A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Wit and wisdom, some smart assery, and a Mother and Daughter questioning “Are we even related?”
A Boomer and GenXer Walk into a Bar
Inside The FDA: What Are They Really Doing Anyway? S:02E:05
If you’ve never heard of the FDA’s Food Defect Levels Handbook, brace yourself. We open the file together and unpack what “natural and unavoidable” really means, from insect fragments and rodent hairs to mold that gets blended down to acceptable thresholds. That eye-opening start sets the stage for a bigger, more urgent question: how did an agency founded in 1906 end up stretched across food, drugs, devices, and cosmetics while falling behind on inspections that decide what lands in our kitchens and medicine cabinets?
We walk through the mechanics of risk that rarely make the label. Overseas facilities go years without inspection. Recalls move slower than headlines. Accelerated approvals and the 510(k) pathway send devices to market by comparing them to older products, even those later recalled. The transvaginal mesh story shows how a legacy product can evolve into widespread harm when scrutiny lags. And the cosmetics world? Most items don’t require premarket approval, which makes “FDA approved” sound more reassuring than it usually is. We cut through the confusion with plain talk and real examples so you can make smarter choices at the shelf and in the exam room.
Underneath it all is the money. User fees from drug makers fund reviews. Industry-sponsored studies shape the evidence base. Negative trials can disappear while positive ones lead the pitch. That’s not a conspiracy so much as an incentive map. So we share a practical rule: follow the money, verify the claims, and treat speed as a risk factor unless the data is strong. Check recalls, read ingredient lists, compare U.S. rules to EU standards, and ask your clinician direct questions about device lineage and trial quality. You don’t need a lab coat to protect yourself—you need curiosity, caution, and a willingness to look twice.
If this conversation helps you see labels and approvals in a new light, subscribe, share the show with a friend, and leave a review. Your notes help us dig deeper and keep these hard conversations honest.
email: boomerandgenxer@gmail.com
Welcome everyone to today's show. It is going to be a doozy. This is a boomer and Janet walk into a bar coming to you from the rabbit hole studio, where you, as our listeners, will experience some wit and wisdom, some smart ashery, and a mother and a daughter questioning, are we even related? And I am serious about that question today. My name is Jane. My co-host is my daughter Bobby, and at least this episode. Yeah. Yeah. And we are here to entertain. It is bound to be a rough ride. Keep your arms and legs inside the ride at all times today. Bobby, what's going on? Oh, not a whole lot.
SPEAKER_00:I've had a very pleasant day. It is a little cold this morning. Um, my truck wouldn't start, but you know, it warmed up today. You know, I got my shit together.
SPEAKER_01:Did you have to walk? Did you have to walk?
SPEAKER_00:Maybe not, because I am fat and I don't do that very well.
SPEAKER_01:Well, maybe if you did walk, you wouldn't be fat. How about that? Uh, we had quite the discussion before we came on air, and uh, we're I'm still smoking from that. I will say that.
SPEAKER_00:I just like to get you really rumble.
SPEAKER_01:My goodness.
SPEAKER_00:So much fun. I haven't seen you in a while. I know. I've missed you. You have to really just like light that fuse under your ass.
SPEAKER_01:You know, I don't like it when you do that, but I have missed you. I missed you too. And I see that you have your monster drink down there. And do you have a little alcohol too? I don't know what you're talking about. Oh, I see it. I see her cocktail. She has it in front of her.
SPEAKER_00:Cocktail. So life life's been treating you otherwise uh pretty good? Um, well, you know, I mean, everybody's kind of worried right now. I know by the time this comes out, I think it'll be um after the first of November already. So we're we're kind of in the middle of uh, you know, the unknown with the government shutdown, and a lot of people are at risk for some major uh issues in the next couple months. Yeah. And I'm gonna, you know, start by saying number one, we really don't talk politics on this show. Um, there's a reason for that. But you know, when it comes to certain issues um that affects you know millions of people across America, it's not a left-wing or a right wing issue. This is a humanitarian issue.
SPEAKER_01:This is an American human issue. Absolutely now. These guys need to get their heads out of their asses and get some decisions made and quit quit effing around. I'm terribly sorry. And I don't care what side of the coin.
