Candidate for FDA Chief: Not Enough Staff to Inspect Food
I've been predicting major food poisoning for the past eight years, and how ironic is it that the most prominent example happens only after Bush is on the way out the door?
I used to work for an FDA-compliance consulting firm, and shortly after Bush took over, the FDA called all its agents back from the field "to rewrite the field manual" (even though it was updated on a regular basis) and announced they would no longer do random inspections of facilities. In fact, the only manufacturing facilities they would inspect were the ones that were already operating under a consent order!
There was even an FDA FAQ directed at employees: Q. "Isn't this defacto deregulation?" A.: "Of course not! We are simply trying to make the agency more efficient." (Hint: Whenever they spell out an objection in order to deny it, it's usually a dead giveaway.)
I was appalled. I gathered up all the supporting documentation and started making phone calls to science and business reporters: The New York Times, the Washington Post, the L.A. Times, the Boston Globe, even the trade industry publications.
No one was interested. Everyone I spoke to said they found it hard to believe that the U.S. government would risk the food and drug supply like that and treated me like a crank.
Not so far-fetched now, huh?
The Food and Drug Administration is not staffed to handle the growing complexity of food inspection, especially now that a significant amount comes from abroad and is never inspected, a leading candidate to head the embattled agency said yesterday.
Dr. Steven Nissen, chairman of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic - and reported to be on President Barack Obama's short list to become FDA chief - said food inspection is swamped by the FDA's other responsibilities: the approval of medications and medical devices.
The result is an overworked and understaffed agency continually hit by sweeping food scares that sicken scores of people and sometimes result in death.
"The truth be told, the FDA is a failed agency ... the main problem is that it is terribly underfunded," Nissen said. "It needs to do more inspections, especially of foods brought in internationally. We are all very vulnerable. This has to be fixed and fixed quickly."
Bush had to go. He's been gutting the agencies set up to protect us so that his deep-pocketed friends could get away with murder!
Were things in the FDA actually "good" in Clinton admin?
Yes, they were. My husband and I were one of the hundreds that were sick due to contaminated tomatoes last summer. I took a ambulance ride to hospital. I don't recall as many people becoming sick due to contaminated food under the Clinton admin.
Clearly, problems in many areas have been boiling over for a while at the FDA.
I'm hoping the poster, Susie Madrak, will respond to my inquiry.
but I remember coming home from London at the end of January 1993 and hearing of the Jack in the Box ecoli deaths. That was coming off of Bush one, and 2-3 years after the appointment of one of the more active and involved FDA directors.
David Aaron Kessler (appointed by Bush 41, reappointed under Clinton) was hamstrung by the Gingrich Thug Contract on America Congress. He wanted to impose strict controls on tobacco products, alleging nicotine was a drug and therefore fell under the purview of the FDA.
He wanted to kick ass and not bother with the name-taking. He was fired from his last job for whistleblowing.
me-oww!
the food will stay toxic.
I think so much of this is in the distribution of food. These huge facilities that process, say green onions, then ship them all over the us. Green onions can be grown locally in all these areas! there is a cost associated with importing grapes from Chile when they are out of season. People need to deal with less variety, seasons and produce and consume food locally.
Long time ago, I worked for Sbarro's (yuck) and every produce item came from Texas twice a week. In the middle of a produce producing capital and they were trucking produce 2000 miles. That's asking for trouble.
and individuals begin to grow food again for themselves costs will come down and people will become more connected with their food. incidences of food poisoning will decrease because these people are no longer reliant on the national distribution chain or the mega farms.
...than reconnect with clean food, water and air for nourishment.
Harvey Washington Wiley was celebrated at the recent centennial of the FDA, an organization that has tumbled so far away from his founding philosophy of clean, safe food, to instead serve up a chemical buffet (you MUST read labels) in service to their corporate masters. "Heart-healthy" tortillas that contain "safe amounts" of hydrogenated oil?!
Enjoy non-caloric, Donald Rumsfeld sponsored sweetener aspartame, but that stevia herb is `kinda shaky, only a few hundred years of traditional use. Stevia finally got approved to be marketed as a sweetener, that could save so many lives. Gee, thanks, FDA.
Sad-funny how people who don't eat, drink or otherwise slam "fun-snax and happy meals" are called health-nuts, killjoys. Deviants and weirdos. Easier to call those slim, vibrant people names than to put down the Pepsi.
