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The FDA didn't listen to scientists about breast implants either, despite 20 percent re-operation rates, silicone leaking into the body and signs and symptoms ...

October 1, 2005

Susan Wood, director of the Food and Drug Administration's Office for Women's Issues, resigned on Aug. 31 because the FDA did not listen to scientists on the "morning-after pill."

The FDA didn't listen to scientists about breast implants either, despite 20 percent re-operation rates, silicone leaking into the body and signs and symptoms of debilitating diseases. The FDA, the defender of public health, is putting industry sales of implants over the public's safety.

The FDA is reeling from lack of public confidence after numerous drug recalls, such as Vioxx, and must show that it respects science more than industry lobbyists.

The FDA is broken, and Sen. Michael Enzi, chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, must call for an oversight hearing.

Barbara Barrow-Pettard

Williamsburg

Crisis management

The nearly unbelievable horror stories from the Gulf keep getting worse, with no end in sight. The requirement for a national, well-organized, crisis-response mechanism is obvious and urgent, but there is no sign that any planning is getting underway.

The need to coordinate the activities of hundreds of national, state and local jurisdictions, volunteer organizations, NGOs and others, and focus their efforts at unpredictable locations, with no notice, in minimum time, admittedly offers some cause for thought, but that doesn't mean thought should be abandoned.

The management literature describing the approach to this kind of a problem is voluminous, and its knowledgeable practitioners are numerous. Known as Program Management methodology, utilizing a technique known as critical path analysis, it has been routinely used to develop weapon systems since World War II and is specifically designed to integrate the activities of many unrelated organizations and persons in a common purpose, while minimizing execution time.

The normal procedure, in which the Defense Department has much experience, would be to invite qualified organizations to submit imaginative proposals for the development of a "weapon system" (software, IT and methodology, rather then hardware) to defeat the confusion and delay that has characterized our current experience and bring to bear the capabilities of our nation in a coherent, focused manner, where it is needed, in the minimum elapsed time. The successful bidder is awarded a contract, and the effort is underway.

Jim Wescott

Deltaville

Common danger

Ongoing public debate on the "unacceptable" disaster response misses Katrina's darker lesson: Potential catastrophic harm exists (both in nature and the hateful schemes of men) for which prevention is impossible and remedies are wholly inadequate. Our eagerness to establish culpability and restore normalcy should not result in a better night's sleep. When the water rises, we all live in the shadow of the levee.

Scott Cline

Newport News

Farewell, Fort Monroe

In the article, "'You just salute and move on' from Fort Monroe," Aug. 25, Jim Peach certainly had it right when he said state and local politicians did not do enough to keep Fort Monroe open.

Even before Department of Defense recommendations were published, the politicos were speaking about the wonderful economic benefits that would derive from the development of Fort Monroe's attractive land. Anyone who thinks this is about saving money is delusional. A major office for Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) and homes for no less than 12 general officers on the James River must be built at Fort Eustis. Nothing is as certain as death, taxes and the joint moneyed interests of politicians and developers.

gigi/Karen The, FDA needs Investigated..they've been fixing to many deals is the problem that weren't ethical frown and shame on the, FDA!