NEW YORK, N.Y. – The city denied today it acted irresponsibly in delaying public announcement for nearly two weeks’ of the recall of faulty condoms supplied to nearly 300 public agencies for free distrubution.
Under f re at a news conference this morning for tardy disclosure of the recall of 750,000 Saxon condoms, New York City Health Commissioner Woodrow “Woody” Myers, Jr., M.D., told reporters he felt his department had acted properly “by contacting all organizations to whom we supply condoms” by Oct. 14.
The rubber recall became public knowledge Friday when news of it apparently was leaked inadvertently to a writer for The New York Times by a health department employee and was reported in the press.
The employee, who asked not to be named, said, “The department …show more content…
Since the health department did not know to whom condoms from these lots had been dis tributed, the entire distribution of 750,000 Saxons was recalled, even though some had already been distributed to the public.
“We don’t know how many have been distributed or how many remain at the agencies we serve, waiting to be picked up and returned to Safetex,” Myers said.
“To suggest that every Saxon condom we distributed was defective would be wrong. They were not, there was pretty low risk of pregnancy or transmission of disease. but it is a higher risk than we f nd acceptable.” “The agency that has the formal reponsibility in this situation is the FDA.” Meyers said only 22% of the condoms distributed by his department come from Saf-etex. The other 88 percent comes from from Ansell, a N.J. f rm, which has taken a new order for 500,000 condoms to be delivered in 30 days to help replace the recalled rubbers.
The health department has been supplying 50 A. I. D. S. and teen-age pregnancy prevention agencies under contract for free condoms, the New York City Schools, and 250 other organiza tions that receive condoms on request as they need
Under f re at a news conference this morning for tardy disclosure of the recall of 750,000 Saxon condoms, New York City Health Commissioner Woodrow “Woody” Myers, Jr., M.D., told reporters he felt his department had acted properly “by contacting all organizations to whom we supply condoms” by Oct. 14.
The rubber recall became public knowledge Friday when news of it apparently was leaked inadvertently to a writer for The New York Times by a health department employee and was reported in the press.
The employee, who asked not to be named, said, “The department …show more content…
Since the health department did not know to whom condoms from these lots had been dis tributed, the entire distribution of 750,000 Saxons was recalled, even though some had already been distributed to the public.
“We don’t know how many have been distributed or how many remain at the agencies we serve, waiting to be picked up and returned to Safetex,” Myers said.
“To suggest that every Saxon condom we distributed was defective would be wrong. They were not, there was pretty low risk of pregnancy or transmission of disease. but it is a higher risk than we f nd acceptable.” “The agency that has the formal reponsibility in this situation is the FDA.” Meyers said only 22% of the condoms distributed by his department come from Saf-etex. The other 88 percent comes from from Ansell, a N.J. f rm, which has taken a new order for 500,000 condoms to be delivered in 30 days to help replace the recalled rubbers.
The health department has been supplying 50 A. I. D. S. and teen-age pregnancy prevention agencies under contract for free condoms, the New York City Schools, and 250 other organiza tions that receive condoms on request as they need