============================================================ FREE CELL PHONE HEADSET. New York is the first to ban drivers from using cell phones without headsets. Forty states are following the ban! Get a FREE Cell Phone Headset. Click Here http://click.topica.com/caaacEJb1ddNBb2HgmNb/BTEdirect ============================================================EPA: Less Unapproved Corn in Food By PHILIP BRASHER
AP Farm Writer ARLINGTON, Va. (AP)--Scientists considering whether a variety
of biotech corn should be allowed into the food supply heard from a Florida
optometrist that he's allergic to the grain despite a negative government
blood test. Keith Finger showed the panel pictures of welts and rashes he
says he suffered Sunday after he ate a mixture of StarLink corn and water. He
says he earlier had allergic reactions to tortilla chips that tested positive
for the corn. ``The itching was horrible,'' Finger told the scientists
Tuesday. A member of the panel, Dean Metcalfe, an allergy specialist at the
National Institutes of Health, said symptoms like Finger's would be
sufficiently convincing for a doctor to order tests to tell whether he was
allergic to the corn. Finger is among 17 people whose blood the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention tested in the spring for sensitivity to a
special protein in the corn. The tests were negative. Like Finger, all the 17
people had reported allergic reactions after eating corn products. Some of
the scientists questioned the effectiveness of the test and why the
government had not sought out more potential victims by contacting doctors
around the country. Federal officials said they lacked the money for
wider-ranging tests. Discovery of the corn in taco shells last fall led to
nationwide recalls of corn products. The corn has been withdrawn from the
market, but the crop's developer, Aventis CropScience, is asking the
Environmental Protection Agency to allow a minimal amount in the food supply
to avoid further recalls. The scientific advisers are deciding whether the
agency should set a maximum level for the corn of 20 parts per billion. The
scientists are not expected to issue their recommendation for a week. A
special protein in the corn, called Cry9C, breaks down slowly in the
digestive system, an indication that it might induce allergic reactions.
However, scientists say people would have to be exposed to the protein
repeatedly to become sensitive to it. StarLink is among several varieties of
corn genetically engineered to produce their own pesticides. StarLink corn
was supposed to have been grown and handled separately from other grain, but
farmers often failed to do so. The Agriculture Department reported Tuesday
that it had accounted for all but 720,000 of the 128 million bushels of
StarLink corn. Another 4.9 million bushels may have been mixed with grain
that went to food processors. Steve Gill, a USDA official, said most of the
corn should have been caught in testing by processors and shippers. In a
report to the scientists, EPA says the actual levels of StarLink in U.S. corn
supplies range from 0.34 to 8 parts per billion, depending on the method used
to make the estimate. ___
On the Net: Environmental Protection Agency:
http://www.epa.gov/pesticides/biopesticides
"Never cease in the fight for peace, justice, and equality for all people. Be
perisitent in all that you do and don't allow anyone to sway you from your
conscience.".....Leonard Peltier
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