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What about human consumption?

Because of pressure from the public and now our politicians, the Food and Drug Administration is focusing on contaminated pet food ("Fluffy's poisoned food makes political fur fly," Nation, April 4), but how long will it take for the FDA to focus on foods for human infants?

The FDA quietly admits there is no evidence that soy phyto-estrogens are safe and especially that they have not been proved safe for babies or young children, yet infant formula and foods are commonly laced with soy phyto-estrogens.

The National Institutes of Health reveals numerous published studies on their Web site (http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov) confirming that soy phyto-estrogens are more potent estrogenic chemicals than once thought. Pregnant women are swallowing soy foods without knowing they are saturating their fetuses with soy's damaging estrogenic effects.

Numerous published studies scattered throughout medical journals confirm that soy phyto-estrogens are capable of causing abnormal hormone fluctuations that target the brain, especially influencing changes in vasopressin and oxytocin during a most important period of time when hormone balance is most critical for normal fetal and early childhood brain development.

It took more than 60 years for the FDA to include a variety of fatal drug warnings for female hormone estrogen/progestin drugs that had been prescribed as safe to several million healthy middle-aged women. How long it will take the FDA to include appropriate warnings to parents regarding the evidence that soy phyto-estrogens may cause fetal and infant brain defects is anyone's guess.

Female estrogen drugs and soy phyto-estrogens have a common bond; exposure of truthful warnings puts billions of dollars in corporate profits at risk. Lucky for cats and dogs, it only took the FDA a few months to announce details about contaminated pet food.

GAIL ELBEK

Santa Barbara, Calif.