SPEAKER_00:They really need to quit holding the people who are living, you know, mid to poor. They need to quit holding that their lives hostage.
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know what?
SPEAKER_00:They're not poor, so they don't really uh have any urges. Most of them don't even know what the cost of a pound of beef is right now. I mean I'm not sure.
unknown:I know.
SPEAKER_01:I don't, you know, but nevertheless, I get it, and we're not gonna go there today because uh we're both irritated about that.
SPEAKER_00:We're rooting for, you know, everybody getting their heads out of their asses and um, you know, people people uh doing what they need to do to survive because it's a survival issue at this point for a lot of people.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and uh folks, please uh be nice to one another. You don't know what kind of battle everybody is uh fighting on their own, and uh quit being political fucking pawns for everybody. Did I say that on the air? You did, yeah. Quit being a political fucking pawn, okay? I don't care what side of the coin you're on, quit it. Yeah, yeah. That is not what life is all about. It's about being kind to one another and treating people with respect. And let's move on.
SPEAKER_00:Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:So, what are we gonna talk about today? Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness. Oh my goodness.
SPEAKER_00:It is kind of a government thing we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01:It is so a while back, we had an episode regarding food additives and the things that are in our foods, and you know, how they're taking a lot of the nutritional value out of our foods and putting different things into our foods. And uh we had mentioned a document that the federal government has, and I just want to bring that up real quick, uh, because it is called the Food Defect Levels Handbook. Because we had some people who asked about it. Because I said there's a handbook out there, and you knew it because you've looked at it too, Bob. Oh, yeah, yeah, that's one of my favorite. It's kind of our fun reading. And if you go really into the details of each one of the regulations as they're printed, it's quite interesting how they got there. But anyway, it's called the Food Defects Level Handbook, Levels Handbook, and it is put out there by the Food and Drug Administration, by our U.S. government under Title 21 of the federal regulations, and it allows the Food and Drug Administration to establish maximum levels of natural and unavoidable, they say, defects in foods for human use, human consumption, that present no alleged health hazards. Correct. So alleged.
SPEAKER_00:Alleged is the big word.
SPEAKER_01:That is absolutely and so you know, a lot of times these are a result of poor manufacturing practices. Uh, that can can cause, you know, something to go over a certain level, blending of certain foods, contamination of certain foods when they have, you know, warehouses and factories that produce, you know, two or more foods and the crossover contamination.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:There's adulteration of that food product. Yeah, there's a lot that's going on there. And so if you want some fun reading, folks, go read this document.
SPEAKER_00:Just don't do it like right after you eat. Do it before, do it before. Do it before you go grocery shopping.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. Do that's crazy. Because as I said before, you know, once you start looking into this stuff, I don't think you'll be looking at groceries and food the same way as you did before. Never. And so I just I'm just gonna take this out of the document itself real quick because one of the defects that's listed in here is insect filth.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so like um cockroach poop or like little pieces.
SPEAKER_01:You can have an average of so many insect fragments uh per so many grams of rodent filth.
SPEAKER_00:Uh-huh.
SPEAKER_01:Uh, how many rodent hairs per so many grams of food? Yep. Uh, some of the uh defects, of course, come from pre- and post-harvest. Correct. And, you know, the processing of insects and things like that, like, you know, like I said, rodent hair and things like that, and animal hair and excretion.
SPEAKER_00:So yeah, it's pretty gross to because I mean, like, how do you think that well, first of all, how do you think the fields are fertilized? You think they wash off that fertilizer before they throw that stuff in a in a barrel and send it to your you know, grocery store.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I mean they don't. And you know, uh I I had the opportunity to be in a farming operation for a period of time for about 13, 14 years. And what's interesting is a lot of people don't understand that the farmers, when they have grain that goes bad, it's either called moldy corn or moldy grain, right? And it can get literally soupy, right? And you can smell that pulling up to a grain deal. Oh, yeah. It's a horrible, horrible smell.
SPEAKER_00:It's almost like a dead body smell. Once you smell it, you know the smell.
