Would you like a side of Dioxin with your Burger?

The Environmental Protection Agency is holding public hearings beginning today to review a proposed safe exposure limit for dioxin, a known carcinogen and endocrine disruptor produced as a common industrial byproduct. It's all but impossible to avoid exposure to dioxin. Women exposed to it pass it on to fetuses in the womb, and both breast milk and formula have been shown to contain the stuff. Research done by the Environmental Working Group has shown that a nursing infant ingests an amount 77 times higher than what the EPA has proposed as safe exposure. Adults are exposed to 1,200 times more dioxin than the EPA suggests is safe, mostly through eating meat, dairy, and shellfish.

What's a diabetic to do?

A growing number of health plans are trying a number of programs to encourage diabetics to take better care of themselves. One such program offers to reduce a or eliminate a plan member's diabetes drug co-pays as an incentive to take their medications regularly. Sounds like a good idea, unless that medication is Avandia. A recent story by Gardner Harris in the New York Times (read it here) tells the sad tale about how its manufacturer, SmithKline Beecham, waged a decade long campaign to cover up study results that clearly showed Avandia to not only be no better than a competing pill, but also showed clear signs that it was riskier to the heart.

The company knew about the heart risks associated with the drug as early as 1999. But it wasn't until 2007 when a cardiologist at the Cleveland Clinic filed a lawsuit to force the company (now known as GSK) to publish the test results on its website. Even then, the company would only admit to knowing about the heart risks back to 2005.

How can we expect people who suffer from chronic ailments like diabetes to embrace plans that encourage healthy behavior, when a drug they are being encouraged to take puts their health at greater risk?