From: QUEEN0909@aol.com
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 9:27 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

from the information i recieved, it states that your organization is planning 
on not informing the public about toxic substance they could be ingesting.
on your behalf, this could lead to major law suits if this were to ever 
become public. 
consumers are more aware and more conscious about safety and quality of their 
purchases. 

i urge you to not make life harder for us than it already is.
thank you.
May ng

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.