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Senior ex-official speaks on FDA's failure to get benzene out of soft drinks
On spinach and food safety regulation
Spinach growers are victims of E. coli, not culprits
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Elected officials MIA; Instead Wal-Mart and Burger King protecting your health
Back to school: Are we ready? Are we non-toxic?
Fire retardants: Disproportionate risk to small children
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7 ways to reduce your exposure to PBDEs
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Consumers to FDA: Be there or be square
While the federal Food and Drug Administration dithers about whether to ban bisphenol A (BPA), a plastics chemical and synthetic estrogen, from U.S. food packaging, increasing numbers of Americans are voting with their pocketbooks.
The winners: entrepreneurs who paid attention to the early scientific reports documenting possible health risks of trace amounts of BPA leached into food and beverages from epoxy can linings and polycarbonate plastic bottles.
Eden Foods, Inc., a Clinton, MI., natural food company that adopted BPA-free cans in 1999, around the time the Japanese food processing industry voluntarily eliminated the chemical from its wares, reports a 40 percent jump in sales of its canned beans since 2006.
Kleen Kanteen, a Chico, CA., company founded in 2003 to produce reusable stainless steel water bottles, did $2.5 million in sales in 2007. This year’s sales have spiked by a whopping 600 percent, and the company projects sales of $15 million or more by the end of the year. Since April, when Canada announced a ban on BPA in baby bottles, says Kleen Kanteen officer Jeff Cresswell, “It’s been pretty crazy.” Orders for Kleen Kanteen bottles, he says, “quadrupled in a matter of days.” The company has recently introduced new product lines, including a 12-ounce bottle that accepts a baby bottle top, sippy-cup lid and regular lid so it can stick with its owner from diapers to skinny jeans.
BornFree of Boca Raton, FL., launched in 2006 to make BPA-free baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers and other baby products, is enjoying "tremendous growth," according to a company official who declined to cite sales numbers.
The Environmental Working Group and other health and consumer organizations are pressing the FDA to order BPA removed from can linings, baby and water bottles and other food packaging. The agency is ignoring those calls -- and consumers are ignoring the FDA. Major North American retailers like Walmart, Toys “R” Us, REI, Costco, Sears and Home Depot have been pulling BPA-based baby bottles, water bottles and other products from their shelves. Earlier this year, popular sports bottle makers Nalgene and Camelbak introduced bottles made of Eastman Tritan copolyester, which contains no BPA.
Major baby bottle brands like Gerber, Evenflo and Playtex are also moving to non-BPA bottles, though more slowly. Top makers of canned baby formula, revealed by EWG to use BPA-laden can linings, have told Congress they are exploring alternatives. PBM, a maker of store brand formula, recently wrote the House Energy and Commerce committee, “[T]he possibility that bisphenol A may pose adverse health risks to the infants and children who are fed our formula was more than sufficient for us to begin the process of eliminating bisphenol A from our infant formula packaging." (In the meantime, to help parents through the transition, EWG has posted an online “guide to baby-safe bottles & formula.”)
Small, agile companies with the ability to ramp up production of non-BPA products appear to be enjoying the steepest growth curves. Earlier this month, the Investor Environmental Health Network, which calls itself a “collaborative partnership” of environmental health-savvy investment managers responsible for portfolios totaling $41 million, issued a “Bisphenol A Market Analysis Report” that concluded that demand for BPA-free food contact products has “exploded” because “consumers are not waiting around for the regulatory process to kick in.”
“Companies monitoring emerging science and taking strategic steps in advance of slow government regulatory processes appear to clearly have the competitive edge as ‘first movers’ in the marketplace,” the IEHN report says. “Whether they are innovative entrepreneurs or old-line companies, they are grabbing market share, enhancing their branding, and otherwise prospering from public awareness of toxic chemicals in common consumer products.”
The consumer revolt against BPA is an object lesson in how the power of information is changing the world -- one bottle at a time.
Photo by garageolimpo.
Maybe you should skip the seafood special...
Although the revelation that over 1 million pounds of suspect seafood from China was allowed into the country is woefully late, better late than never.
FDA officials stuck the pond-raised seafood on their watch list because of worries it contained suspected carcinogens or antibiotics not approved for seafood.No illnesses have been reported, but the episode raises serious questions about the FDA's ability to police the safety of America's food imports.
It's rather unfortunate though, and I would go so far as to say down right scary, that we had to learn this from the Associated Press and not the good men and women at the FDA in charge of monitoring imported food arriving into the country every single day. Maybe until the Congress and the Administration decide to put some real resources in place to protect the American people from potentially tainted seafood coming in from foreign countries people should skip the popcorn shrimp and go with the fries.
'Consumer-friendly' reporting on antioxidents misleading
The following post is from our guest blogger, who prefers to remain
anonymous to protect his professional affiliation:
It turns out that someone finally looked and found that not only are antioxidents not helpful, but some may be harmful. This really underscores the problems of trusting partial science and also speaks to problems with how sloppy reporting by medical journalists can lead to widespread public mis-information.
