From: Douglas Cyr [douglascyr@earthlink.net]
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 3:27 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598

Dear FDA,
I am a concerned Marriage and Family Therapist from California.  I am greatly concerned about your direction and policies regarding genetically-engineered foods.  Whatever financial gains companies may be seeking, or be coercing policy-makers with... I am writing as a call for your Administration to act with integrity and right action regarding these issues.  Why is it that human bodies are taking longer to decompose after death than they did one hundred years ago?  It is because of the onslaught of non-organic matter that we consume.  
Please.  Do NOT allow these companies to prey on the health, vulnerability, and lives of those to whom they serve as consumers.  

* I strongly encourage the FDA to 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.

* I strongly encourage the FDA to 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.

* I strongly encourage the FDA to 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.

* I strongly encourage the FDA to 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.
 
Sincerely,
Douglas Philip Cyr, MA, MFTI