FDA: "Mess With BPA, and You're Messing With Us!"

I saw a c-span airing where (4.00 / 3)

Sen Kerry was drilling an FDA dude on BPA and the "studies" supplied by the industry. Sen Kerry gained some respect from me that night. He had the dude rendered speechless, and then called him out for being rendered speechless.

As jaded as I am, I was also floored by some of the info that was brought out. Floored and seriously depressed. Do we even stand a chance? And what the F*** are these people thinking. Hell, even dead babies from melamine doesn't seem to phase them . . .

{goes to grab a drink and lower blood pressure}

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by: nycstray @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 20:37:08 PM CDT

I didn't catch that one... (4.00 / 1)

Maybe I'll go look to see if it's in their archives or something.  Man, if only John Kerry would have put a little actual effort in back in 2004.  Sort of ironic, wasn't it?  My Man Howard Dean went out early that year with a scream, and Kerry turned off the lights with a squeak and a whimper a few months later.  And then Dubya finished the destruction that he started.

Anyways...

Hopefully, BPA will serve as the straw that broke the camel's back.  I mean, it's so obvious now that our "regulators" were and are totally in industry's pocket on this one, and it's also becoming pretty clear that BPA is really bad news...

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 20:51:16 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

I caught it on a fluke (4.00 / 2)

was up working late and caught it at 3AM or some ridiculous hour like that. Just flippin through the channels.

The thing that gets me, is I watch these hearings and they can be very riveting, Congress critters are pissed and nailing the FDA, Industry, etc to the wall. And then nothing changes. Or I should say things don't change enough. Watching hearings is where I learned they spray Carbon Monoxide (Dioxide?) on red meats and fish so they would look fresher than they were. One of the guys (Stupak I think it was) had 2 packages of meat, one treated, one not treated that were the same age. Oy. Testimony about the little girl who's kidney's were ruined by spinach was awful. And look where we are a couple years later. Nowhere.

Our regulators suck big time. I was on live blogs during the pet food recall with the FDA/USDA twice weekly "updates". My gawd, what an eye opening nightmare those were!! I threw away EVERYTHING in my kitchen and started over. And that included a chest freezer full of meats for my pets. I was taking NO chances after what I heard.

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by: nycstray @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 21:20:21 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

At least with the meats and produce (4.00 / 2)

we have COOL. Processed foods, some 'manufactured in' labeling, but no labeling on where the components/ingredients came from. With fresh/frozen meats, if you're curious as to where that stuff comes from, your best source of info is The Big ol Imports commodities search engine from the USDA's Foreign Agriculture Service. It'll tell you how many metric tones or thousands of dollars in value of pretty much any ag product was imported into the USA in any given year from the mid '90s to the present, and where that came from.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 21:47:58 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

COOL still isn't working (4.00 / 2)

didn't they just recently get another extension? I don't shop for food much, but I'm lucky that I have places that do label the fresh goods and carry local (and aren't Whole Foods!) I doubt I will ever buy meat etc from anything other than a known source. When I was offered my next place to park myself, the first thing I did was look to see what was available in the way of very local meats and produce, CSAs etc. Then I said yes ;)

We've got years of cleanup to do. If we ever get started.  

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by: nycstray @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 22:32:25 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

As far as I know (4.00 / 1)

COOL is fully implemented and the 6 month shakedown period is over. USDA is supposed to start auditing. Haven't heard of any of those yet.

I think COOL is working. I see labels everywhere, I'm crossing my fingers that the labels on the meats is accurate. I see that some of the produce is bearing labels that not only denote the country of origin, but also are advertise. I've seen some regions of the USA using these for promotions too.

The big issue with COOL has always been beef and pork, and I won't go into the industry side of pro's and con's, except to say that unless you're a producer selling direct to the public, it's very complicated to implement COOL for beef. It's a lot easier for pork as they're almost as integrated as poultry, and it's as easy for poultry as it would be for me selling a bird raised from eggs hatched on my own property out of my own parent stock. I have the ability to be completely vertically integrated as far as that goes, for chickens, horses, and goats.

Beef though is the problem. The cattle industry is the last bastion of the independant producer in the commodities animal protein industries. Even though we all think of Cargill, JBS, and the feed lots when we think of industrial beef, the people who provide those cattle are by and large small to very small cow calf operations. And those ranchers are some of the most independant people on the face of the earth. As far as commercial production goes, they're the ones who've been most vocal in favor of COOL and against NAIS. Although if the processors had their druthers, they'd probably have NAIS in a heart beat. In theory it would make COOL implementation a lot easier for them as they really would have farm to slaughter house tracability on each and every animal they brought onto the kill floor. All automated, all safe and secure in those databases, everything captured electronically. What could possibly go wrong.....Looks nice on paper.

