The FDA Again Ignores Its Own Warnings,
Legalizes Radiation 'Treatment' of Fruit, Vegetable Juice
Public Citizen Challenges the Government's Latest Irradiation Decision
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Whilst genetic engineers try to persuade developing countries that they need
to introduce GM crops
to increase the vitamin A content of their food, the irony is that the
latest techno approach to the management
of global food supplies will dramatically reduce the vitamin A and other
nutrient levels of our food (see article below kindly forwarded by Viviane
Lerner following the FDA's decision to legalize high-level radiation of a
variety of foods in the US).
Is irradiated food 'substantially equivalent'?...... Seems unlikely at these
levels of nutritional depletion.
The FDA is ignoring the scientific warnings concerning irradiated food in
exactly the same way it ignored the advice of its own scientists on the
risks of genetically modified foods (see www.biointegrity.org
).
Single whammy - genetically modified food. Double whammy - irradiated
genetically modified food. How much worse are we going to allow this to
get?
The following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson (kindly forwarded by David Heaf
of IFGENE) is perhaps most appropriate at this point - i.e. as the general
process of the denaturing of global food supplies now taking place through
genetic engineering, irradiation and other urban approaches to our food is
promoted by those who have least respect for it:
"They say that by electro-magnetism, your salad shall be grown from the
seed, whilst your fowl is roasting for dinner: it is a symbol of our modern
aims and endeavors,---of our condensation and acceleration of objects: but
nothing is gained: nature cannot be cheated: man's life is but seventy
salads long, grow they swift or grow they slow." (Ralph Waldo Emerson ,
essay Nature, 1836)
NATURAL LAW PARTY WESSEX
nlpwessex@bigfoot.com
www.btinternet.com/~nlpwessex
========================================================================
Dec. 7, 2000
The FDA Again Ignores Its Own Warnings,
Legalizes Radiation 'Treatment' of Fruit, Vegetable Juice
Public Citizen Challenges the Government's Latest Irradiation Decision
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Public Citizen is challenging the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration's (FDA) Nov. 29 decision to legalize high-level radiation
"treatments" of fruit and vegetable juice. This marks the third time
in five
months the FDA has granted an industry request to expose portions of the
American food supply to dangerous doses of radiation despite evidence that
irradiated food may not be safe for human consumption.
Public Citizen is challenging the approval by sending a letter to the FDA
requesting a public hearing.
Earlier this year, the FDA legalized the irradiation of eggs and sprouting
seeds despite questions raised by the agency's own scientists. In previous
years, the FDA allowed flour, spices, fruit, vegetables, poultry, pork and
beef to be irradiated despite well-documented side effects such as nutrient
deficiency, corrupted flavor and texture, and evidence suggesting that
irradiated food is harmful to human health.
"The FDA has never seen a food irradiation request it didn't like,"
said
Wenonah Hauter, director of Public Citizen's Critical Mass Energy and
Environment Program. "Nothing is sacred - not the eggs and orange juice we
have for breakfast, not the soup and salad we have for lunch, not the meat
and potatoes we have for dinner. If the FDA has its way, Americans will be
eating irradiated food from dawn to dusk. What's stunning is that the FDA
has ignored and misrepresented information indicating that irradiated food
is not safe."
The FDA legalized the irradiation of fruit and vegetable juice despite
warnings from agency scientists that radiation destroys nutrients. With
orange juice, irradiation destroys 48 percent of the beta carotene, 13
percent of the vitamin C and 10 percent of the vitamin A, according to
information submitted to the FDA by California Day-Fresh Foods, which
applied for the irradiation permit. In recent internal memos, agency
scientists recommended that more tests be conducted before allowing people
to drink irradiated juice. The FDA ignored this recommendation, and the
agency's official ruling made no mention of these concerns.
Similarly, in a July ruling approving the irradiation of eggs, FDA officials
did not mention that irradiation destroys about 80 percent of the vitamin A
in eggs, a fact determined by FDA scientists. And in an October ruling, FDA
officials stated incorrectly that the agency had analyzed the new chemicals
formed when alfalfa and other sprouting seeds are irradiated. In fact,
internal agency memos reveal that no such analysis was ever conducted.
"In 10 decisions since 1983, the FDA has used faulty science to approve
the
legalization of foods," Hauter said. "The agency has never determined
a safe
level of radiation to which food can be exposed and still be safe for human
consumption, yet it continues to allow our food supply to be corrupted."
###
To read Public Citizen's letter to the FDA, please go to
http://www.citizen.org/press/pr-cmep89a.htm