new bottled water labeling regulations will increase paperwork, bureaucracy, and waste money. But then Washington specializes in those things.
2. TECHNOLOGY
Microsoft and Yahoo begin the process of seeking federal approval for their announced business partnership.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Regulatory Studies Fellow Ryan Young on why the trustbusters should lay off the Microhoo deal:
“Microsoft and Yahoo have been innovation-challenged as of late. The proposed deal would give the firms scale, which matters in the search business. The more popular your search engine is, the more queries you have to analyze. Preventing Microsoft and Yahoo! from seizing the one competitive advantage that the firms have yet to exploit – scale – is not going to scare Google. Maybe the Microhoo deal will shake up the search market. Maybe it won’t. Either way, government shouldn’t be the deciding factor. The way to ensure a vibrant market is to let the competitors compete.
3. HEALTH
The Food and Drug Administration’s new head vows to speed up inspections and warnings issued to drug companies.
CEI Expert Available to Comment: Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on how the FDA is making unreasonable demands of advertisers:
“…in April, the FDA sent Notices of Violation to 14 drug manufacturers, informing them that their use of ‘sponsored links’ to advertise prescription drugs on search engines such as Google were unlawful because the 70-character links did not present the same complete risk information required in conventional print advertisements. But, due to constraints of the medium, sponsored links cannot accommodate all the required information, which in any event is accessible ‘one click’ away on the landing page of the URL to which the sponsored link directs the searcher.”
Listen to LibertyWeek, the CEI podcast, here.