From: Colin Lingle [cjlingle@hotmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 6:18 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Reject Weak Regulations


FDA Commissioner Jane Henney
Dockets Management Branch (HFA305)
Food and Drug Administration
5630 Fisher's Lane, Room 1061
Rockville, MD 20852



Dear Commissioner Henney,

I am deeply troubled about the proposed FDA "regulations" for genetically 
modified crops.  Products under FDA supervision are not "safe until proven 
otherwise." There are too many examples where this kind of thinking has 
backfired and the people who pay the price are not the large corporations, 
but tens of thousands -- if not hundreds of thousands -- individuals whose 
health will be compromised unless people such as yourself are vigilant in 
upholding strict standards and principles.

I am a survivor of thyroid cancer. After my diagnosis, I learned that the 
potential sources of this disease are so varied -- including chemical, 
medical, or old-fashioned biological causes -- that it is usually impossible 
to tell where this disease is coming from. Many of the potential factors are 
from industrial and medical substances that are so pervasive in our 
environment that doctors don't even bother to try and find a cause. They 
simply cut open your neck and remove the deadly tissue growing there.

Likewise, leading researchers at the country's top cancer research center 
admit that they have no idea why the incidence of thyroid cancer is 
increasing. They only know that the statistics show a dramatic and alarming 
rise in the number of cases each year.

Whatever the cause of my particular disease, it would seem to me that the 
FDA has a responsibility to exercise its power to the fullest extent in 
protecting individuals from potentially calamitous effects of unknown 
biological engineering. The very least your office can do to protect public 
health is to support appropriate labeling of all genetically modified foods 
now on the market, and to put a stop to the marketing of new products that 
have not been proven safe in long range tests.

Without this information, millions of people will eventually have no way of 
knowing what they are putting into their bodies, no way to make informed 
choices about how they wish to live. As this is already a serious problem in 
this country, I would urge you not to permit the agricultural/biotech lobby 
to compound the problem.

I request that you reject the proposed "regulations" that permit only 
voluntary labeling of genetically engineered food. Authentic work needs to 
be done in informing and educating the public. If you let agribusiness set 
the rules now, it will be too late for another generation of Americans.


Sincerely,

Colin Lingle
Brooklyn, New York


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