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			Sunday, April 26, 2009 News Clipping Archives *Maryland / Regional* No cases of swine flu in Md. so far (Examiner.com) *National / International* Army focuses on prevention of suicides (Baltimore Sun) SNAP ANALYSIS-New swine flu likely widespread, experts say (Reuters) NY state health dept monitors probable swine flu (Fox 28 News) Fighting Deadly Flu, Mexico Shuts Schools (New York Times) 2 cases confirmed in Kansas, eight likely in New York City (New York Times) Anxiety grips hospital waiting room as fears of swine flu spread through city (New York Daily News) UK airline cabin crew member does not have swine flu (Reuters) Swine Flu Outbreak Caused By New Variant of Old Bug (Update3) (Bloomberg News) *Opinion* Health Care Reform, Step One (New York Times Editorial) Food Safety Program (New York Times Letter to the Editor) *Maryland / Regional* No cases of swine flu in Md. so far Associated Press Examiner.com Sunday, April 26, 2009 BALTIMORE - Maryland health officials say there were no confirmed or suspected cases of swine flu in the state as of Sunday afternoon. But the state Department of Health and Mental Hygiene is monitoring the outbreak closely, and officials don't believe there's much chance Maryland will be spared. There have been 20 confirmed cases of swine flu in five states so far, and the United States has declared a public health emergency. The Americans who've been confirmed to have the disease have all recovered or are recovering. Mexico is the epicenter of the outbreak, with 86 deaths and 1,400 people sickened. Maryland health department spokesman David Paulson says health professionals around the state are being asked to monitor people with flulike symptoms and send in fluid samples for testing. Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. *National / International* Army focuses on prevention of suicides Associated Press Baltimore Sun Sunday, April 26, 2009 WASHINGTON - The Army has approved new guidance to military commanders in an effort to stem the rising toll of soldier suicides, officials said late Thursday. The plan includes hiring more mental health workers and tightening the way officials handle drug testing, health screening and other long-standing procedures that in some cases became lax, according to officials, as the Army focused on fighting two wars. Army leadership has become more alarmed as suicides from January through March rose to a reported 56 - 22 confirmed and 34 being investigated and pending confirmation. The 2009 number compares with 140 for all of last year, a record blamed partly on strains caused by repeated deployments for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The plan was approved by Army Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli after he visited a half-dozen American military bases and talked to commanders and staff who care for soldiers and their families. Chiarelli has also instituted regular conference calls with commanders around the globe - hours-long sessions in which each commander reports on suicides in his region and officials examine each case to learn how they might prevent more. Copyright 2009 Baltimore Sun. SNAP ANALYSIS-New swine flu likely widespread, experts say By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor Reuters Sunday, April 26, 2009 WASHINGTON, April 25 (Reuters) - A new and unusual strain of swine flu is likely widespread and impossible to contain at this point, experts agree. The H1N1 strain has killed at least 20 people and possibly 48 more in Mexico and has been confirmed in at least eight people in the United States, all of whom had mild illness. Probable cases also were found at a school in the New York City borough of Queens and experts at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say they fully expect to find more cases. Here is why: * This new strain of influenza has shown it can spread easily from person to person. * It has been found in several places and among people who had no known contact. This suggests there is an unseen chain of infection and that the virus has been spreading quietly. * This can happen because respiratory illnesses are very common and doctors rarely test patients for flu. People could have had the swine virus and never known it. * At least in the United States, it has so far only been found in people who had mild illness, another factor that would have allowed it to spread undetected. * World Health Organization director Dr. Margaret Chan has said the new strain of H1N1 has the potential to become a pandemic strain because it does spread easily and does cause serious disease. * CDC experts note that while it is possible to contain an outbreak of disease that is in one limited area, once it is reported in widespread locations, the spread is impossible to control. Copyright 2009 Reuters. NY state health dept monitors probable swine flu Associated Press Fox 28 News Sunday, April 26, 2009 NEW YORK (AP) -- New York Gov. David Paterson is ordering the state Department of Health to keep an eye out for and respond to probable cases of swine flu. Paterson yesterday directed the department to mobilize its infectious-disease, epidemiology, laboratory and disaster preparedness workers. New York City health officials say more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School in Queens have come down with mild flu-like