Environment News Service: Opinion: Food Irradiation Threatens Public Health

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Radsafe:

An "Opinion" piece was published, authored by Dr. Samuel Epstein,  by the Environment News Service which I found quite imbalanced. The Opinion hyperlink is supplied below:


Click here: Environment News Service: Opinion: Food Irradiation Threatens Public Health, National Security 


http://ens-news.com/ens/mar2002/2002L-03-08e.html [if above link not working right]


Upon reading this Opinion yesterday, I dashed off a comment to the editor of ENS, criticizing some content of this criticism of food irradiation which I found irresponsible and imbalanced.


My note to the editor is supplied below:

=====================

Subj:   Comment/Criticism about Opinion piece on Food Irradiation   

Date:   3/9/02 3:05:32 PM Pacific Standard Time 

From:   RadiumProj  

To: news@ens-news.com   

CC: SAFarberMSPH    

    



RE: 

Opinion: Food Irradiation Threatens Public Health, National Security By Samuel Epstein, M.D. CHICAGO, Illinois, March 8, 2002 (ENS) - Iowa Senator Tom Harkin's last minute provisions in the Senate farm bill allowing irradiated beef to be labelled [sic] "pasteurized," instead of the Food and Drug Administration's small print "treated by irradiation" label, is a surprising denial of consumers' fundamental right-to-know. ....

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Comment:

The willingness of Dr. Epstein to try and scare your readers about the risks vs. the benefits of food irradiation is quite remarkable, and irresponsible.


Dr. Epstein seems to relish highlighting theoretical,  or scientifically unproven or contradicted risks with food irradiation [and using emotive language that is quite inappropriate such as "grave risks" in talking about food irradiation] while he completely ignores the present public health crisis in the US where millions of people get food poisoning each year due to bacterial and other pathogens in foods,  and thousands die from serious cases of food poisoning.


Dr. Epstein has shown a regrettable willingness to join with many anti-nuclear propagandists who have exploited today's fears about terrorism to manipulate public fears by claiming absurd scenarios involving theft of massive sealed and shielded cobalt-60  sources at food irradiation facilities. Removal of these intense sealed radioactive sources at food irradiation plants by terrorists would kill the terrorists if the sources were to be taken from their lead or water shields in an attempt to steal them.


Your readers deserve more rational  and accurate commentary on something of such public health importance. It's been said that fears of radiation have killed more people than radiation exposure ever has. People become afraid of medical diagnosis and treatment involving radiation and fail to get early diagnosis and treatment and die of cancer or other diseases prematurely. Many beneficial uses of radiation based technologies end up not being used to the full benefit of society due to fearmongering and more hazardous alternatives are used.  In many places around the world, food irradiation is being used to preserve foods that would otherwise spoil without refrigeration, allowing food to get to hungry people that would otherwise die of starvation. We are not dealing with unproven theoretical risks when valuable technologies are avoided due to false fears.


With food irradiation the benefits so far outweigh any theoretical risks that this technology should be encouraged not misrepresented as was done by Dr. Epstein.


Stewart Farber, MS Public Health

Univ. of Massachusetts School of Public Health '73

Public Health Scientist

1285 Wood Ave.

Bridgeport, CT 06604

SAFarberMSPH@cs.com

====================

PS: As a separate, but related issue, US Senator Harkin of Iowa has been in the lead in trying to define food irradiation as "cold pasteurization" in a farm bill now pending. Iowa is home to a major food irradiation company and as an agricultural state has a major stake in food purity and the prevention of outbreaks of foodborne disease in distribution of meat and ground beef.


I mention this because Sen. Harkin has also been quite active in recent efforts to maximize public "concerns"[insert the noun of your choice to replace concern: fear, anxiety, hysteria, etc. depending on your point of view]  about the draft CDC report on fallout radiation exposure. Sen. Harkin should perhaps be advised by his constituents or those with an interest in food irradiation, that scaring the public on the one hand about small radiation exposures from fallout connected with the Cold War and the discontinued open air testing of nuclear weapons, works against his concurrent attempts to help Iowa farmers and food processors regarding food irradiation [aka "cold sterilization"].


For more info on Harkin and the CDC fallout report, see:


http://www.senate.gov/~harkin/specials/20020301-fallout.cfm


Click here for information from Senator Harkin on CDC fallout study