November 06, 2007

FDA Could Get Recall Power; Nord Defends Her Job At CPSC

UPDATED.

After a spate of product recalls raised questions about how best to protect consumers from dangerous products, a panel tasked with studying the problem has recommended that the Food and Drug Administration step in with broader powers to mandate recalls.

The FDA currently doesn't have the authority to entirely withdraw products from the market and can only threaten a company with negative publicity if it doesn't pull problematic items from the shelves. AP reports that the ability to force recalls would give the FDA "far more clout."

President Bush will receive the advisory commission's recommendations today. The panel, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, was convened in July; Congress would have to pass the changes for them to go into effect.

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Posted at 3:34 PM
Posted to: FDA
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September 20, 2007

House Approves FDA Overhaul, Senate Expected To Follow

The House yesterday overwhelmingly passed FDA overhaul and user fee legislation that represented a compromise with the Senate, and the Senate was expected to follow suit today.

The bill, approved 405-7, included several compromises to push the legislation through by the end of the week so the FDA could avoid having to send out layoff notices to employees whose salaries would be affected if the user fee programs expired Sept. 30.

See CongressDailyAM (subscription) for the full story.

Posted at 10:21 AM
Posted to: Congress, FDA, House
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August 08, 2007

'08 Olympics: 365 Days And Counting...

Today marks the one-year countdown to the opening ceremony of Bejing’s 2008 Olympic Games, an event the communist superpower hopes will draw positive attention from the international community. However, the Chinese government has faced harsh criticisms on a range of issues, from food safety to human rights abuses to complicity in the genocide in Darfur, leaving many to wonder: Is China ready to open itself up to the world?

Immediately after winning its bid for the games, the Chinese government in 2001 released the Beijing Olympic Action Plan, a series of principles and objectives for developing not only the venues for the games, but also an environment conducive to hosting delegations from across the world. One provision was that China would clean up its human rights record and expand press freedoms for domestic and international journalists before the games.

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Posted at 3:45 PM
Posted to: Africa, Asia, China, Climate Change, Congress, FDA, Health, House, Olympics, Sudan
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August 06, 2007

Bill Aims To Strengthen FDA Monitoring Of Imported Food

House Energy and Commerce Chairman John Dingell, D-Mich., has laid down his marker for a food safety overhaul at FDA that takes aim at imported food. Released Friday, the proposal would give FDA mandatory recall authority, require country-of-origin labeling on food, establish a certification program for importers, limit ports where imported food can enter and allow the agency to collect user fees to pay for increased import inspections.

"We are importing twice as much food as we were a decade ago, yet the FDA examines less than one percent of it," Dingell said. "Tainted imports have slipped into our country undetected and the resulting problems will continue to grow if we don't take steps to tighten safety measures."

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Posted at 5:26 PM
Posted to: Congress, FDA, Health, House
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July 25, 2007

FDA Staffers Allege Intimidation On Food Safety

FDA employees who testified before a House Energy and Commerce Committee panel last week on the agency's ability to keep the food supply safe claim top agency brass sought to intimidate them and discourage corroboration with lawmakers by twisting their words in an officewide e-mail.

"They had said there would be no retaliation, but I looked at it as a form of retaliating against us and intimidating anyone else," Carol Heppe, director of FDA's Cincinnati district, told CongressDaily.

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Posted at 11:27 AM
Posted to: FDA
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May 02, 2007

FDA: Open Wide At Your Peril

The latest food scare is no longer just affecting Fido and Snowball: millions of chickens that were given tainted feed were subsequently consumed by humans, the Food and Drug Administration says.

The Washington Post reported this morning that 2.5 million affected chickens were traced to one producer in Indiana, and "hundreds of other producers may have similarly sold an unknown amount of contaminated poultry in recent months." Last week, officials said more than 6,000 hogs were given the poisonous feed, which has killed 4,150 cats and dogs.

Yesterday, former FDA commissioners spoke before the House Oversight Committee to warn Americans to be afraid. Be very afraid.

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Posted at 6:22 PM
Posted to: FDA
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