Public Citizen v. Heckler

• Citation: 602 F. Supp. 611
• Decision Date: 14 January 1985
• Docket Number: Civ. A. No. 84-2938.
• Parties: PUBLIC CITIZEN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.
• Court: United States District Courts. United States District Court (Columbia)

602 F. Supp. 611

PUBLIC CITIZEN, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret HECKLER, Secretary of Health and Human Services, Defendant.

Civ. A. No. 84-2938.

United States District Court, District of Columbia.

January 14, 1985.

Eric R. Glitzenstein, William B. Schultz, Alan B. Morrison, Washington, D.C., for plaintiffs.

Jacqueline H. Eagle, Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C., for defendant.

MEMORANDUM

GESELL, District Judge.

Plaintiffs Public Citizen, the American Public Health Association and others brought this suit seeking to compel the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to act on a petition asking her department to ban all domestic sales of raw milk and raw milk products. Contending that federal officials have long known of serious risks to human health from consumption of raw milk, plaintiffs contend that the Secretary has unreasonably delayed her decision in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act, 5 U.S.C. § 706(1). The case is before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment, which have been fully briefed by the parties.

I. The Facts

The facts are essentially undisputed. Raw milk is milk that has not undergone pasteurization, the familiar process whereby harmful bacteria are destroyed by heating the milk to a point below boiling. In 1973, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) proposed and adopted a regulation requiring that all milk moving in interstate commerce be pasteurized.¹ After receiving an objection from a producer of what is known as "certified" raw milk,² the FDA stayed the pasteurization requirement as to certified raw milk but put it in effect for all other milk and milk products, as of December 5, 1974.³ The stay order published that date states that the FDA Commissioner "still concludes that there are serious safety problems associated with certified raw milk ... and that only pasteurized milk should be shipped for beverage use in interstate commerce" but that a public hearing would be held to resolve the factual dispute over whether certified raw milk was sufficiently safe. 39 Fed.Reg. 42,351. No such hearing has ever been held, and the stay order has remained in effect.

Between 1974 and 1982, the FDA accumulated evidence of the association of certified raw milk with human disease. It concluded in 1982 that the consumption of certified raw milk had been linked "to the outbreak of serious disease."⁴ In particular, as documented by the federal Centers for Disease Control, there had been a number of outbreaks of two serious bacterial diseases, campylobacteriosis and salmonellosis, which typically produce bloody diarrhea, usually lasting several days but sometimes several months.⁵ On rare occasions these diseases result in death. A number of states had banned all sales of raw milk in the interim,⁶ and the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1980 proposed a federal ban on its marketing.

In 1982, the FDA began drafting a proposed regulation to ban all interstate sale of raw milk and raw milk products. FDA Commissioner Arthur Hayes sent the proposed regulation to the Secretary of Health and Human Services on April 25, 1983. In an attached memorandum supporting the regulation, he concluded that consumption of raw milk "presents a significant public health problem" and that pasteurization was the only feasible way to assure the safety of milk. This proposed rule has never been published.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control also stated in 1983 that raw milk is "inherently unsafe" and that there is a "wealth of evidence" associating its consumption with disease.

In late 1983 and early 1984, Dr. Edward N. Brandt, Jr., the HHS Assistant Secretary for Health, sent to the Secretary "new and further compelling evidence" on the link between raw milk and a particularly serious form of salmonellosis. He concluded that consumption of raw milk was "a serious public health risk" and that a ban on interstate sales was "most advisable."

Plaintiff Public Citizen filed a formal petition on April 10, 1984 asking Secretary Heckler to ban all domestic sales of raw milk and raw milk products. In response to further correspondence from the group, in a letter dated June 6, 1984, the Secretary told Dr. Sidney Wolfe of Public Citizen that the matter "is under active consideration." She gave no schedule for reaching a conclusion and indicated that the agency would hold an informal public hearing on the matter. In another letter of September 4, 1984, the Secretary stated that the issue "has been periodically reviewed within the Department for many years without definitive resolution," and she again refused to indicate when a resolution might be made. This lawsuit was filed on September 19, 1984.

The informal hearing was held on October 11 and 12, 1984. The results of that hearing are under review by the agency. No timetable for further action, if any, has been forthcoming.

II. Analysis

The Administrative Procedure Act requires each agency to "proceed to conclude a matter presented to it" "within a reasonable time." 5 U.S.C. § 555(b). Reviewing courts have the authority to "compel agency action unlawfully withheld or unreasonably delayed." 5 U.S.C. § 706(1). In deciding whether agency action has been "unreasonably delayed," the court "should consider the nature and extent of the interests prejudiced by delay, the agency justification for the pace of decision, and the context of the statutory scheme out of which the dispute arises." Public Citizen Health Research Group v. Comm'r of Food and Drugs, 740 F.2d 21, 35 (D.C.Cir. 1984). "Delays that might be altogether reasonable in the sphere of economic regulation are less tolerable when human lives are at stake." Public Citizen Health Research Group v. Auchter, 702 F.2d 1150, 1157 (D.C.Cir.1983).

There is ample legal authority for the action for which Public Citizen petitioned the Secretary. Under both the Public Health Service Act's authorization for regulations to control communicable diseases, 42 U.S.C. § 264, and the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act's provisions for the control of adulterated foods, 21 U.S.C. § 342, the Secretary has both the authority and the heavy responsibility to act to protect the nation's health in situations such as this one.

The facts here speak for themselves and need little elaboration. Officials at the highest levels of the Department of Health and Human Services have concluded that certified raw milk poses a serious threat to the public health. Leading health organizations are unanimous in proposing that sales of any raw milk should be banned.⁷ The Food and Drug Administration has twice proposed, in 1973 and 1983, that all milk in interstate...