Several consumer protection organizations have filed a citizen petition with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), seeking a rulemaking “for labeling and point of sale advisories concerning mercury in seafood to minimize methylmercury exposure to women of childbearing age and children.” According to the petition, some 200,000 children in the United States, between ages two and five, have blood mercury levels nearly 50 percent higher than base levels recommended by the Environmental Protection Agency. Noting that the percentages of women and children exceeding recommended mercury levels are higher in coastal regions and among African-Americans, Asians, the affluent, and those in the fishing industry, the petition claims that consumers “do not know the risks inherent in exposing themselves and their families to this potent neurotoxin.” Jane Hightower, a physician who authored Diagnosis: Mercury—Money, Politics & Poison, signed the petition, which was also brought on behalf of Earthjustice, the Zero Mercury Working…
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A coalition of non-profit advocacy organizations has filed a complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief against the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), alleging that the agency has unreasonably delayed action on several of its petitions relating to the use of antibiotics in animal feed. Natural Res. Def. Council v. FDA, No. 11-3562 (S.D.N.Y., filed May 25, 2011). The plaintiffs seek orders compelling the agency to “withdraw approval for subtherapeutic uses of penicillin and tetracyclines, unless FDA’s findings are reversed in new administrative proceedings.” According to the complaint, while FDA determined in 1977 that these drugs” have not been shown to be safe,” it never withdrew its approvals for the drugs’ subtherapeutic uses. Contending that “misuse and overuse of antibiotics has given rise to a growing and dangerous trend of antibiotic resistance,” the coalition alleges that some of its organizations filed citizen petitions in 1999 and 2005 requesting that FDA “withdraw approvals…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has filed a citizen petition “requesting that the administrator of the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) . . . issue an interpretive rule declaring certain delineated strains of antibiotic-resistant [ABR] Salmonella, when found in ground meat and ground poultry, to be adulterants” under federal law. In re: CSPI Petition, No. __ (USDA FSIS, filed May 25, 2011). Noting that FSIS declared E. coli an adulterant in 1994, the petition contends, “Scientific and medical research demonstrates that contamination of meat and poultry by ABR strains of Salmonella poses grave public health dangers that are comparable to those posed by E. coli 0157:H7 in 1994.” According to the petition, several ABR strains in ground meat and poultry products have resulted in recalls, outbreaks and deaths. Seeking expedited review, CSPI claims that 36 documented outbreaks, causing thousands of illnesses and some deaths, were…