SPEAKER_01:So once you and and if you open up those bins and take a look, it is the most grotesque sight you'd ever want to see. Now it's not thrown away. No. What happens is that gets blended and it gets to a point where the blending is allowed to a certain point, right? So it's like you've got some parts contaminated mixed in with with good grains. Right. And so again, you know, whether it's mold, whether it's something that's been contaminated another way, that just gets mixed in with the stuff that is not moldy.
SPEAKER_00:Until it's to a percentage that it's acceptable to sell to humans. Right. Yeah, right. So, folks, let's talk about the FDA. So, do you know how long the FDA has been around? Actually, gosh, I'm gonna guess. Because I do not know Wild Guess.
SPEAKER_01:Wild wild guess. Um, I would say, oh gosh, 1934.
SPEAKER_00:Wrong. 1906. So it's been around for 119 years. Wow. Which is crazy because if you think about the early 1900s, what the hell were they regulating? Yeah. Like people were, I mean, you think about like the dancing plague and stuff, which was from contaminated wheat and things like that. What the hell were they regulating? They weren't regulating anything. And how were they regulating? Right.
SPEAKER_01:And how were they testing it? Like they got one guy.
SPEAKER_00:They got one guy with a notepad going out going, yep. Yeah, got his little newspaper hat, and yeah, you know, going out there going, yep, them are pigs. You know, I mean, I don't know what the hell would he have done back then.
SPEAKER_01:And what kind of equipment did they use to test that stuff? Right. I don't know. And I would really now that you say that, Bobby, I'm really interested in knowing what the levels were of what's acceptable and what's not acceptable, what's past, what's fail.
SPEAKER_00:Right. I don't know back then. I mean, was it just wheat? Was it corn? Was it beans? Now a lot of it, a lot of it, especially in the beginning, was uh medical equipment. Oh. So the FDA, you know, they have basically three to four big things that they do. So they do food. Yes, they do drugs, yes, they do cosmetics. I know they do drugs. They do cosmetics and they also do medical equipment.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:So medical devices.
SPEAKER_01:Okay. Yeah. So uh let's talk about a an X-ray machine, radiation, right? Madam Curry. So when did she and when did she discover radiation? Yeah. When was that? Wasn't that around the same time period? I think, well, I think it was right around that time. So then again, 1906, you said, correct? Am I correct on that date? Yeah. So 1906, first of all, how were they inspecting any equipment? What were they inspecting, and what were the levels?
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so get this. 10 years before that is when they started doing the radioactivity with the X-rays. So it was 1896, is when the radioactivity actually started being used for um photogenic plates, x-rays, things like that.
SPEAKER_01:Why do you think that they included that equipment in the FDA requirements because they were burning people up?
SPEAKER_00:I think that it had something well, and I think it also had something to do with like the radium girls. Yeah, they were dying, they were dying, they were, you know, their charges were falling off, their teeth were falling out, and they couldn't figure out why. That's very, very interesting, Bobby. Yeah, and you know, it's a lot of people think that um the FDA is involved in cosmetics to the point where, you know, they think, oh, well, the FDA says this is safe, so I'm gonna put it on my face. Well, kind of, yeah. So they're more involved in like um the safe manufacturing of it. So not so much of what it's gonna do to your skin.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and I want you to continue down that road because I'm gonna go down the road of why the FDA is such a farce.
unknown:Oh, okay.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, we might yeah, well, you know, yeah, we might collide. Yeah, is that what you're saying?
SPEAKER_00:We might, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So we know that there's a lot of critics out there and there's a lot of allegations uh uh regarding the FDA and how they've allowed unsafe or defective products to remain on the market or to come on the market, sometimes with fatal consequences, right? Right. And so one of the one of the allegations, uh it wasn't really an allegation, there was an investigation that was done uh that revealed in late 2024 that the FDA has such a significant backlog of thousands of drug manufacturing facilities, many of them overseas, yes, that have not been inspected within years. Correct. I mean, and there's a mandatory of five years that they have to be inspected every five years. Right. No, it's not happening. And so there's a backlog of inspections. Why? Because they don't have qualified people. You know, I've always said with any job, you pay them and they will come. You know, you pay them the right wage, they'll they're gonna come and they're gonna do the job. But they don't have the inspectors, so they've got a backlog. So that's one of the oversight or failures of the oversight committees in the FDA, right?
