Consumer Alert: FDA and Humour

Yaknow, while the FDA drops the ball on contaminated heparin, and the USDA fails to hire enough inspectors to keep our food supply clean, apparently the FDA has the time, staff, and funding to get their panties in a big waddy bunch over a supercaffeinated product marketed as Blow.

You got that right. The same FDA that was busy approving the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals, despite widespread consumer resistance. The same FDA that approves the food items that cause 85 per cent of the food-poisoning cases reported. The same FDA that is closing down half of its food safety labs, despite multiple incidents of food contamination at home and abroad.

Instead of making sure we don't get poisoned food, drink, or medication, FDA commissioner Andrew von Eschenbach and his politically appointed crew of thugs and idiots are busy trying to crack down on a powdered caffeine "energy drink" that is marketed to adults as "Blow," complete with packaging that makes it look like cocaine. Whoop-de-doo, you fucking eejits. Couldja go back to checking the fucking food, drink, and legal drugs we ingest?

Andrew von Eschenbach looks like another one of Gee Dumbya's Good-Ole-Boy Texas buddies who got their jobs because they either knew the worthless motherfucker or were born, raised, or domiciled in Texas. For the record, we don't doubt that Dr. von Eschenbach is a highly qualified urologist. But skill in diagnosing penile problems is not necessarily helpful when running the FDA. A genuine concern for the public health is.

Raw Story has the details of the story on Blow, including a video clip. Dr. von Eschenbach, quit playing the giant nanny, leave our adult pleasures alone, and do your goddamned job.

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Taxpayer Alert: This is Ridiculous!

This story is just one of those that make you go WTF??? Are these people fucking kidding?

Here's the dealio, peoples. Remember back when a slaughterhouse in Chino got busted for processing sick "downer" cows &mdash cows so sick they couldn't even stand up &mdash into ground beef that was then sent to schools and other institutions as well as commercial outlets? Approximately 143 million pounds of ground beef was recalled for possible contamination. Some fifty million pounds of that beef had been distributed to school lunch programs. Kudos to Democratic Rep Rosa DeLauro for putting pressure on the USDA to reveal which districts were affected.

The US Department of Agriculture has billed the Westland/Hallmark Company, that was the source of the contaminated meat, $67 million for expenses associated with the recall. Replacement of the contaminated meat could cost an additional $50 million.

Here's the most important part of the article:

If the plant can't pay — which is likely — taxpayers will pick up the bill, officials said.

WHAT??? Excuse the fuck out of me? Are you people out of your fucking minds?

The government refuses to adequately fund and staff the agencies responsible for our food supply. The government then (big whoopdeedoo fucking surprise!) has to pay millions of dollars to clean up the contaminated food that results from this stupid fucking policy. Now the government wants to charge us, the contaminated victims of its incredible stupidity, to cover the cost of the mess.

Here's a suggestion, USDA: Sue Dick and George and their families &mdash they're worth multiple millions &mdash for their negligence in allowing the food supply to be contaminated in the first place. Use THAT money to pay the costs of the recall.

We need our goddamn tax dollars to pay for all the other problems this Misadministration, and its gang of thugs, have inflicted upon us.

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Consumer Alert: Yoghurt

Not the blueberry yoghurt!

Stonyfield Farm is recalling its Organic Fat Free Blueberry Yogurt in the 6 oz. cup size.

Look for these dates on the cup bottoms: Apr 13 08, Apr 14 08, April 15 08, April 25 08 and April 26 08.

If you bought fat-free blueberry yogurt with the identifying dates, return opened or unopened containers to the store for a full refund.

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Consumer Alert: Food Contamination

Oh, no! Not mozzarella!

Raw Story is reporting that Japan and South Korea have suspended mozzarella imports temporarily after reports surfaced claiming that some of the cheese was made with contaminated milk. the European Union has asked Italy for safety assurances by Wednesday at the latest.

Italy responded with the statement that follows:

"Checks have been made on 132 producers and only in nine cases traces of dioxin have been found," Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema told reporters, saying international alarm over the mozzarella was "totally exaggerated and unjustified."

Italian health officials claim the dioxin contamination apparently resulted from a garbage crisis earlier this year in Naples and the surrounding Campania region.

According to the article:

With landfills and dumping sites in the area full, locals burned piles of garbage in the streets and in open fields. Health officials say industrial waste was also set ablaze, spreading fumes that in some cases contained dioxin.

"The presence of dioxin is not due to the garbage itself but to the fact that substances containing dioxin have been burned and the fallout from the smoke brought some dioxin to the ground," Health Ministry undersecretary Gianpaolo Patta said.

