Call Against Food Irradiation

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Mon, 31 Oct 2005 12:29:32 -0600 (CST)

" Audrey Hill, Public Citizen " <ahill

Global Call Against Food Irradiation

 

 

 

 

Public Citizen is asking for ORGANIZATIONS to sign-on to the

declaration against food irradiation below. Please let me know shortly

if your organization would like to sign-on to this call against food

irradiation.

 

Thank you!

 

Global Call Against Food Irradiation

 

We, the undersigned, declare that the world must be safe from the

questionable and unnecessary technologies of food irradiation.

 

Food irradiation is another tool to increase the corporate control and

monopoly of the world's food supply, thus exacerbating the already

unsustainable global food and agriculture trading system that

prioritizes profits over people.

 

Food irradiation puts at risk the health and safety of unsuspecting

consumers. Irradiation destroys vitamins – up to 90% of vitamin A in

chicken, 86% of vitamin B in oats and 70% of vitamin C in fruit juice.

As shelf life increases, more nutrients are lost. Irradiation produces

new compounds in food that have been linked to cancer development and

genetic damage. Fifty years of research has shown serious health

problems in lab animals that ate irradiated foods, including premature

death, mutations, nutritional deficiencies, reproductive problems,

fatal internal bleeding, suppressed immune systems and stunted growth.

 

Food irradiation is linked to several environmental problems. First,

irradiation facilities that function with radioactive cobalt-60 or

cesium-137 threaten workers and communities with radioactive leaks and

accidents. Second, radioactive materials used in these facilities are

transported long distances, increasing the risk of radioactive

accidents that would damage the local ecosystem and threaten public

health. The material in nuclear food irradiators is also widely

considered as a potential source for dirty bombs. Food irradiation

sacrifices ecological sustainability by encouraging delocalization of

production, wasteful and costly transportation of food and mass

production.

 

Thus we demand the following:

 

*

National legislation to be passed, banning food irradiation;

*

Labelling of all irradiated products until such time as a ban

has been passed. People have the right to know whether their food has

been exposed to irradiation;

*

A global halt to construction of new irradiation facilities (and

a decommissioning of those that currently exist);

*

Sustainable food production. Sustainable food production

involves both ecological and social sustainability, ie: conservation

of environments and diverse ecosystems, respect for indigenous and

local land management and food production systems, promotion of local

consumption of local produce, promotion of energy minimalization in

food production. Sustainable production affirms that access to healthy

and wholesome food is the right of all people and future generations.

 

 

 

 

Released October 2005