SPEAKER_00:And you know, I I touched on the fact that the FDA does um medical devices.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Do you know what year they started doing the medical devices and making sure that they were um proper and safe and I thought you said 1906? No, they did not go into the medical devices until 1976.
SPEAKER_01:What was the 1906?
SPEAKER_00:So the 1906 was when they were first founded. Oh, that's right. That's right, you know, we're talking about 1976. It took them 70 years to figure out hey, maybe we should start regulating some uh medical devices that these doctors are using.
SPEAKER_01:Interesting.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and the funny thing is, is they don't they don't look at all these medical devices. So there's something called a grandfather clause.
SPEAKER_01:I'm not talking Santa Claus. I know it's close to Christmas. I am very familiar with grandfather clause.
SPEAKER_00:The grandfather devices is so it's a medical device that was sold to consumers before the FDA gained full regulatory authority of the medical device industry in 1976.
SPEAKER_01:So anything prior to that year, then what happens, folks, with the grandfather clause is they get grandfathered in, meaning they don't have to meet certain requirements, they don't have to meet certain inspections.
SPEAKER_00:They don't have any further studies done on them, on their efficacy or their safety, anything like that.
SPEAKER_01:They don't have to meet the minimum requirements for any manufactured devices that come out, uh, you know, come that are that they're are in their possession. Anything past that date, they do have to meet those minimum requirements or allegedly have to meet those requirements.
SPEAKER_00:Allegedly, now there are some there are some excuses, I'll say, that the FDA allows some medical devices to use. And a lot of them come from this grandfather clause. Now, if someone comes in and invents a new medical device and they use the basis of an FDA-approved medical device that was grandfathered in before 1976, they have a higher rate of just passing the FDA with no further inspection than if a new device without using the old ways is discovered.
SPEAKER_01:So they assume safe. They assume instead of assuming unsafe.
SPEAKER_00:That's that's and that's they say that it's to get that medical device to the consumer quicker, yeah. Um, you know, just so that people don't suffer things like that. Uh, but I honestly I gotta call bullshit on that.
SPEAKER_01:But yeah, yeah. Because you know, the FDA has also is also uh in charge of doing recalls on food, drug, and equipment, correct? Yep. And so that's one of the criticisms that they have had also is they're criticized for slow responses to not only food contamination contamination issues, right, but you know, toxic elements. What's one of the ones that comes to mind? Baby food.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, the lead in baby food and the arsenic.
SPEAKER_01:And the pathogens in infant formula, but uh allowing uh those pieces of equipment or that food or those drugs to continue on the market, even though they know that they should be recalled. And so they've had a delay in recalls. Again, why is that? Well, they're understaffed, and to be honest with you, FDA is one of the most underfunded uh federal agencies that we have, right?
SPEAKER_00:And yet it is the most critical, and it's and it's the most wide covering because I mean, if you think about it, all the food, all the cosmetics, all of the medical devices, all of the drugs that includes, you know, not only just drugs, but um, we're talking like um blood products. Right. You know, like factor, what is it, factor eight for hemophiliacs? Oh, so that was a big one. So they found out, you know, back when the AIDS epidemic was uh happening, the FDA, there was this big hoopla, and I can't remember the exact wording, but the FDA was actually sending these blood products to other countries because they were not approved in the United States any longer. So they're selling them to other countries, going, hey, we're still gonna make money one way or the other.