Disposing of the garbage that the human population generates each year is becoming an insoluble problem. With a continent-sized mess of plastic in the ocean, and airborne contaminants from burning of garbage, we're poisoning our water, our earth, our air, and our food chain. For what it's worth, the Italian governmental sources are claiming that only one per cent of the mozzarella di bufala has been found to be contaminated. Hopefully it will all be consumed by those responsible for lowering clean air standards.

Dioxins result from some forms of combustion and can also come from industry, including paper and pulp production, and businesses that use chlorine.

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Consumer Alert: Contaminated Water

Colorado Governor Bill Ritter has declared a state of emergency in the town of Alamosa, which gets its water from a deep aquifer. Aquifer water is normally so pure that it needs no chlorine disinfection. Unfortunately, for reasons as yet unknown, the aquifer water that supplies the town is giving its residents salmonella.

There are 138 people with confirmed or suspected cases of salmonella, said Dr. Ned Calonge, chief medical officer for the Colorado Department of Public Health. Seven people remain hospitalized. The ill range in age from infants to those over 80 years old, Calonge said.

East Alamosa gets its water from a different system, so its (apparently) safe.

In the meantime, if you're in that city, several businesses are providing bottled water for free, so look around. Do not drink, brush your teeth, or cook with the city water. If the cost of bottled water will put a dent in your budget and you can't find someone to supply it free, you might be eligible for reimbursement. Contact your city officials.

The Denver Channel has a detailed list of do's and dont's here, including telephone numbers you can call for more help.

In case anyone's forgotten, the NRDC has detailed information on how bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water &mdash with the exception, of course, of not generally having salmonella.

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Consumer Alert: Contaminated Meat

If you have purchased Jenny Craig diet food with beef, it might contain meat from the Chino slaughterhouse that was the subject of a major recall recently.

Check your freezer for any Jenny Craig meals containing beef, such as the meatloaf with barbeque sauce or Salisbury steak.

10News of San Diego has heard from Jenny Craig customers who claim the company did not notify them. See their site for more information.

In the meantime, check your freezer, and alert any friends who might be using Jenny Craig.

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Consumer Alert: Contaminated Chicken

Image from ICHC

If you've switched to poultry because of the nasty video evidence of what the food processing companies are doing that contribute to the recall of over 143 million pounds of ground beef, you ought to know that there's a recall currently under way of chicken contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes.

Warning: Do not click the video link unless you plan to swear off eating beef, or possibly meat, for life. Especially, do not click if you are (a) sensitive; (b) an animal lover; (c) eating, or about to eat.

Some 7.5 tonnes of chicken product — specifically, Discover Cuisine Red Curry Chicken & Jasmine Rice, with a best by date of Dec. 18, including 1.7 tonnes from Inovata Foods of Edmonton — have been recalled.

The product is distributed in 12-oz packages, each bearing the Canadian establishment number Est. 302 inside the Canadian Food Inspection Agency mark of inspection.

The frozen chicken entrees were produced on Oct. 18, 2007, and were exported to the United States. Some 10,368 pounds have been recalled from Costco Wholesale of Issaquah, Wash., and 2,184 pounds from Meijer Distribution Center of Grand Rapids, Mich. Meijer apparently distributed these products in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio. If you shopped at these locations in any of the states mentioned, inspect your purchases carefully for the distinguishing marks described.

Meijer representatives said only 21 packages of the potentially contaminated product have been sold, including one each at stores in Holland and Big Rapids, Michigan. If you purchased this product at Meijer, contact them at 800-543-3704.

Do not consume this product. Call Bob McColl of Inovata Foods at 780-454-8665 for instructions on disposal and refunds.

Additionally, The Guardian is reporting that Gourmet Boutique of Jamaica, N.Y., has recalled 6,970 pounds of meat and poultry products bearing the production code GBD 08058 on the package. These products are mostly chicken but also include meatloaf and turkey and were sent to stores in Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Wisconsin, as well as distribution centers in New York. For more information, call 718-977-1200.

Image from MicrobeLibrary

Listeria monocytogenes can be life-threatening to young children, elderly people, and those with weakened immune systems. So far, the media has been publicizing the food processors' and distributors' line in implying that Listeriosis, which results from infection by Listeria monocytogenes, has few consequences in healthy adults.

They neglect to mention, for example, that listeriosis is dangerous to pregnant women, whose immune systems are suppressed as an effect of pregnancy. And anything that affects the health of a pregnant woman affects the health of the fetus. (Perhaps this will convince those "right-to-a-miserable-life" troglodytes in the hardly-ever-right wing that food safety is important.)

However, a little research reveals how patently untrue that is. From ScienceDirect:

The repeated oral administration of a sublethal dose (5×109colony-forming units) of Listeria monocytogenes for 7 or 10 consecutive days led to the development of severe central nervous system (CNS) lesions in 25% of experimental mice. Histopathological examination of the brain revealed rhombencephalitis and ventriculitis as two distinct inflammatory patterns, resembling those seen in human listeriosis.

