From: Grosshoppa@aol.com
Sent: Sunday, March 25, 2001 7:43 PM
To: fdadockets@oc.fda.gov
Subject: Docket 00N-1396 & Docket 00D-1598
To whom it may concern: 

While I am excited about the frontiers of genetic research and the answers 
(and relief) it will bring to many diseases, I have concerns regarding 
genetically engineered foods.  I am not against these foods, but I feel that 
rigorous environmental testing is mandatory prior to marketing.  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.   
We may know what these mutant genes can do in the foods they are researched 
in, but species crossover, which is well-known to occur, may have a 
surprising and deliterious unexpected effect.   

The FDA must require mandatory pre-market long-term health testing.   
Genetically engineered products could be toxic, cause allergic responses, 
have lower nutritional value, and compromise immune responses in consumers. 

The FDA must require mandatory labeling of genetically engineered 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. 

Thank you very much for your time. 

Sincerely, 

Shirley Shelton 

Shirley B. Shelton, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology) 

Home: 
528 Treymoor Lake Circle 
Alabaster AL 35007 

Work: 
University of Alabama at Birmingham 
1720 7th Ave South - SC 1061 
-or- 
1670 University Blvd - VH 406C 
Birmingham, Alabama 35294 
Phone: (205) 934-3336 
email: grosshoppa@aol.com