fda.gov
Guide to the Surfin' Safari
Surfing. Cruising. Clicking around. The Internet can be a good ol' time. It can also be a good ol' time waster. If you're on the Net for serious business, a little guidance can be a welcome timesaver. Enter fda.gov.
Starting with this issue, FDA Consumer will give you information about the Food and Drug Administration's Internet site--what's new, what's improved, the quickest way to get information you need. There also will be highlights about the individual sites each of FDA's centers and other offices maintain, as well as addresses for other sites with information related to FDA.
Our site on the Internet provides up-to-date, authoritative information on food, cosmetics, human and animal drugs, biologics, medical devices, and more.
The site provides consumer education materials, press releases, industry guidance, bulletins for health professionals, and a wealth of other useful documents and data from FDA's centers and offices.
And, there's FDA Consumer. All issues since July-August 1995 and many of the articles from earlier years are available.
So stop by anytime. Our address on the Web is www.fda.gov.
More Addresses
While you can start on FDA's home page to access all parts of the agency on the Web, many of FDA's components have their own addresses, including the following:
Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research: www.fda.gov/cber/
Center for Devices and Radiological Health: www.fda.gov/cdrh/
Center for Drug Evaluation and Research: www.fda.gov/cder/
Center for Veterinary Medicine: www.fda.gov/cvm/
National Center for Toxicological Research: www.fda.gov/nctr/
Office of Regulatory Affairs: www.fda.gov/ora/ora_home_page.html
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition:
Bad Bugs, Bad Bugs
You can't see them. You can't smell them. But if you eat them, they'll make their presence known. You've probably heard of the big players in food contamination: Salmonella, E. coli O157:H7, Listeria. But there's lots more. If you want to learn about the bugs you're battling, the Bad Bug Book (vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/intro.html) has all the information you need.
But just knowing the food poisoning bugs isn't enough. To stay healthy, you need to fight back. If you need battle plans, try the following sites:
- FDA's Foodborne Illness page (vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~mow/foodborn.html)
includes information you can use to fight all kinds of bad bugs and the agency's
efforts to stop problems at their source.
- FDA's Food Safety Initiative page (vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/fs-toc.html)
has background information and progress reports on the National Food Safety
Initiative.
- The Partnership for Food Safety Education (www.fightbac.org),
a public-private partnership of industry, government and consumer groups,
has developed this site as part of the Fight Bac! campaign to reduce food-borne
illness. Don't miss "Bac" in action!
Agency Charts Course
The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act of 1997 requires FDA to undertake dozens of regulatory and program initiatives. A comprehensive chart (www.fda.gov/po/modact97.html) details the many tasks the agency plans to implement to fulfill those initiatives. Frequent updates of this chart will show FDA's progress.
FDA Consumer magazine (May-June 1998)