Michael Barza, M.D., of Tufts University School of Medicine explores in The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) some interesting observations on Listeriosis and milk:

The excretion of L. monocytogenes in cow's milk is well recognized. Cows with listeric mastitis may produce normal-appearing milk containing large numbers of bacteria. Some of the organisms may survive pasteurization and may then grow better than competing species at refrigerator temperatures — a phenomenon called "cold enrichment." Milk may be a particularly effective vehicle because it protects the bacteria from gastric acid.

If you consume milk regularly, you might want to consult this post. Dr. Barza goes on to tell us about the effects of Listeriosis:

as many as 20 per cent of patients with listeriosis may have a cerebritis. The lesions range from macroscopic abscesses to a diffuse encephalitis. A fascinating variant, the "rhombencephalitis syndrome," which involves the pons and medulla, is the human counterpart of circling disease in sheep.

About 25 per cent of patients with listeriosis have a "primary bacteremic form" without evident foci of origin or metastasis. This form, too, occurs mainly in immunosuppressed patients but may also strike pregnant women. Other patients have localized infections such as endocarditis, endophthalmitis, hepatitis, and oculoglandular or cutaneous infection.

Tasty!

In other barfacious news, Heinz Foods is recalling some 40,000 cases of Boston Market brand lasagna with meat sauce, after having discovered that the meat therein is derived from the recent recall of 143 million pounds of beef from a California meatpacker of dubious ethics and inarguable inhumanity. Call Boston Market Frozen Food Consumer Helpline at 1 (800) 488-0050 if you have a question.

Congress has subpoenaed executives of the meat-packing company, Reuters tells us:

Steve Mendell, president of Hallmark/Westland, was invited by the subcommittee to testify at a hearing on February 26 on the role companies play in recalls and food safety, but he did not appear. The subpoena orders Mendell to testify on March 12.

What, is this another personal friend of George W. Bush? He thinks he can do like Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten and just not show up? Mr. Mendell, you have your nerve. If you wanted to evade Congressional oversight, you should have arranged to kill 4,000 U.S. troops and 1 million Iraqis!

Rep. Bart Stupak, Democrat of Michigan, chairs the Energy and Commerce subcommittee on oversight and investigations. Members are:

• Diana DeGette, D-CO
  
• Ed Whitfield, R-KY
• Charlie Melancon, D-LA, Vice Chair
• Greg Walden, R-OR
• Henry A. Waxman, D-CA
• Tim Murphy, R-PA
• Gene Green, D-TX
• Michael C. Burgess, R-TX
• Mike Doyle, D-PA
• Marsha Blackburn, R-TN
• Jan Schakowsky, D-IL
• Joe Barton, R-TX (Ex Officio)
• Jay Inslee, D-WA
• John D. Dingell (Ex Officio)

You might want to consider contacting your Rep if s/he is on that list. Doing the people's business requires input from the people. If you want safe, clean food for your family, you can go vegan or vegetarian or produce (and butcher) your own, in your copious free time. If you want safe, clean food for the entire nation, including your family, you need to supervise the people who are monitoring your food supply.

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Consumer Alert: Organic Food

Cookie Jill over at Skippy's alerts us to the deceptive labeling of meat, and other food, and tells us what we can do about it.

So? Whattaya waiting for? Get it done tomorrow! (That's the last day you get to comment on whether they're gonna feed you cloned meat and meat from animals too sick to stand and crap that's been shot full of antibiotics, irradiated, sprayed with pesticides, or otherwise poisoned.)

Thanks, Cookie Jill!

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Consumer Alert: Contaminated Food

If you bought crispy battered fish fillets in the 11.4 oz pack from Gorton's, be aware that there is a possibility the fish, or the batter used, is contaminated. Gorton's has issued a recall. Specifics: Gorton's 6 Crispy Battered Fish Fillets, 11.4 ounces; UPC Code No. 44400157770; date code 7289G1; use-by date April 2009.

So far, the fish has been distributed in:

• Alabama
• Delaware
• California
• Florida
• Georgia
• Oklahoma
• South Carolina
• Tennessee
• Texas.

If you bought the fish, contact Gorton's at 1-800-896-9479 or at http://www.gortons.com/. And, that Gorton's fisherman? He's an actor, dude. Real fisherman don't look half as good after spending most of their lives out in all kinds weather baking their skin to the approximate texture of scrap leather.

This is yet another reason why one should never ever buy prepackaged or processed foods.

Sure, it takes a little work to make your own, but which would you rather be, tired or poisoned?

Here's a recipe for fish that you can make and eat all week. Why? Because we can't write about politics or even read about it any more. We need a break. So do you.

So get yourself some fish and experiment.

