Misguided Crusaders

This week, a coworker received calls from some of our customers concerned about a report they had seen on the news. Apparently, according to the report, certain products posed a moderate hazard. So, I did some investigating.

What I found frustrated, annoyed, and generally sickened me.

You see, a non-profit agency proposing to protect our children from harmful chemicals uses that platform for their own crusade, no matter how misguided it may be. They rail against the FDA for not imposing strict enough regulations, and issue black marks against companies that use products that the U.S. government fails to regulate. The reasoning behind this is that other countries, most notably Japan and the European Union do regulate these types of ingredients.

The problem is that this group has created several databases to deal with these ingredients individually, without respect for how they are used or the testing behind the final product. In other words, products approved for use in the EU, because they are safe, are disregarded in this study. Why? Because they don’t match up with the intended purpose. They need a reason to exist. So instead of being responsible in their analysis, they decide to take a more common, politically motivated route that focuses on fear.

Oddly, this particular organization felt it fine to attack numerous groups for their regulatory failings, while avoiding those governmental agencies dealing with crackpots spouting inaccuracies about any number of issues.

Here’s what most organizations relying on this type of tactic don’t realize: at some point it’s useless. No matter how loud you yell, people will stop listening because they are tired of hearing your dire warnings with no consequences.

Kind of like the boy who cried wolf. Instead, deal with the real issues we are facing. Not just the ones that fit into your database.

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