Taking a look at what happened is instructive: Studies show that people who have diets high in veggies, especially green veggies, tend to have less of certain diseases. Scientists take guesses as to what it means: '"Well, veggies, especially green ones, are high in antioxidents. That might be it'." Off and running go the media, forgetting the the actual findings and publishing something that's "consumer friendly" -- code for either the journalist didn't understand, or he/she assumes that the public doesn't understand or want complexity. We see where that led: Millions of people taking supplements and vitamins that may harm them.
It's interesting that the fat-soluble vitamins are the ones that may be harmful and that the easily excreted, water-soluble ones have no effect. This seems plausible, and a good rule for consumers to follow, but it really wasn't the question tested.
Senior ex-official speaks on FDA's failure to get benzene out of soft drinks
In 1991 the FDA let the beverage industry decide what to do about benzene in its soft drinks, without offering any guidelines for eliminating the carcinogen. Fifteen years later, benzene was still forming in soft drinks containing the ingredients sodium benzoate and ascorbic acid.
In an article for Food Navigator, Chris Mercer interviews a former FDA enforcement official about the agency's permissive attitude toward carcinogens in soft drinks. Acknowledging he was “not proud” of the FDA’s inaction on benzene, the ex-official noted:
Big companies are very powerful. If you’re a regulator with a tight budget, it could have been one of those closets with skeletons in it that you don’t want to open.
Continue reading "Senior ex-official speaks on FDA's failure to get benzene out of soft drinks" »
On spinach and food safety regulation
A quick glance at today’s editorials makes clear that spinach and the recent E. coli episode are still on peoples' minds--and with good reason. The New York Times and The Capital Times of Madison are pointing their fingers at the contamination of produce by fecal matter from livestock operations. The Washington Post and Seattle Times go a more macro route, saving their criticisms for the “patchwork” structure of our regulatory agencies and the lack of funding and organization to properly safeguard our food supply.
Spinach growers are victims of E. coli, not culprits
While sensationalists and those fond of chemical-intensive farming were ready to hang the organic industry at the first mention of an E coli outbreak, NYT farm and food columnist Nina Planck says the culprit is not spinach growers at all, but rather industrial beef and dairy farmers.
E. coli O157:H7, the virus strain responsible for making humans ill, is not found in the intestines of cattle fed a natural diet of grass and hay. The virus thrives in the acidic stomachs of cattle fed on grain, the typical feed on industrial farms.
In 2003, The Journal of Dairy Science noted that up to 80 percent of dairy cattle carry O157. (Fortunately, food safety measures prevent contaminated fecal matter from getting into most of our food most of the time.) Happily, the journal also provided a remedy based on a simple experiment. When cows were switched from a grain diet to hay for only five days, O157 declined 1,000-fold.This means that even if beef cattle were switched to a natural grass diet several days before slaughter, cross-contamination by manure in meat packing plants would be drastically reduced. It would take a lot longer to reduce contamination of groundwater and rivers, used to irrigate spinach farms. But Planck has an idea: Instead of USDA paying 75 percent of the cost for manure containment ponds and only treating the symptoms, how about they try treating the disease by switching cattle over to a natural diet.
Link: NYT, Leafy Green Sewage, Nina Planck, 9.21.2006
Natural Selection Foods: Organic spinach not to blame
Contrary to claims of those sympathetic to chemical-intensive farming, all cases of this most recent outbreak of E. coli have been traced back to packages of non-organic spinach, according to Natural Selection Foods—the manufacturer, which produces both conventional and organic spinach.
But this current outbreak brings to light a possibility that is all too easily capitalized on by big agribusiness and its PR people, front groups, etc. What if the E. coli poisonings had been traced back to organic spinach? Would that prove that organic produce is more susceptible to deadly strains of viruses? The answer is no, but the negative buzz just from that suggestion does plenty of damage to the organic movement and to consumers who are misled by such claims.
Continue reading "Natural Selection Foods: Organic spinach not to blame" »
Voodoo and Mercury
Mercury is believed to attract love, luck or riches and can protect against evil. It is also known to cause permanent damage to developing children's brains and have numerous harmful effects on the nervous system of adults.
Its uses in religious practices can be debated under First Amendment, but its dangers should not. A good starting point for education about the safe limits of mercury is EWG's tuna calculator where personalized information about safe levels of tuna is available.
Marketing Bottled Water: The Joke is on Us
Quoted in an article for the Japan Times, Tony Clarke of the Polaris Institute articulates the cyclical risk of our obsession with bottled water:
The bottled-water industry's marketing of 'safe, clean water' undermines citizen's confidence in public water systems, and paves the way for the water companies to take over underfunded local utilities. In return, public willingness to pay premium prices for bottled water enables water-service corporations to establish a top-dollar price.
