Below is something you might want for a case study.  Also, thanks for the
drop approval.

I just left the department.  Couldn't find anybody.  Must be a big meeting
going on somewhere.  Have they selected Erv's replacement yet?

By the way, there is apparently a U of MD position for an aquatic
toxicologist at the Solomons Island research facility.  What a great place
to work and retire!  Wish I had the credentials and experience.
                                                                                                 Linda



At 01:18 PM 2/14/2001 -0600, you wrote:
>Posted by Debbie Neustadt
>
>MERCURY: GAO report urges FDA to act on threat in fish
>
>Colleen Luccioli, Greenwire staff writer
>
>A U.S. General Accounting Office report released today makes an explicit
>
>recommendation that the Food and Drug Administration "develop milestones
>
>for completing the agency's ongoing evaluation of methylmercury and
>determine whether it is a seafood hazard reasonably likely to occur."
>
>Not only should the study be wrapped up, but FDA should also monitor
>mercury levels when checking seafood safety, GAO contends.
>
>"The GAO report confirms that FDA is asleep at the wheel when it comes
>to
>protecting the public from mercury in seafood," said Michael Bender,
>executive director of the Mercury Policy Project. "FDA's got to stop
>ignoring the mercury problem and start addressing the findings in the
>recent National Academy of Sciences report."
>
>According to Bender, FDA has been studying the hazards of mercury in
>fish
>for over 10 years, but the agency has never completed its study.
>
>The study was requested in December 1999 by Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa),
>the
>ranking Democrat on the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry
>Committee. In soliciting the report, which addresses seafood safety
>issues,
>Harkin noted that he had concerns with implementation of the Hazard
>Analysis Critical Control Point systems, under which FDA monitors food
>for
>quality control purposes.
>
>GAO states in its report that implementation of HACCP plans is shoddy.
>GAO
>continues, "Even if the plans were complete, according to FDA
>requirements,
>they would still omit a serious hazard because methylmercury, a highly
>toxic substance, is not identified or covered in FDA's seafood guide as
>a
>hazard reasonably likely to occur."
>
>In further encouraging prompt action on the FDA study, the report
>claims,
>"Without prompt completion of its ongoing evaluation of methylmercury,
>FDA
>is unable to give direction to the industry on whether it should
>establish
>HACCP controls for this hazard, thus potentially placing consumers at
>risk
>of exposure to unsafe levels of methylmercury."
>
>FDA says one of its priorities for fiscal year '01 is to review its
>public
>health strategy for mercury in commercial seafood and take steps
>necessary
>to address public health concerns related to mercury.
>
>The GAO report also notes the health hazards associated with eating
>seafood
>contaminated with mercury. "Contaminated fish is the major source of
>human
>exposure to methylmercury in the United States and can cause, among
>other
>things, serious neurological problems, such as mental retardation in
>young
>children." NAS issued a report last summer saying that more than 60,000
>children born each year may suffer learning disabilities due to mercury
>exposure in-utero because their mothers ate food contaminated with
>mercury.
>
>GAO then takes issue with FDA's stance on the issue. "FDA's guidance to
>industry does not discuss the identification and control of
>methylmercury
>even though FDA's tests for methylmercury in shark and swordfish found
>that
>9 of 18 samples analyzed in 1998 and 1999 met or exceeded FDA's
>1.0-part-per-million action level." GAO also notes, "Even when FDA
>identifies serious violations at a seafood-processing firm, it does not
>take timely regulatory action to ensure compliance."
>
>Linda Candler, vice president of communications for the National
>Fisheries
>Institute, countered, "FDA and the industry have known about mercury
>levels
>in fish for a while, but there's never been a single case of mercury
>poisoning in the United States as a result of eating fish. A change in
>regulation and oversight would leave one to believe that a single meal
>of
>seafood would cause harm, yet there's no indication that that is true."
>
>Last month, FDA issued a consumer advisory for swordfish and shark but
>not
>for tuna, the most commonly consumed fish of the three types believed to
>
>carry the most mercury. The consumer advisory, which was heavily
>criticized
>by environmental and public health groups for not including tuna, was
>directed to women of childbearing age and young children.
>
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