FDA in Sticky Situation

Low level clouds, sweet birds chirping with bursts of color poking through.


The FDA relationships are just a little to cozy for me. Dr. Martin Philbert Chairs the FDA Subcommittee that is making all these recommendations of BPA, pretty serious stuff. Dr. Philbert's other hat is director of the Risk Science Center at the University of Michigan.

The FDA asks its committee members to disclose gifts so as to avoid conflict of interest. But it seems that Dr. Phillips had a memory laps or at least is sticking to the excuse that the recent 5 Million dollar donation to the UM Risk Science Center from a Mr. Gelman is no big deal because it was not a personal gift. Turns out Mr. Gelman is a supporter of BPA and poo poos all this science on BPA safety or lack of. And guess how Mr. Gelman made all his money? Making medical supply devices out of...BPA. HELLLOOOO, conflict of interest?

The links provided above tell the story. They are good reads from good newspapers with their own good links. What they can't do is jump up and down, and tell the world how ridiculous and outrageous this is - that these conflict of interests continue to infiltrate our government agencies. These are not little decisions that are being made, like a bridge repair or something. These are impacting regulations that affect all of us through the insidious chemicals in our environment, bought and paid for my big money.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinal has asked for Dr. Philbert's resignation, so I'm not that off base here. If you want to do the same, here is the link to the FDA Contact page:

http://www.fda.gov/comments.html

Imagine if everyone today wrote? I just did, now its your turn.