As I opened a new box of toothpaste the other day, struggling to get it open because of the glue that held the box flaps sealed, I had to get the scissors to cut the box open. While struggling with this silly contraption, I wondered when the date was that the FDA decided to step in and protect us consumers from ourselves.
I looked it up, on http://uclue.com/?xq=845 , and found that it was back in 1970 when congress passed the Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA) http://www.cpsc.gov/businfo/pppa.pdf requiring that poisons, some house hold chemicals like furniture polish should be sold in child resistant packaging. That was the year Doug and I got married, while we were busy adjusting to marriage, we didn't know that congress had plans to change our lives in other ways. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) was established in 1973 and they determine whether a drug or product falls under this act. The first drug which came under this act was aspirin. The CPSC was given the authority to establish child resistant packaging standards. These regulations subsequently required that prescription drugs with some specific exceptions be dispensed in packaging that met the child resistant requirement.
When our daughter ingested the grape flavored benedril medicine in 1977, the bottle had an easy open cap. She just drank it right down, because it was yummy to her. Of course we spent the rest of the afternoon in the ER getting her tummy pumped and she got a taste of the nasty charcoal and 'epecac'. So it must have taken a while to legislate the act. Well in my research I found that by 1982, the CPCS required tamper resistant packaging, on all products, and I guess the rest, as they say, is history.
Packages of chips, crackers, cereals, medicines, and toothpaste all have been made tamper resistant, to the frustration of some senior citizens who then decided they wanted a choice in 'child' safety caps and lids. So now, if we remember to ask the pharmacist, we can get easy open lids. Maybe it was always available, who knew to ask?
Now I want to switch gears for a minute, hang with me. My mother-in-law was a very vibrant, lively, adventuresome woman. After her husband's death (20 years before her own) she took a job in San Antonio, Tex. at the Buckner Home for Teenage UnWed Mothers www.buckner.org/about . She flew to Salt Lake City, Utah to visit us while we lived in Wyoming. She took care of a friends cat because her friend had decided to move to a retirement village and couldn't have animals. That friend didn't sell her house or close it up, so the cat stayed with the house. As my mother-in-law began to age, however, she became fearful, finally afraid to live alone any longer.
I fell down at the grocery store one day awhile back. I stepped off the curb, twisted my ankle in a hole which was the opening to a grease trap next to the curb, and fell. I landed on my knee ripped my pants, skinned my hands catching myself, and bruised my hip. I am fine now, but here's the thing, I was wary if not a little frightened to step out of the front door for about a week after that happened. I didn't like that feeling if fear.
As a 'Boomer' who is entering this life transition and tsunami of change called retirement, I wonder what else the FDA or some other concerned committee, administration, or organization is going to enact to protect us seniors like they did to protect our children. Oh wait! We have AARP for that don't we? http://www.aarp.org .
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