Editorial: Monitoring foreign imports

Monday, Dec. 31, 2007 | 1:33 a.m.

While the lack of insurance coverage remained a top health priority in 2007, Americans also confronted reports of increasing health risks from tainted food and toys and from questionable prescription drugs.

Numerous congressional audits and news reports have revealed that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration - responsible for the safety of 80 percent of the nation's food supply and 100 percent of its medicines - lacks adequate funding and staffing to do its job.

The result has been a year marked by dozens of health scares both domestic- and foreign-born, such as peanut butter contaminated by bacteria, toys coated with lead-tainted paint and pet food laced with fertilizer chemicals.

As we noted in an editorial this month, Congress has expanded the FDA's authority in the past 20 years without increasing funding accordingly. The spending bill that Congress recently approved includes $1.7 billion for the FDA. That's less than the $2.1 billion the agency requested - an amount the FDA's own Science Board said was not adequate to meet increasing demands.

The agency's problems also have been intensified by the Bush administration's indifference to scientific pursuits. A recent congressional audit revealed the FDA lacks adequate scientific staff and technology.

Unfortunately, the incidents of contamination have not been confined to this year. As we noted in an October editorial, the FDA created a plan in 2001 to inspect and, when needed, reject imported food. But the plan still has not been implemented.

In September Congress gave the FDA new authority to impose fines and take other measures to ensure the safety of prescription drugs, but it did not significantly improve the FDA's food inspection program.

Year after year, we learn that another tainted product, food or drug has sickened Americans. We are weary of these reports. We wonder what else has to happen before the president and Congress take comprehensive, meaningful steps to ensure the safety of American consumers.