Last week Fellow member, Dr Bruce, talked again on toxic elements. This time he talked about how toxic elements (arsenic, lead, mercury, and cadmium) get into dietary supplements from foreign countries ( China, India, and others) and how hard it is for the US Government to regulate and detect the introduction of these toxic elements. The problem is that foreign countries use waste water sewage sludge as fertilizer and the dietary supplement ingredients may come from a third country. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA) directed FDA to promote good manufacturing practices, truthful labels, and (after) adverse event reporting. An active Q&A followed Bruce’s talk.

Dr Lostritto Talked about the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research within the FDA. The CDER evaluates new drugs and generics ( to make sure they are equivalent. ). The CDER mission is to protect public health, approve drugs, give oversight and regula-tions,safety, drug industry gui-dance,and provide global in-spection teams. CDER drug approvals go through 3 pha-ses: (1) Pre-clinical Research; (2) Clinical studies on humans; and (3) New Drug Application (NDA). The review includes the drug, enclosure, labeling, and contract.

Last Week District Governor Peter Kyle Peter was born and raised in New Zealand and came to the University of Virginia for post-graduate law studies on a Rotary Foundation Ambassadorial Scholarship in 1973. On a World Bank trip to a third world former Soviet Republic that is 90% mountains, he attended a Rotary meeting and was met by a member that spoke good English. In his third world travels for the World Bank, Peter is impressed with the presents of Rotary activity. Rotary membership is expanding outside of the US, but contracting in the US; thus the need to increase each clubs net membership by 2 members. This year’s theme is “Engage Rotary, Change Lives”. The Distinct Conference will be at the Baltimore Hilton Hotel on May 11, 2014 and will have Dr Ben Carson as a guest speaker. Peter presented a Rotary pin to our new member, Jorge Urrutia.
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