From: HENDERAM@aol.com
Sent: Saturday, March 24, 2001 5:05 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
To: FDA 

From:  Anne T. Henderson (see signature line) 

I am writing about your proposed rules on genetically engineered agricultural 
products. Given the huge potential risk of these products, you must amend 
these rules to require: 

* mandatory pre-market safety testing 
* pre-market environmental review 
* labeling of GE foods 
* public access to adequate information for independent review 

In addition, the FDA should not restrict voluntary labeling of non-GE foods, 
but instead issue guidelines to ensure that such labels are accurate and 
truthful. 

GE products could be toxic, cause allergic responses, have lower nutritional 
value, and compromise immune responses in consumers. GE crops, with their 
mutant genes, might also invade the natural environment, forever altering 
genetic structure, and possibly spread toxic forms of "life." For these 
reasons, the FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health testing. 

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 act in a way that restores public confidence in the integrity of 
its review and regulation process. The perception that the FDA sees its role 
as protecting and fostering the interests of the agricultural technology 
industry, as opposed to protecting the public from its excesses, is 
widespread. 

To allow the general release of these products without careful review and 
comprehensive labeling is a criminal abdication of your responsibility to the 
American people. 

Anne T. Henderson 

Institute for Education and Social Policy 
1640 Roxanna Road, NW 
Washington, DC  20012 

phone: 202 882-1582 fax: 202 882-2138