The FDA at 100: are you that much safer?(View point: THE CONSUMERS UNION PERSPECTIVE)

A century ago, in an era of snake-oil salesmen, dangerous medicines, and horrifying conditions in the meatpacking industry, Congress created the Food and Drug Administration.

Consumers' health and safety has improved remarkably since then. Yet problems with our food and drugs today echo the very reasons the FDA was established. Current issues include:

Drugs. Consumers increasingly believe that drugmakers don't tell all they know about dangerous side effects. The pain medication Vioxx was recently linked to heart attack and stroke risk, and antidepressants such as Paxil were tied to increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior in children and adolescents. The FDA was criticized for its delay in making those risks public. A report released in March by the GAO, the government's investigative arm, concluded that the agency failed to track ongoing safety problems and lacked criteria for taking safety actions.

Congress and some states are considering legislation to require that drug companies make public their clinical trial results. And measures in Congress would empower the FDA to require drugmakers to complete any requested follow-up safety studies once their products are on the market, so patients and doctors know about harmful side effects. But the bills languish, fought by a pharmaceutical industry that flourishes in the status quo.

Supplements. A May 2004 CONSUMER REPORTS investigation identified a dozen hazardous dietary supplements that shouldn't be on the market based on government warnings, adverse-event reports, and medical experts. Some of those products have been linked to ...