Featured Reports

State Surveillance of Foodborne Illness

In an effort to determine states’ capacity to track produce-related cases of foodborne illness and gain a better understanding of how states conduct investigations of outbreaks, the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, commissioned Safe Tables Our Priority (S.T.O.P.) to conduct a survey of state health departments. The survey was sent to all 50 states and the District of Columbia, and 39 responded. The survey requested 2007 data on the types of questionnaires administered by state health departments to foodborne-illness victims, the time frame in which they were completed, the types of questions asked, and how states collected and stored the resulting data. These elements are key in the effective identification of the source of a foodborne illness.

Still Waiting

This report presents Pew’s findings about the state of the credit card market on the eve of significant new federal regulations designed to eliminate unfair or deceptive practices and foster safer and more transparent products.

Legal Analysis Examines Limits to Agricultural Marketing Service's Role in Produce Safety Standards

This Legal Analysis by the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University Examines AMS’s Role in Produce Safety Standards.

Produce Safety Summit: Implications of Mandatory Safety Standards

Every year in the United States, foodborne illnesses cause sickness, death, and significant economic and social costs that extend beyond the immediate victims. In January 2007, the Government Accountability Office designated federal oversight of food safety as a high-risk area because of the need to reduce risks to public health as well as the economy. In March 2009, President Obama announced the creation of a Food Safety Working Group to address the need to reduce foodborne illness.

A number of actions are being proposed to address these issues, including mandatory safety standards for foods such as fresh produce. However, there are significant inherent challenges in the implementation and enforcement of safety standards, primarily due to multi-stakeholder involvement, increased complexities in the food production and distribution chains, and fragmentation of oversight responsibilities.

Oversight of Next Generation Nanotechnology

Since 1980, the capability of the federal agencies responsible for environmental health and safety has steadily eroded. The agencies cannot perform their basic functions now, and they are completely unable to cope with the new challenges they face in the 21st century. This paper describes some of these challenges, focusing on next-generation nanotechnologies, and suggests changes that could revitalize the health and safety agencies. More info

The Genetic Town Hall

The Genetics and Public Policy Center’s Public Consultation Project on Genes, Environment, and Health consisted of focus groups, interviews with community leaders, a survey, and a series of town halls. This report summarizes the five town hall sessions, which took place from March-May 2008 in Jackson, Mississippi; Kansas City, Missouri; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; and Portland, Oregon.

Current Law Provides FDA with Authority to Mandate Safety Standards for Produce

Legal analyses by the Congressional Research Service and by the O'Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University conclude that FDA has sufficient authority under existing law to adopt produce-safety regulations.

Lessons to Be Learned from the 2008 Salmonella Saintpaul Outbreak

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak of 2008 officially over on August 28, 2008, some three months after it began. During that time, more than 1,400 persons were reported infected, and if, as suggested by research, this represents an underreporting, the outbreak may have sickened thousands of Americans. Given the human, economic and public-health costs of this recent food borne-illness outbreak, therefore, it is critical to learn from it. This report represents the first extensive and in-depth review of the public record of the Salmonella Saintpaul outbreak. In doing so, three areas of concern have surfaced: policy, the public-health system's organization and outbreak response, and its communications with the media and the public.

Results of a National Survey on Produce Safety

A national survey of likely voters conducted for the Produce Safety Project, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts at Georgetown University, finds that the American voting public has significant concerns about produce safety. Voters believe that the federal government and food packagers bear the greatest responsibility for ensuring that produce is safe, and they say that neither group is doing a good job in this regard. Thus it is not surprising that most voters—across the demographic and ideological spectrums—wish to see the produce safety system significantly reformed, supporting new safety requirements even if they increase the cost of produce.

PharmFree Scorecard

Most of the 150 U.S. medical schools are failing when it comes to building strong conflict of interest policies to limit pharmaceutical marketing on campus, according to the American Medical Student Association (AMSA) PharmFree Scorecard released today.

Putting Meat on the Table

The current industrial farm animal production system often poses unacceptable risks to public health, the environment and the welfare of the animals themselves, according to an extensive two and a half year examination conducted by the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm Animal Production.

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship

More than 500,000 children will close their eyes tonight as wards of the state in foster care. They are waiting for the security, stability and love of permanent families. Foster care was created as a short-term safety net for children in crisis, however, on average children will languish in care for more than two years. More than half the children leaving foster care will return home to their birth parents, and about 18 percent will leave foster care to adoptive families. For some, however, reunification with their parents or adoption is not an option.