From: NancyLyon@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 7:46 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Dockets OON-1396 & OOD-1598
To Whom It May Concern: 

We wish to register the concerns of our family regarding the dockets referred 
to in the subject line of this email. Our family has extreme sensitivities to 
food and other products. Because we have access to information regarding the 
ingredients in the present labeling system and feel that reasonable effort 
has been taken to assure the safety of consumer products, we are able to 
minimize exposure to elements that place our well-being at hazard. 

The proposed lax standards that would govern genetically engineered products 
will place our health and lives at risk. We demand that the FDA do its 
designated job of protecting the welfare of the citizens of this country 
rather than the interests of industry. 

We insist on the following: 

* 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. 

Nancy L./Phillip J. Lyon 
35875 Plumeria Way 
Fremont, CA 
94536