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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

FDA Investigation Reveals Likely Causes of Listeria Outbreak

Oct 21, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

In the Oct. 12 edition of The Watcher, we highlighted the multi-state listeriosis outbreak as an example of the high stakes of food safety regulation. Linked to cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms, the deadliest foodborne disease outbreak in a decade has now killed 25 people. This week, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report from an investigation conducted in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that reveals some of the factors potentially contributing to the listeria contamination.

read in full

Ongoing Listeria Outbreak Illustrates the High Stakes of Food Safety Regulation

The multistate outbreak of listeriosis, linked to cantaloupes from Colorado-based Jensen Farms, is the deadliest foodborne disease outbreak in a decade. Infections caused by listeria have taken 23 lives, caused at least one miscarriage, and sickened over 100 people in 24 different states. The grim effects of recent foodborne illness outbreaks illustrate the need for continuous improvements to our food safety programs. Public health depends on agencies having the authority and resources to issue necessary safeguards, conduct adequate inspections, and enforce food safety rules.

read in full

Analysis of the Regulatory Accountability Act: An Unjustified, Dangerous Overhaul of Federal Rulemaking Law

The Regulatory Accountability Act (RAA), announced by Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), and Susan Collins (R-ME) and Reps. Lamar Smith (R-TX) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) on Sept. 22, is a radical overhaul of the federal rulemaking process that would result in a system that allows powerful special interests to dominate. The bill would cast aside public health, worker safety, and environmental quality goals that are the basis of so many public protections and make estimated costs to businesses and the economy the most important consideration in rulemaking.

read in full

Latest Food Recall Illustrates Need for Strong Public Safeguards and Equipped, Responsive Agencies

Aug 8, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) announced the recall of approximately 36 million pounds of ground turkey products that may be contaminated with an antibiotic-resistant strain of Salmonella Heidelberg. This latest recall, one of the largest in U.S. history, should remind us why we need able government agencies to help identify, respond to, and prevent threats to public health.

read in full

New FDA Report Illustrates How Spending Cuts Threaten Food Safety

Jun 21, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a report yesterday recognizing the challenges in regulating imported products. The report acknowledges that the agency does not have "the resources to adequately keep pace with the pressures of globalization."

read in full

FDA Chides House Republican’s “Body Count” Amendment

Jun 7, 2011 by Matthew Madia

An amendment introduced by Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-MT) would hogtie the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by forcing the agency to wait for public health crises to happen before it could act. "This amendment would require that consumers actually be harmed before FDA can take certain actions to protect the public health,” the agency said.

read in full

Budget Nausea: House to Cut Food Safety Spending

Jun 3, 2011 by Matthew Madia

House appropriators this week approved major budget cuts for the two agencies responsible for protecting the American food supply: the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS – responsible for meat, poultry, and some dairy) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA – responsible for the rest).

read in full

FDA Cracking Down on Dangerous Food Imports

May 6, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued two new standards May 4 intended to protect Americans from potentially contaminated foreign food.

read in full

Watch What You Eat: A Groundbreaking Report on Food-Pathogen Combinations

Four months after President Obama signed the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), a groundbreaking report from the Emerging Pathogens Institute (EPI) has highlighted the ten food-pathogen combinations that are the greatest burden on public health.

read in full

FDA Makes Food Recall Search Consumer-Friendly

Apr 12, 2011 by Hal Gordon*

Last week, the FDA announced the release of a new Web search tool that will allow quicker and easier product recall searches. A new, consumer-friendly search tool covering food, drug, animal product, and medical device recalls, was mandated by the recently enacted FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

read in full

Pages

more resources

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

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

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

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

FDA Investigation Reveals Likely Causes of Listeria Outbreak

Oct 21, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

Ongoing Listeria Outbreak Illustrates the High Stakes of Food Safety Regulation

Analysis of the Regulatory Accountability Act: An Unjustified, Dangerous Overhaul of Federal Rulemaking Law

Latest Food Recall Illustrates Need for Strong Public Safeguards and Equipped, Responsive Agencies

Aug 8, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

New FDA Report Illustrates How Spending Cuts Threaten Food Safety

Jun 21, 2011 by Katie Greenhaw

FDA Chides House Republican’s “Body Count” Amendment

Jun 7, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Budget Nausea: House to Cut Food Safety Spending

Jun 3, 2011 by Matthew Madia

FDA Cracking Down on Dangerous Food Imports

May 6, 2011 by Matthew Madia

Watch What You Eat: A Groundbreaking Report on Food-Pathogen Combinations

FDA Makes Food Recall Search Consumer-Friendly

Apr 12, 2011 by Hal Gordon*

Pages

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

Citizen Health & Safety Topics

Recent Reports

Living in the Shadow of Danger: State Scorecards

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us