Environmental Working Group Bulletin
May 2007

Beyond Your Pets: Is Your Food Safe from Melamine?
With over 8,500 melamine-related pet deaths reported, pet owners across the country are frantically searching for answers about the safety of pet food. But should you also be concerned about melamine in the food your family is eating?

When the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) publicly claimed that melamine is not a threat to public health, we called on the FDA's Dr. David Acheson to disclose the scientific research and analysis that brought them to that conclusion.

Why? Because previous EWG investigations have revealed that the FDA issued similar assurances of safety about the food supply for the contaminants mercury and benzene -- without the science or the risk assessments to back them up. And because melamine is a known contaminant of chicken, pork, and other common foods that you and I eat every day.

EWG researchers are particularly interested in FDA findings related to the levels of melamine in the food supply and the risks for people who frequently eat melamine-contaminated foods. Our letter to the FDA demands that they release any and all analyses that confirm their safety assertions are backed up with a scientifically sound, rigorous assessment of public health risk. Stay tuned for updates on the FDA and melamine.

Learn more about melamine go to http://tinyurl.com/353alx