From: Lea Pahlmann [leaperin@earthlink.net]
Sent: Saturday, March 31, 2001 6:36 PM
To: 'fdadockets@oc.fda.gov'
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598





GENETICALLY ENGINEERED PRODUCTS MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!
Despite overwhelming consumer demand, the FDA has failed to require health and ecological safety testing or mandatory labeling, and thus puts our health and our environment at risk and deprives us the right to know or choose what we are eating.
I understand that 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

As a concerned citizen I ask you to:
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.
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.
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.

I urge you to pay attention to the citizens of the USA. Without mandatory rules and regulations regarding genfood you are putting every citizen of America at risk, now and for generations to come. This is not being responsible. The FDA should not be in the position of placating big business. The FDA should be listening and following through with the demands and concerns of the people who pay your salaries. 

Please listen to us and then take the action which best serves our country and not the greed of big business.

Thank you,

Frances P. Pahlmann
Durham, NC 27713