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Washington, D.C.—The leader of the union representing thousands of employees of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today sharply criticized a proposal by the agency to consolidate its 13 laboratories across the country. The FDA’s highly-skilled lab employees conduct research and product analysis, among many other duties critical to the safety of food, drugs and medical devices.

“This plan is particularly short-sighted in light of several recent and serious public health issues dealing with food,” said President Colleen M. Kelley of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), which represents more than 5,200 FDA employees.

While many of the details are sketchy, it appears that FDA’s Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA), which, among other activities, oversees the labs, plans to close between seven and nine laboratories—more than half of the current facilities, leaving only four to six labs.

The clear result, President Kelley said, would be the closing not just of agile facilities that can act swiftly in emergencies, but the likely loss of highly-specialized, talented and experienced employees, including a broad range of scientists, researchers and others. Employees in labs that will close would likely be involuntarily reassigned to another lab and many may choose to leave the federal government rather than move across country.

“FDA has not made any case that consolidation would lead to better protection of the public health,” the NTEU leader said. “Instead, ORA admits this is a purely budget-driven plan.”

In a communication to employees earlier this month, FDA’s associate commissioner for regulatory affairs noted that ORA has undergone several years of zero increases in its budget and said that this would “maximize efficiencies.”

The impact of the financial argument is seriously undercut, however, by the lack of any demonstrated proof that larger and centralized labs are better suited to help protect the nation’s food and drug supply, a good deal of which is imported; some of FDA’s present labs are located at or near ports of entry.

Some of the facilities have unique scientific capabilities and expertise. As an example, FDA’s Winchester Engineering & Analytical Center Laboratory (WEAC) located in Winchester, Massachusetts is uniquely capable of testing foods for radioactive contamination and medical devices such as diagnostic x-ray systems, dental equipment and mammogram equipment, for safety and efficacy.

This is similar to an effort a decade ago by FDA to cut back its laboratories. The then-named Government Accounting Office (GAO) issued a report highly critical of the agency plan, noting that FDA had offered no proof that large laboratories are more efficient than medium-sized facilities.

In fact, back then GAO further said that FDA officials in both headquarters and the field could not provide any explanation to contradict data showing that six out of seven medium-sized laboratories were timelier in their handling of the work than were the agency’s two largest labs.

The FDA said it will announce which of the labs will close by April 2007. The laboratories are located in the Seattle area, San Francisco, the Los Angeles area, Denver, Kansas City, Jefferson, Arkansas; Philadelphia, New York City, Atlanta, San Juan, Detroit, the Boston area and the Cincinnati area. NTEU represents more than 600 employees who work at the labs.

NTEU is the largest independent federal union, representing some 150,000 employees in 30 agencies and departments.