Marinated broiled fish

4 fillets catfish
1 thumb ginger
1 lemon
1-2 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder or to taste

Wash the lemon, zest it (peel off the yellow portion of the skin) and juice it. Peel the ginger and slice very thinly lengthwise. Pour half the powdered turmeric and red chilli in a ceramic or glass (nonreactive) bowl, add fish, sprinkle with remaining spice powder.

Add soy sauce and lemon juice, ginger slices, and lemon zest over. Gently turn the fillets over. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight. Broil approximately 5 min per side till done. Serve garnished with green onions and/or cilantro.

Cook's notes:

1. This recipe is perfect for catfish because it removes the muddy smell like magic, leaving tender, flaky fish. Substitute any firm white fish. Very low fat. Adjust soy sauce to taste.

2. Do not use Mexican chile powder. Use Indian red chili powder available in most Asian or Indian stores or through spice purveyors (like Dean & Deluca or Penzey's) online.

3. If you don't own a zester, peel the lemon with a vegetable peeler and slice into shreds. Do not use white part of skin.

4. The marinated fish keeps two to three days. The broiled fish keeps about five. You can marinate the fish and cook individual portions for up to three days. The longer the fish sits in the marinade the more "cooked" it gets by the acid lemon juice.

5. Optional: you can discard the ginger before or after broiling the fish, or eat it. If you prefer, juice only half the lemon, and cut the remaining half into slices to be squeezed over the fish when served.

This recipe is hella betta for you than any crispy battered prepackaged gunk. It takes approximately 30 minutes to prep and 10-15 minutes to cook and serve. If you put a cup or two of brown rice to cook right before you start on the fish, the rice will be cooked a few minutes before the fish is done. Add some saucy asparagus in black beans, and you're set. Fast, tasty, healthy, and no chance of "pills" appearing in your dinner.

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Consumer Alert: Pthalates and Babies

Random baby product

Note: This blog does not endorse any product, including the one pictured here, as safe or containing no phthalates.

Reuters is reporting that Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana of the University of Washington in Seattle has, together with colleagues, published the results of a study in the journal Pediatrics showing phthalate levels in infants under the age of 28 months.

According to the study, all infants' urine samples contained at least one phthalate at measurable levels. Additionally, 81 percent of the samples had measurable amounts of seven or more phthalates.

This association was strongest in infants under 8 months old, "who may be more vulnerable to developmental and reproductive toxicity of phthalates," the investigators note in their report.

Phthalates have been linked to developmental and reproductive toxicity in animal studies. They are used to stabilise fragrances and make plastics flexible, and are used in baby powder, baby lotion, nail polish and other cosmetics, medical equipment, soft vinyl teethers, baby bottles, floor coverings, etc. There are few studies on the effects of phthalates in humans, although a recent study showed that pregnant women exposed to phthalates suffered a higher incidence of stillbirths and their children showed physical markers that might indicate future reproductive problems.

The current administration has gutted the organizations responsible for ensuring the safety and health of American consumers, and manufacturers are not required to indicate phthalate levels in their products. As a result, it is difficult for parents to make informed decisions. Additionally, phthalates have been implicated in obesity and diabetes.

If you have children under the age of five, you need to inform yourself of the potential problems that phthalate exposure might cause them. If you use cosmetic products of any kind (lotions, shampoos, powders) that do not come from trusted sources or are not certified to contain no phthalates, you might find this link useful.

You might also want to stop using nail polish at all if you are pregnant, or planning to become pregnant, or if you have very young infants at home. This site has some information and might be able to help you find products without phthalates. This does not constitute an endorsement of the site or of any products that they recommend. There are other toxins in the world than just phthalates.

About.com tells you why phthalates are dangerous and includes some useful information.

Auntie Beeb reports that the European Union has banned phthalates in varying degrees, thereby offering some protection to European consumers.

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Health: Keeping The Food Supply Clean

Lauren Neergard, a science writer for AP, reports that a single bout of food-borne illness, such as caused by E. coli, Yersinia enterocolitica, Salmonella enteritidis, the Shigella group of bacteria, or Campylobacter jejuni, can cause a multitude of ailments decades later.

In interviews with The Associated Press, [scientists] attribute high blood pressure [and] kidney damage [and possible] failure striking 10 to 20 years later in people who survived severe E. coli infection as children, arthritis after a bout of salmonella or shigella, and a mysterious paralysis that can attack people who just had mild symptoms of campylobacter.

"Folks often assume once you're over the acute illness, that's it, you're back to normal and that's the end of it," said Dr. Robert Tauxe of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The long-term consequences are "an important but relatively poorly documented, poorly studied area of foodborne illness."

Some 76 million food poisonings occur each year in the United States. However, because no one tracks the occurrence of ailments that might result from food-borne illnesses, it is not possible to speculate how many people suffer these illnesses or symptoms in later years.

