Safe! For now

Here's a morning update on whether or not food coloring warrants a warning label:

"An expert advisory panel to the Food and Drug Administration said Thursday that there was not enough scientific evidence linking artificial colors with hyperactivity to warrant a warning label or new restrictions on thousands of processed foods colored by chemicals."

I just found it interesting how this was playing out after our crisis simulation. Now go eat your Fruity Pebbles.

Crisis Blog Response

Team: Xavier, Liz, Marie, Kaitlin, Adam

Dear Candy Confectioner, Readers, & All Candy Lovers,

Our customers’ concerns are and always have been our biggest priority here at Trachs Candy, and we would like to take a moment to address the issues Candy Confectioner, and many of you, have voiced here. We appreciate your questions regarding the safety of our ingredients. At Trachs, we have used the same time-tested recipe, passed down from generation to generation for almost 100 years, and have always been committed to producing quality candy.

You can be assured that all of our products follow FDA regulations, and there have been no conclusive studies showing a link between food coloring and attention disorders. We remain committed to ensuring the safety of our products, and in collaboration with the FDA are launching further research to verify and ensure the safety of our products and our customers.

Once again, we appreciate you bringing your concerns to our attention. For updates on our cooperation with the FDA and insights from our CEO and food safety experts, please see our company blog at www.TrachsCandyCares.com. Please don’t hesitate to contact us on the blog with further questions and concerns.

Yours,
Trachs Candy

Crowdsourcing a Better World

I have to admit I didn't know too much about crowdsourcing until we started talking more in-depth about it in class. The idea works well for fundraising and promotional ideas (like the Maroon5 song), but I thought it was really interesting how people are using it to solve serious crises in real-time. This NY Times article talks about how crowdsource sites like japanstatus.com and geigercrowd.net are popping up for people to get information on radiation levels in certain areas. Apparently people were frustrated with official sources of information, complaining that what they heard was bland or vague, and were looking for specific information about specific areas.

Another great example is from Kenya, where the crisis crowdsource site Ushahidi.com was developed to map reports of 2008 post-election violence and destruction. The site has since been used to organize volunteers in the Haiti earthquake, track election fraud in Mexico and map road obstacles in DC's own 2010 Snowmageddon! The article is a pretty good read, I recommend checking it out.

Social media and crisis

Turn a crisis into a social media opportunity !
This article about Toyota illustrates what we talked about today.

"Of all the ways social media can make a difference in the lifes of ordinary people, emergency management is one of the most important." That is what we saw in today class !