FDA to the Rescue

by Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

In these and other disasters, although it is not well known, the Food and Drug Administration helps with recovery.

The agency is charged with making sure the nation's foods, drugs, cosmetics, and medical devices remain safe, even after the worst of disasters. During such emergencies, FDA's primary responsibilities are investigating and inspecting these supplies.

Richard Swanson heads FDA's division of emergency and epidemiological operations. His office coordinates the agency response to all disasters and emergencies affecting FDA-regulated products.

We [FDA] deal with the whole gamut of emergencies that, in one way or another, affect what's being transported [in interstate commerce]?nuclear reactor accident fallout where it could contaminate food supplies, earthquakes, a tornado where it contaminates products with broken sewer lines, fires, floods, railroad accidents, truck accidents," Swanson says.

We have all-over responsibility for consumer complaints, product tamperings, field coordination of recalls, communication of emergencies which cover man-made and natural disasters: the whole bad-news side of the agency, he says.

Around FDA, he's known as "Doctor Doom," because usually when he calls, there's a problem.

Swanson's office monitors and evaluates all information on a situation and then coordinates an agency response with district and field offices. When major disasters occur, his division kicks into high gear, becoming the Agency Command Center, which can operate 24 hours a day until a crisis is over.

Devastating Hurricanes

As this issue went to press last August, FDA was assisting federal, state and local agencies in the clean-up after Hurricane Andrew devastated southern Florida and the Gulf Coast states. The agency helped deliver medical supplies to the area, including rabies vaccines and oxygen and medicines for geriatric patients.

FDA's assistance after Hurricane Hugo is another example of the agency?s role in aiding recovery from a natural disaster.

Following Hurricane Hugo's pounding of the Caribbean and South Carolina in September 1989, FDA sent investigators to help in the clean-up as well as to ensure food and drug safety in both areas.

In Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, the hurricane?s destruction was particularly devastating.

FDA's San Juan district office employees, using chain saws and machetes, had to cut their way through fallen trees just to get to work.

When three investigators arrived in St. Croix two weeks after the hurricane, they found most of the island still without power and running water.

In all, FDA investigators inspected over 75 St. Croix food establishments and condemned more than 171,000 pounds of water-damaged food. In addition, about $500,000 worth of unsafe drugs and medical devices were condemned.

The situation was much the same in South Carolina.

FDA Supervisory Investigator Clifford S. Purdy remembers the experience well.

Twenty-four hours after the storm hit, we were there," he says. Purdy, currently assigned to FDA's Miami office, was working out of Atlanta at the time.

Once the storm passed, he and five co-workers drove to the Charleston, S.C., resident post to help with statewide investigations and to make sure no contaminated or damaged foods or drugs were sold to consumers.

In the Southeast, we know, historically, what the game is," Purdy says. The game is to get [to the disaster area] ahead of the salvage firms. The salvage firms will get in there and buy, cheap, anything they can get products damaged by thawing due to loss of power and floodwater-damaged products and then resell them elsewhere.

As the team neared Charleston, more and more devastation became apparent. Most of the damage consisted of uprooted trees and pine branches strewn all over the streets,? he says.

"There was some water damage from the hurricane, but the tornado damage was massive."

Old growth trees in the Francis Marion National Forest that had stood 50 to 60 feet were cut off at 25 to 30 feet, as though "a huge lawn mower had gone through."

When the team arrived in Charleston, they met with Charleston?s FDA staff and state health officials. ?They [state officials] took retail stores; we [FDAers] took wholesale and manufacturing firms. We knew we had to get to the seafood plants fast,? Purdy says.

In the Charleston area alone, store owners, at FDA?s request, voluntarily destroyed over 1.7 million pounds of damaged, contaminated food worth more than $3 million. Approximately $50,000 worth of drugs also had to be destroyed because of water damage.

Purdy recalls a small family-owned seafood business located a short distance inland next to a waterway.

"The business was at highway level, but the house was built in a little valley next to the road and close to the water. The eye of the storm had gone right over their house," he explains. ?They stayed in the house until the floodwaters got up to their armpits, then decided they better get out while they could still find the door.

"They went up to the highway and huddled there. They were out in the open through the night when the second part of the storm came through," he says.

Purdy says he and his co-workers found the couple trying to clean up when they arrived that morning to inspect the business.

But there wasn't too much to inspect. The cinderblock and tin building that had housed the family's seafood business was gone-destroyed by the storm.

"There was so much human tragedy, but there wasn't much we could do," Purdy says. We just told people the National Guard and Red Cross would be coming soon to help.

About the Author

www.fda.gov
FDA is A United States government body that oversees medical devices, including contact lenses, intraocular lenses, excimer lasers and eyedrops. In the US, these products must be approved by the FDA before they can be marketed.