Caveat Emptor!

Long ago, before the establishment of the FDA, the attitude in American business was caveat emptor, a fancy Latin term for "let the buyer beware."  You see, the attitude was that if a consumer was dumb enough to buy goat droppings in a bottle, then that was their problem.  So you  had lots of folks moving around the country selling quack medicines and remedies to unsuspecting individuals who weren't educated or didn't know how to discern from the truly helpful herbal remedies passed down by grandmas and non-professional doctors and the crazy, dangerous remedies marketed by "snake-oil salesmen". (If you've ever heard that term).  The FDA was strengthened under one Teddy Roosevelt* and began changing this attitude toward believing that the American public needed the government to look out for it.

This is what I was thinking about as I read through "106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney" before class on Monday.  If you've gotten a good sense of my personality, I seem like a fairly easy-going woman, likely reasonable and perhaps trusting.  You'd be wrong on the last part: I'm deeply suspicious of institutions and companies and corporations or anyone whose primary goal is to make a buck.

Many of you commented on your blogs that you couldn't quite believe that companies could get away from selling swill to an unsuspecting public.  Well...not to get too political, but the general environment of deregulation beginning with Reagan took much of the FDAs power to regulate and enforce.  They can require labels and disclaimers, but it takes background knowledge and awareness to understand what those things mean, as our author pointed out in his article.

So, in effect we've moved back toward that attitude of caveat emptor.  I firmly believe that one of my roles as instructor of the class is to help you understand the ways science and the public interact, and this is a major locus with severe consequences for the unknowing and uninitiated.  Remember that interesting statistic--90% of Americans are interested in science but 15% feel that they have knowledge about it?  Well, those 85% who don't know anything are the ones being duped, and they are the ones who need--and deserve--protection.

My questions are: how do we better educate the American public?  How do we convince our legislators that regulation is not the enemy of business, but a powerful tool to protect the American public and prevent individuals from harming themselves or their health? (Or wasting their hard-earned money on crap).

Keep your eyes open and as The Who would advise: don't get fooled (again).**

*Former President, Rough Rider, and an all-around badass.  Seriously.  Dude shot big game and ran a country and wrote books and fought in wars. He also was responsible for our national parks.  Check out his Wikipedia page if you want to learn more tidbits and random facts.

**T. Roosevelt would advise, "Walk softly and carry a big stick."