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

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed May 20, 2009 at 18:16:55 PM PDT

In one instance, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's deputy director sought information from the BPA industry's chief lobbyist to discredit a Japanese study that found it caused miscarriages in workers who were exposed to it. This was before government scientists even had a chance to review the study.

"I'd like to get information together that our chemists could look at to determine if there are problems with that data in advance of possibly reviewing the study," Mitchell Cheeseman, deputy director of the FDA's center for food safety and applied nutrition, said in an e-mail seeking advice from Steven Hentges, executive director of the trade association's BPA group.

Wow.  I am speechless here, honestly.  I think I'm kinda known for being pretty cynical on these issues, but even I didn't believe something like that was possible...

Bisphenol A is a known endocrine disruptor commonly used in the production of many household items, from baby bottles to plastic food containers to soup cans to dental fillings; and exposure via tap water and house dust is now also thought possible.  Many studies have linked long term, low-level BPA exposure to everything from increased risks for obesity by triggering fat-cell activity, to diabetes, heart disease and an increased risk of developing breast cancer later in life from fetal exposure.

More below the fold...

Sampler Platter 05.13.09

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Wed May 13, 2009 at 15:15:00 PM PDT

• The FDA has sent a warning letter to General Mills, telling the company to stop promoting Cheerios as a health food.  (For a funny take on the Right Wing blogosphere's outrage (grrrr!) at FDA's "attack" on America cereal, see here.)  Meanwhile, Health Canada unfortunately seems to want to make it easier for food manufacturers to be able to market junk as "health food" in their country...

• Elementary school students are snacking on (and learning about) healthy local produce in Madison, Wisconsin.

• Can't say this is really a surprise - from Grist, Monsanto is now firing off their propaganda on National Petrol, errrrr, National Public Radio.  Great article debunking Monsanto's claims, but it's not like the oil companies, ADM and other corporate interests haven't already been scrubbing themselves "clean" in their own greenshowers over the airwaves of NPR for years and years and years...

• Fantastic article from Ken Olsen at High Country News on the intersection of agriculture, business, politics, power and salmon - and what government ultimately needs to do to help restore wild salmon runs in the Pacific Northwest.

More below the fold...  

Sampler Platter 05.08.09

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Fri May 08, 2009 at 17:07:34 PM PDT

• Tomorrow, May 9 is the National Association of Letter Carriers' annual Stamp Out Hunger food drive, the largest annual single-day food drive in the US.  I don't have much myself these days, but I'm going to leave out my little bag with a couple cans of Eden Organic kidney beans by my mailbox for tomorrow morning.  You can find out how to help here; and as always, Feeding America can use your donations or help you find a local volunteer opportunity here.

• Over at Civil Eats, Kerry Trueman interviews James Howard Kunstler.

• Deborah Lehmann takes a look at the school food bills currently in the US House and Senate.

• The Southern Willamette Valley Bean and Grain Project, a local foods project here in Oregon started up in 2008 by Harry MacCormack, a long-time Corvallis organic farmer and co-founder of Oregon Tilth, is working towards convincing conventional large-scale grass-seed growers to transition towards growing beans and grains organically for local markets.

• Not quite sure what to make of this, but Oprah's KFC promotion didn't quite seem to work out well for anybody involved...

• Wow - the Texas State Legislature has joined New York and California in banning the use of trans fats by restaurants.  Also, Minnesota today officially banned the use of BPA in plastic baby bottles and cups.

• Cognitive dissonance reigns in Ken Salazar's Interior Department, at least regarding the now-officially-listed-as-threatened polar bear.  The American Petroleum Institute is cheered by today's ruling, however...

Study Released On Food Company Use Of BPA

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sat May 02, 2009 at 15:02:38 PM PDT

The study included pretty much every major publicly-traded packaged foods manufacturer from what I can tell; however, it did not include small manufacturers or companies like Eden Foods, which currently only uses BPA in cans containing its tomato products.

The report finds that all companies surveyed use BPA, and only one company currently uses a BPA-alternative in some of its canned items.  The highest scoring company received a "C" overall, with the number 2 company receiving a "C-" and all others receiving a "D+" or lower.  Thirteen of the twenty companies (including the six who refused to respond) received "F"s.

More below the fold...

Sunday Sampler Platter

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Apr 12, 2009 at 14:55:03 PM PDT

• A bill currently in the Montana State Legislature, referred to by some as the Water Theft Bill, would allow gas companies more control over water pumped out of coalbed methane wells.  The magnificent trick by which this would be accomplished is in the bill's defining the water source as the (apparently magical) company's pipes, rather than the underground aquifers from which the pipes draw the water.

• An article in the Portland Mercury looks at the state of our school lunch program and the Farm to School Bill, HB 2800, which is currently in the Oregon State Legislature.

• The deadly infection that has been decimating bat populations in New York and New England for the past couple of years has spread into caves in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Virginia.  Bats are important pollinators and play a vital role in pest control.

• In good wildlife news: the City of Vancouver, BC has embarked on a project aimed at restoring the urban bee population, and Pacific herring are once again spawning in a once-toxic British Columbia creek.

• Yes, Virginia, Utah's odd liquor laws are finally changing!  A nice piece on home brewing from Ed Quillen...

• After a conference in Germany last month, an international consortium of industry, academic and government scientists will soon come out strongly against the FDA's assertion that the dangerous industrial chemical bisphenol a is "safe".

• If you're near Flemington, NJ on Saturday April 18th - stop by one of my old favorite market / delis, and celebrate Earth Day and Basil Bandwagon Natural Market's 16th anniversary with "Your Local Earth Fair'' from 10 am to 4 pm.  There will also be a pledge challenge in support of the fantastic Hunterdon Land Trust Alliance.

Bisphenol A Back in the News

by: JayinPhiladelphia

Sun Feb 01, 2009 at 03:03:41 AM PST

Recapping the news from earlier this week, a new study published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester (NY) has found that BPA exposure is possible through means other than just food containers, and that the chemical remains in our bodies longer than previously thought -

While the belief had been BPA was quickly and completely eliminated from the body through urine, this study found people who had fasted for even a whole day still had significant levels of the chemical.

Stahlhut said this suggested BPA may hang around in the body longer than previously known or that it may get into the body through sources other than just food, perhaps including tap water or house dust. Stahlhut added that BPA may get into fat tissue, from where it might be released more slowly.

More below the fold...