Deborah made an important point about regulation not always being sufficient to deem a substance safe.  Regulation has never been sufficient to ensure complete safety. Yet this is another arena whereby regulatory agencies in the United States have been increasingly underfunded and therefore less able to investigate claims by large corporations.  At the same time, these same corporations are making sufficient profits to fuel product development research that often masquerades as safety testing -- when in fact it does not meet those standards.  Meanwhile, funding for basic research that might be less susceptible to conflicts of interest has been drying up.    

It is interesting that on the one hand, the deregulation of marketing claims and underfunding of regulatory agencies that should be able to enforce standards have had an extremely negative impact on infant feeding choices in the United States.  I keep thinking about how there were no commercials claiming that a sugary cereal that has cookies in it was "part of a nutritious breakfast" when I was a children.  On the other hand, we also have the opposite problem when it comes to birthing whereby obstetrics now is increasingly being influenced towards surgical delivers by fear of lawsuits (as well as other factors) that also make infant feeding more challenging.  

Best regards, Susan Burger

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