I don't know about you, but Valerie's latests posts where industry
admits
that its various products and patents actually cause the baby's gut to
become
sick, and colonized with the wrong bacteria, are making me SICK!
     This is evidence, available to all, that these "people" KNOW their
product causes harm to OUR babies.


Has anyone read the book "A Question of Intent: A Great American Battle
with A Deadly Industry" by David Kessler? Kessler was head of the FDA
and this book is his account of figuring out and proving that the
tobacco industry knew just what they were doing and that they were, in
fact, manipulating tobacco to be even more addictive than it naturally
is. I recommend the book. I see a lot of parallels to the things that
Valerie has been raising so eloquently and persistently. Now the
question is, what do we do about it? How do we set about strategizing
an organized campaign to expose this information to the public and the
powers that be?
There's been a lot of talk about contacting 60 minutes and other such
shows with the information about the Ad Council campaign. I think it's
a good strategy, we have to expect it to take time. We have to keep
sending them information, press releases, articles, letters as things
come up. If we can find a person on one or two of these expose shows
who takes interest in this story, that would be a big boost. Even so,
they will have to do their own investigating.
Contacting appropriate members of Congress, FDA, etc. is also
important. If we can get it on the agenda of some congressional
committees, we have something to get news people interested in
covering. How about Carolyn Maloney (am I remembering her name
correctly?) from NY who worked on the bf and work legislation? Who are
others who were active in the tobacco issue who might be able to take
this one on.
What is a good bf organization to organize this. We clearly have the
mechanisms in place to communicate with one another quickly to take
actions when necessary, we need someone to be our chief and get us
organized effectively. This is a long term project. Patience and
persistence will be required in abundance as will people's talents and
skills in the many areas in which we all collectively excel. Remember
how long it took to get tobacco on everyone's agenda? Is this a project
for NABA? USBC? Can it be raised at ILCA conference, sessions offered
on it? There are so many ways to go, all of which are important.
There's a lot of good information and a lot of energy to tap into right
now. Seems like this is a good time to move!

Happy Thanksgiving to all who are celebrating it this week.

Naomi
--------------------------------
Naomi Bar-Yam Ph.D.
[log in to unmask]

Researcher, Writer, Educator
in Maternal and Child Health
--------------------------------

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