FDA scraps plan to close field labs

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said Friday that it has scrapped a controversial plan to close seven of 13 field laboratories after congressional leaders and safety advocates said the move would hurt the agency's ability to respond to public-health emergencies.

The FDA decision was disclosed in a letter to agency employees by Margaret Glavin, the FDA's associate commissioner for regulatory affairs. Glavin said the closures — part of a proposed reorganization of the FDA's Office of Regulatory Affairs — would have to be reconsidered in light of "new import and food-safety initiatives."

"To assure our success and allow additional time to gather input, I am canceling plans for the rollout of all changes to our organizational structure," Glavin wrote.

Over the next several years, the FDA had wanted to close labs in Denver; Detroit; Philadelphia; Alameda, Calif.; Lenexa, Kan.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; and Winchester, Mass. Those operations and an estimated 250 employees would have been moved to five multipurpose "megalabs" that could handle all types of FDA testing.

The FDA's field labs inspect and analyze animal medications and feeds, food, drugs, medical devices and other health products.

Laboratory workers also check for unsafe, ineffective and mislabeled products and for compliance with federal guidelines. They also help investigate public-health threats, such as product tampering, bioterrorism, food-borne illnesses and contaminated blood supplies.

Several labs that were scheduled for closure helped investigate the recent pet-food scare and E. coli and salmonella outbreaks in spinach and peanut butter.

These crises and recent reports of tainted toothpaste, toys and other goods from China have raised concerns about government inspections of food and other domestic and imported products.

In June, Reps. John Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., who chairs the subcommittee on oversight and investigation, began investigating the planned lab closures. Both were upset over plans to close the Winchester, Mass., lab since it's the only facility that can detect radiological contamination in food.

"These labs are an essential part of protecting consumers and ensuring the safety of our nation's food and drug supply," Dingell said Friday. "The daily reports of unsafe products from China and elsewhere highlight the need for keeping the labs open and tightening our inspection process."

The FDA plan has faced skepticism in part because it was being implemented without input from Congress.

The plan was first revealed in December by an agency employee who leaked an internal e-mail on the proposal to the Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit advocacy and service organization.