From: Center for Food Safety [action@foodsafetynow.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 07, 2001 7:25 PM
To: FDA Docket 01P-0230
Cc: president@whitehouse.gov; vice.president@whitehouse.gov;
execsec@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Keep GE Fish Off the Market!

FDA Commissioner
5630 Fishers Lane
Room 1061 (HFA-305)
Rockville, MD 20852

RE: Docket No. 01P-0230

Dear Commissioner,

I am writing you to express my serious concerns about the FDA's role in 
 approving the commercial use of transgenic fish.  Given the potential 
human health and environmental uncertainties posed by genetically 
engineered fish, I urge you to reject any application seeking the use and 
marketing of transgenic fish. 

I am quite concerned about the potential impacts of these fish upon my 
health. Genetically engineered fish (GE fish) are new to the human food 
supply and present unknown risks to human health, including the potential 
impacts of significantly elevated growth hormone levels in these fish.  
The FDA's failure to require toxicological testing for these fish suggests 
that the agency's review process is favoring the biotech industry and not 
acting to ensure consumer safety.     

Moreover, the commercialization of these genetically engineered fish poses 
the potential for irreversible damage to the environment. Fish farms 
throughout history have repeatedly demonstrated that fish kept in ocean 
and freshwater pens escape from their confinements. There are compelling 
scientific studies documenting the potential for escaped genetically 
engineered fish to become invasive species that could cause permanent 
ecological damage to wild fish stocks as well as the wider marine 
environment. These new studies have shown that transgenic fish are more 
aggressive, eat more food, and will attract more mates than wild fish.  
The studies also show that although transgenic fish will attract more 
mates, their offspring will be less fit and less likely to survive.  As a 
result, scientists predict that transgenic fish may cause some species to 
become extinct within only a few generations.  When one species becomes 
extinct, other species will likely be affected. There are already 114 
species of fish, including the Atlantic salmon that are listed under the 
Endangered Species Act. The FDA should not promote the introduction of 
another threat to our endangered fisheries. 
I think that we live in a time when people may have the knowledge,power, 
and resources to do things that were never intended to be done.  Why in 
the world would you knowingly approve something that has not been tested, 
and poses a risk to health and the environment?  We only get one earth and 
we should take care of it instead of wasting the natural resources given 
to us.  People at least have the right to know what they are feeding their 
families and to make a choice of their own from there.

For these reasons, I strongly urge FDA to fully review the significant 
human health and environmental risks posed by genetically engineered fish. 
Therefore, the approval of any GE salmon and other GE fish at this time is 
totally unacceptable! I fully support a moritorium on the 
commercialization of transgenic fish.

Sincerely yours,


Amy Witbeck
5626 Coolidge Rd.
Coleman, MI, 48618

CC: 
The President
Vice President Dick Cheney
FDA Commissioner
Senator Carl Levin
Senator Debbie A. Stabenow
Representative Dave Camp

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