This should give us all pause for thought. More than 30 million pounds of ground beef were recalled last year for contamination.

Donna Rosenbaum, of the consumer advocacy group STOP (Safe Tables Our Priority) says that her group hears regularly from people with health complaints that they suspect or have been told are related to food poisoning years earlier. She cites a woman who survived severe E. coli at 8 and had her colon removed in her 20s. Some develop diabetes after food poisoning inflames the pancreas.

In response to this widespread yet poorly tracked problem, STOP is creating a national registry of food-poisoning survivors with long-term health problems. Hopefully, their medical histories will provide scientists with useful information and spur much-needed research.

According to the CDC (Centers for Disease Control), foodborne illnesses cause 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths a year. However, the CDC does not track health issues of survivors of food-borne illnesses.

The University of Utah, which has tracked children with E. coli for years, has found that some 10 percent of E. coli sufferers develop a life-threatening complication called hemolytic uremic syndrome, or HUS, where their kidneys and other organs fail.

Dr. Andrew Pavia, the university's pediatric infectious diseases chief, states that one or two decades after a bout of E. coli, between 30 and 50 percent of HUS survivors will have kidney-related problem, including high blood pressure.

Although he stressed that not everyone who has had a bout of food-borne illness will have complications, and one-third to one-half of roughly ten per cent is really not that many, we'll bet that those words will not console the unlucky.

Essentially, he's saying if E. coli didn't damage your kidneys the first time around, you're not going to have kidney-related problems later. Great. We didn't even know that E. coli could damage the kidneys.

What about the other food-borne illnesses? After all, although the ground beef recalls were enormous and apparently all caused by discovery of E. coli bacteria, there are people who avoid eating red meat, or ground beef. What are their odds?

If you cook or eat poultry, you could be exposed to campylobacter. The CDC tells us that Campylobacter jejuni is

"the most commonly reported bacterial cause of foodborne infection in the United States."

One-tenth of one per cent of others JUST LIKE YOU will get Guillain-Barré syndrome about a month afterwards. In Guillain-Barré, your immune system attacks your nervous system, and the resulting paralysis will put you on a ventilator for assistance with the simple human task of breathing. Oh, yeah, and that could happen even if it was a relatively mild food-poisoning. You could also end up getting reactive arthritis. Reactive arthritis, unlike your regular flavour, includes conjunctivitis and possibly simultaneous inflammation in other organs such as the mouth, skin, kidneys, heart, and lungs, as well as your joints. It can lead to chronic arthritis.

In a cheery aside, the CDC goes on to inform us that

" ... an increasing proportion of human infections caused by C. jejuni are resistant to antimicrobial therapy. Mishandling of raw poultry and consumption of undercooked poultry are the major risk factors for human campylobacteriosis."

Reactive arthritis may also affect you six months or more after you experience a bout of salmonella, shigellosis, or yersiniosis. Fortunately for you (and the inhabitants of Casa de Los Gatos), yersiniosis is far more common abroad than in the U.S. No figures were given on how many of us can expect a more intimate relationship with these various bacteria; however, the same advice was given for all - wash your hands thoroughly. So this is Montezuma's revenge?

Severe E. coli can cause blood clots all over the body, which could damage other organs, says Dr. Pavia. HUS apparently can also cause pancreatitis, which might increase your risk of diabetes.

Well, that was exciting morning reading. Now we know why we have to work really hard to tighten controls on the nation's food supply. It's that, or a ghastly disease or diseases requiring hideously expensive medical care. So what if no one gets out alive? We want, at least, to enjoy the goddamned ride.

Incidentally, this entire article seemed like one long admonition for home-cooking and against restaurants. Oh, yeah, and against "rare" poultry. Cook the damn thing till all the fat leaks out of it and the skin caramelizes, dammit. Sheesh.

Caveat: Yersiniosis is spread by undercooked or contaminated pork, especially pork chitlins. Thorough handwashing, as always, and thorough cooking. Sheesh again.

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Health: Food Safety

Regular reader Sister GTG alerts us to the existence of The Center For Food Safety, a network that actually lets you tell the schmucks in charge to quit messing around with the nation's food supply.

No doubt, you've heard by now that a Minnesota meatpacker recently issued a recall for 188,000 lb of ground beef it distributed, after five people in Wisconsin and one in California fell ill when they consumed the beef, according to the Florida Herald Tribune.

• Good News: The meat was not sold in retail establishments.
• Bad News: The USDA issued the warning after people had already consumed the meat, which was distributed to restaurants and food service providers.
• What this teaches us: Don't eat ground beef in restaurants. Buy it from a reliable source, if you must. Better yet, grind it yourself, if you can. Or order the steak or fish, or better yet, the tofu or vegetables. Buy organic, if you can afford it.
• The contaminant: E. coli.

