Report: Unsafe food putting lives at risk

[OhioChick]

Source: CNN

Posted: 8:53 PM

WASHINGTON - Despite sweeping reform of food safety laws intended to make what we eat less dangerous, the number of Americans falling ill or dying from contaminated food has increased 44% in the past two years, according to a report released Wednesday.

Tainted cantaloupe, unsafe mangoes, meat and the recent peanut butter recall -- which so far has infected 25 people, mostly children, in 19 states -- has left consumers struggling to keep up with the dizzying list of ever-changing toxic edibles.

Approximately 48 million people get sick from eating tainted food each year, the report's authors, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group said, arguing more must be done to protect Americans from unsafe food.

Two years ago, President Barack Obama signed into law the Food Safety Modernization Act, a vast piece of legislation giving the Food and Drug Administration, among other things, more power to be proactive holding food suppliers responsible for foodborne illness outbreaks.



Read more: http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/health/report-unsafe-food-putting-lives-at-risk

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Snip~ "The report also takes issue with the delayed response and plans in Congress to cut FDA funding."

[neversaydie]

1. "acceptable levels"

On Anderson Cooper this week a woman who visited a family-owned farm discovered that "organic" produce can still have pesticides, but because those pesticides are at what the FDA considers acceptable levels, they can still be sold as organic.

I did not know that.

Then I read an article in Psychology Today (Nov. issue I think?) that talked about research being done that scientists think will show that even at the acceptable levels for some pesticides, there can be an adverse effect on humans.

I'm going to start asking about the organic produce I buy, and rinse the HELL out of everything.

[niyad]

3. welcome to DU

[neversaydie]

7. thank you!!

[savannah43]

2. From the same article, "For its part, the FDA told CNN, 'The rule-making process can take time,

and we are working diligently to get this right. We are confident the end result will be a solid framework to strengthen and modernize our nation's food safety system.' "
Cold comfort to those who have died from tainted food. My best friend cries when she has to go to a supermarket because she studies the food supply in this country. Frustration and anger will do that to you.

[neversaydie]

5. books on subject

I'm reading, or re-reading, a book called "Minding My Mitochondria" by Dr. Wahl where she talks about, among other things, how toxins invade and effect our bodies and minds. Hard to put this one in a nutshell, and I consider a must-read for anyone who cares about their health; physical and emotional. Toxins in medications, pesticides, processed foods. Also of interest... coolinginflammation.blogspot.com.

Dr. Wahl has multiple schlerosis and because she's changed her diet she has been able to, in about 2-3 years, get out of her wheelchair on onto a bicycle.

[niyad]

4. vegas has better odds, it seems, than we get going to the supermarket anymore.

and this is the last week for our farmers' market, where I COULD trust what I was buying, because I have known these people and their products for years.

[neversaydie]

6. farmers markets

I'm thinking that farmers' markets would probably be the safest place to buy produce, but I'm still going to ask questions and wash everything before I eat it

[progree]

8. It pisses me off that I have to be careful about how much tuna and rice, especially brown rice I eat

And apple juice and grape juice. Consumer Reports November 2012 did a big story on arsenic levels in white and brown rice -- brown rice has 50% to 100% more arsenic than white rice.

Kinda pissed me off - to control my cholesterol, for bulk "filler food", I've been switching from potatoes and pasta to rice, and from white rice to brown rice, and then I read this. Now when I cook a big pot of rice, I sit there and wonder how much my cancer risk is going up.

And in January 2012 Consumer Reports did a story on arsenic in apple and grape juice -- at levels much higher than what is allowed for drinking water. Sadly the arsenic comes mostly from pesticides -- most of these have been banned for some time, but it will be in the ecosystem for untold decades or eons.

Oh, although there are standards for arsenic in drinking water, there are no standards for arsenic levels in any food or beverages. Arsenic at the levels found in drinking water, rice, juice, and more, like some baby foods, is carcinogenic.

Then there is mercury in tuna and other large top-of-the-food-chain fish which is well known. I only eat one can per month. And to think the tuna pick the mercury up in the deep ocean -- yes, the mercury emitted by our power plants (especially coal-fired) and factories is enough to contaminate the deep oceans to the extent that species at the top of the food chain are a health risk.

[kestrel91316]

9. Corporate profits are always more important than Little People's lives.

Didn't you get the memo?

[AndyTiedye]

10. Go Ahead, Chew The Restraints. They May Be Healthier for you than the "Food"

Some days, it's not even worth chewing through the restraints.

[jtuck004]

11. If you can, garden a little. Even with just a couple of buckets, it's pretty

close to not supporting the greedy wealthy as one can get these days. Important, because the only thing one needs to do to win their freedom from the tyrant is to refuse to support them any longer.

And besides, it might keep you from buying the head of lettuce that gets you...

[Hekate]

12. Lest we forget: Dubya's regime set us back a century

It was literally sickening to watch it happen. He dismantled so much of that eeeeevil government that gets in the way of the free market. He appointed a whole host of people who were only too eager to undo generations of good regulations (think FEMA and Heckuvajob Brownie). He left moles behind in various departments by changing political appointment jobs to civil service jobs.

We are seeing the results now, and I am sure there are those who think this is all Obama's fault, but I assure you it is simply the outcome of the Bush-Cheney era.

[BumRushDaShow]

13. +infinity. Rove boobytraps. nt

[xtraxritical]

14. It just goes to show that we need less regulations to relieve these corporations of "uncertainty".