From: Michelle Coles [mcoles@gci.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2001 3:14 AM
To: Food and Drug Administration
Subject: Docket # 00N-1396 and #00D-1598


Food and Drug Administration ,

I am extremely concerned that the Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) has proposed regulations that still
fail to require labels or safety tests on genetically
engineered (GE) food. Labels on GE foods are required
in Japan, Russia, and throughout Europe, yet your new
proposal continues to deny Americans the right to know what
is in our food.
I am also concerned that your agency has failed to protect the American people from possible adverse effects from genetically engineered food products by not adequately testing these products. Your negligence has also reduced the credibility of the food labeling laws. There are enough cancer-causing and allergenic ingredients in our foods as it is, we should not have to worry about what is in our food but not listed on food labels (what else are you not telling us?!).

Labels must be required to protect the public from potential
health effects that could only be traced if GE foods can be
identified, yet FDA?s "voluntary labeling" guidelines will
leave thousands of unlabeled GE foods on our supermarket
shelves. Furthermore, the agency?s proposed rule only
requires companies to notify FDA when bringing GE foods
to market, but it fails to require any safety testing.
Doctors and scientists have warned about the potential for
GE foods to trigger dangerous allergies, change the
nutritional value of foods, and cause irreversible harm to
the environment. FDA appears to be playing politics with
our food, disregarding science-based precautions that other
countries have implemented.


I urge you to reconsider this proposal and insure that GE
foods are subject to pre-market testing and labeling.
Americans deserve the same protections as the rest of the
world. 


Michelle Coles
8741 Midland Place
Anchorage, AK 99515
USA
mcoles@gci.net