SPEAKER_01:Well, one of the things that has happened in the United States is, you know, the FDA also um has a history or the investigation indicated that they have weakened inspection procedures that have enabled those contaminated products to enter into the supply chains, not only through our government agencies, but also through our private agencies and our pharmaceuticals, right? So again in 2024, do you remember that contaminated eye drop thing from the foreign facilities because they had an overdue, they had overdue inspections that the US didn't follow up on. And what happened was four four Americans died from it. Yeah, and that was eye drops, folks. So yeah, I mean, there's a lot of conflict here and a lot of the fact that, you know, we rely on the government to set these standards. I mean, the first part right there tells you the whole problem. We rely on the government, and so you know, people I I've heard people say, well, there's you know, there's government restrictions on that, or there's really strict rules on that. Who do you think's enforcing that? Right. It's kind of like, oh, I want a new law that says your dog can't poop on my lawn. Really? Who's gonna enforce that, folks?
SPEAKER_00:What are you gonna do? Call the cops every time? You're looking at lobbyists and people who are actually sitting in Congress and Senate, and you're looking at them not understanding that these people are funded by drug companies.
SPEAKER_01:I was just going there, the financial conflict of interest, because the agency faces institutional corruption criticism due to the fact that we have users' fees from pharmaceutical companies, right? Right? Come on. And so they're the ones who are doing a lot of the testing, they're the ones who fund the drug reviews, and so the argument is that, first of all, it's a conflict of interest, and we're really prioritizing speed and finance and uh profit over our the safety of our people, correct, correct, and they're and they're pushing it.
SPEAKER_00:Here's the thing though, they're pushing it onto us by saying, well, if we wait, if we wait for these inspections to be done, if we wait for all of this testing to be done, how many people are going to die waiting for this medication? How many people are going to suffer waiting for this treatment? And so, you know, we're empathetic. We're like, oh God, we don't want these people to die. We don't want them to suffer. Let's push it out as fast as we can, right? You know, things like that.
SPEAKER_01:So you have accelerated approvals, right? Right. And that's a pathway for drugs that have, you know, that have flaws and that are ineffective or unsafe on the market because look what happened with COVID, right? It was really flawed. And so we know now, you know, please folks, don't get excited over the next uh pandemic. We're gonna have another one. Oh, and and we're gonna know what's put in your body.
SPEAKER_00:We're gonna go into vaccines too in another episode because boy, do I got a shitload to say about that.
SPEAKER_01:So that accelerated approval process uh obviously is ineffective. And then you talked about the medical device vulnerability, and and that loophole is in is it 510K?
SPEAKER_00:Five, hold on.
SPEAKER_01:I think it's 510K clearance process that allows the manufacturers to market those new devices by comparing them to the older ones. Right. So even though they may have been recalled, that potentially increases the risk or harm to patients. Right. And so, you know, here you are putting something new out on the market under this 501k clearance process. 510K or 510K, 501, 510K process, even though we know that that equipment is bad, right, and it's been being recalled, but not recalled quick enough. But we're gonna let you build some more.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And they only here's the thing the FDA only requires right around 1% of class three devices to undergo extensive and time-consuming processes to know that they're safe and they're effective.
SPEAKER_01:So the US has also been criticized for following more of a let's test everything out and see if it works. And yet we've got these processes in place that allow clearance for these products to go to market. Now, like in the UK or in Europe, they're more of, you know, this doesn't feel right to us. Right. We're not gonna let it come on the market.
SPEAKER_00:They're more of if it's not got a 10-year or a 20-year study done on it, we're not so sure about putting it into the into the general population as a whole.
SPEAKER_01:But they actually look at the safety of their constituents or or their population. And so what they're saying is, is you know, where the US is saying, well, you know, we think it's okay. Let's go ahead and put it out there, put it on fast track, and we'll get it on the market, we'll recall it if we have to recall it. Right.
SPEAKER_00:We'll deal with the aftermath later. Let's just get it out there.
SPEAKER_01:Where the Europeans are saying, doesn't feel right to me. Right. I don't feel like there's enough studies done. We don't have enough logistics associated with this. Let's go ahead and just wait. And so that's why, you know, we talked about the food, right? Right. A lot of stuff not getting to market. They don't have any test results on it. They're like, huh. Right.
SPEAKER_00:Or they or they have the test results. Yeah, and and they're saying and the FDA is rejecting them, saying, well, that's not what we found. And so we're not, you know, we're gonna go ahead and let, you know, red dye number 40 go ahead and be in everything that the Americans eat.
