Creative and Imaginative

Take a look at this opinion piece by Bob Dorigo Jones. Though his name may be weird, his thoughts are not. He talks about "warning label overload" and how this is all due to the fear of lawsuits. He lists a lot of interesting examples but there are too many to mention here. The one I want to quote is this one:

We all know about the hot coffee lawsuit against McDonald's. But did you know that McDonald's was also sued over a milkshake? Several years ago, a man went through a drive-through at McDonald's and bought a milkshake and fries. He put the shake between his legs, the fries next to him and drove away. As he reached for the fries, he squeezed the drink between his legs and it spilled on him. Distracted, he rear-ended another car and caused minor damage. Incredibly, the owner of the damaged car sued McDonald's for failing to warn the customer about drinking a milkshake while driving.This case went all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court before finally being thrown out for good. But when the restaurant asked to be reimbursed for the thousands it spent on legal fees in this frivolous case, the judge refused. He actually said the plaintiff shouldn't be penalized for being "creative and imaginative."

Can you imagine a doctor getting off on a malpractice case because the judge felt he shouldn't be penalized for being "creative and imaginative"? In fact, it is just the opposite. With the advent of evidence based medicine guidelines, a doctor has to be VERY careful about doing anything not exactly in those guideliness less those guidelines are used AGAINST him or her in a court of law.

That Smoke Is Making Me Crazy

A study in the Archives of General Psychiatry claims that adults with more exposure to second hand smoke have a higher incidence of mental illness later in life. The media eats this stuff up but this is again nothing more than just a soundbite. The authors conclude by saying "our data are consistent with other emerging evidence to suggest a casual role of nicotine exposure in mental illness". I am as much against cigarettes as the next doctor but "casual role" doesn't sound that convincing to me. In fact, take away cigarettes from a lot of my patients and you would see a lot more than a "casual" decline into depression or stress. Even better, remove smoking from an AA meeting and there would be pandemonium in the streets. I'm just saying.