symptoms. Officials report at least eight high school students were likely sickened by swine flu and they could find out today if it's the same strain of the virus that has killed up to 81 people in Mexico. Paterson says 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu have been sent to New York City. Eleven cases of swine flu are confirmed in Kansas, Texas and California. Web link: http://www.wtte28.com/template/inews_wire/wires.national/3fb706dc-www.wtte.com.shtml Copyright 2009 Fox 28 News. Fighting Deadly Flu, Mexico Shuts Schools By Marc Lacey reported from Mexico City, and Donald G. McNeil Jr. from New York. Ian Austen contributed reporting from Ottawa. New York Times Sunday, April 26, 2009 MEXICO CITY - Mexican officials, scrambling to control a swine flu outbreak that has killed as many as 61 people and infected possibly hundreds more in recent weeks, closed museums and shuttered schools for millions of students in and around the capital on Friday, and urged people with flu symptoms to stay home from work. We’re dealing with a new flu virus that constitutes a respiratory epidemic that so far is controllable,” Mexico’s health minister, José Ángel Córdova, told reporters after huddling with President Felipe Calderón and other top officials on Thursday night to come up with an action plan. He said the virus had mutated from pigs and had at some point been transmitted to humans. The new strain contains gene sequences from North American and Eurasian swine flus, North American bird flu and North American human flu, said the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A similar virus has been found in the American Southwest, where officials have reported eight nonfatal cases. Most of Mexico’s dead were young, healthy adults, and none were over 60 or under 3 years old, the World Health Organization said. That alarms health officials because seasonal flus cause most of their deaths among infants and bedridden elderly people, but pandemic flus - like the 1918 Spanish flu, and the 1957 and 1968 pandemics - often strike young, healthy people the hardest. Mexican officials promised a huge immunization campaign in the capital in the coming days, while urging people to avoid large gatherings and to refrain from shaking hands or greeting women with a kiss on the right cheek, as is common in Mexico. Mexico City closed museums and other cultural venues, and advised people not to attend movies or public events. Seven million students, from kindergartners to college students, were kept from classes in Mexico City and the neighboring State of Mexico on Friday, in what news organizations called the first citywide closing of schools since a powerful earthquake in 1985. Because of the situation, the World Health Organization planned to consider raising the world pandemic flu alert to 4 from 3. Such a high level of alert - meaning that sustained human-to-human transmission of a new virus has been detected - has not been reached in recent years, even with the H5N1 avian flu circulating in Asia and Egypt, and would “really raise the hackles of everyone around the world,” said Dr. Robert G. Webster, a flu virus expert at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. Mexico’s flu season is usually over by now, but health officials have noticed a significant spike in flu cases since mid-March. The W.H.O. said there had been 800 cases in Mexico in recent weeks, 60 of them fatal, of a flulike illness that appeared to be more serious than the regular seasonal flu. Mr. Córdova said Friday that there were 1,004 possible cases. Still, only a small number have been confirmed as cases of the new H1N1 swine flu, according to Gregory Hartl, a W.H.O. spokesman. Mexican authorities confirmed 16 deaths from swine flu and said 45 others were under investigation, most of them in the Mexico City area. The C.D.C. said that eight nonfatal cases had been confirmed in the United States, and that it had sent teams to California and Texas to investigate. “We are worried,” said Dr. Richard Besser, the acting head of the C.D.C. “We don’t know if this will lead to the next pandemic, but we will be monitoring it and taking it seriously.” There is no point in trying to use containment measures in the United States, he said, because the swine flu virus has already appeared from San Antonio to San Diego, without any obvious connections among cases. Containment measures usually work only when a disease is confined to a small area, he said. The C.D.C. refrained from warning people not to visit Mexico. Even so, the outbreak comes at an awful time for tourism officials, who have been struggling to counter the perception that violence has made Mexico unsafe for travelers. The outbreak was also causing alarm among Mexicans, many of whom rushed to buy masks or get checkups. “I hope it’s not something grave,” said Claudia Cruz, who took her 11-year-old son, Efrain, to a clinic on Friday after hearing the government warnings. Health officials urged anyone with a fever, a cough, a sore throat, shortness of breath or muscle and joint pain to seek medical attention. When a new virus emerges, it can sweep through the population, said Dr. Anne Moscona, a flu specialist at Cornell University’s medical school. The Spanish flu is believed to have infected at least 25 percent of the United States population, but killed less than 3 percent of those infected. The leading