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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Seaforth News, 1962-09-06, Page 2hocking Story Of Me pm 31,11siness It hax been said that false and misleading advertising e a as. e s t h e American public to spend more than a billion dollars a Year on foods, drugs and lotions that have no real benefit. Thi: was the theme of a re- eent book by Ralph Lee Smith called. The Health Hucksters." It was billed as The shock- ing story of how food and drug advertising exploits .your health," debunking false claims for vitamins, cold remedies, re- ducing formulas and other quackery. It is, as the author ,pointed out, a ease of the old "medicine man" in modern garb, peddling his wares with smooth Madison Avenue sales talk. The Food and Drug Admiris- tration is constantly cn his trail,. exposing; his devious and deceit- ful sales talk - his play un people's fears, perplexities, and human fru: tretiofts. Hardly e week goes by without an FDA expoee. A recent instance of this kind had to do with the marketing of "mineral -rich" salt, said to have been extracted from sea water and advertised as good for prac- tically every ailment man can think of. It is hard to believe that people are taken in be such ex- travagant claims, But they obvi- ously are, for these are• gener- ally profitable ventures - while they last. Vitamin pills and remedies have been debunked again and again by health authorities as over -rated, over -sold, and un- necessary in the American diet, Yet millions still solemnly take their vitamins, encouraged by advertising claims, which bring returns rat some halt' -billion dol - litre a year to vitamin manufac- turere. according to the author of "The Health Hucksters." While the majority may not swallow tlte• quack ballyhoo, ni a n y se -allow the newest pills --- pill, fur pepping up, Blowing down. thinning, out, re- tied from tensions and so on. The very name "tranquilizer" is beguiling to millions in the e0 troubled times. The flood of dru_es on the mer- ket in recent years is pheno- tneria:. Mr. Smith reports in his book that one druggist told him that while 10 years ago he stock- ed only about 400 drug items, to- day he ha; nearly 2.000 on his shelves. with more being added livery week. "How ntu,h of this represents real progre;s in medicine:" he asked in his research. "Only a small portion of it, according to leading dcetors." he said. It has take:- the tragic case of t h e sleeping pill - tranquilizer tha!i lmiide to bring home to the Amereeta people, and peo• - pee elsewhere in the world. the extent to which new drug: are rushed into pee without suffi- cent testing to bring warning of their harmful side effects. writes Josephine Ripley in the Chris- tian Science Monitor. Even no iv. long - approved druge are coming under suspi- cion as possibly --- and in some cases - probably responsible for serious conditions quite apart from those for which they were taken. All this has given needed im- petus to the administration's ap- peal for more FDA authority in the inspection, approval.. and control cf drugs. In particular, the government wants authority to take a drug 11 HONOR - Dr. Frances 0. Kelsey, shown at right, the Canadian -porn and eaucateJ medical officer who blocked the general sales of child -deforming drug thalido- mide, was awarded the highest c :Ilion decoration, the President's Distinguished Federal Civilian Service Medal WINS AWARD - Meindert DeJong„ of Grond Rapids, Mich., has been named the first American to win the Hans Christian Andersen Si lye r Medal for contributions to children's literature. off the market, even after ap- proval, if a question develops as to its safety. Removal is diffi- cult under present procedure. It is also felt that the FOA .should have more time to exa- mine and review new drugs to investigate their manufacture, and make as certain as humanly possible that they are safe. The Food and Drug Act was passed in 1906, overhauled in 1938 and has been revised in various ways since then. The proposed amendments now un- der consideration are second only in scope to the remodeling job of 1938. They are recognized - especially in the light of re- cent developments - as urgent- ly needed to screen the tremen- dous flood of drugs pouring on the market. This, in effect, was the mes- sage of the "Health Hucksters." Its last chapter head was: "Needed - A Consumer's Bill of Rights" to protect the public against false advertising claims, and against the tremendous sale pressures frcm competing manu- facturers. TUNNY ITALY Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy and her ter Caroline arrive in Ravello, Italy, with Princess will for a vocation daugh- Radzi- RONICL.ES `e clneales D Ctxka n fiCivez, h is very quiet and peaceful- that is, among the trees on aur back lawn, Sure, we can hear the traffic along the Dundas Highway but our own