Whose Interests Does the FDA Serve?

[Guest guest]

Whose Interests Does the FDA Serve?

The U.S. Food and

Drug Administration (FDA) was established to serve the interests of the public.

But those critical of the agency suggest that the FDA now seems more interested

in running interference for industry - pharmaceutical as well as food

manufacturers.

Case in point: the

issue of putting warnings about mercury levels on the labels of canned tuna.

For the wording on

the warnings, the FDA has classified fish as being either low, medium, or high

in mercury. And, according to FDA official Carrington, " In order

to keep the market share at a reasonable level, we felt like we had to keep

light tuna in the low-mercury group. "

So what does this

tell us about the FDA's priorities?

As EPA toxicologist

Deborah Rice told The Wall Street Journal, " Here's the FDA making what are

supposed to be scientific decisions on the basis of market share. What else is

there to say? "