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1998 FDLI Update 1 (1998)

handle is hein.journals/fdliup1998 and id is 1 raw text is: A E!.DLi Update,
A Newsletter of The Food and Drug Law Institute  Issue 1 * 1998
Proposition 65-Action Against Fish Oil May Set

New Standards for Impurities in Foods

Carol Ren Brophy

California's Proposition
65 requires manufac-
turers, distributors, and us-
ers of consumer and com-
mercial products to provide
warnings to individuals ex-
posed to any detectable
amount of approximately
600 listed chemicals, or to
prove in an enforcement ac-
tion that a warning is not re-  Carol Rc
quired.1 FDA-regulated products are not
exempt from Proposition 65, but imple-
menting regulations do establish an ex-
emption for chemicals that are naturally

occurring in a food or in
products derived from a
food.' Under this provision,
a company must demon-
strate that the chemical in
question is naturally oc-
curring in a food or a food
ingredient; the chemical's
presence cannot be reduced
or avoided by good manu-
Broph-    facturing practices; and the
company has used quality control pro-
cedures that reduce the level of the
chemical to the lowest level currently
feasible.

As explained in the second article in
this series, application of the naturally
occurring exemption by the Attorney Gen-
eral and Proposition 65 bounty-hunters
threatens to narrow this exemption sig-
nificantly.3 In a settlement agreement in
the so-called Calcium Cases (a series of
Proposition 65 cases alleging that cal-
cium supplements contain excessive lev-
els of lead), the Attorney General re-
quired manufacturers of calcium
supplements to use the source of calcium
with the lowest level of the Proposition
65-listed chemical present, regardless of
Continued on page 2

FDA's Chief Counsel Reviews the Year at

Develop and Implement Policies and
Procedures for Conducting
R ecalls  ......................................  3
Pharmacovigilance: Managing
R isks  .......................................... .  4
Food Safety Initiatives-Current and
Future FDA Policies ................... 5
FDLI Tests the Internet as a New
Educational Medium .................. 8
What you Need to Know About
Food Product Recalls .................. 9
Have an Idea for an Educational
Program in Your Area? .............. 11
Planning FDLI's 50th
A nniversary  ..............................  15

FDLI Lawyers' Luncheon

A s is traditional, we
use this occasion to
mention the legal high-
lights of the past year at
FDA and anticipate pos-
sible trends for the fu-
ture.
Last year at this time
the agency had issued fi-
nal regulations and ac-
companying jurisdic-

AlargIel .

tional analysis restricting the access and
appeal of cigarettes and smokeless to-
bacco to children and adolescents, and
the agency was briefing the major legal
issues before the district court. Since
then, FDA received a favorable decision
from the district court in North Caro-
lina that upheld the agency's jurisdic-

Margaret Jane Porter

tion over these products and
the access and labeling provi-
sions of its regulations, but re-
jected the agency's use of the
restricted device authority in
the proposed advertising re-
strictions. All parties have ap-
pealed and the issues have
been briefed and argued before
Port    the Fourth Circuit. Mean-
while, the agency is proceed-
ing with implementation of those por-
tions of the regulations that are in effect.
In addition to the extensive negotia-
tions on the FDA Modernization Act and
its implementation, the agency has been
active on the litigation front. Enforce-
ment priorities have ranged from con-
Continued on page 3

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FDLI . .. a non-profit institute dedicated to advancing the public health by providing a
neutral forum for critical examination of the laws, regulations, and policies related to
drugs, medical devices, other health-care technologies, and foods.

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