Oops, I Guess We Will Be Eating Tainted Chicken After All

for gads sake!! i can't believe no one has anything to say about this. it's lilke America is just eating it all up and loving it!!!

I would like someone to have the FDA answer these questions:

1. Why won't the FDA give us the brand names that the melamine contaminated meat may have been sold under? This is unlike any other contamination i have ever seen . Then people would be able to choose for themselves whether or not they wanted to eat it. Now we can buy organic or avoid meat altogether. 2. Since we have not been given that vital info, how will we, the public, know if we are having an adverse reaction from the meat that should be reported to our doctors and ultimately the CDC if we are not sure we ate the meat or fed it to our children? 3. Can this info by accessed under the freedom of information act? 4. Have livestock known to have eaten the contaminated feed been autopsied for toxicology studies of meat tissue? Do the consumers, the American people, have a right to that information? When? After all of the currently contaminated livestock are eaten? 5. Have dairy products been tested for contamination? Do we have a right to that information? Children drink a lot of milk. 6. When, will we have the results of the tests you are doing on human food, checking for melamine and other related toxins? After we have eaten all the evidence? 7. Why is the US government reimbursing the livestock farmers instead of demanding the supplier of the contaminated grains do it? This is not logical. 8. Are GM crops suspected as the culprit of the contamination? 9. What is holding up the implementation of the country of origin labeling? Why don't we have the right to choose. 10. What is the 5th compound the FDA is testing protein products for per the may 10 press briefing on the usda/fda websites. They refused to comment. When my husband, a pharmacist, called to inquire they said he does not have the right to know. Yet they want you to eat it anyway.

The only thing I can do is choose organic for my and my family. That is not an option for all though, as it is very expensive. What about the rights of those who can not afford to choose? What about our democracy?

this is the agent and question i am referring to:

REPORTER: Yes, hi. Thank you for taking my call. I have a question about the protein surveillance assignment memo on your website dated May 1. In the table number 1, the chemical sample testing per assigned product, there are five agents. They are, the last one is redacted. I'm wondering if you can tell us what that mystery agent is, what that fifth contaminant is that was being tested?

AND HERE IS ACHESON AGAIN , THIS TIME SAYING HE HAS NO PROOF OF LONGTERM SIDE-EFFECTS....OR PROOF THAT THERE IS NONE. THE CDC WILL MONITOR THE SITUATION AND LET US KNOW IN 10 YEARS OR SO:

DR. ACHESON: Your question on the first part which was addressing the long-term exposure consequences, well first of all we don't know for a fact there's been long-term exposure. We don't even know for a fact yet that melamine has gone into the human food supply other than via hogs and poultry at extremely low levels. My best answer to your question on the long-term health effects is as I said before, we are working with CDC, looking for any shifts in trends. At this point we can't rule it out. I think this may become more apparent as further work around this evolves because obviously one of the questions is feeding studies of these kinds of levels to animals under research conditions to answer those very questions. So at this point I can't specifically rule anything in or anything out other than to say there's absolutely no evidence of just that happening. I'll turn the second part over to Dr. Petersen.

PEOPLE REALLY OUGHT TO READ THESE TRANSCRIPTS ON THE USDA SITE AND ASK THEMSELVES HOW LONG THEY MAY HAVE BEEN EATING MILDLY CONTAMINATED MEAT. IS THE MILK AND DAIRY CONTAMINATED. WHY ISN'T THE FDA ERRING ON THE SIDE OF CAUTION? HAVE OUR GLUTENS AT ANY POINT IN TIME BEEN DIRECTLY CONTAMINATED? THAT WOULD DEFINITELY UP OUR TOXIN LOAD AND HENCE THE RISKS? DOESN'T THE AVERAGE JOE WANT TO KNOW? IF NOT, WHY?

as if the melamine, aminopterin, cyanuric acid, etc, contamination is not enough, Reuters has an interesting article citing the reasons for a 19-23% rise in cancer in China. It's the pollution and the food and food additives--melamine not withstanding.

Pollution blamed for China's cancer rise Contaminated air and water getting worse, health experts say... The official Xinhua news agency said earlier in May that cancer topped the list of 10 most lethal diseases for urban and rural residents in China, according to a Health Ministry survey in 30 cities and 78 counties.

“The main reason is that the pollution of environment, water and air is getting worse day by day,” the agency quoted Chen Zhizhou, a health expert from a cancer research center, as saying. “To pursue the growth in GDP, a lot of chemical and industrial enterprises were built along the rivers so that they could dump the waste through water easily,” Chen said.

“The contaminated water sources have directly affected soil, crops and food,” Chen said, adding that it, along with polluted air, is closely linked to the rise and high fatalities of cancer.

Farmers used additives on pigs, poultry and vegetables to make them grow faster, and the frequent use of fertilizer and pesticides were also to blame, the report said. The survey showed cancer deaths had risen by 19 percent in cities and 23 percent in rural areas from 2005, the report said, without giving an exact figure. The number of cancer patients in China has been soaring since the 1970s, and 80 percent of them died from common cancers of the lungs, liver and stomach, Chinese media have reported.

Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.