Title: FW: [globalnews] Irradiated Food Update: New Studies Show Dangers Greater than Critics Thought
RADIATION NATION
Health Sciences Institute e-Alert
February 10, 2003
Dear Reader,
After sending you the e-Alert last week about irradiated beef ("Don't Beam
Me Up" 2/4/03), I came across a news item announcing that a popular
supermarket chain began selling irradiated ground beef on February 2nd in
six mid-Atlantic states, including Maryland, where I live. These stores are
among some 4,000 nationwide that currently sell irradiated beef.
This alone would be unsettling enough. But in response to that e-Alert, I
received a reply from HSI Panelist Jon Barron with additional information
about the irradiation process that I guarantee will make you think twice
the next time you stop off at your grocery to buy meat products.
----
Who let the nutrients out?
To briefly recap: Irradiation is a process by which a food product is
exposed to extremely high doses of radiation to kill bacteria, parasites
and funguses that may cause spoilage or disease. And if that were all
irradiation did, that would be fine. But as we'll see, there's much more to
it than that.
Jon begins by describing the process in more detail: "Food is exposed to
'hard' irradiation, usually gamma rays from a source like cobalt-80, in
doses of 100,000 to 3,000,000 rads. To give you a sense of how high a dose
this is, understand that a dose of just 10,000 rads will totally destroy
any living tissue."
As HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., made clear last week, an abundance of
nutrients are also eliminated by this process. Jon agrees, and says, "as
much as 70% of the Vitamin A, B1 and B2 in irradiated milk is destroyed,
and about 30% of Vitamin C." Unfortunately, irradiation also accelerates
the growth of aspergillus mold, "which produces the most potent natural
carcinogens known to man, called aflatoxins."
I wish I could say that's the worst of it - but we're just getting started.
----
A radiotoxin by any other name...
Processing food with the extremely high levels of gamma rays described
above results in the creation of some very dangerous molecules, about which
Jon gives this interesting but frightening background: "They were
originally called 'radiotoxins' by Russian researchers. Since that word
would be frightening to American consumers, the FDA came up with a couple
of 'softer' terms. They call them 'known radiolytic products' to describe
the molecules that are created such as formaldehyde and benzene (known
carcinogens), and as for those chemical molecules created by irradiation
and that have never before been seen by man, the FDA came up with the
equally soft 'unique radiolytic products.'"
Long before the FDA started assigning more palatable terms for these very
unappetizing results, it had already reviewed more than 400 studies about
the irradiation process. But Jon tells us where that review process fell
woefully short: "They accepted 226 studies for further review. They then
narrowed their criteria and selected only 69 for in-depth review. Of these,
the FDA itself reported that 32 of the 69 showed adverse effects, and 37
showed safety problems. Then without explanation, they eliminated all but 5
of the 69 (including every negative study) and said they would base their
decision on those 5 alone.
"In the FDA's final report approving food radiation, they wrote that when
up to 35% of the lab-animal diet was radiated, feeding studies had to be
terminated because of premature mortality or morbidity." And in one test at
the Medical College of Virginia, rats fed irradiated beef "died of
hemorrhagic syndrome in 34 days."
----
Running from the radura
According to Jon, "Foods already approved for irradiation include: fruits,
vegetables, wheat, flour, herbs, spices, nuts, seeds, peas, pork, and
chicken." And to that we can add ground beef - now in a supermarket in my
neighborhood, and very likely in yours as well.
If you don't like the idea of irradiated food (and at this point I can't
imagine how anyone possibly could), you can look for a symbol called the
"radura" which is required on the packaging of irradiated foods. The radura
is a green circle (broken into four segments at the top of the circle),
enclosing a flower image represented by a large green dot with two petals
below the dot.
But even if you avoid products marked with the radura, you're still not in
the clear. As Jon explains, "The FDA requires a label stating a food has
been radiated if, and only if, it was radiated as a 'whole food' and then
is sold unchanged. But, if you process it in any way, if you add any other
ingredients to it, it no longer requires a label stating that it (or any of
its ingredients) were irradiated. To put it simply, an irradiated orange
would require a label; irradiated orange juice would not."
----
An uncomfortable level of comfort
But even if people see the radura on a package of ground beef, a bag of
Brazil nuts, or a sticker on an apple - do they know what its significance
is? And worse, do they have any idea of the risks? By and large, my guess
is "no." In a report from Reuters last December, a survey conducted by the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association found that almost half of Americans
say they would feel comfortable purchasing irradiated meat. This response
was 10 percent higher than it had been to the same question on a similar
nationwide survey earlier in the year.
In other words, people are apparently becoming comfortable with the idea of
irradiated food. And it seems they'll have ample opportunity to buy it.
SureBeam Corporation (the largest provider of irradiation technology in the
U.S.) plans to process more than 300 million pounds of beef this year. Last
year they processed only 15 million pounds.
Feel free to forward this e-Alert to friends and relatives. Help us spread
the word that this idea, whose time has apparently come, is not a good
idea, although it looks like it's probably here to stay. So it may be the
best that we can do to avoid irradiated foods by looking for the odd green
flower.
My thanks to Jon Barron for his exhaustive profile of this subject. Jon has
researched and written extensively about alternative medicine, nutrition,
and herbal remedies for almost thirty years. For more information about Jon
and his work, visit his web site at http://www.jonbarron.com
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-- "To change the outside world, we must first change ourselves."
"To change our outer lives, we must first change our inner world."