What, we don't have enough stuff in our food supply to worry about?

Meanwhile, the government is working on making our heads spin by:

• having the FDA approve the sale of meat and milk from cloned animals
• without labeling requirements
• despite Congress passing legislation requiring further studies and considering legislation reflecting the will of the American people that such foodstuffs be clearly labeled
• while simultaneously the USDA is recommending that food from cloned animals be kept off the market.

Sounds like another case of "the right hand knoweth not whose butt the left hand is patting."

Meanwhile, AFP assures us that American consumers are apparently indifferent to the possible problems of GM food, despite the 150,000 comments on cloned food, most of which are against it.

Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Maryland) points out a very important issue:

“Just because something was created in a lab, doesn’t mean we should have to eat it. If we discover a problem with cloned food after it is in our food supply and it’s not labeled, the FDA won’t be able to recall it like they did Vioxx [...].

No shit, peoples.

Mind you, even as these jerks try to bullshit us about how they're keeping cloned animals out of the food supply, their fellow jerks have this to say:

Executives from the nation's major cattle cloning companies conceded yesterday that they have not been able to keep track of how many offspring of clones have entered the food supply, despite a years-old request by the FDA to keep them off the market pending completion of the agency's safety report.

At least one Kansas cattle producer also disclosed yesterday that he has openly sold semen from prize-winning clones to many U.S. meat producers in the past few years, and that he is certain he is not alone.

"This is a fairy tale that this technology is not being used and is not already in the food chain," said Donald Coover, a Galesburg cattleman and veterinarian who has a specialty cattle semen business. "Anyone who tells you otherwise either doesn't know what they're talking about, or they're not being honest."

Nice to know your government is lying to you. Time to quit eating animal products altogether, or buy only organically produced and certified. Sheesh.

The Center for Food Safety tells us:

A 2004 New England Journal of Medicine report stated that "[G]iven the available evidence, it may be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to generate healthy cloned animals." In 2003, FDA's draft assessment on cloned food safety relied on just a single study on cloned milk, and no studies on meat from cloned animals. A 2004 National Academy of Sciences report said that the safety of cloned food could not be asserted because "the paucity of evidence in the literature on this topic makes it impossible to provide scientific evidence to support this position."

A grateful twitch of the PoliticalCat ears to Sister GTG for getting us all fired up on this issue. Go sign the petition today, folks, and pass it on.

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Politics: The Lawless Preznitwit

Maru at WTF ably points out how the Deciderer-in-Chief is blatantly breaking laws passed by Congress to ban the sale of milk and meat from cloned animals, to permit Mexican trucks on American roadways (last I heard, it's American taxpayers who pay the cost of maintaining those roadways; are we charging Mexican trucks for some portion of the upkeep?), and to reinstate the mining safety hack who has presided over the mine disasters of the past year.

How much longer do we have to put up with incompetent assholes raiding the Treasury, robbing the taxpayer blind, stealing our investments and homes and jobs and lives?

Meanwhile the Plunderer 'n Thief tells us the economy is solid and strong. Is he insane? The Dow is down by ~257 points, Nasdaq is down by ~100 points, and the S&P is down by ~36 points. Banks and other financial institutions have announced that they will cease paying dividends as a result of the rising loan defaults, which are expected to peak in 2009, with losses totalling up to $150 BILLION.

Job growth is anemic at 18,000 for the month, and unemployment has hit a high of 5%. For a look at the number of jobs we need to create per month, go here.

Oil is at $100 a barrel. And the idiot in charge thinks the economy is strong. Worse yet, he wants to CUT TAXES.

Fucking impeach the motherfucker already before he can destroy what's left of this country, OK? Please. I'm begging heah.

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Consumer Alert: Children's Vaccine Recall

Merck is recalling 1 million doses of childhood vaccines usually administered to children under 5 years old. The vaccines concerned are:

• PedvaxHIB
  
  protects against infection with haemophilus influenzae type B (Hib), which causes meningitis, pneumonia, and bloodstream infections.
  
  
• COMVAX
  
  protects against haemophilius B and hepatitis B, a virus that can cause liver disease.

The company stated the reason for pulling the vaccine is contamination. Neither vaccine is designed for use against the flu virus, therefore, upon your pediatrician's recommendation, it should be safe to continue having your children vaccinated against the flu. The article in Time magazine concerning this withdrawal included the following statement:

The manufacturing problem does not affect the strength or effectiveness of the vaccine. "It's important to understand that the recall has nothing to do with the potency of the vaccine," says CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding. "Children who received the vaccine are protected against haemophilus. There is no need to re-immunize."

See the CDC website for more information.

Of course, Bush's timing in vetoing SCHIP couldn't possibly have been more perfect.