car is sitting immobile in the garage. There it will stay until after the Civic Holiday. Partner and I ha.d our s h a r e of being in heavy traffic last week, We were in Toronto on business; in- tended going by bus but while we were waiting for the bus two neighbours came along and offered us a ride part Way. We still had to get from Bl.00r to Yonge so we were soon fighting like the rest of the crowd for seats on the street -car. How people put up with it day after day is beyond me. Our first call was at a shoe shop as Partner has to have corrective shoes. This was more interesting than most shoe shops as half of the building was for men's shoes and the other half for pets and sporting goods. In one tank t h ere were baby snakes, 250 each. One of them had two heads. Another tank had bigger snakes and in two others there were turtles and huge fro g s. There were also some cute little yellowish hampsters bedded down quite comfortably and nibbling contentedly on a let- tuce leaf. From there we went down- town as I had an appointment at one of the department stores. While there Partner thought he might as well get a shirt. He wanted one similar to what he was wearing. He showed it to one of the sales' clerks, he in turn called another fellow but neither of them had any idea what the material was or if they had anything like it. For inefficiency they deserve a prize. Maybe they were just "extras" for the summer but they certainly wouldn't do the store any g o o d. After I was through we had Lunch and then started travelling again as Part- ner had an appointment with an oculist at Jane and Bloor. This young fellow has only been in practice a short while but he must be good as in a recent rating he tante second highest in science and opthamology tor the whole of Canada. And it so happened I had had dealings with him early in the year when he was substituting for a well known oculist with whom 1 had an appointment because of an. eye infection, You know, I find so many people get confused with the various ways in which men who deal with eyes are describ- ed. For instance we have ocu- lists, opthamologists, optome- trists and opticians, And it is important to know the differ- ence. For instance an optician is one who makes eyeglasses. That is to say he grinds the lenses in accordance with what- ever prescription you take him. He also advises you as to the t )e p e and fit of frames best suited for you. An optometrist is qualified to test your sight and prescribe what glasses are necessary. He does not treat diseases of the eye, except of a minor nature. An oculist or opthamologist is usually a medical doctor who specializes in diseases of the eye and can prescribe accordingly. He knows if the trouble with your eyes is purely local or is attributable to other bodily dis- orders. He knows if a cataract is forming or if there are le- sions at the back of the eye, For a person in good health, but With weak sight, an optometrist ISSUE 34 •- 1962 may be all that 's necessary. But a person with eye trouble as well as failing health should most certainly consult an ocu- list, There are many organic diseases that can affect the eyes and give warning to the person concerned. Well, no one has reason to complain about the weather on this Civic Holiday week -end and I expect many people are hav- ing a good time - especially those who are away and out of earshot of television and radio, and thus unaware of the trage- dies that have occurred during the last few days, the worst of which was the propane gas ex- plosion at Maple. That is same - thing that could happen any- where yet we are so accustomed to gas stations and storage tanks that we never think of them as a potential danger. And that ap- plies to us as well as other people. Here we are, sitting pretty on what we regard as a quiet lot in a residential dis- trict. Yet right at the back of us there are five gas stations ail in a row. Between the gas sta- tions and the houses, property owners burn rubbish every week or so. If just one of those bonfires got out of hand it could spell tragedy for all of us. Everyone is careful and takes the usual precautions against fire, but I doubt if they have the gas stations in mind. Per- haps they will be conscious of their closeness from now on. We have become conditioned to so many things during the last twenty-five years. Excess noise, for instance. What hap- pens when you turn the radio or T.V. on? Naturally the f i r s t thing we hear is a commercial that is almost deafening. Sure, we can turn the volume down but when the news or program begins we just have to jump up and turn • it up a g a i n. There should be a ruling to require commercials to be no louder than the program that follows. .Anyway I have stopped buying one brand of tea because they have such loud commercials. Unnecessary noise should be eli- minated as I am certain it con- tributes a great deal