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Ban Urged On Artificial Food Dyes


NewsInferno
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 20:40 UTC
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Blue food dye in candy
The consumer group The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) is calling for a ban on artificial food dyes saying, said WebMD, that none of the food dyes - there are nine out there - that have been approved for use in the United States have been proven safe.

As a matter-of-fact, wrote WebMD, the CPSI said that these dyes are linked to significant health risks, citing both human and animal studies. "For a food additive that does not provide any health or safety benefit whatsoever, there should be a very strict standard for safety. Food dyes do not meet that standard," CSPI Executive Director and study co-author Michael F. Jacobson, PhD, told WebMD.
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U.S. should follow Europe and put the brakes on nanotech food and other products

Jaydee Hanson
Grist
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 19:50 UTC
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© Alex Parlini, Proj. on Emerging Nanotechnologies
Nanoparticles are already used in many sunscreens.
One month ago, the Committee on Environment, Health and Consumer Protection of the European Parliament voted in favor of excluding nanotechnology from the EU list of novel foods allowed on the market. This committee vote represents one of the first times ever that a legislative body has weighed in on the issue of nanotech particles in food. (Nanotechnology refers to materials or devices developed on an atomic or molecular scale, sized between 1 to 100 nanometers - basically, really, really, really tiny novel particles that our skin and other organs have never before encountered at this scale.)

For those of us watching how government views nanotechnology, this was welcome news.

Whether we are focusing on food or other consumer goods, so far more than a thousand products containing nanoparticles are currently available in the U.S. These nano-enabled products have been put on the market without testing their possible impacts on human health or the environment. And, without stringent government review and without regulation, these products are foisted on an unsuspecting public. People are using nanotechnology, such as sunscreen containing nanoparticles of zinc oxide, on a daily basis, almost completely unaware of what they're putting on their bodies.

Comment: According to the following article Nanotechnology - the new threat to food:
Following on from genetic engineering, nanotechnology represents the latest high technology attempt to infiltrate our food supply. Senior scientists have warned that nanotechnology, the manipulation of matter at the scale of atoms and molecules, introduces serious new risks to human and environmental health. Yet in the absence of public debate, or oversight from regulators, unlabelled foods manufactured using nanotechnology have begun to appear on our supermarket shelves.
Several articles carried on SOTT depict the human and environmental risks of emerging nanotechnology:

Regulated or Not, Nano-Foods Coming to a Store Near You
Food Industry Too Secretive Over Nanoparticles
Scientists Scared as Nanotechnology and Nanoparticles Become Common in Consumer Products
More Research Urged on Nanoparticle Risk
Alert over the march of the 'grey goo' in nanotechnology Frankenfoods

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Info

FDA is Sued for Failing to Regulate Bisphenol A

Kelly Zito
San Francisco Chronicle
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 19:24 UTC
A top environmental group has sued the U.S. Food and Drug Administration over its failure to regulate bisphenol A, a ubiquitous chemical linked to reproductive harm, cancer and obesity in studies.

The Natural Resources Defense Council filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit arguing that millions of Americans have been unnecessarily exposed to the substance - found in everything from soda bottles and tuna cans to children's sippy cups - in the two years since it first petitioned the agency to outlaw bisphenol A.

Under the FDA's own rules, it was required to approve, deny or otherwise respond to the October 2008 petition within 180 days, the lawsuit said. After maintaining for decades that bisphenol A was safe, the FDA reversed position in January, saying exposure to the chemical was of "some concern" for infants and children. The FDA also said it would further study bisphenol A over the next two years.
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Health

VA hospital may have infected 1,800 veterans with HIV


CNN
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 17:06 UTC
A Missouri VA hospital is under fire because it may have exposed more than 1,800 veterans to life-threatening diseases such as hepatitis and HIV.

John Cochran VA Medical Center in St. Louis has recently mailed letters to 1,812 veterans telling them they could contract hepatitis B, hepatitis C and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) after visiting the medical center for dental work, said Rep. Russ Carnahan.

Carnahan said Tuesday he is calling for a investigation into the issue and has sent a letter to President Obama about it.

"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat from Missouri. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed healthcare services from a Veterans Administration hospital."
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Attention

Nitrates in Water and Food May Increase Womens' Thyroid Cancer Risks

Ami Zota, Sc.D
Environmental Health Perspectives
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 15:52 UTC
Long-term exposure to nitrates through food and water may increase a woman's risk of thyroid disease, finds a study of older women in Iowa. Public water supplies contaminated with nitrates increased the risk of thyroid cancer in the women. Eating nitrates from certain vegetables was linked to increases in thyroid cancer and hypothyroidism, one type of thyroid disease.

This is the first study to show a link between nitrates and thyroid cancer in people, although nitrates have been shown to cause thyroid tumors in animal studies.

Thyroid cancer is the eighth most common cancer among women. In the United States, the incidence of thyroid cancer has increased steadily since 1980.
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Low Vitamin D Levels Linked to Poor Blood Sugar Control in Type 2 Diabetes

S. L. Baker
NaturalNews
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© NaturalNews
According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), almost 11 percent of Americans age 20 or older have diabetes. And the most common form of this disease, type 2 diabetes, has reached epidemic proportions. Now scientists have found a link between vitamin D deficiency and the inability of many patients with this kind of diabetes to keep their blood sugar under control. What's more, this raises the strong possibility that, along with being overweight and sedentary, a lack of vitamin D could be a major factor in triggering type 2 diabetes in the first place.

