From: Hugh Lehman [hughslehman@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, March 30, 2001 3:59 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: dockets OON-1396 and OOD-1598

To whom it may concern:

March 30, 2001

To whom it may concern:   

I am seriously disturbed by the news that the FDA has permitted food products containing substances derived from genetic modifications to previously existing foods to be sold in grocery stores and supermarkets in the United States.  It is my understanding that such substances have, in many cases, not been screened for safety by experimental testing on animal models.  I believe that before any such foods are released for general consumption they should be subjected to extensive, long term, experimental tests to determine whether such products can cause harm to children, fetuses in the womb, mother's milk, people with weakened immune systems, etc.  Failure to subject such foods to such experimental testing is highly irresponsible.

   Furthermore, the irresponsibility manifest by allowing such food products to be marketed has been doubly compounded by allowing such foods to be marketed without bold lettering expressing statements that such products contains substances produced by genetic modification of traditional crops such as corn and canola.  By allowing such unlabelled products on the market the FDA is complicit in dishonest behavior.  Companies which market  foods containing genetically modified substances as if they were the same as foods not containing those substances are intentionally deceiving their customers.  By not requiring appropriate labels, the FDA is complicit in such deceit.

  I urge you to treat American citizens with the respect to which they are entitled.  IF YOU WILL NOT WITHDRAW PERMISSION TO MARKET FOODS CONTAINING SUBSTANCES RESULTING FROM GENETIC MODIFICATION, PLEASE REQUIRE THAT ANY PRODUCT CONTAINING SUCH SUBSTANCES BE CLEARLY LABELLED.

Sincerely yours,

Hugh Lehman



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