SPEAKER_01:So one of the other critical points I found from the FDA is its contribution to the opioid crisis. Did you look into that at all?
SPEAKER_00:Um, I kind of did not because I uh yeah, I'm kind of salty about that personally.
SPEAKER_01:So um, not because you're on opioids or anybody you you're I mean it's that's not because I I'm well I am negatively affected by it, but in a different way.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So um the FBA ha FBA the FDA. See, I can't even get the alphabet right. I can't even get the letters right, let alone the words. Um, so the FDA has, you know, been criticized for its role in the opioid opioid crisis because of some regulatory missteps in approving and labeling new drugs and advertising, obviously. But it does get back to the fact that unfortunately the industry is financing all of this. And so you've got the pharmaceutical companies that are financing a lot of these test results and a lot of these the studies, the studies that need to get, you know, to get them on the market. And so, of course, those results are gonna be favorable according to what you know pharmaceutical it is.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because they're gonna say, hey, we're gonna sponsor this, but you're gonna give us the data before you release it. Right. So we're gonna filter the data from our point of view because we're sponsoring it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. So I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:I just, you know, I struggle with this because you know, do you remember? I know you probably remember this. Um, back in it started in the 50s, became real popular in the 70s, and even up until I think it was 2013, uh, transvaginal mesh. Yes, you remember that? Yes. So that was a huge FDA black spot. Huge. Rightly so. Oh, rightly so. There were so many people that suffered and died because of that, because it went from oh, well, you know, um, before the 50s we used it, so it's grandfathered in. Okay, well, now we're gonna use it for other things that it wasn't originally uh approved for, but that's cool because we've already used it since the 50s, so why wouldn't we use it here? Okay, well, now people are dying, people are having lifelong, you know, disabilities because of this, but you know, it's gonna take us another, oh, you know, 40, 50 years for us to get our heads out of our asses and realize that maybe we shouldn't be doing this. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And, you know, I I guess, you know, in this particular podcast, we could go on and on. I mean, really, I've got pages and pages, and I really want to get into some of these booklets too, but I'm not going to. But, you know, the FDA system's failure is the things to consider are the fact that pharmaceutical companies are paying big money to get new drugs and new equipment through the approval process. And they're the ones who are paying for a lot of the studies and a lot of the tests that are being done. And so please just know that follow the money, always, always, always follow the money. And the FDA does not conduct clinical trials.
SPEAKER_00:No.
SPEAKER_01:Um, approval is predicated on clinical trials submitted by the drug makers. And so again, I did say submitted and not conducted. Right. So remember that. And then drug makers are under no obligation to submit all their data. If one trial fails, they can fund another one until they get the result right. Correct. The trials themselves aren't necessarily neutral. So commercially funded trials are far more likely to return a favorable result for that pharmaceutical company. So please, folks, just so that everything that the government tells you is safe to put in your body, do your own research. You know, if they say it's not safe, I would do my own research. And, you know, I mean, there's if it says it's organic or all natural. Yeah. What do you got down there? What do you have?
SPEAKER_00:I'm holding in my hand. So bought me this uh lip balm. And is it called lip balm? It's called well, it's called lip shit lip balm, um, which is pretty cool. But you know, I'm sitting here and I'm holding it and I'm reading the back, and you know, made in the USA, all natural, um, you know, things like that. And you know, the FDA does have a hand in cosmetics, uh, but not the hand that people would probably think that it has in cosmetics. So it's not, it's not got the hand in the cosmetics like it does in the food and in the drugs and in the medical devices. Um, so basically what they do is make sure that cosmetics aren't misbranded or adulterated. Okay. It doesn't approve most cosmetics products or um ingredients before they go to market. Did you realize that?
SPEAKER_01:What's it do then? What's the what what's the purpose of it?
SPEAKER_00:So here's the thing not a lot of people know exactly why the FDA is involved in cosmetics, other than making sure that maybe your lips won't fall off.
SPEAKER_01:Well, I mean, obviously there's a lot of chemicals. That can be absorbed through the skin, right? Right. And you know, there's a lot of topical stuff that you don't want going into the body. And I want to make sure that that's safe for me and my family.
