US FDA reviews closure of 13 field labs

The US Food and Drug Administration has announced a review of an earlier decision to close 13 filed laboratories that are used for testing food, drugs, medical equipment and cosmetic products. The news comes after legislators and activist groups had protested that the federal agency's downsizing threatened to limit its capacity for dealing with a public health emergency.

In the context of a widespread reporting of health scares concerning products from China, as well as reports of relatively small-scale inspection efforts by US health protection agencies, the decision is hardly surprising. The House of Representatives' Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, John Dingell (Democrat, Michigan), who represents a state where one of the laboratories was due to close, said: "these labs are an essential part of protecting consumers and ensuring the safety of our nation's food and drug supply." He told the Washington Post that "the daily reports of unsafe products from China and elsewhere highlight the need for keeping the labs open and tightening our inspection process."

Under the FDA's original plan 250 employees from the 13 field laboratories would have been redeployed to five multipurpose facilities.