Subject: Warnings About Shellfish Sought by Consumer Group
Date: Published: 8/16/91 (34 lines)
Source: Wall Street Journal. Copyright Dow Jones & Co. Inc.

    Warnings About Shellfish
    Sought by Consumer Group

    WASHINGTON -- A consumer group urged the Food and Drug
 Administration to require labels on all packaged shellfish
 that warn consumers about the risks of eating tainted oysters
 and other shellfish.
    The group, Public Voice for Food and Health Policy, also
 called for mandatory warning signs at restaurants and seafood
 markets.  "Consumers with liver diseases, cancer, AIDS and
 alcoholism are risking their life when they eat raw or
 partially cooked shellfish," said Ellen Haas, the group's
 executive director.
    In a letter to FDA Commissioner David Kessler, Ms. Haas
 cited a National Academy of Sciences report advising these
 high-risk consumers against eating any raw shellfish at all.
 Cooked shellfish aren't a health risk.
    Ms. Haas contended that state and federal regulation of
 the shellfish industry is inadequate to protect the public
 from outbreaks of hepatitis, cholera and other diseases.
 Recent outbreaks of cholera in Mexico and South America, she
 added, underscore the need for federal shellfish labeling.
    The group's proposal is under FDA review.  "We take her
 suggestions very seriously," said an agency spokeswoman,
 Betsy Adams.

[This article is made available here by Dow Jones Co. for the
 personal and non-commercial use of callers to this bbs, in the
 hope that it will be of some help to those who are suffering
 from the disease and others who are seeking to help them.]