If your child is due for a vaccination, verify the name of the vaccine and the illness against which it protects. Verify that your doctor has heard of the recall. Ensure that you know the symptoms of a possible bacterial infection that might result.

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Iraq: Success!

It appears that the surge has succeeded - in escalating the internecine warfare currently devastating Iraq. Not that Commander Awol von Bunnypants gives a good goddamn. From the Los Angeles Times via the Boston Globe comes the story of suicide bombers in Diyala, Iraq, who have killed up to 24 people today.

The article states, in part:

...attacks have dropped noticeably since the arrival of about 30,000 additional US forces this year. But violence has flared in regions north of the capital, where many of the militants are believed to have fled.

It notes that women are rarely suicide bombers. However, this is the second known female suicide bomber in Iraq. Authorities identified the woman as Suhailah Hussein Chlayeb. Three of her sons had apparently been killed by the Iraqi Army.

Ibrahim Bajalan, the head of the Diyala provincial council, said the bomber was a former member of Saddam Hussein's Ba'ath Party whose two sons joined Al Qaeda and were killed by Iraqi forces.

"She wanted to avenge the killing of her two sons," he told the Associated Press.

The article fails to point out that just about anyone who had employment in Iraq under Saddam Hussein was required to be a member of the Ba'ath party. As the Oakland Tribune points out:

However, membership or affiliation with the party was required for many government and professional jobs, and American officials have acknowledged that entirely purging one-time Baathists from the ranks of Iraq's civil service may be neither possible nor desirable.

In other, much more important news, the flow of oil was interrupted:

Oil gushed into the Tigris River after an explosion damaged a pipeline supplying crude from the northern city of Kirkuk to the refinery in Baiji, about 125 miles north of Baghdad. Officials suspended the flow of crude from Kirkuk to the refinery until they could repair the damage.

Here's a previous blog post on Baiji.

This is not the first time pipelines carrying oil have been blown up in Iraq. What are the massive oil spills doing to the nation's fragile ecology and its human and animal population?

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Environment: Oil Slick Threatens Korean Shores, Migrating Birds

Via The Boston Globe, AP reports that a massive oil spill that occurred when a supertanker collided with a barge is now threatening an "ecologically sensitive" area of the South Korean coast. The spill, totalling 2.7 million gallons, formed a slick 4.6 miles long and 1.2 miles wide, the largest in the world since 2003.

The collision occurred about 7 miles off Mallipo beach. The region is popular for its scenic beaches and is also the site of fish farms, a national maritime park, and an important rest stop for migrating birds.

There were no casualties in the accident, the Coast Guard said.

They mean human casualties, of course. Undoubtedly, the fish farms will suffer losses. Sealife and migratory birds exposed to the fuel will likely die, depending on the degree of exposure. The report also stated that workers on board the damaged supertanker are at risk from oil fumes as they try to move oil from damaged tanks to undamaged tanks. But the risk is to their health, not their lives, so the effects will not manifest for some time.

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Toxic Toys and Lipstick: Europe thinks it's dangerous, US says "Prove it" ... now Prove it again and again ...

Terry Gross, host of the popular radio show Fresh Air, has a really interesting (and scary) interview with Mark Schapiro about the difference in regulations and philosophy between Europe and the U.S. when it comes to toxic substances in our everyday goods like toys or cosmetics. I urge you to listen to it.

Here's what Fresh Air's website says about it:

Mark Schapiro, Exposing a Toxic U.S. Policy

Fresh Air from WHYY, November 26, 2007 · Investigative reporter Mark Schapiro explains in a new book that toxic chemicals exist in many of the products we handle every day — agents that can cause cancer, genetic damage and birth defects, lacing everything from our gadgets to our toys to our beauty products.

And unlike the European Union, the U.S. doesn't require businesses to minimize them — or even to list them, so consumers can evaluate the risks. Schapiro argues that that policy isn't just bad for public health: In an increasingly green economy, he says, American businesses stand to get shut out of a huge market.

Schapiro, editorial director of the nonprofit Center for Investigative Reporting, has written for Harper's, The Nation, Mother Jones and The Atlantic Monthly. His book is called Exposed: The Toxic Chemistry of Everyday Products, and What's at Stake for American Power.

One of the things that they talk about is how the European Union is a much bigger market than the U.S. This is starting to have a significant impact on businesses here in the U.S. Because if we sell something that doesn't live up to the standards set by the EU, it won't sell in the EU. So, from a purely capitalistic practical point of view ... why don't we change?

Some of the products that have toxic chemicals in them are cell phones and computers.

Really, the show is very interesting. I learned a lot.

