B.U. Bridge is published by the Boston University Office of University Relations.

Contact Us

Staff

In The News

How much credibility does Bridgestone/Firestone have left after the biggest consumer scare since the Tylenol-tampering case? The company’s defective tires have been linked to at least 88 deaths and 250 injuries in the United States. "A crisis is like a final exam for students, and Firestone has flunked it," says COM Professor Otto Lerbinger in an article in the September 18 issue of Time. "The consumer wants to know, ‘What are you doing to make a safe product for me in the future?’ Firestone is going to have to do something dramatic. It will have to redesign and restructure its manufacturing process." Lerbinger, who teaches in the COM department of mass communication, advertising, and public relations, specializes in corporate affairs and communication theory.

On August 25 in Albuquerque, N.M., eight-year old Anamarie Martinez-Regino was taken from her mother’s arms and put into protective custody. The child weighs 120 pounds, nearly three times the average for her age.

She remains in foster care. Ellen Ruppel Shell, an associate professor and director of the graduate program in science journalism at COM, wonders how far doctors have gone to establish the biological underpinnings of Anamarie’s problem. "Unraveling this medical mystery would take time and money," she writes in a column in the September 10 Boston Globe, "but it would also be of enormous benefit not only to Anamarie, but to thousands of other children. Controlling the obesity epidemic in America will take guts, persistence, and an enormous exertion of public will. Removing Anamarie from her family involves none of these, and speaks more to our collective fear of the unknown and our need to lay blame than it does to our concern for the health and well-being of innocents."

"In The News" is compiled by Alexander Crouch in the Office of Public Relations.

2 March 2001
Boston University
Office of University Relations