The U.S. House tonight adopted legislation that would strip many warnings from food labels.
On a vote of 283-139, the House demonstrated once again that consumers take a back-row seat to business interests.
Here's how the AP describes the move:
The House voted Wednesday to strip many warnings from food labels, potentially affecting alerts about arsenic in bottled water, lead in candy and allergy-causing sulfites, among others.
Here's
the dispatch from the St. Louis paper:
The food industry on Wednesday overcame objections by state officials to win House passage of legislation that strips away powers of states to regulate food.
The bill, long sought by manufacturers, would vest final authority for food labeling with the Food and Drug Administration. The measure would nullify some 200 state laws governing the safety of meat, fish, milk and a variety of edibles.
This comes at precisely the same moment of the disclosure that the FDA and the soft drink industry have kept secret for 15 years the fact that some soft drinks contain the known carcinogen benzene. (Details here and here.) The FDA agreed 15 years ago to an unannounced, voluntary pact with the soft drink industry to take care of the benzene problem. The industry didn't take care of it -- and yet an FDA official says the agency still would prefer voluntary action on the part of industry.
Is that the type of food safety regulation we want and expect?
From the San Jose Mercury-News:
A model of special-interest legislation, the bill is called the National Uniformity for Food Act. A more honest moniker would be the Bring Back Arsenic in Water Act or the Bring Back Lead in Supplements and Candy Act. ...
Large food-processing companies, supermarket chains and others in the food industry have lobbied for this bill for years. They claim that different state regulations and labeling laws are costly. This year, without any meaningful debate, they've managed to convince a bipartisan majority in the House that the health, safety and consumer protections afforded by state laws should play second fiddle to industry concerns.
This is shameful. ...
To their credit, Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are working to pre-empt a similar effort in the Senate. In a strongly worded letter to the leaders of both parties, they've described this legislation for what it is: a reckless rollback of food-safety laws that endangers the health of all Americans. Other senators should join them in this fight for the public good.
Actions like that of the House tonight and of the FDA regarding benzene-tainted drinks are possible only when no one is paying attention.