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Consumer Alert: Food Contamination

Update: The Cargill's ground beef recall has been expanded to total more than 1 million pounds. The 10 states affected by the recall are:

• Connecticut
• Maine
• Maryland
• Massachusetts
• Michigan
• New Jersey
• New York
• Ohio
• Pennsylvania
• Virginia

Details here and here.

Cargill recalled ground beef approximately a month ago, after customers developed E. coli from consuming their ground beef.

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Consumer Alert - Food Contamination

Cargill Meat Solutions - what the hell is a meat solution, anyway? - is recalling "ground beef products" for possible E. coli contamination. Affected "products"

include ground beef, beef patties, beef sirloin patties, coarse ground beef for chili and meat loaf mix including beef, pork and veal, distributed under the names Century Farm, Giants, Wegmans, Weis Premium Meats and Price Rite.

Use-by dates range from mid-October through today. If you have any of these products in your fridge or freezer, return them to the place of purchase for a refund. Call Cargill’s hotline at 877-455-1034 for more information.

These people - the meat packers and slaughterhouses and other providers of fine dead animals - really need to clean up their act. Not to mention finding some better creative consultants/copywriters/marketing schlubs.

What is causing this epidemic of contaminated food? We know that the contaminated toys are flooding our markets because Bush appointee Nancy Nord over at the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has been spending her time resisting expansion of her agency, additional funds for investigation, and new hires to enforce rules, preferring instead to go on $60,000 worth of industry-paid junkets and cozy up to manufacturers. Hard to enforce the law on people that are paying for your nice vacations, huh, Nance?

Impressive that Dick Cheney who got his big ol' tighty-whities in such a humongous wad over Joe Wilson's travel-expenses-only trip to Niger has made nary a peep over Nancy's fun holidays all-expenses paid.

What say, Crazy Uncle Dick? Aren't Nancy's trips "junkets," as you eloquently describe it?

That aside, we need to increase food safety inspections, and the way we handle food. The USDA is responsible for inspecting and certifying the safety of meat and poultry in our food chain. The FDA is responsible for inspecting and certifying the safety of all other food products in the chain. According to this NYT article, 85 per cent of food poisoning cases are attributable to FDA-inspected items. The FDA is underfunded and understaffed and incapable of managing its workload.

To protect yourself from the dangers of contaminated food, try to buy locally. Your local butcher can grind meat for you, if you need it ground, rather than paying more to buy meat that has been ground, packaged, and then traveled long distances under who-knows-what conditions. Or you can grind it yourself. Invest in a sturdy meat grinder. It comes with various attachments that let you grind any kind of meat (some will even do bones) in various textures, for different dishes.

Wash meat and poultry in cool running water before using. Wash produce in a mild bleach solution, rinsing thoroughly before using. Follow basic food preparation precautions - use separate cutting boards for vegetables and poultry/meat, preferably made of something that you can scrub down with bleach. Scrub food preparation surfaces with a bleach solution (including ovens, countertops, stove tops, pots, pans, knives, and other utensils). Some cooks recommend drying wooden cutting boards in sunlight, which kills germs. That's fine, as long as you scrub them down thoroughly after using them, preferably with bleach.

Buy local, from producers you know or at least who are known in the community. Agribusiness conglomerates need to be cut off at the knees. They create "meat solutions" and "meat products," not food. You needn't cook your food to death, but you should cook it to a sufficient degree to kill any pathogens. If you're cooking meat and vegetables, prep the vegetables first after washing them thoroughly, and wash all prep utensils before prepping the meat/poultry.

Above all, as far as possible avoid packaged "food products." You don't know what's in them, but it's a fairly safe bet that whatever you cook for yourself is going to be much healthier and safer, because you care about what goes into your face. The company that makes the "food product" cares only about what comes out of your pocket and into theirs.

Geesh, I'm just so outraged about this. Does it show?

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Consumer Alert - Halloween Toys

Keep your kids away from these. The U.S. just recalled another 440,000 toys for dangerous lead contamination, says AFP.

And the halfwitted CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) head, Nancy Nord, wants her agency to be reduced in size.

Toys included in the recall:

Galaxy Warriors figures
plastic disguise teeth
military-style Elite Operations action figures distributed by the global Toys R Us chain
Ribbit board games.

[...]

Lead can cause damage to the brain and nervous system of children, behavior and learning problems, slowed growth, hearing problems and headaches, and is particularly dangerous if ingested.

According to the AFP article, the fake teeth contain about 100 times more lead than deemed to be safe. And of course kids put those in their mouths - and they'll ingest the lead.

The CPSC has one full-time toy tester. That might explain why we keep getting poisoned toys on the market.

Dr. Jeffrey Weidenhamer of Ashland University, Ohio, tested approximately 54 items in the weeks leading up to Halloween, and says that some of the items had dangerous levels of lead. He informed the CSPC about this in a report. However, several dangerous items were still on the shelves of stores shortly before Halloween.

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