Ignoring the obvious  Published: Saturday, October 13, 2012 at
10:21 p.m. Last Modified: Saturday, October 13, 2012 at 10:21
p.m.  You have to love Congress.  As the death toll from a
national meningitis outbreak climbs, members of the House and
Senate have started pounding their fists on their desks
demanding to know how this could happen and why the
Massachusetts Board of Pharmacy didn't deal more decisively with
the compounding lab that created the bad pain medication
believed to be responsible for the deaths.  The irony is, this
is the same group of lawmakers who have ignored the Food and
Drug Administration's repeated warnings about the growing danger
of compounding labs.  The FDA has testified before Congress,
written reports to Congress, done everything it can to sound the
alarm.  The agency's concern was that, unlike big pharmaceutical
companies that must meet exacting federal tolerances for the
drugs they dispense and the manner by which they create them,
small compounding labs are barely regulated a