theory on why so many young, healthy people die in pandemics is the “cytokine storm,” in which vigorous immune systems pour out antibodies to attack the new virus. That can inflame lung cells until they leak fluid, which can overwhelm the lungs, Dr. Moscona said. But older people who have had the flu repeatedly in their lives may have some antibodies that provide cross-protection to the new strain, she said. And immune responses among the aged are not as vigorous. Despite the alarm in recent years over the H5N1 avian flu, which is still circulating in China, Indonesia, Egypt and elsewhere, some flu experts argued that it would never cause a pandemic, because no H5 strain ever had. All previous pandemics have been caused by H1s, H2s or H3s. Among the swine flu cases in the United States, none had had any contact with pigs; cases involving a father and daughter and two 16-year-old schoolmates convinced the authorities that the virus was being transmitted from person to person. In Canada, hit by the SARS epidemic in 2003, health officials urged those who had recently traveled to Mexico and become ill to seek treatment immediately. Web link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/25/world/americas/25mexico.html?bl&ex=1240891200&en=ce91d53e13153eed&ei=5087 Copyright 2009 New York Times. 2 cases confirmed in Kansas, eight likely in New York City Associated Press New York Times Sunday, April 26, 2009 NEW YORK - Two cases of the human swine influenza have been confirmed in Kansas and one more in California, bringing the US total to 11. At least eight students at a New York City high school probably have swine flu also, but health officials said yesterday they do not know whether they have the same strain of the virus that has killed people in Mexico. Yesterday, Governor David Paterson directed the state Department of Health to mobilize its infectious diseases, epidemiology, and disaster preparedness workers to monitor and respond to possible cases of the flu. He said 1,500 treatment courses of the antiviral Tamiflu had been sent to New York City. Kansas health officials said yesterday they had confirmed swine flu in a married couple living in the central part of the state after the husband visited Mexico. The couple, who live in Dickinson County, were not hospitalized, and the state described their illnesses as mild. Dr. Jason Eberhart-Phillips, the state health officer, said, "Fortunately, the man and woman understand the gravity of the situation and are very willing to isolate themselves." The man traveled to Mexico last week for a professional conference and became ill after returning home. His wife became ill later. Their doctor suspected swine flu, but it was not confirmed until flu specimens were flown to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. At least nine swine flu cases have been reported in California and Texas. The new California case, the seventh there, was a 35-year-old Imperial County woman who was hospitalized but recovered. The woman, whose illness began this month, had no known contact with the other cases. The 11 US swine flu victims range in age from 9 to over 50. All recovered or are recovering; at least two were hospitalized. Health officials are worried because people appear to have no immunity to the virus, a combination of bird, swine and human influenzas. Also, the virus presents itself like other swine flus, but none of the US cases appears to involve direct contact with pigs, said Eberhart-Phillips, who called the strain "a completely novel virus." "It appears to be able to transmit easily between humans," Eberhart-Phillips said. "It's something that could potentially become very big, and we're only seeing, potentially, the very beginning of a widespread outbreak." New York health officials said more than 100 students at the private St. Francis Preparatory School, in Queens, had come down with a fever, sore throat, and other aches and pains in the past few days. Some of their relatives also have been ill. New York City Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden said nose and throat swabs had confirmed that eight students had a nonhuman strain of influenza type A, indicating probable cases of swine flu, but the exact subtypes were still unknown. Samples had been sent to the CDC for more testing. Results were expected today. Elaine Caporaso's 18-year-old son Eddie, a senior, had a fever and cough and went to a hospital where a screening center had been set up. "I don't know if there is an incubation period, if I am contaminated," Caporaso told the Daily News. "I don't want my family to get sick, and I don't want to get anybody else sick." Web link: http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2009/04/26/2_cases_confirmed_in_kansas_eight_likely_in_new_york_city/ © Copyright 2009 Globe Newspaper Company. Anxiety grips hospital waiting room as fears of swine flu spread through city BY Tim Persinko and Rich Schapiro New York Daily News Sunday, April 26, 2009 The tiny, tense waiting room fell silent when Health Commissioner Thomas Frieden appeared on the mounted television above. Mothers and fathers clutched their ailing sons and daughters, many of whom had blue surgical masks covering their mouths. And then, shortly after 4 p.m., came the five terrifying words that everyone gathered inside Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park, L.I., Saturday