From: Lapidus, Lynne (Exchange) [llapidus@bear.com]
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 6:30 AM
To: 'fdadockets@oc.fda.gov'
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

This bill as it stands is totally irresponsible with regard to potential
threat to public health and safety.  At the very least, Consumers deserve to
know what they are buying so they may make their own choices regarding the
food they eat and NOT be the unwitting, unmonitored guinea pigs of industry.
To uphold its charter, and its name:

*  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.
 
 * 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.
 
 * 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.
 
 * The FDA must end its 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.  Ninety-two percent of FDA advisory 
   committee meetings had at least one conflict of interest.

Urgently,

Lynne Lapidus
10 Bunker Hill Place
Whippany, NJ 07981





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