From: Katrina [katrina@maui.net]
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 8:57 PM
To: fdadocket@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket OON-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

Thank you for your time and consideration in reading these comments.

Sincerely,

Katrina Pitman

Kula, Maui, Hawaii


> >       FOR THE SAKE OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND FUTURE
> >       GENERATIONS
> >
> >       TELL THE FDA THAT GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS
> >       MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!
> >
> >       The Food and Drug Administration is now accepting public
> >       comment on its proposed new rules on genetically engineered
> >       (GE) foods.  Despite overwhelming consumer demand, the FDA
> >       has failed to require health and ecological safety testing
> >       or mandatory labeling, and thus puts your health and our
> >       environment at risk and deprives you of the right to know
> >       or choose what you are eating.
> >
> >       The proposed rules:
> >
> >       * Do not require mandatory pre-market safety testing
> >       * Do not require pre-market environmental review
> >       * Do not require mandatory labeling of GE foods
> >       * Restrict voluntary labeling of non-GE foods
> >       * Require a mere letter of notification prior to the
> >         marketing of a GE food
> >       * Fail to ensure public access to adequate information
> >         for independent review
> >       * Are supported by industry and opposed by consumer groups
> >
> >       The FDA needs to hear from hundreds of thousands of Americans
> >       that:
> >
> >       * The FDA must require mandatory pre-market comprehensive
> >         environmental review. Unlike conventional pollutants,
> >         where a given amount of pollutant causes a limited amount
> >         of damage, a small number of mutant genes could have a
> >         population explosion and reproduce forever, causing
> >         unlimited and irreparable damage.
> >
> >       * The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health
> >         testing. GE products could be toxic, cause allergic
> >         responses, have lower nutritional value, and compromise
> >         immune responses in consumers.
> >
> >       * The FDA must require mandatory labeling of GE products.
> >         Without mandatory labeling, neither consumers nor health
> >         professionals will know if an allergic or toxic reaction
> >         was the result of a genetically engineered food. Consumers
> >         would be deprived of the critical knowledge needed to hold
> >         food producers liable should any of these novel products
> >         be hazardous.
> >
> >       * The FDA must end its cozy relationship with the industries
> >         it purports to be regulating. People have been allowed to
> >         work for a biotech company, then work for the FDA writing the
> >         regulatory rules on that company's product, then go back to
> >         working for the company.  Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory
> >         committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.

Thank you.