hoped not to hear. "It is likely swine flu," Frieden said. Jaws dropped. Their fears had been realized. "We were first told that it was just a virus," said Jonathan Henderson, 14, a freshman at St. Francis Preparatory School. "Now I found out that it's serious. I think they should have closed the whole school down right away." Henderson wasn't the only one angry - and nervous. Dozens of parents and children streamed into the screening center Saturday, desperate for information and treatment for the flulike symptoms they developed in recent days. Most were students from St. Francis, the Queens private school where at least eight are believed to have contracted the human swine flu. "I don't know if there is an incubation period, if I am contaminated," said Elaine Caporaso, 44, there with her son, Eddie, 18, a senior with a fever and cough. "I don't want my family to get sick and I don't want to get anybody else sick." Caporaso and the others sat in red-and-green plastic chairs, anxiously waiting to be called in for testing. Those who arrived coughing were immediately handed masks. The waiting room filled up quickly, forcing several of the children and their worried parents to sit in chairs set up in the hallway. Many blamed the school for not taking better precautions. "If there were children who came back [from Mexico] sick, the school should have informed parents about it," said Olga Snipe, 50, who came to the center with her son, Ryan, 17. Parents exiting the clinic said only those with chronic or preexisting conditions were given treatment. "I'm nervous; I'm scared," Theresa Girani, 43, of Fresh Meadows, Queens, said as she walked out with her 14-year-old daughter, Frances. "I sat for three hours and they still cannot tell me exactly what she's got." Web link: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/04/26/2009-04-26_a_waiting_room_full_of_anxiety__face_masks.html Copyright 2009 New York Times. UK airline cabin crew member does not have swine flu By Avril Ormsby Reuters Sunday, April 26, 2009 LONDON (Reuters) - Tests on a British Airways cabin crew member taken to a London hospital suffering flu-like symptoms have shown he does not have swine flu which has killed up to 81 in Mexico, the hospital said on Sunday. The man was taken to Northwick Park Hospital in Harrow, northwest London, on Saturday afternoon as a precautionary measure after his flight from Mexico City touched down at Heathrow. Tests proved negative for the new type of swine flu. A spokesman for the hospital said doctors believed the crew member could be suffering some kind of travel illness, and will remain in hospital. Countries around the world have imposed health checks at airports as the World Health Organization warned the new flu strain, a mixture of various swine, bird and human viruses, had the potential to become a pandemic. Already several people have been infected in the United States. The cabin crew member was the first such reported precautionary measure in Britain. A Health Protection Agency (HPA) said it was working with the British government to review the situation in Mexico and any threat it may pose to public health in Britain. "There is currently a very low level of flu activity in the UK," it said on its Web site. The HPA and the NHS (National Health Service) have systems in place, which will alert public health authorities of any unusual strain circulating in the UK." There was currently no travel restrictions on those planning to visit the affected areas of Mexico or the United States, it said. It advised anyone who has recently traveled to the affected areas and is experiencing influenza like symptoms to stay at home to limit contact with others, and seek medical advice from a local health professional. (Editing by Matthew Jones) Web link: http://uk.reuters.com/article/usTopNews/idUKTRE53P0M820090426 Copyright 2009 Reuters. Swine Flu Outbreak Caused By New Variant of Old Bug (Update3) By John Lauerman and Jason Gale Bloomberg News Sunday, April 26, 2009 April 26 (Bloomberg) -- International health officials are wrestling with how to respond to a swine flu from Mexico that’s infecting people, causing a range of illnesses, and even death. The World Health Organization called the outbreak a “public health emergency of international concern” yesterday, and as many as 81 deaths in Mexico were linked to the virus, normally transmitted among pigs. Eleven cases in California, Kansas and Texas, all of them mild, have been connected as well. At least eight students in New York are being tested for whether they match the Mexico strain, while 10 students in New Zealand are “highly likely” to have swine flu, officials said. Fears of a lethal pandemic lie in the nature of flu germs, which mutate readily and can become virulent by exchanging genes with related influenza viruses. While the H5N1 bird virus that spread across Asia in the last few years, killing millions of fowl and several hundred people, never gained genes to spread easily among humans, the Mexican swine flu already has, said Malik Peiris, a microbiologist from the University of Hong Kong. “The concern is that this virus has the ability to transmit from humans to humans because a number of the cases who got infection have had no direct exposure to swine,” said Peiris, who has studied the SARS and avian flu viruses. “That is certainly a cause for concern.” Health officials said they are trying to determine how the virus gained its ability to infect and spread among humans. Swine-Flu Emergency Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared a swine-flu emergency, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events in the nation, where 1,324 patients are hospitalized with flu-like symptoms. Authorities closed schools until May 6 in Mexico City and the states of Mexico and San Luis Potosi, where infections have been concentrated, and canceled most public and official activities. