Featured Issue Briefs
The Battle on the Home Front: Jonathan Gadsden's Story
Marine Lance Corporal's story reflects the growing need for new antibiotics that can treat dangerous diseases, against which most drugs are useless. Read More
Facilitating Medical Device Innovation: De Novo Reform
The de novo process -- which requests lower-risk reclassification of medical devices and entry into the marketplace -- as it exists now is not achieving its purpose and has instead added unnecessary and time-consuming requirements. Read More
Food Products Recalled by FDA
Since President Obama signed the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act into law, at least 149 FDA-regulated food products have been recalled due to potential pathogenic contamination. Read More
More Issue Briefs
| Date | Issue Briefs | Topic |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 1, 2010 |
Toxic Chemicals and Reproductive HealthOver the past few decades, the reproductive health of Americans appears to have declined. Diseases, disorders and conditions that affect the development and functioning of the male and female reproductive systems—including fertility problems, miscarriages, pre-term births, low birthweights and certain birth defects—have risen. In addition, incidence rates of testicular cancer have increased, and breast and prostate cancers remain among the most common forms of cancer in the U.S. More info |
Environmental Risk |
| Apr 1, 2010 |
Toxic Chemicals and a Child's Brain DevelopmentToday, one in six children in the United States has a developmental or learning disability. Some experts say many of these may be due in part to early exposures to toxic chemicals. The number of children diagnosed with these disabilities has increased dramatically over the past four decades. More info |
Environmental Risk |
| Aug 3, 2012 |
Pew Comments on Draft Guidance for Industry Regarding Nanotechnology in FoodThe Food Additives Project of the Pew Health Group strongly agrees with the FDA's draft decision to deny "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) status to nanoengineered chemicals and review them as food additives. However, they list their concerns with certain aspects of the document and question the agency's claim that it has not reviewed GRAS notifications sanctioning the use of nanoengineered chemicals. More info |
Food Additives |
| Jul 27, 2012 |
Review of the Scientific Basis for Safety Decisions on Hazards of Substances Added to FoodIn April 2011 Pew Health Group convened a workshop bringing together more than 80 experts from government, industry, academia and public interest organizations to examine the principles underlying the development and use of scientific evidence to identify and characterize chemical hazards. Based on the workshop discussions, Pew made several important observations. More info |
Food Additives |
| Mar 1, 2012 |
Clostridium difficile: Rapidly Emerging Bacteria that Flourish in the Face of AntibioticsNearly 45,000 Americans died from CDI between 1999 and 2009. More info |
Food Hazards |
| Oct 19, 2011 |
Focus On: Food Import SafetyAmericans’ appetite for imported food has expanded dramatically over the past few decades. For each of the past seven years, food imports have grown by an average of 10 percent. Currently, between 10 and 15 percent of all food consumed by U.S. households is imported. According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), nearly two-thirds of the fruits and vegetables and 80 percent of seafood consumed domestically come from outside the United States. In this issue brief, the Pew Health Group and Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) address the safety of imported seafood and raw produce, two of the largest categories of FDA-regulated food items produced and processed abroad and then sold in the United States. More info |
Food Hazards |
| Nov 12, 2009 |
Children and Foodborne IllnessChildren are disproportionately affected by foodborne illness, a serious public health problem. Approximately half of the reported foodborne illnesses occur in children. Every year, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that tens of millions of Americans fall ill, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and thousands die from foodborne illnesses. More info |
Food Hazards |
| Nov 18, 2008 |
FDA Actions Regarding Produce SafetyFor more than a decade, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recognized the challenge of making fresh produce safer. However, it has relied on voluntary guidelines. This document summarizes a decade of government initiatives that fall short of the mandatory and enforceable federal safety standards needed for domestic and imported fresh fruits and vegetables. More info |
Food Hazards |
| Jul 17, 2012 |
Obama needs to release draft food safety rules, say victims and advocacy groupsThe U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in six Americans (48 million people) suffer from a foodborne illness each year, resulting in 128,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 deaths. Americans will continue to get sick and even die from foodborne disease as your Administration continues to hold up the food safety rules. In fact, the U.S Food and Drug Administration (FDA) essentially ensured such an outcome last week in a letter to food industry representatives. In it, the FDA said that until final rules are issued, the agency would not enforce the FSMA requirements that food processors adopt prevention-based protections, and that importers assure the safety of the food products they send to the United States. More info |
School Food, Food Hazards |
| Jul 27, 2012 |
What Did Pew Health Group Find in its Review of the U.S. Food Additive Regulatory Program?In the November 1, 2011, edition of the peer-reviewed journal Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety (CRFS), Pew Health Group published a rigorous analysis of the U.S. food additive regulatory program. Key among the findings is that more than 10,000 chemicals were allowed in human food as of January 2011. More info |
Food Safety |
