Friday Blog Roundup

FDA has been in the spotlight this week, and often not in a good way.

• Andrew Schneider at Secret Ingredients tracks the ongoing saga of the salmonella-tainted tomatoes.
• At WSJâs Health Blog, Alicia Mundy reports that Congress has pressed more money on the FDA, and Theo Francis describes Senator Arlen Spectorâs dissatisfaction with the agencyâs funding requests.
• Jennifer Nelson at Science Progress explores the FDAâs decision not to hold pharmaceutical companies to the standards of the Declaration of Helsinki when conducting human drug trials.
• Amie Newman at RH Reality Check explains why more medications for pregnant women are needed.
• Matt Madia at RegWatch warns that FDAâs proposed new rules for drug labels with more information for pregnant women come with tort-lawsuit preemption attached.
• Ed Silverman at Pharmalot has the figures on reports of adverse drug advents, which are coming more from consumers than from doctors; Merrill Goozner at GoozNews suggests some ways FDA can keep these important reports coming in.

Elsewhere:

Kate Sheppard at Gristmill considers the prospects for climate legislation now that the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act has died.

Jeremy Jacquot at Science Progress worries about global warmingâs effects on the oceans, while Sheril Kirshenbaum at The Intersection is mad at House Republicans for mucking up the Coastal Zone Management Act reauthorization.

Lisa Stiffler at Dateline Earth wonders how high gas prices will have to climb to curb driving.

Amanda at Enviroblog alerts us to House legislation that would ban bisphenol A from food and drink containers, while Matt Madia at Reg Watch notes that FDA's lead scientist has asked the agency's science board to convene a subcommittee to study the effects of BPA.

Sarah Rubenstein at WSJ's Health Blog reports on the growing ranks of the underinsured â people who have health insurance, but not enough of it.

Steve Rosenzweig at Global Health Policy weighs in on the debate over the effects of disease-specific funding (like big pots of money for HIV/AIDS) on developing countriesâ health systems.

Dave Munger at Cognitive Daily explains why the yammering colleague or noisy photocopier in your office might be bad for your health.