Regulatory Capture of the FDA Still Alive and Well (or…Why There Are Still So Many Dangerous Synthetic Chemicals in U.S. Food)

FDA Scientists Feel A Little Better About Where They Work

Scientists who work for the Food and Drug Administration…still report concerns about outside pressures on the FDA’s decisions and policies.

…the survey also found that hundreds of scientists remain worried about the influence of political or business interests on the FDA’s regulatory decisions.

For example, 265 scientists, or 30 percent of the respondents, felt that political interests carried “a lot of weight in the FDA’s final decisions…That number should be zero. That is just simply too high.”

25 percent of of respondents felt that business interests had “a lot of weight in the FDA’s final decisions.”

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President Obama has been pushing to improve scientific integrity at government agencies, and they have been drafting new policies that are supposed to make sure that the science behind decisions isn’t altered or suppressed by political officials. The president’s top science advisory has called for all of those policies to be made public by March 30.

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Two facts that should be of particular concern:


1-“Some scientists still fear retribution for sharing concerns about the FDA.

2-Some believe that business interests frequently influence science-based regulatory decisions.”

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