Obama calls food safety system a 'hazard to public health'

From Wikinews, the free news source you can write!

Sunday, March 15, 2009

United States

Other stories from United States

• 20 December 2009: US university Penn State wins 2009 NCAA Division I volleyball championship
• 20 December 2009: Democratic holdout agrees to support health care reform in US
• 19 December 2009: NASA flyby of Saturn moon Titan produces first image of liquid on another world
• 19 December 2009: London court jails man for killing wife with remote control
• 19 December 2009: US East Coast prepares for blizzard

...More articles here

Location of United States

To write, edit, start or view other articles on United States, see the United States Portal

United States President Barack Obama announced on Saturday that the country's food safety system is a "hazard to public health".

The president announced the nomination of a new agency commissioner for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), former New York City Health Commissioner Margaret Hamburg.

Obama said that the FDA was able to make inspections at only 5% of the nation's 150,000 food processing premises after recent understaffing and underfunding at the agency. He added that outbreaks of food contamination have increased from 100 a year in the early 1990s to about 350 a year today.

HAVE YOUR SAY
Is Obama doing the right thing?
Add comment - View comments

"That is a hazard to public health. It is unacceptable. And it will change under the leadership of Dr. Margaret Hamburg," Obama promised.

The president has also suggested an additional US$1 billion in the country's 2010 budget for extra inspectors and improved laboratories for the FDA.

See also

Food and Drug Administration on Wikipedia.

Sources

• "Obama warns of US food 'hazard'". BBC News Online, March 14, 2009
• Darlene Superville "Obama: Food safety system a health 'hazard'". fresnobee.com, March 14, 2009
• Dan Eggen "Obama Seeks to Improve Food Safety". Washington Post, March 14, 2009
• "President Barack Obama Announces Key FDA Appointments and Tougher Food Safety Measures". White House Press Secretary, March 14, 2009
  

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable. Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators. Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections. Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.