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an Atlanta-based agency, is leading the search for more cases than the 11 it has confirmed as of yesterday. The latest U.S. tally includes two adults residing at the same address in Dickinson County, Kansas. Neither of the patients was hospitalized, the state’s health department said in a statement on its Web site yesterday. One is still ill and being treated, and one is recovering, it said. One of the patients had recently traveled to Mexico, flying in and out of Wichita, according to the statement. New Zealand Students Ten New Zealand high school students who returned from Mexico are “highly likely” to have swine flu, Health Minister Tony Ryall said today in a phone interview. The students don’t have “severe” symptoms and most already appear to be recovering, Ryall said. The students and their families are being isolated in their homes, and the families are being treated with Roche Holding AG’s Tamiflu, Ryall said. Japan began screening for fever in travelers returning from Mexico fevers, the country’s health ministry said in a statement yesterday. A British Airways Plc crewmember was hospitalized in north London with suspected swine flu after arriving yesterday on a flight from Mexico City. Tests showed he doesn’t have the bug, Agence France-Presse said, citing a hospital spokesman. France is investigating two suspected cases of swine flu in travelers recently returned from Mexico, AFP said, citing a senior health official. A spokeswoman for the Health Ministry declined to comment when contacted by Bloomberg News. Pandemic Threat Outbreaks in Mexico and the U.S. warrant an urgent assessment of its potential to spark the first influenza pandemic in 41 years, the WHO said yesterday. The Geneva-based United Nations agency held an emergency meeting and found that more evidence is needed to determine whether the level of pandemic alert should be increased, it said. The WHO’s pandemic threat level, a six-stage measure, is currently at 3. Evidence of increased human-to-human spread of a new virus would move it to level 4, according to the WHO Web site. Health officials in the U.S. are asking both doctors and patients to be on the lookout for suspicious cases of flu. The lung virus normally causes symptoms such as coughing and sneezing, and can also bring on muscle and joint aches, headaches, and even diarrhea and vomiting, according to the CDC. At a time when scientists can tailor drugs to match a patient’s genetic profile and people live longer than ever, the flu, first described by Hippocrates 2,400 years ago, still has the power to make millions bed-bound for a week and kill the very young, the elderly and those weakened by chronic disease. The CDC estimates the germ is linked to more than 30,000 U.S. deaths annually. New Viruses In most cases, adults can resist succumbing to flu viruses that are identical or very similar to those they’ve been exposed to before. “New” viruses that the human immune system hasn’t seen earlier are the most dangerous, because they can overwhelm the body’s defenses. Flu germs are classified by two proteins, one known by the letter H, for hemagglutinin, and the other N, for neuraminidase. The Mexican swine flu is an H1N1 flu, the same subtype that caused the pandemic of 1918. Many less-dangerous descendants of that virus are seasonal H1N1 viruses circulating worldwide today, scientists said. The dominant form of flu circulating in the U.S. in the most recent flu season was an H1N1, said Frederick Hayden, professor of clinical virology at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville. That suggests that people who got this year’s flu vaccine, which gave protection against the H1N1 virus, might also have some protection against the swine flu, he said. 1976 Swine Flu “We need to take the (blood) of individuals who got last season’s vaccine and see whether there’s any evidence of cross- reactivity for this new strain,” he said in a telephone interview. “We need to do the same thing with patients who have had recent infection with the human H1N1 strain.” The CDC is conducting studies now that might show whether seasonal vaccination might protect people against swine flu. It’s also possible that people who were vaccinated in the 1976 swine flu outbreak, which many flu experts believed was the beginning of a pandemic at the time, are protected, he said. Vaccine makers are taking the initial steps toward making shots against swine flu. Baxter International Inc., a maker of both seasonal and pandemic vaccines, has requested samples of the swine virus for laboratory testing, said Christopher Bona, a spokesman for Deerfield, Illinois-based Baxter. GlaxoSmithKline Plc, based in London, has had conversations with WHO’s flu division that’s responsible for distributing flu virus samples to drugmakers, said Deborah Alspach, a