2014-06-04

Petition to WhiteHouse.gov: Direct the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of all food ingredients in prescription medications.


Yesterday I posted about how I discovered that my son has been taking a daily medication that contains an ingredient to which he has a life threatening allergy. After some additional research, I've discovered this wasn't due to an oversight, but rather a flaw in the system which provides drugs to patients.


Too many of us in the United States manage food allergies and intolerences to allow this to continue. I've started a petition on WhiteHouse.gov to ask the Obama administration to take action to fix this problem. Here's the full text:

WE PETITION THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO:
Direct the Food and Drug Administration to require labeling of all food ingredients in prescription medications. 
15 million Americans have food allergies, 3 million have celiac disease, and an unknown number have additional food sensitivities. Currently pharmacies are not required to ask patients about food allergies and intolerences or to provide information about food ingredients in medications. We ask the Obama administration to direct the Food and Drug Adminstration to: 
1. Require prescription medications be labeled for all ingredients derived from food, such as milk, corn, soy, and nuts. 
2. Require pharmacies to ask for and record customers' food allergies and intolerences and check them against the ingredients in the medications they dispense. 
3. Direct drug manufacturers and distributers to put in place procedures to prevent cross-contamination of food ingredients in medications. 
Thank you.

We have until July 4th to gather 100,000 signatures. If we reach that goal, the White House will issue a formal response and hopefully take action, especially since the First Family is directly impacted by food allergies.
Please share this petition. Share it on Facebook, Twitter, G+ and Tumblr. Share it with your friend with celiac disease, Tell the mom whose child is on a GFCF diet. Let all your coworkers know.

Let's get the word out!

6 comments:

Joanne at www.foodallergyassistant.com said...

Great Libby! I'll help to get the word out. We've had several experiences with meds that contain allergens, including an inhaler that contained milk protein.

How can we practice "total avoidance" if medications don't list these ingredients?

Libby said...

Thanks so much, Joanne!

Carrie said...

Signed and posted and forwarded to family and friends. Have you considered contacting FARE (http://www.foodallergy.org/home) to help advocate this petition?

Juanita said...

Hi Libby, Great post and awesome petition. But I cannot sign it :( I am in Australia and this issue I believe is a worlwide one. I recently had to contact a drug company that makes antihistamines because one of their products also contains milk!! An antihistamine used for allergies tgat contains one of the top 8 allergens!!! And no requirement to list it as an ingredient! Unbelievable!

Was wondering if you wanted to copy and paste your petition into a change.org petition as I believe there would be thousands of signatures with hours of posting it - I get all new petitions straight to my email so millions would see it. I am not sure how you collect or show the signatures to Obama or congress, but I'm sure that information would be provided to you once you sign up?? I wish I could sign your petition.

Let me know if I can help.

Unknown said...

I have a soy allergy blog (Soy Allergy Survivor) and will definitely be promoting the petition! I was told by my pharmacist that I had nothing to worry about and then had a reaction. Manufacturers use generic ingredient names that "mask" the food that it is derived from, so a pharmacist would not know if the medicine contained a specific food. I actually wrote about how to call companies and ask about ingredients on my site. Thank you for bringing awareness to this life-saving topic!

Lisa Kane said...

Hello,

My 2.5 year old son is allergic to dairy. I was shocked to learn that the Affordable Care Act does not mandate insurance companies to cover epinephrine injectors, life-saving medication for people with food allergies. I wrote a petition on change.org asking the US Government to mandate that all insurance plans cover epinephrine injectors. Please take a look and consider signing and sharing this petition on your blog with your followers.

Thanks!
Lisa Kane

Here's the link:
http://www.change.org/petitions/president-of-the-united-states-include-epinephrine-injectors-as-covered-medication-in-the-affordable-care-act