Tuesday, March 9, 2010
GAO Spanks FDA
AOL News is reporting on a new General Accountability Office report that finds the Food and Drug Administration has "failed to ensure the safety of thousands of additives manufacturers put in what we eat." The GAO points to an exception to FDA rules, in place since 1958, that allows food companies to bypass FDA analysis by having the companies' own scientific panels designate their additives as "generally regarded as safe (GRAS)." You can read the rest of the story here.
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Now we will see if any change actually comes of all of this.
ReplyDeleteThis is what frustrates me soooo very much with government. They know the problems but never fix them due to cooperate influence, lack of caring, or just plain no backbone. Ughhhh!
Well, duh. It took an accountability office to tell them that? To be honest, it's not just the FDA but our entire government that is failing citizens. I agree with inadvertent farmer, and wonder whether or not anything will change.
ReplyDeleteIf anything does change, I think it would happen very slowly. Almost any act of government happens slowly. It seems to me that the only time the government acts quickly is when it wants to go to war or when it feels total collapse is imminent. I think for quick change to come to the FDA it would require some catastrophic failure that allowed a product to go to market that then quickly killed many, many people thus resulting in public panic and outrage and thus massive pressure on elected representatives. BUT, it's still nice to have some part of the government pull its head out of the sand (or, um...somewhere...wink, wink, nudge, nudge) long enough to acknowledge the problem.
ReplyDeleteFull details of the GAO report can be found here: http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-246
ReplyDeleteMaria, Thanks for posting the link!
ReplyDelete