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Salazar fights to protect key food safety labs
Colorado The Food and Drug Administration lab in Denver is one of the most highly respected in the nation. Its 52 employees, including 18 chemists, 23 microbiologists and other staff have led the nation over the past three years in the percentage of on-time analyses. Yet despite the Denver FDA lab's critical role in national security and the health of American livestock, the FDA has slated it for closure. In response, United States Senators Ken Salazar, D-CO, and Arlen Specter, R-PA, introduced an amendment to the FDA bill currently before the Senate which would require the FDA to fully evaluate the risks to public health and safety of closing any FDA lab, such as the one in Denver. "The FDA's decision to arbitrarily close its Denver lab simply does not make sense," said Sen. Salazar. "An objective process grounded in public facts is necessary for the public, and for Congress, to feel secure in this decision." The amendment will prevent the FDA from closing any lab, including the Denver lab it has currently targeted, without first seeking a public report by the General Accounting Office regarding the risks posed to public health and safety, the projected cost savings and the projected operational efficiencies by ending testing at the labs. For many Coloradans, the Denver FDA facility is an important national security defense. The Denver FDA lab is a member lab of the Food Emergency Response Network, which ensures the safety and security of America's food supply from possible terrorist attack, and is the only full-service FERN lab nationwide the FDA is aiming to close. Denver's FDA lab is also a part of the Centers for Disease Control Select Agent Program, which is one of the first lines of defense against possible bioterrorism attacks involving diseases such as anthrax and botulism. In addition, national experts in Salmonella detection are based at the Denver FDA lab, specializing in Salmonella speciation and antibiotic resistance testing. For Colorado's ranchers and livestock industry, the Denver FDA lab is also a lynchpin laboratory for domestic livestock health and security. The Denver lab is the FDA's only lab to test the safety of all veterinary pharmaceuticals, ensuring the safety of antibiotics and other drugs. It is also home to the FDA's only testing facility for Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy for the Southwest Region (an 11-state region comprised of Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, Missouri, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas, Utah and Wyoming), and handles overflow BSE testing work from other FDA regional labs. Denver's FDA lab has had a central role in several prominent consumer-safety scares, including the 1982 Tylenol-tampering case in which several bottles of Tylenol caplets were laced with cyanide while on store shelves in the Chicago area, and the investigation of the E. coli spinach contamination in the fall of 2006.
0 None Date: 5/24/07
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