Continue reading "Marketing Bottled Water: The Joke is on Us" »
Toxic roulette and the revenge of the fish
Paul Watson's poignant reflections on the over-exploitation of our seas and the toxicity of today's catch. [New Zealand Herald]
The bottle-versus-the-tap debate
Today, The L.A. Times reveals that consumers spend 10 billion dollars annually on bottled water which undergoes a far less scrupulous testing regimen than big-city tap water systems. Municipalities are required to test for fecal coliform bacteria over 100 times per month and to make their results public, while bottled water facilities are only required to perform these tests once weekly and do not have to publicize their findings. This information--coupled with a June United Nations Environmental Program report finding an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic debris floating near the surface of every square mile of ocean--may be good encouragement to stick with tap water.
Sally Squires, author of the LA Times piece, suggests drinking your water--whether bottled or tap-- cold, for improved taste.
Oregon Mail Tribune: How pure is bottled water?
Consumer Reports supports EWG findings
The magazine Consumer Reports is warning pregnant women not to eat
any tuna at all because the government can't assure us that even
supposedly-safe light tuna won't contain excessive levels of mercury, which
harms developing brains.
As reported in the Chicago Tribune:
"This is important information that women need to hear," said Jean Halloran, the director of food policy at Consumers Union and a member of an FDA advisory panel on mercury in seafood. "We think that high exposures, even for a day or two, could be too much of a risk."
Continue reading "Consumer Reports supports EWG findings" »
Soda Ban in Schools Does Not Protect Students From Benzene
The beverage industry has conceded to remove high-calorie soft drinks from schools. They will, however, be continuing to sell diet sodas and fruit drinks, which contain fewer calories and less sugar. What many of these drinks do contain are the two ingredients which can form Benzene, a known human carcinogen.
Learn more about Benzene in sodas.
Tell FDA: Get benzene out of my soft drinks
House Threatens Food Safety Standards
That's right -- states that are doing their best to protect consumers are about to be preempted by a Congress that's only interested in protecting its industry donors. The powerful food lobby is crying crocodile tears about -- surprise -- excessive regulation, and wants uniform standards that would conveniently fall at the loweset common denominator of consumer safety. In particular, the new law would overthrow California's landmark Prop. 65, legislation that requires warning labels on products containing chemicals related to cancer or birth defects.
EWG's got a lot of content on food safety: Our pesticide guide, tuna calculator and rocket fuel reports are all of interest to concerned consumers.
EPA Study: Week of Organics Cleans Pesticides from Kids' Blood
N.C. Pesticide Laws Lack Teeth
When Ag-Mart's fields were inspected last April, department officials found the state's worst-ever violations, including workers lacking training and protective gear, and workers in freshly-treated fields that were supposed to be avoided for at least seven days for safety.
EWG's work on pesticides is available here.
CDC Tests Show Rocket Fuel Levels May Be High in Food
Perchlorate has been found in milk and lettuce. The EPA needs to know how much people are getting from food so safe levels can be set for drinking water. Perchlorate may affect the thyroid, brain and nervous system, especially in developing children.
The Riverside Press-Enterprise article is here, and EWG's work on rocket fuel is here.
FDA: We Don't Know What's in Tuna Cans
The heavy metal mercury gets into our bodies from seafood consumption and harms the brains of developing children and babies. Public health groups have long urged the FDA to provide clear warnings to women of childbearing age about how much seafood they can safely eat.
The Tribune reports: "We will definitely look at it through our office of seafood and determine whether there is something that requires further pursuit," Acheson said. He could not say exactly what the investigation would entail or whether the agency would conduct additional testing of canned tuna.
Environmental Working Group researchers exposed the FDA's coverup of their own focus group results in which Agency scientists warned women about mercury in tuna. To see how much tuna you can safely eat to keep your level of mercury at a safe level, use EWG's tuna calculator: http://www.ewg.org/issues/mercury/20031209/calculator.php
To read EWG's research, please visit http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5010.
Newspaper Tests Fish for Mercury
Three points the authors make in today's installment:
> Officials with the Food and Drug Administration, which is responsible for the safety of commercial seafood, told the Tribune that the agency has neither the time nor the money to routinely test fish.
> The FDA, for instance, does not require exporting countries to maintain safety, sanitation and inspection programs comparable with the U.S. system, even though 80 percent of the seafood that Americans consume is imported. By contrast, the Department of Agriculture, which monitors meat and poultry, requires every exporter to meet such standards.
> The FDA has issued warnings for canned albacore tuna, which has averaged 0.35 parts per million in the agency's testing. Yet the agency has not issued warnings for orange roughy, which averaged 0.57 parts per million in the Tribune testing, or walleye, which was at 0.51.
EWG's research on mercury in seafood is viewable online at http://www.ewg.org/issues/siteindex/issues.php?issueid=5010.
Use EWG's tuna calculator to see how much tuna is safe for you: http://www.ewg.org/issues/mercury/20031209/calculator.php.
Avoiding Organic Milk Pitfalls
Take a look at EWG's work on organics and pesticides.