Deliquent, I've seen those commercials too, in my area. I've also seen the phen/fen commercials. If ephedrine is made illegal, then I wouldn't doubt if they would hype its potential health risk even more. I"m almost sure Ephedrine can cause the same problems that ppa causes, its very rare if you look at the statistics. Ephedrine can increase risk of stroke,heart attack,and other shit like that, just like ppa can. It shouldn't happen if its used properly.
PPA was in numerous over the counter decogestents for years. You and your family have probably took it and didn't even know. Theres millions of people out there who took it and never had any problems. Now that it's brought to their attention, they are looking for problems.
Ever since the FDA scare in late 2000, I'm almost positive the use of ppa has dropped dramatically, probably only 10% or less of the previous users exist. Hardly anyone is using PPA now, but I wouldn't be surpised if the side effect statistics(% wise) went up. Since the FDA brought it to everyones attention, people are looking for side effects that could be caused by who knows what.