The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is right to crack down on products that make false claims or cause harm, but it shouldn’t have forced Zicam — a proven, effective cold remedy with no demonstrated links to harm — off the market.
Like every other Zicam addict, I was unnerved on the day back in June when the FDA announced that the nasal-gel cold remedy poses a “serious risk” of causing loss of the sense of smell. How could a product that I had successfully and safely used for years be so dangerous? As a trial lawyer, I couldn’t help but dig into the issue — one that worries me as we enter cold and flu season — and was appalled to learn that the FDA had no science to back up its action and that the suggestion that Zicam causes smell loss has been uniformly rejected as the product of junk science in at least 10 lawsuits since 2004.
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