An interesting article in the New York Times today discusses the rise of the phrase "If You See Something, Say Something," which is prominently seen throughout the New York City subway system, and has spread to other public transportation systems around the world. The slogan also includes the phone number for a counter-terrorism unit.

According to the article, a New York advertising executive wrote the slogan on September 12, 2001, before the Metro Transit Authority, a former client, even asked for a new phrase to respond to the to the World Trade Center attacks. The executive says of the slogan:

“I’m proud of what it’s done and the potential it has to do more. Some things you just can’t stop. But if it is stoppable, and that thought makes someone think twice and say something that stops something, that’s its reason for being.”

Which got us here at GAP thinking, what if this slogan was posted on the wall in workplaces around the world, instead of just in transportation systems?

What if society encouraged workers to blow the whistle on fraud, waste, and bureaucratic carelessness, as enthusiastically as it encouraged people to report a suspicious package?

According to the CDC, an estimated 76 million Americans endure foodborne illness every year. Of those 76 million people, up to 9,000 die. Simply for comparison’s sake, 2,669 Americans perished in the horrific September 11 attacks.

However, when GAP clients have seen wrongdoing and said something about dangerous handling of food product, they have faced retaliation and backlash, and even public disdain.

Recent studies have raised concerns about the safety of triclosan, an antibacterial chemical found in many soaps and hand sanitizers.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, triclosan is so common in household products that traces of it are found in the urine of 75% of the population. These new studies show that the chemical may disrupt the human endocrine system and help to create bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics.

In response to a letter from Representative Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), the FDA (along with the EPA) indicated that they would be taking a closer look at the chemical. Markey responded:

"The proliferation of triclosan in everyday consumer products is so enormous, it is literally in almost every type of product -- most soaps, toothpaste, cosmetics, clothes and toys," Markey said. "It's in our drinking water, it's in our rivers and as a result, it's in our bodies. . . . I don't think a lot of additional data has to be collected in order to make the simple decisions about children's toys and soaps that people use. It clearly is something that creates a danger."

Other countries have banned or restricted usage of triclosan, including members of the European Union. However, the $30 billion U.S. cleaning products industry, which utilizes triclosan in its products, is claiming concerns over the safety of the chemical are unfounded.

The FDA says it is taking a “fresh look” at the chemical, and working quickly "to understand better the health effects" of it, in hopes of developing new regulations.

As the FDA has been dealing with food contamination and food safety issues, it has largely ignored the issue of food fraud.

Now American food producers are urging the FDA to take a stronger stance on fraud, which occurs when food is improperly labeled.

Incidents of this type of fraud have been on the rise. Examples include a store was selling expensive "sheep's milk" cheese that was actually made from cow's milk; cheap, common fish being passed off as expensive catches; and “100% Honey” being made with sugar beets or corn syrup. Food fraud seems to pose a special risk to the fish industry; the National Seafood Inspection Laboratory randomly tested seafood between 1988 and 1997 and found that 34 percent had been sold as a different species.

The new federal advisory board for tobacco regulation, run by the FDA, is set to examine the issue of menthol flavoring in cigarettes when it convenes for the first time today.

Many members of Congress and seven former secretaries of health argue that an outright ban on the flavoring is necessary, because they say it disguises the offensive taste of cigarettes and serves as bait for young and black smokers. The issue is racially charged, as research has shown that among black smokers, 82.6 percent used menthol cigarettes, compared with 32.3 percent for Hispanic smokers and 23.8 percent for white smokers. While studies have shown that blacks smoke fewer cigarettes a day than other groups of smokers, they have greater rates of lung cancer, heart disease and stroke.

Last year Congress approved the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which established the Tobacco Products Scientific Advisory Committee at the FDA. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the act would reduce youth smoking by 11 percent and adult smoking by 2 percent over the next decade. Many hailed the new law, with the director of the University of Michigan Tobacco Research Network calling it "a historic step changing the nature of tobacco in society forever." The World Heath Organization has previously estimated that half of long-term smokers ultimately die of smoking-related diseases.

The recently passed health care reform bill will require all restaurant chains with more than 20 outlets to post calorie information on their menus and drive-through signs.

The new law also requires the restaurants to supply information on how many calories a healthy person should eat in a day. In addition, calorie information will be required for food items in vending machines.

A new study by the Mayo Clinic shows how since 2007, when concerns were first raised about the safety of the diabetes drug Avandia, 94 percent of experts who provided favorable opinions about the drug have ties to drug companies. Nearly half of the experts had financial ties to drug companies that presented a conflict of interest. From Reuters:

"It was almost three to four times more likely that somebody who had a relationship with a pharmaceutical company had a favorable opinion about the medication," Dr Victor Montori of the Mayo Clinic, whose study appears in the British Medical Journal, said in a telephone interview.

In addition, a quarter of authors did not report their relationship with drugmakers in articles about Avandia.

Last month, Senator Max Baucus and Senator Charles Grassley released a report and internal FDA documents about Avandia. One author of an internal FDA report has a tremendous amount of respect throughout the industry as a drug safety advocate and expert – GAP client Dr. David Graham, who had previously blown the whistle on Vioxx.

ProPublica presents a list of involved people who are denying any knowledge of Lehman Brothers controversial usage of an accounting trick that allowed the company to hide its financial troubles before eventually filing for bankruptcy in 2008. Included is Lehman Brothers CEO, who claims that he didn't know about the issue because he doesn't use a computer and couldn't open attachments on his BlackBerry. The article has a nice video explaining the accounting trick.

New court filings in the case of Federal Air Marshal whistleblower and GAP client Robert MacLean argue that MacLean's direct supervisor was engaged in “an illicit affair with a female subordinate, on whom he bestowed numerous professional favors.” However, the supervisor was protected from punishment for this violation of agency rules because he made a dirty deal to carry out the director of the air marshal program's instructions to fire MacLean. GAP legal director Tom Devine is quoted in the article, from the Orange County Register:

MacLean’s attorney, Tom Devine of the Government Accountability Project, responded to the government’s response: “The development about Mr. Donanti was not offered to impugn his character,” it says. “It demonstrates that he had a conflict of interest, because his professional survival depended on acting as the agency’s hatchet man against a problematic Federal Law Enforcement Officer’s Association (FLEOA) leader."

The article also discusses the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act, which would give whistleblowers many more rights and protections. The act was likely to pass the Senate by unanimous consent last year but two Republican senators (Jim Bunning and Kit Bond) put holds on the bill. Bunning has since removed his hold.