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Obama Targets Food Safety

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The Washington Post

Published: March 15, 2009

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama accused the Bush administration Saturday of creating a "hazard to public health" by failing to curb food contamination problems, and he announced new leadership and other changes aimed at modernizing food-safety laws.

Obama said he is forming a Food Safety Working Group to "upgrade our food safety laws for the 21st century," and he named former New York City health chief Margaret Hamburg as his new Food and Drug Administration commissioner. Baltimore health commissioner Joshua Sharfstein will be Hamburg's deputy, he said.

Obama also said he will ask Congress for $1 billion in new funds to add inspectors and modernize laboratories, and announced that the Agriculture Department is moving ahead with a rule change banning all sick or disabled cattle from entering the food supply. The change had stalled during the last months of the Bush administration.

"There are certain things only a government can do," Obama said. "And one of those things is ensuring that the foods we eat, and the medicines we take, are safe and do not cause us harm."

Consumer groups, food-safety advocates, patients' organizations and others from across the political spectrum praised the choice of Hamburg and Sharfstein for the FDA, which has struggled to retain public confidence amid outbreaks of food-borne illnesses, poisoning scares and drug controversies. The FDA is charged with overseeing the safety of most foods, medical devices, and prescription and over-the-counter drugs, which together amount to about 25 percent of all consumer spending.

THE MARGARET HAMBURG FILE

EXPERIENCE: Senior scientist at the Nuclear Threat Initiative, where she also served as vice president of biological programs beginning in 2001; assistant secretary for planning and evaluation, Health and Human Services Department, 1997-2001; commissioner of health, New York City, 1991-97; assistant director, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health, 1989-90; served in the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion, 1986-88.

EDUCATION: Graduate of Radcliffe College; M.D., Harvard Medical School, 1983.

The Associated Press

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