James S. Turner, Esq., Chairman and President of Citizens for Health (CFH), passed away suddenly at his Washington, D.C. home on January 25th; he was 81.

One of Ralph Nader’s original “Nader’s Raiders,” Turner co-wrote the 1970 book, The Chemical Feast: Ralph Nader’s Study Group Report on the Food and Drug Administration. Time Magazine commented at the time that Mr. Turner’s book “may well be the most devastating critique of a U.S. Government agency ever issued.”

Believing that private sector attorneys could energize the consumer movement, in 1973 Turner joined with David Swankin, a former aide to White House Consumer Advisor Esther Peterson, to create the law firm of Swankin & Turner, in which he remained an active principal for nearly five decades until his death.

From representing organizations, such as the Consumer Federation of America, as well as individual consumers, to consulting for major businesses on consumer policy, the firm of Swankin & Turner has fought for consumer interests and advocated consumer policies across a broad range of issues while influencing regulatory matters concerning food, drugs, health, the environment and product safety.

In 1992, Mr. Turner began to take a leadership role in Citizens for Health, a consumer organization defending individual choice and access in health matters and nutrition and served as chairman and president for many years until the time of his death.

He was instrumental in winning passage of the Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), which defines and regulates dietary supplements, and the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, which established uniform national standards for the production and handling of food labeled as “organic.”

In 1996, he helped start Consumers for Dental Choice, which in turn led an international coalition of environmental, dental, and consumer groups to gain adoption of an anti-amalgam provision in the Minamata Convention on Mercury.

His recent advocacy included collaborating on the successful push to convince the FDA to send the New Dietary Ingredient (NDI) Draft Guidance back to the drawing board, and a number of citizen petitions to the FDA, including one calling for the FDA to reverse its approval of sucralose, and another calling for FDA action to protect the public from the illegal, mislabeled use of high fructose corn syrup.

Turner also represented health care professionals fighting anti-competitive federal and state trade rules. He played a key role in mainstreaming the practice of acupuncture and served as lead attorney on a petition to the FDA that resulted in the classification of acupuncture needles as medical devices “safe for general use” by trained acupuncture practitioners, and in legalizing the importation and distribution of acupuncture needles in 1996.

He persuaded the Federal Trade Commission to cease its investigations targeting chiropractic care. He represented dentists ordered by state licensing boards to withhold information from their patients about the effects of mercury in dental amalgam fillings, including risks to patients, dental workers, and the environment. Turner’s original advocacy was ultimately vindicated by a Food and Drug Administration Safety Communication on dental amalgam in 2020.

Turner was a graduate of The Ohio State University (OSU), which he attended on a U.S. Navy scholarship, and served in the OSU Student Senate for three years. He received his law degree from The Ohio State University College of Law (now Moritz College of Law), where he served as Chief Justice of the Moot Court. Between undergraduate school and law school, Turner was a Lieutenant on active duty in the U.S. Navy, where he graduated with distinction from Naval Justice School and served as a Nuclear Weapons Handling Officer and Gunnery Officer aboard the U.S.S. Purdy and the U.S.S. Austin.

Turner is survived by his law partner and life partner of 45 years, Betsy E. Lehrfeld, Esq., his son Christopher B. Turner, Esq., and his daughter, Victoria M. Turner. The family is asking that in lieu of flowers, those wishing to honor Mr. Turner consider donations to the Citizens for Health Education Foundation, https://citizens.org/donate-citizens-health-education-foundation/.