Bush Administration Proposal to Serve Irradiated Beef to Children

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Bush Administration Proposal to Serve Irradiated Beef to School Children

Poses Cancer, Genetic and Other Risks 4/18/01

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Bush Administration Proposal to Serve Irradiated Beef to Children

http://www.mercola.com/2001/apr/18/irradiation_schools.htm

 

Bush Administration Proposal to Serve Irradiated Beef to School Children

Poses Cancer, Genetic and Other Risks

 

The recent proposal by the Bush Administration to allow irradiated ground

beef into the National School Lunch Program will endanger the health of tens

of millions of school children and should be withdrawn immediately.

" The government's assertion that irradiated food is safe for human

consumption does not even pass the laugh test, " said Samuel S. Epstein,

M.D., emeritus professor of environmental and occupational medicine at

University of Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago.

 

" Exposing America's school children to the hazards of irradiated food is

reckless negligence, compounded by the absence of any warning to parents " .

 

Irradiated meat is a very different product than natural meat. This is

hardly surprising, as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approved

irradiation dosage of 450,000 rads is approximately 150 million times

greater than that of a chest x-ray.

Apart from high levels of benzene, new chemicals known as " unique radiolytic

products " were identified in irradiated meat in US Army tests in 1977 and

recognized as carcinogenic. Later tests identified other chemicals shown to

induce genetic toxicity.

 

In sharp contrast to FDA's claims of safety, based on grossly inadequate

testing which fails to meet the agency's minimal standards and which were

explicitly rebutted by its own expert committees, there is well-documented

scientific evidence that eating irradiated meat poses grave risks of cancer

and genetic damage.

Irradiated meat is also highly susceptible to cross-contamination with food

poisoning bacteria.

 

Nevertheless, the meat and irradiation industries, with FDA's complicity,

are lobbying aggressively to sanitize the agency's weak labeling

requirements for irradiated meat and other food by eliminating the word

" irradiated " in favor of " electronic (or cold) pasteurization " .

This euphemistic absurdity would circumvent consumer's fundamental

right-to-know.

Furthermore, irradiation masks grossly unsanitary conditions in

slaughterhouses and meat processing plants.

Irradiation is thus a major disincentive to decades-long overdue basic

sanitary practices essential for the prevention of Salmonella, E.coli

0157:h7, and other pathogenic food poisoning. While irradiation kills most

bacteria in meat, pork and poultry, it does nothing to prevent gross fecal

and other contamination.

 

Warnings on the hazards of irradiated food were endorsed in a recent

publication, in the world's leading peer-reviewed public health journal, by

a wide range of national and international experts including:

 

Dr. Neal Barnard, President, Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine,

Washington, D.C.; Dr. John Gofman, Emeritus Professor, Molecular and

Radiation Biology, University of California, Berkeley, California; Dr. Jay

M. Gould, Director, Radiation and Public Health Project, U.S.A.; Dr. Vyvyan

Howard, Professor of Pathology, University of Liverpool, U.K.; Dr. David

Kriebel, Professor of Epidemiology, University of Massachusetts, Lowell,

Massachusetts; Dr. Marvin Legator, Professor of Preventive Medicine,

University of Texas, Galveston, Texas; Dr. E. Lichter, Professor of

Community Medicine, University of Illinois Medical School, Chicago,

Illinois; Dr. William Lijinsky, former Director, Chemical Carcinogenesis,

Frederick Cancer Research Center, Maryland; Dr. Sheldon Margen, Emeritus

Professor of Public Health Nutrition, University of California, Berkeley,

California; Dr. Vicente Navarro, Professor of Health and Public Policy, The

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, Professor of Political and

Social Sciences, Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain; Dr. Herbert Needleman,

Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry, University of Pittsburgh,

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Dr. Robert Rinehart, Emeritus Professor of

Biology, San Diego State University, California; Dr. George Tritsch, Cancer

Research Scientist, Roswell Park Memorial Institute, New York State

Department of Health, New York; Dr. Quentin Young, past President, American

Public Health Association, Chicago, Illinois; Dr. Joseph Mercola, senior

editor www.mercola.com

 

 

 

For more information on Irradiation, see " PREVENTING PATHOGENIC FOOD

POISONING: SANITATION NOT IRRADIATION " by Samuel S. Epstein and Wenonah

Hauter (Public Citizen)

 

 

 

 

DR. MERCOLA'S COMMENT:

Let's hope this does not get into your child's school lunch program. It's

bad enough they are bombarded by all the sugar, soda and juices. How much

more abuse can their little bodies take?

Related Articles:

No More Testing for Salmonella in School Beef If Irradiated???

The Problems with Irradiated Food: What the Research Says

Food Irradiation Will Be Used To Mask Filthy Slaughtering and Food

Processing Practices

Food Irradiation Q & As

SteriGenics: The Untold History

Many in the Scientific Community Are Opposed to Irradiation

The Dangers of Irradiation Facilities

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