Food & Drug Safety

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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Reid, Senate Continue to Foul Up Food Safety Bill

Sep 17, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said yesterday that the Senate is unlikely to take up beleaguered food safety legislation before recessing in October for midterm elections. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has published a list of objections to S. 510, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act, and is blocking the bill.

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Senate Confirms Hagen for FSIS

Sep 17, 2010 by Matthew Madia

The Senate yesterday confirmed Elisabeth Hagen to serve as the USDA’s undersecretary for food safety. Hagen began serving in the position, which leads the department’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), after Obama recess appointed her Aug. 19. Obama renominated Hagen Sept. 13.

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Food Safety Bill Pushed after Salmonella Outbreak

A salmonella outbreak that has sickened more than 1,500 people and led to the recall of 550 million eggs highlights the need for Congress to pass legislation that would empower the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to better protect the food supply, advocates say.

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The Senate Fiddles While America Falls Ill

Sep 9, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Eighty-five food recalls have sickened at least 1,850 people since July 30, 2009, the day the House passed a food safety reform bill that has yet to be taken up by the Senate, a new study shows.

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Recess Appointment Puts Food Safety Agency Back on Track

Aug 20, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, President Obama recess appointed Elisabeth Hagen to serve as the USDA Undersecretary for Food Safety. Hagen was nominated by Obama in January 2010, but has had difficulty getting the Senate’s attention.

Hagen had been the chief medical officer at the USDA. Now, as undersecretary, she will head the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), the regulator of meat and poultry products.

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Public Supports Consumer and Environmental Protections, Polls Show

Americans overwhelmingly support government protection of the environment and consumers, a series of new polls shows. The findings come as efforts to enforce and expand regulation face increasingly hostile rhetoric from conservatives and industry representatives in Washington.

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Senate Food Safety Compromise Would Require Fewer Inspections

Aug 13, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, I blogged about a bipartisan compromise reached in the Senate on pending food safety legislation. Over at Food Safety News, reporter Helena Botemiller has an overview of what’s in the compromise, which takes the form of a managers’ amendment, as described by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-IA).

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Senate Leaders Strike Deal on Food Safety; Commence Breath Holding

Aug 12, 2010 by Matthew Madia

Leading Democrats and Republicans in the Senate came to an agreement today on pending food safety legislation, Congress Daily (subscription) reports. The compromise will be introduced on the floor as a managers’ amendment to replace the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (S. 510) which was approved by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) committee in November 2009. The managers’ amendment has not yet been released, but presumably, it largely resembles S. 510.

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New Study Finds High Levels of Controversial Plastics Chemical in Paper Receipts

Jul 28, 2010 by Rachel Sauter*

A new analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) suggests that many Americans are at risk of exposure to a dangerous chemical that has been found in baby bottles, the lining of food and beverage containers, and now paper receipts. Significant levels of bisphenol-A (BPA), a controversial chemical that is not currently regulated by the Food and Drug Administration or the Environmental Protection Agency, was found in 40 percent of paper receipts collected from major retailers, grocery stores, convenience stores, gas stations, fast-food restaurants, post offices and ATMs.

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Another Shameful Attack on Our Public Protections

Jul 21, 2010 by Gary Bass*

There they go again. Amid some of the most spectacular market failures the country has ever seen, business lobbyists and their friends in Congress want to reinvigorate their discredited deregulatory agenda.

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