PUBLIC INTEREST ATTORNEY EXPOSES U.S. GOVERNMENT DECEPTION ABOUT THE HEALTH RISKS OF GENETICALLY ENGINEERED FOODS
Uncovering government misbehavior through litigation
American public interest attorney Steven M. Druker is traveling through Europe this spring to explain how internal files of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration reveal it has been deceiving the world about the hazards of genetically engineered (GE) foods for almost a decade. Mr. Druker obtained copies of these files (over 44,000 pages) by bringing a lawsuit against the FDA in May 1998 to obtain adequate safety testing and labeling of all GE foods. He is the executive director of the Alliance for Bio-Integrity, a non-profit organization that is leading the lawsuit. In organizing the suit, he assembled an unprecedented coalition of eminent life scientists and religious leaders to sign on.
FDA scientists protested the attempt to equate bioengineering with conventional breeding
The FDA admits it is operating under a White House directive "to foster" the U.S. biotech industry. Under this directive, the FDA was instructed to base its policy on the premise that GE foods are essentially the same as others. However, the agency's attempts to develop such a policy met with strong resistance from its own scientists, who repeatedly warned that genetic engineering differs from conventional practices and entails a unique set of risks. Memos from numerous agency experts emphasized the well-recognized potential for this new technology to produce unexpected toxins, carcinogens and allergens in a different manner and to a different degree than do conventional methods. They cautioned that a bioengineered food could not be considered safe unless it had undergone rigorous feeding tests. Photocopies of 24 FDA documents are on the Alliance’s website: www.biointegrity.org along with more detailed discussions of the FDA’s misbehavior.
Misrepresenting the facts in order to market the foods
However, the FDA disregarded its experts’ input and instituted a policy that GE foods are as safe as conventional ones and do not require any testing. Further, it covered up the statements from its scientists and claims it is not aware of any information showing that GE foods are different from others. Moreover, even though FDA scientists said the tests on the first GE vegetable the agency reviewed raised an unresolved safety concern, the FDA approved that food and claimed all safety issues had been resolved.
Revealing the weakness of all current regulatory systems
Mr. Druker will explain the details of this government cover-up and how the FDA scientists’ warnings reveal the weakness of the concept of "substantial equivalence" and the inadequacy of the tests based upon it. This is the testing system currently relied on within the EU.
It is widely believed that Mr. Druker’s presence at the UN BioSafety Conference in Montreal in January 2000 was a major factor preventing the U.S. delegation from blocking the adoption of a protocol based on the precautionary principle. Further, his February tour of the UK received substantial media coverage and appears to have prompted Prime Minister Blair’s announcement that the health risks of GE foods must be acknowledged -- a dramatic reversal of his long-standing position that GE foods do not pose abnormal risks.
PRESENTATION FOR FDA PUBLIC MEETING