SPEAKER_00:So basically, for cosmetics, um, they they do monitor for well, they have the authority uh to take action against any cosmetic product that is found to be adulterated or mislabeled, like if it says that it's blush and it's actually lipstick. Okay, the FDA might step in there. There's no pre-market approval for cosmetics, like I said. The ingredients do not need to be approved by the FDA. Uh, certain color additives must be approved, though. I don't have that list, but there are certain ones. You can look those up. They are so the manufacturers are responsible for labeling their products correctly, including listing all the ingredients, providing necessary safety warnings, things like that. The FDA does overlook that. The facilities that make the cosmetics do have to register every two years with the FDA. Okay. So uh which probably means nothing. I'm sure they send in some paperwork. Yeah, they pay a fee and send in some paperwork. So uh they have to in doing that, they have to list their the products and the ingredients with the FDA. Okay. Does the FDA ever look at those lists? Who knows? Yeah. I mean, they could just say, hey, here's our okay, here's our product, here's what's in it, and the FDA could take the packet and go, okay, approved. Without ever looking at it.
SPEAKER_01:And I mean, we talked about how far backlogged they are, right? Right. Not only on inspections of facilities, equipment, and and uh food and drugs, but you know, even cosmetics. I mean, who's gonna look into that stuff?
SPEAKER_00:Right. And they have to like say if there's talc in it, because talc powder is a big thing, you know, things like that. And but I mean, I just I guess I don't know what the FDA's actual hand in this is because what are they really regulating? I don't know. I guess if there's an adverse reaction, they have to report that to the FDA. Now, what the FDA does with that, yeah, we don't know 10 years before we find out that it's my understanding that there's no real fines by the FDA, right?
SPEAKER_01:That they may just get a letter, right?
SPEAKER_00:So saying, hey, this might not be a good idea, you know, especially like the Johnson baby powder. Yeah. So how long did the FDA sit on that knowledge?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we don't know when it was when it was finally investigated, right? Yeah. So, you know, again, we are not attorneys, we are not doctors, we are not professionals. We are not professionals of any sort. Are you a professional at anything, Bobby?
SPEAKER_00:Like I said, I'm a professional asshole. Oh, yeah, that's right. Other than that, I mean, uh I'm a shit talker and a shit starter. Yeah, well, you're but I'm also I'm also you know, if if I if I do say something and I say it with my whole chest, you best believe that I have the credibility and the sources to back this up.
SPEAKER_01:All we're saying, folks, is just take a look. Take a look, do your own investigation. The FDA's oversight of food and you know, of the food policies, drug safety, and general public health of our society and the equipment that we use really just isn't working well, and everybody thinks it is. Right. You gotta protect yourselves. You gotta protect yourselves. And please know that the FDA is horribly underfunded. And so, you know And it's the government. And it's the government, it's the government.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, the government's hands are in their pockets, their hands are in the government's pockets, everybody's being paid off. I think they should wear jackets like in NASCAR that say who else's funding them and sponsoring animal. Like if uh, you know, you guys take three money from Pfizer across the back. Guess what? I'm probably not gonna use a Pfizer product. All right.
SPEAKER_01:My home and my yacht was bought by Pfizer. Thank you very much.
SPEAKER_00:All six of my grandkids went to college on Pfizer. All right. Well, I think that's about all we've got, isn't it, Bobby? I think so. So uh listen, we really appreciate each and every one of you joining us every week, even though you know sometimes we sound like idiots. Um you got two. Head at the table. You know, we we do uh want to hear from you guys though. So if you guys have questions, if you guys deep dive into this and go down that rabbit hole, we want to know about it. Right. So listen, follow us, like us, share us. We have our Facebook page uh official Facebook page, a boomer and a gen X her walk into a bar. You can always leave comments on our posts there. You can email us at boomer and gen Xer at gmail.com. But listen, if you have hate mail, I mean no one send it, put it in the pharmaceuticals, put in the FDA papers because they're never gonna we're not gonna read it. Um, but listen, until next week, I'm Bobby Joy. And I'm Jane Bird, and you're stuck with us later.