spokeswoman. Other companies that make flu vaccine include Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, and Sanofi-Aventis SA, of Paris. Roche’s Tamiflu Roche Holding AG, of Basel, has an ample supply of Tamiflu, which can reduce the symptoms of swine flu. Roche has donated a “Rapid Response Stockpile” of 5 million treatment courses to the WHO that’s on 24-hour stand-by to be sent around the world, said Terence Hurley, a spokesman for the company. No request has been made to deploy the stockpile, he said in an email. Glaxo also has ample supplies of its inhaled Relenza antiviral, which also appears to be effective against the swine flu in CDC tests, Alspach said. The virus has already evaded the first line of defense that health officials had hoped to use against a pandemic. International flu experts preparing for a pandemic had planned to contain the initial outbreak of a new, lethal strain of flu. The swine flu virus has already spread so far in Mexico and the U.S. that the containment strategy is out of the question, said Anne Schuchat, interim deputy director for science and public health programs at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Atlanta-based U.S. agency. “We don’t think we can contain the spread of this virus,” she said yesterday in a conference call with reporters. To contact the reporter on this story: John Lauerman in Boston at jlauerman@bloomberg.net; Jason Gale in Singapore at j.gale@bloomberg.net Copyright 2009 Bloomberg News. *Opinion* Health Care Reform, Step One New York Times Editorial Sunday, April 26, 2009 The Senate has a not-to-be-missed opportunity in the next few weeks to pass legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco products. It should move quickly — during the brief period of calm before the senators must grapple with health care reform and other difficult issues. A bill to grant the F.D.A. the needed authority was approved by the House last year. It stalled in the Senate in the face of Republican threats to filibuster, a veto threat from President George W. Bush, and a crowded legislative schedule before the November elections. The prospects may be better this year — provided the Senate jumps on the issue early. The House has already passed a strong bill by a 298-to-112 margin. President Barack Obama supported it. The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association, the American Lung Association and hundreds of other respected organizations backed it. So did Philip Morris, the industry giant, which is apparently confident that it could dominate any regulated marketplace. The bill would empower the F.D.A. to regulate the content of tobacco products and their marketing. The agency could order a reduction in nicotine levels and the elimination or reduction of other harmful ingredients. It could restrict marketing and sales to young people to the extent allowed by the First Amendment, crack down on misleading health claims and require larger, more effective health warnings on packages and advertisements. No senator should be fooled by a weak substitute bill offered by two tobacco-state senators, Richard Burr, a Republican, and Kay Hagan, a Democrat, both from North Carolina. Their bill would create a new regulatory agency within the Department of Health and Human Services to handle tobacco products on the superficially plausible rationale that the F.D.A. is already overburdened with its current regulation of drugs, medical devices and food safety. Such a fledgling agency would almost certainly be much less effective than the F.D.A., especially since the senators don’t propose to grant it the broad powers and ample resources provided by the House-passed bill. As the Senate prepares for a bruising battle on health care reform, there would be no more fitting prelude than to authorize F.D.A. regulation of tobacco products that kill 400,000 Americans each year and impose huge costs on the health care system, corporations and the national economy. Copyright 2009 The New York Times Company. Food Safety Program New York Times Letter to the Editor Sunday, April 26, 2009 To the Editor: “Filling Safety Gap, Growers Pay for Inspections” (front page, April 17) rightly points out that the Food and Drug Administration has abandoned its food safety post. But while federal action is needed, Congress should not replace the current patchwork with a one-size-fits-all approach to food safety. When the voices of small, midsized and sustainable farmers are left out of the food safety discussion, a result is a program suitable for only the largest farms. California’s industry-run leafy green safety program leaves little room for environmental protection and biodiversity on the farm, including practices shown to improve food safety. Researchers find that farmers are removing vegetation that improves water quality and are poisoning wildlife on their farms. They do so under pressure from produce buyers, whose food safety programs see all animals and their habitat — even those that pose no risk — as a threat. Our food system is strengthened by the diversity of the farms, processors and retailers who supply consumers. National food safety programs should be designed to support that diversity. Mark Schlosberg California Director Food and Water Watch San Francisco, April 20, 2009 Copyright 2009 New York Times. BACK TO TOP


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