Health care has to begin with taking responsibility for what one stuffs in one's mouth, instead of deciding that they are "normal," since their easily preventable degenerative conditions have been mainstreamed to profit the disease industry.
http://www.westonaprice.org
http://www.newtrendspublishing.com/SallyFallon/
I highly recommend her book to all.
It's full of great recipes and dietary information.
of this word. See the last sentence.
incidence |ˈinsidəns|
noun
1 the occurrence, rate, or frequency of a disease, crime, or something else undesirable : an increased incidence of cancer.
• the way in which the burden of a tax falls upon the population : the entire incidence falls on the workers.
2 Physics the intersection of a line, or something moving in a straight line, such as a beam of light, with a surface. See also angle of incidence .
ORIGIN late Middle English (denoting a casual or subordinate event or circumstance): from Old French, or from medieval Latin incidentia, from Latin incidere ‘fall upon, happen to’ (see incident ). Sense 1 dates from the early 19th cent.
USAGE Incidence and incidents sound the same, but incidence is more often used in technical contexts, referring to the frequency with which something occurs:: increased ultraviolet light is likely to cause increased incidence of skin cancer. Incidents is simply the plural of incident, an event: | the police are supposed to investigate any incidents of domestic violence. The form incidences should be avoided.
"I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative.”
- John Stuart Mill
Nissen is correct, the FHA is a failed agency. Drugs and drug errors are the fourth leading cause of death in the U.S. according to the FHAs own statistics. Drug testing and drug trials are now done by the very drug companies that stand to make millions from their approval. The FDA only plays a small part in evaluating drugs using the data supplied to them by the drug company. The system is broken. People are dying or being permantly injured by drugs that should never be approved or used sparingly. The FDA does not even have a vehicle to inform Doctors when drugs are found to be dangerous in post market environment. Americans cannot count on the FDA to protect them.
...death, you can be sure these are some conservative statistics that make them look good as possible, and the reality is much, much worse.
Have any of you ever canned your own food. You have to heat it up to 240 degrees to kill botulism. You have to use a pressure cooker to do this.
Everything comes in plastic now. They get away with using plastic; becuase, they are using radiation to kill germs.
Heat is guaranteed to kill. This is not the case with radiation. Some organism have been found to be more resistant to radiation than other organisms.
I think the switch from glass to plastic is part of the problem.
I also think that this is something that the petroleum industry would not want you to think about.
I don't think radiation is used as much as heat is to pasteurize food and make it safer. Milk and eggs in the shell are made safe by using heat.
It infuriates me when the news has a story about ecoli or salmonella poisoning and they blame US for not using biohazard precautions in the kitchen. If the FDA did its job then chicken and eggs wouldn't be the most toxic things in the house.
confined animal feeding operations make the shells thin and thus vulnerable to contamination. Hens that are raised naturally do not have the thin egg shell problem and are usually safe from contamination.
The contamination comes from inside the hen. Salmonella is "natural" -- it lives in the environment, comes from nature. Chickens used for egg production are no loger given hormones and antibiotics.
Ask your grocer for pasteurized shell eggs. They're available. See safeeggs.com for more info.
Must-throw-more-money-at-it.
for testing and keeping food/drugs safe is...what?
Funding this rogue agency will just kill us quicker.
ADDED--Without oversight, I'd expect the FDA to increase their practice of sending armed thugs to bust nutritional supplement companies, in protection of Pharma markets.
Let's do without an agency to keep our food safe! Everybody knows that extra fecal matter in our meat adds to the flavor!
/snark off.
The fecal FDA oversight congressional committee members must be FORCED to oversee the FDA oversight of our food supply, not just get paid.
To explore why the FDA Congressional oversight committee is not overseeing the FDA's oversight duties. I'm sure they would recommend a new agency, led by a food czar, whose job will be to oversee the overseers of the overseers.
Sorry you missed them.
Here's a novel idea: grow with the times and properly staff OUR FDA. Keep bonus programs out of the hands of upper-staff. Be sure inspectors are trained right. Give them the right tools to work with and let them do their jobs. It's about OUR FOOD! Oh, review the current standards for importing food.Work, in conjunction with the Dept.of Agriculture. Homegrown is probably safer. Protect our farmers. Make our farmers wealthy. Novel idea, huh.
Willie Nelson.
