From: Cheryl DeLaura Dixon [cdixon@itrcorp.com]
Sent: Wednesday, April 04, 2001 12:32 AM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

To Whom This May Concern at the FDA:

Thank you for accepting MY public comment on your proposed new rules on
genetically engineered (GE) foods.

As a concerned citizen of the United States and as a mother of two young
sons, I am appauled at your failure to require health and ecological
safety testing or mandatory labeling.  My health, my husband's health,
my children's health, and YOUR health, as well as YOUR children and
family, the health of all of our citizens of this wonderful country, IS
AT RISK.  I do not want to be deprived of knowing what I am eating.
Neither do you, if you care about your health at all.  GENETICALLY
ENGINEERED PRODUCTS
MUST BE LABELED AND TESTED FOR SAFETY!  THIS MUST COME TO FRUITION NOW!!

I would like to see the following three requirements put into action:

  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.  THIS IS UNFATHOMABLE TO THINK OF!!

  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.  PEOPLE HAVE ALREADY DIED, SOME
PERMANENTLY DAMAGED, AND HAVE HAD SEVERE ALLERGIC REATIONS FROM GE
PRODUCTS!!

  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.  IT'S OUR RIGHT TO KNOW!!

 YOU must end YOUR 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.  (THIS IS ABSOLUTELY APPAULING!!!!!)
Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory committee meetings had at least one
conflict of interest.

If there is anything so important in my life today, it is the quality of
the food I eat.  Please reconsider what you are proposing.  THIS AFFECTS
YOU AS WELL AS ME.  THINK OF YOUR CHILDREN AND THEIR CHILDREN.  THEY ARE
OUR FUTURE!!

We need REQUIRED mandatory  pre-market safety testing.  We need REQUIRED
pre-market environmental review.  We ABSOLUTELY need required mandatory
labeling of GE foods.  I am so grateful to those companies who are
voluntarily labeling their non-GE foods.  DO NOT RESTRICT THIS!!  WE
DESERVE THE RIGHT TO KNOW!!  To require a mere letter of notification
prior to the marketing of a GE food is ludicrous.  This would prove that
you do not care for the health of our citizens.  We need public access
to adequate information for independent review.  How else are we going
to know what you are deciding for us?!  You are supported by industry.
Money, greed.  Such a crying shame!!  You oppose consumer groups.  Thank
God for them.  How else would we know what's going on with our food, if
you don't tell us the truth?

There are too many health conscious people in the United States to let
you continue to not have genetically engineered products labeled and
tested for safety.

Genetically engineered products can play havoc on a person's
physiology.  This includes death, allergies, toxicity, lower nutritional
value and compromiseD immune responses in us.  We are all in this
together.  YOU, THE FDA, and ME and all who eat our food, EVERYBODY IN
OUR COUNTRY, SOME OUTSIDE OUR COUNTRY.  Let us work together to create
better health, NOT DESTROY IT!

Sincerely,

Cheryl Dixon