Webster resident Judy Braiman has dedicated her life to making our lives safer

We’re used to seeing this warning marked on toys: “Choking hazard. Not appropriate for children under 3 years.” We’re confident that the toys we buy don’t have lead paint or very sharp edges which can hurt our children. But what you might not know is that one of our very own Webster neighbors, Judy Braiman, is in large part responsible for those warnings originally being placed on toy packaging, and for millions of dangerous toys being recalled.

Judy Braiman is a long-time Rochester resident who now lives at the Cherry Ridge retirement community in Webster. She’s made a name for herself as a tireless consumer advocate, and in that role has testified in Congress numerous times, has worked with actress (and consumer advocate) Betty Furness, met George H.W. Bush and Senator Thomas Eagleton, received an award from Ronald Reagan, has been interviewed on every major network, co-authored Consumer Reports’ Toy Buying Guide, and was included in the book Soap Opera: the Inside Story of Proctor & Gamble by Alecia Swasy.

I had the pleasure of chatting with Judy a few weeks ago to hear more about the fascinating life she’s led and the way she’s changed our world.

How she happened upon her career as a consumer advocate is a pretty interesting story in itself.

In 1966, after the birth of her third child, Judy developed a severe cough and eventually was coughing up blood. After taking images of her lungs, doctors found 60 lesions in each one, which they diagnosed as cancer. They advised her to get her affairs in order because they did not expect her to survive.

But when doctors biopsied the lesions, they discovered that what they were seeing were not lesions, but boils. Her lungs were covered in boils, which doctors ultimately determined were caused by inhaling aerosol hairspray.

Following that experience, Judy was invited to testify in Congress about the dangers of aerosols. What would become a lifelong commitment to consumer advocacy had begun.

Judy’s annual Christmas-time hunt for unsafe toys began in 1971, and as her reputation as a consumer advocate grew, she began testifying more often at government hearings about product safety. In 1987, Consumer Reports asked her to work on their inaugural Toy Buying Guide. She and co-author Deborah Fineblum Raub examined 1,200 toys, rating each on the basis of play value, educational merit and durability; and value for the money. The book sold 73,000 copies.

But rooting out unsafe toys isn’t the only thing Judy is well known for. She was also the first person in the country to identify toxic shock syndrome, caused by Rely Tampons.

It was back in 1975 when she began to question Rely’s safety. The product was being test marketed in Rochester and she started getting calls from women who reported vomiting and diarrhea after using a free sample they got in the mail. Judy’s continued research and pressure on Proctor & Gamble ultimately helped lead to a total recall of the tampons, but not before at least 42 women died from using them.

These days, Judy is living a quieter life at Cherry Ridge, but still occasionally makes some waves if she sees something that needs fixing or upgrading. Because after all these years, there’s no way a dedicated consumer advocate will stop advocating.

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(posted 10/7/2024)

Tags: Missy Rosenberry, Webster NY