Esther Krug, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an endocrinologist at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland, just presented this research in San Diego at the Endocrine Society's 92nd Annual Meeting. "This finding supports an active role of vitamin D in the development of Type 2 diabetes," Dr. Krug said in a statement to the media.

Krug and her research team reviewed the medical charts of 124 people between the ages of 36 and 89 years old who were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and treated at an endocrine outpatient clinic between 2003 and 2008. As part of their health evaluations, all of these patients had their serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels measured at the clinic. So the researchers looked to see how many of the patients had normal levels of the so-called "sunshine" vitamin.
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Nutrition Labels Could Be Mandated on Package Fronts

Ethan A. Huff
NaturalNews
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Google Images
According to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, the FDA is working on a plan that would require food manufacturers to print nutrition information on the front of their packaging rather than on the back. The alleged goal of the proposed new mandate is to help busy shoppers quickly decipher nutrition information without having to look at the back of a product.

"Busy shoppers will be able to go into grocery stores and have some easy-to-understand information on the front of packages, giving them quick data on what is a healthier choice," she explained.

While it may seem like a good proposal that would help to improve nutrition transparency, many manufacturers are concerned that the requirement could end up needlessly costing them millions of dollars. Since packaging changes are typically very expensive, many smaller producers might be put out of business by the mandate.

James McCarthy, president and CEO of the Snack Food Association (SFA), expressed opposition to the mandate and instead proposed that the change be made voluntary. Because his organization represents 400 snack food manufacturers and suppliers worldwide, many of which are small- or medium-sized operations, he understands the incredible burden that would be placed on them by the requirement.
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95 Percent of "Preventive" Mastectomies Offer No Benefit, Study Finds

David Gutierrez
NaturalNews
Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00 UTC
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© Peter Dazeley/Getty Images
A woman feels for breast cancer
A new study shows that the increasingly popular practice of "preventive mastectomy" in non-cancerous breasts provides no benefit to the vast majority of women.

"It's important for women to understand that, except for one subset of breast cancer patients, they don't need to do this," said lead author Isabelle Bedrosian of University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. "Hopefully, it'll reassure patients wondering if they should."

Approximately 40,000 women die from breast cancer in the United States each year, and another 200,000 cases are diagnosed. Because cancer in one breast is known to increase the risk of cancer recurrence in the other breast, doctors are increasingly recommending that cancer survivors opt to have both breasts removed as a "preventive" measure. And women are opting for it in huge numbers, seeking the peace of mind that it is said to offer.

The number of preventive mastectomies in the United States increased two-and-a-half-fold between 1998 and 2003. Today, 11 percent of all women undergoing a mastectomy on a cancerous breast choose to have the non-cancerous breast removed as well.
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Cow

FDA Urges Fewer Antibiotics in Meat

Andrew Zajac
Los Angeles Times
Tue, 29 Jun 2010 03:48 UTC
The federal recommendation comes amid rising concern that the drugs in animals pose a health threat to humans.

Reporting from Washington - Meat producers should use certain antibiotics only to assure animal health and stop using the drugs to increase production and promote growth, the Food and Drug Administration said Monday.

The recommendation to cut back on the use of antimicrobial drugs comes amid rising concern that extensive use in animals contributes to antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria afflicting humans.

"The development of resistance to this important class of drugs, and the resulting loss of their effectiveness as antimicrobial therapies, poses a serious public health threat," the FDA said in a draft guidance statement [PDF].
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Red Flag

Kellogg's Cereal Recall Highlights a New Concern: Chemicals Leaching from Food Packaging

Dan Shapley
Daily Green
Mon, 28 Jun 2010 03:13 UTC
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© Uanmonino / Istock
Kellogg is recalling millions of boxes of children's cereal, but other packaging can leach potentially harmful chemicals too.

Kellogg is recalling as many as 28 million boxes of cereal because a chemical is leaching from the food packaging into the cereal. The Food and Drug Administration states the reason for the recall as "uncharacteristic off-flavor and smell coming from the liner in the package." Other sources call it a wax-like substance, and parents are being warned that it may cause diarrhea or vomiting, particularly in sensitive children (the recalled cereals - Apple Jacks, Corn Pops, Froot Loops and Honey Smacks - are sugary staples of the Kellogg line, marketed with cartoon characters primarily at children).

The incident highlights a little-appreciated concern: While packaging can help food last longer, it can also leach chemicals into foods. The public is becoming increasingly aware of this since Bisphenol A has been making news. That chemical, found in many hard plastics, has been shown to leach into liquids from water bottles, baby bottles, the lining of cans and other common food packaging, particularly in older plastics that have stored hot foods or beverages. Concern has grown over food packaging, since public awareness has increased about the potential health effects of BPA, which can disrupt the endocrine system and mimic estrogen, and which may influence health issues ranging from prostate cancer to mental development.

Comment: Concerned about chemicals leaching from food packaging and the possible health risks? Read the following articles:

Chemicals Leach From Packaging
Toxic Glue Used in Supermarket Food Packaging 'Poses Severe Risk to Health'

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