to the ten- sion under which we live. Taffy is barking his head off so I had better go and let him in. That, definitely, is unneces- sary noise, and someone who reads this column might hear him and ask why don't I practise what I preach! A black millionaire in apar- theid South Africa is almost as rare as an impala on the streets of Johannesburg. But the breed does exist - three specimens to be exact - and the rarest is Khotso Sethuntsa, who made his millions through "witchcraft." Zeit Poor Prioress Gets Ze Gate. Lee Radziwill has never been an outsider - and the reasons are easy to understand. She is a beautiful, beautifully dressed socialite, a sister-in-law of the President, and, as the wife of a Polish Prince who grew rich In real estate, she is a princess for good measure. Doors open na- turally for the Princess, but last month one slammed shut. As she joined the fashion world's froth estate to report the new Paris fashions for MoCail's mag- azine, Princess Radziwell was barred from the showings of de- signer Hubert de Givenchy, Why: The answer depended on who was asked, A Givenchy spokesman said the Princess's telephoned request for a seat in the salon at a cus- tomers' showing was refused only because she had become a journalist, Givenchy, who per traits no reporters at his showings until late August, evidently de- tests the fashion press. It makes fun of fashion designers, he thinks, by talking about football - player shoulders on coats, and hats that look like flower' pots. "It makes readers laugh, but it's hard on designers," he says. But members of the fashion press hinted that Givenchy's mo- tive in excluding Princess Radzi- will may not have stemmed from a belief that all reporters should be treated equally. The New York Herald Tribune's know- ledgeable Eugenia Sheppard re- ported that Princess Radziwill had recently switched her pat- ronage from Givenchy to rival Yves St. Laurent, "Some of the hated press are wondering if Givenchy hadn't already heard the news when he refused to reserve a seat for Princess Radzi- will," Miss Sheppard wrote. Barred by Givenchy, Princess Radziwill was seen the same day wearing St. Laurent designs, changing from a white silk suit for a morning St. Laurent show- ing to a shocking -pink silk suit for an afternoon .Chanel show. At these affairs the Princess - journalist (who held a non -writ- ing job with Vogue briefly in 1958) managed to get a front - row place and sat headhigh like royalty, jotting notes on pro- grams with a long, slender gold Pencil. The French press, which gave heavy play to the Radziwill shut- out, accused Givenchy of being devious, not vindictive. Under a headline, Hubert De ilvenehy; What A Publicity Genius, Paris Jour chided: "Givenchy didn't hesitate to slam the doors of his salon in Princess Lee RadziwilPs face. This gesture will gel him millions in the way of publicity." As for Lee Radziwill, her reac- tion to the Incident was hardly regal. "If that's the way Given- chy feels, too bad,,' she said. "I won't darken bis door again. Ile has lost my sister as a client and she is good publicity for him, Now I'm wearing St. he c'ent's clothes and shall continue to do so, Jacqueline will leo." Modern Etiquette rain' •• Q. When a onto ante girl have been going together regularly. is It proper for her to give him a birthday gift, even though there has not yet been a similar occa- sion for him to give her a gift? A, Under these circumstances, there is aa reason why she should not give him a gift. Q. Do you go along with the custom, of me n keeping their hats en in the corridors and ele- vators of public) building's? A. Y e s, if t h e elevator is crowded he is more considerate in keeping his hat on, w h i c takes less room than holding it in front of him. As to public corridors, I see no practical rea- son for his not keeping his hat on his head if he wishes. Q. I aur a girl about to be married, but have no, lather, brother, or other male rel:rtfve• to give me away. My fiance has suggested that his father per- forin this rite. Would this bet proper? A. Yes, this. would be quite all right, Q. Is it all right for the bride- gr'oom's mother to invite her friends to her son's wedding? A. She must not do this her- self. She may suggest the names to her son,- and he passes them on to his fiancee, who does the mailing of all invitations. UNPLUGGED AND ALIVE - The mother of 20 -year-old Gorett Giberson watches over her son as he recovers in a Nep- tune, N.J., hospital from a near drowning. The youth be- came trapped in a swimming pool drain underwater. He was kept alive by a relay of swimmers who dove to breathe air into his mouth until the drain could be shut and he could be released from the pull of the rushing water. FINAL JOURNEY - The hearse containing the body of Marilyn Monroe, trolled by muurn- ers moves slowly from the chapel to the crypt in Westwood Memorial Pork, Calif.