Legal Petition Demands FDA Move beyond Sensory Test to Look at Chemicals

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http://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=1385


FDA SHOULD TEST GULF SEAFOOD FOR DISPERSANT CONTAMINATION


The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) should test seafood from affected Gulf of Mexico areas for chemicals found in dispersant agents deployed in unprecedented volumes on the BP spill, according to a legal petition filed today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). No federal agency is currently screening seafood for signs of dispersant contamination in tissue, despite mounting concern about the toxicity of these agents and the effects they may have on the Gulf food chain.

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FDA and other federal agencies have made repeated public statements that Gulf seafood is safe while conceding that there is no current testing for the presence of dispersant chemicals and that there is little scientific certainty about the full effects of dispersants on seafood, and in turn, humans. For example, a National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration Assistant Secretary testified that dispersants may bio-accumulate in fish flesh. Moreover, there is a fear that humans may also be harmed by eating fish dispersant-soaked fish. One of the principal dispersant chemicals (2-butoxyethanol) is a fetal toxin that breaks down blood cells (much as it breaks up oil droplets), causing blood and kidney disorders.

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The FDA testing regime currently relies upon inspectors sniffing seafood for any telltale smells, limiting chemical analyses to searching for the presence of crude oil in fish and shellfish. FDA has issued statements that there is unlikely little public health risk associated with consuming seafood that has been exposed to dispersants. Yet, the FDA failed to cite a single scientific study supporting this assertion.

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The FDA Commissioner has 180 days to respond to the PEER petition by either granting or denying it in whole or part or adopting a “tentative” middle ground. “We would hope FDA responds to this petition before the deadline,” Erickson added.
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guess the public can just gamble

why they aren't testing defys logic and reason