The FDA upper staff enjoy a special revolving door relationship with the drug manufacturers. They don't need our `stinkin bonus programs. They do their job "right," and it's lucrative jobs ahead after doing their "public service" "work."
I go to a farmer, there is something at my grocery stores that thoroughly amazes me. Most produce says Canada#1 Product of USA. So, yes, for pete's sake make your food safe!!
On the one hand, there's a cynical part of me that thinks, gee, maybe all we need is a few deaths from melanine poisoning in baby food, a la Fonterra and China, and that might be enough to spur some action.
Then all I have to do is think of Katrina, and all those deaths, and that bugger all has been done since, and realize it would take a bit more than a few dead babies to even register on the Outrage-O-Meter.
Myself, I've gotten very cagey about what I buy anymore. Via farmer's markets.
It wasn't that they didn't believe you -- it was that they didn't want to rock the boat. THEY didn't care.
I've known this was happening for years - so did a great number of other Americans.
*
Snip- "Two men have been given the death penalty for their involvement in China's contaminated milk scandal."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/78439...
Study the symptoms not the virus...
People and babies HAVE died from melanine, and other, poisons. FDA worked pretty good before Bush - including trying to protect people from "Vitamins" which may be dangerous drugs, or lie about their effects.
If the Food Industry is TOO BIG TO FAIL, then it, like the Media and Banking, must be broken up.
Victory Over The FDA
By Saul Kent, President of The Life Extension Foundation
After an 11-year reign of terror by the U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) against The Life Extension Foundation, the FDA has "thrown in the towel".
In November 1995, Federal Judge Daniel Hurley dismissed all but one of the 56 criminal charges filed against Foundation officers Saul Kent and William Faloon. In February 1996, Judge Hurley dismissed the final charge (see above).
This is the first time in its 88-year history that the FDA has been forced to give up on a criminal prosecution. After spending millions of taxpayer dollars, the FDA has abandoned its crusade to destroy The Foundation and throw its leaders into prison.
The FDA's dismissal of the charges against me (and Bill Faloon) is an unprecedented victory against FDA tyranny that goes far beyond winning in court. The FDA's historic defeat is a victory for everyone who cherishes freedom in healthcare. Before we discuss the implications of this victory, let's take a look at the story behind it.
Talk to the Internal Audit departments of companies next time. I'm quite sure you will get somewhere.
All was well for George and Laura, of course. She insisted on organic.
How do organic practices make food safe from bacteria?
They are one of our biggest meat importers and have boycotted our meat in the past as political leverage.
This just hands them one more chip they can play.
Yes, I see. The Japanese should take our infested meat and just get on with it. Why should we care if they get sick and die. Their not even Americans...
Idiot.
Clearly the man had no compunctions about anyone dying.
Glad to see we're all on the same page...FDL has a thread up today asking for book recommendations for Obama. First one listed? The Jungle by Upton Sinclair, which is credited with the creation of the FDA not long after its publication.
Steven Nissen Gives Obama an Rx for FDA Reform
I don't undrstand, The 2 employee FDA under Bush was sufficient to get their job done.
But consider that Bush defined the job...?
I see a comment below about eggs that is not true. And really off base.
Salmonella is a naturally occurring contaminant. When a hen contracts it (from the soil or fly for instance) it is in the hen's ovaries and is inside the egg when it's laid. You can't tell by looking at the hen that she has it. It has nothing to do with wether or not she was raised in someone's backyard.
The only was to be sure that the egg is COMPLETELY safe is use an egg that has been pasteurized in the shell. They are pastuerized using only warm water, nothing else -- no chemicals, no radiation.
If you have ever eaten an egg sandwich at Panera Bread, they use pasteurized shell eggs. And they taste great!!!
Seems like you could get one at the FDA as a food inspector. With all the layoffs - this may actually be good news.
Considering the unreliable government food inspections and the periodic Salmonella scares, why on earth do people continue to use non pasteurized eggs in recipes? I have 3 small kids that eagerly snatch cookie dough when I am not looking and I have an elderly family member with a compromized immune system. I find it a small sacrifice to purchase pastuerized shell eggs to protect them from Salmonella..even if the risk is small. It's an once of protection that's so easy to take. I found useful information at safeeggs.com.
Alice
I eat non-pasteurized eggs from my neighbors chickens, raw occasionally.
Salmonella from eggs is a concern, but not so much as you might think.
Raw Eggs For Your Health
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