The thing is that so many cattle and beef parts are imported into the USA. Did you know that only two countries export live cattle to the USA (Mexico and Canada) but no less than 10 countries export fresh/frozen beef. Keeping track of where those trimmings came from, which batch they went into, etc. is a lot of paperwork and results in multiple country origin labels. Same with live cattle being trucked across the US border headed direct to slaughter.

I was on a list where someone couldn't understand why a muscle cut of meat was labeled product of Canada/USA, well, it was because the animal was born in Canada and slaughtered in the USA. Now if it had been born in the USA and slaughtered in Canada, then brought back into the USA as a primal and cut up in the store, packaged and set in the meat case, it might be labeled product of US/Canada.

The packers are jumping through these hoops and putting labels like these on the meat because we, using the power of the congress, made them do it. Personally I like the COOL labeling, and I do see USA only labels on beef, I don't think I've seen it on pork yet, but I keep looking. I like the labeling, I think it's been helpful. It certainly aids in my decission as to wheather I'm going to eat something that Harold brings home from the store. If it don't got the label saying the right thing I ain't eatin' it. I buy from our local slaughterhouse anyway. She processes her sister's cattle, born and raised locally. Even though they are grain finished, I'm pretty sure the angus cattle I see grazing in the pastures beside the slaughter house are the ones that I'm buying a peice at a time and they taste great, and no more expensive than at the grocery just down the road, infact their less if I buy by the whole or half.

Regarding locavores as elitists - explain to me how supporting local business is elitist....

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by: Joanne Rigutto @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 00:38:29 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

ummm metal fillings? (4.00 / 2)

or the other tooth-colored fillings? Cuz my mouth is full of those.

"I can understand someone from Iowa promoting corn and soy, but we are not feeding the world, we are feeding animals and soft drink companies." - Jim Goodman

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by: Jill Richardson @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 23:33:25 PM CDT

Dental "sealants" and white and plastic fillings... (4.00 / 1)

From ADA -

BPA can become part of dental composites or sealants in three ways: as a direct ingredient, as a by-product of other ingredients in dental composites or sealants that may have degraded, and as a trace material left-over from the manufacture of other ingredients used in dental composites or sealants.

As a direct ingredient:  ADA research, confirmed by direct communications from dental manufacturers, indicates that BPA is rarely used as a formula ingredient in dental products.

As a product of the degradation of the material in the oral cavity:  Composite resins are formulated from a mixture of monomers that are commonly based on bisphenol A glycidyl methacrylate (bis-GMA).  Some composite resins may contain other monomers, in addition to bis-GMA, that are added to modify the properties of the resin.  An example is bisphenol A dimethacrylate (bis-DMA).  Bis-DMA-containing materials can release very small quantities of BPA because bis-DMA is subject to degradation by salivary enzymes.

As a trace material:  BPA may be used in the production of other ingredients found in some dental composites and sealants.  Bis-DMA and bis-GMA are both produced using BPA as a starting ingredient, so residual trace amounts of BPA may be present in the final product.

ADA says there's nothing to worry about, btw - based upon FDA's (false) assurances that it's safe.  Virtuous cycle, eh?

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Wed May 20, 2009 at 23:44:20 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

Is there dates on this sh!t?! (4.00 / 2)

Damn . . .  my only hope here is that my dental work is older than this sh!ts approval for dental work.

I don't have a lot of dental work in my mouth, and what was done was done years ago, but it's kinda frightening that you could get a front tooth repaired because you hit your front teeth on the bike as a kid and you are absorbing this 24/7 after a dental visit for years to come. . .  Kids, teeth and bicycle handles are not an uncommon experience. And if you do it after you've lost your baby teeth (most probable), dentist is going to try and make your front teeth look good . . .  

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by: nycstray @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 00:16:50 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

BPA's been around... (4.00 / 1)

in its synthetic form for longer than anybody currently on this earth (unless they're at least 118 years old, heh...) -

Bisphenol A is used primarily to make plastics, and products containing bisphenol A-based plastics have been in commerce for more than 50 years.

I really don't know how long it's been in such wide use as it currently is, though.  Ironically enough, when it comes to dental fillings, the new-ish BPA-containing plastic ones were meant as a "safe" replacement for older mercury-containing metal fillings...

"Intelligent discontent is the mainspring of civilization." - Eugene V. Debs

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by: JayinPortland @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 00:33:44 AM CDT

[ Parent ]

Yeah, safer than mercury composite fillings (4.00 / 1)

is what they said. And I paid extra for a bunch of them. Grr...

I wish I knew half what the flock of them know
Of where all the berries and other things grow,
Cranberries in bogs and raspberries on top
Of the boulder-strewn mountain, and when they will crop.
--"Blueberries" by Robert Frost

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by: wide eyed lib @ Thu May 21, 2009 at 09:02:56 AM CDT

[ Parent ]