A pill bottle with prescription medicine. A bill in Congress would guarantee patients’ right to have printed information about their medication.
Sun-Times file
The Food and Drug Administration recently proposed a rule that could effectively eliminate printed patient medication information, instead mandating that patients access this information online or obligating pharmacies to handle the printing process themselves. This rule would have considerable ramifications.
If this information were solely digital, our older and lower-income Illinoisans would be left without access to this lifesaving information. With more than 100,000 Americans each year dying from taking their medication incorrectly, we simply can’t afford to risk more lives for the sake of “going digital.”
This rule also would deliver a severe blow to our state’s economy. I’m incredibly proud to lead the CCL Industries team at the Batavia facility. Our facility prints pharmaceutical literature so Americans can receive printed health care information from their doctors and pharmacies. Since 2000, we’ve employed countless Illinoisans.
That’s why we were thrilled to host U.S. Rep. Bill Foster at CCL Batavia. We were deeply grateful for his time and attention, especially as the FDA has targeted our industry. We take pride in offering vital health information to patients, but our work seems to be in jeopardy.
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The printing industry in Illinois would suffer under the FDA proposal, with consequences extending beyond CCL employees to partners, vendors and suppliers. Not only that, but small pharmacies would grapple with the financial burden of printing PMI in-house, potentially laying off employees or closing.
When Rep. Foster was here, we made sure to reiterate our concerns and ask him to support legislation that Congress is considering right now.
The Patients’ Right to Know Their Medication Act guarantees every patient access to printed medication information and safeguards thousands of jobs in Illinois. It’s crucial for this bill to reach President Biden’s desk, which is why I hope Rep. Foster will co-sponsor this legislation.
David Joesten, vice president and general manager, US Literature, CCL Label Healthcare
Remembering a UIC expert on mass transit
The recent article by Susy Schultz, Richard Cahan, and Michael Willams on how the building of Chicago’s expressways lead to a segregated city, was well-written and informative. For me, though, there was a name missing among the various scholars mentioned. Paul F. Barrett was a professor of history at the Illinois Institute of Technology and one-time head of the Department of Humanities. He was also my friend. His 1976 doctoral dissertation at the University of Illinois at Chicago (“Mass Transit, the Automobile, and Public Policy in Chicago, 1900-1930”) covered much of the history discussed in the Sun-Times piece.
I came to know Paul and his work after he hired me to teach at IIT as a part-time lecturer. Even after I left, he and I continued to meet, either in his office or at his home, to talk about the importance of the humanities in higher education, 1960s folk music, as well as about all things Chicago. Paul died of cancer in 2004, yet as I write these words, I can recall our conversations in detail. Anyone wishing to read more about this subject would do well to consult Paul’s writings. As for his former students, I hope they remember anything and everything that kind and humane scholar ever said.
John Vukmirovich, Lemont