Consumer Information Center

Aspirin A New Look at an Old Drug. Ken Flieger, Federal Consumer Information Center of the U.S. General Services Administration, Pueblo, CO, http //www.pueblo.gsa.gov/ press/nfcpubs/aspirin.txt... 

An often overlooked source of safety and loss prevention information is the Consumer Information Center in Pueblo, Colorado. The Consumer Information Center publishes a catalog of publications on a number of subjects of interest to consumers which includes a substantial number of safety and loss prevention topics. The Consumer Information Center s Web site (http //www.pueblo.gsa.gov) provides information regarding their publications (see Figure 11.4). 

This service is provided by the Consumer Information Center of the... 

FIGURE 11.4 Consumer Information Center Web site (http //www.pueblo.gsa.gov/). 

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Human Nutrition Information Service, Consumer Nutrition Center, Hyattsville, MD 20782... 

Department of Health, UK http //www.open.gov.uk/doh/dhhome.htm FAO Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN http //www.fao.org FDA Consumer — the consumer bulletin of the US Food and Drug Administration http //www.fda.gov/fdac/796 toc.html Food and Nutrition Information Center http //www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/... 

About Herbs, a project of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (New York, New York), evaluates more than 300 herbs, dietary supplements, and "alternative" cancer treatments. Both "professional" and consumer versions are provided, but most of the professional information is readily understandable by la5q>eople. The articles are shorter than their counterparts in the Natural Medicines database, but they are researched and written quite well. 

The major contaet within the serviees of the European Commission is the pharmaceuticals and cosmetics imit of the Directorate-General for Enterprise but information is also continually exchanged with the Directorate-General for Health and Consumer Protection. Other eontaets inelude the Directorate-General for Research and the Joint Research Center. 

Since 1970, the date, shift, manufacturer and product name have been printed in code on the cartridge of cap-sensitive high expls. The manufacturer keeps records, by that day-shift code, and can tell to whom each batch of material was sold. Distributors also are required to keep records of sale. It is thus possible, from the date-shift code, to compile a list of last legal purchasers of expls from a lot with the same date-shift code. BATF maintains a National Explosives Tracing Center, whose function is to coordinate this activity. A typical trace would start with the recovery of an undetonated bomb. This code would be telephoned to the tracing center which would forward the information to the manufacturer, who would provide a list of consumers or distributors. If expls from that lot were sold to a distributor or distributors, they would be contacted for a list of retail purchasers... 

There are a number of ways consumers and industry representatives can communicate with or get reliable, current, and up-to-date information from the Center. 

The US Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN) has monitored reports of adverse reactions to sulfites since 1980. As of June 1999, CFSAN has received 1132 consumer complaints describing adverse reactions thought to be due to the ingestion of foods with sulfites. Out of 799 reports with adequate information about the intensities of the reaction, 388 (48.6%) were classified as severe. 

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