Well, before relying on the FDA for anything, you might want to read the following and consider that, along with other reports that have come out in the past few years, this is just the tip of the iceberg!
FDA Scientists Accuse Agency of Corruption, Intimidation
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/178929-FDA-Scientists-Accuse-Agency-of-Corruption-Intimidation
A group of nine FDA scientists has sent letters to top politicians, accusing
agency managers of intimidating and coercing scientists into changing or
suppressing scientific data. In October, the scientists sent a letter to the
House Energy and Commerce Committee. In early January, they sent another to
then-president-elect Barack Obama.
The medical device review process, in particular, has been "corrupted and
distorted by current FDA managers, thereby placing the American people at
risk," the letter to Obama reads.
For example, the FDA continues to approve the use of certain mammography
computer-aided detection devices for breast cancer screening, over repeated
objections from agency doctors and scientists that there is no clinical
evidence that the devices work as advertised.
According to the scientists, FDA employees are regularly pressured to
conform to their managers' agendas for medical devices, and are discouraged
from raising safety concerns that management does not want to hear. The most
recent letter alleges that employees who fail to follow the party line are
often threatened with disciplinary action.
"There is an atmosphere at FDA in which the honest employee fears the
dishonest employee," the second letter says.
The letter writers say that although they have complained directly to FDA
Commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach and Assistant Commissioner for
Accountability and Integrity Bill McConagha, many of the most delinquent
managers have since been promoted or otherwise rewarded. No one has been
disciplined.
The nine scientists have called for a fundamental restructuring of the
process for evaluating and approving medical devices, and for increased
protection for government whistleblowers.
The FDA has come under increasing criticism in recent years, with both
Democrats and Republicans accusing it of suppressing its scientists' safety
data in order to approve products for the benefit of industry. Leaders of
the House Energy and Commerce Committee have written to von Eschenbach,
saying that the scientists' letter provided "compelling evidence of serious
wrongdoing."