Resources for Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

FDA and tobacco

Washingtontimes

Some members of Congress have bizarre advice for the chronically ailing Food and Drug Administration — take up tobacco. No, don't smoke it. Regulate it. Even in the wake of a new report by the agency's own advisory board that the FDA is overburdened and understaffed to the point of putting American lives at risk, congressional sponsors of a tobacco regulation bill want to saddle the FDA with massive responsibility for overseeing the tobacco industry. This would be the equivalent of tossing a concrete life preserver to a drowning man.

The FDA is already struggling to deliver on its core mission of protecting America's food and drug supply. Its problems haven't been hidden from Congress or anyone else. Once respected as the gold standard of consumer protection agencies, the FDA has been repeatedly tarnished in recent years by shortcomings like its failure to detect the dangerous side effects of the anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx and the agency's sluggish response to national outbreaks of tainted crops and pet food.

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