AW: AW: AW: Food Irradiation Alert - Sierra Club of Canada

["Franz Schoenhofer" <franz.schoenhofer@CHELLO.AT>]

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: BERNARD L COHEN [mailto:blc+@pitt.edu]

Gesendet: Donnerstag, 05. Dezember 2002 16:39

An: Franz Schoenhofer

Cc: Richard L. Hess; BLHamrick@AOL.COM; RuthWeiner@AOL.COM;

radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

Betreff: Re: AW: AW: Food Irradiation Alert - Sierra Club of Canada









On Thu, 5 Dec 2002, Franz Schoenhofer wrote:

>             I clearly oppose  it, when it comes to "extended shelf live".

> This is an argument, which is in sharp contrast with the world wide

opinion

> that food should be as fresh as possible. If Americans accept that foods

> shelf life is extended by radiation - please do it. Nobody in Europe will

> accept it - simply because there is no need for it. We have excellent ways

> to ship oysters, fish, crabs, etc.  to any destination within Europe. The

> price is accordingly. If you do not want to pay the price for fresh

> oysters - leave it and eat a McDonalds hamburger instead - in Europe this

> would be a kind of insunuaion.

>             Food irradiation is ok, if it helps peoples to escape famine.

It

> is a crime, if it is intended to maximise profits of world wide acting

> companies.



	--A large fraction of the food in poor countries like India is

lost duue to spoilage; extending shelf life thus avoids famine and

starvation.

----------------------------------------



Sorry, if you had read my postings you would have recognized that I

explicitely have said, that in this case irradiation is justified. I

referred only to the fact - in my opinion - that irradiation is not

necessary in the case of our "Western world".



---------------------------------------------





	--Americans and Europeans get very little tropical fruit because

of spoilage in transit. Irradiation to extend shelf life would solve this

problem.



-------------------------------------------------



I cannot see a "problem". We have lived for thousands of years without these

tropical fruits. Nowadays we can buy even in my hometown Vienna any tropical

fruits from Papayas to Leechees, from pineapples to coconuts, from carambols

to mangos. We can even buy much cheaper apples, oranges, pears, vegetables,

which would supply us with a lot of vitamin C. Again no reason to irradiate

these fruits!



-------------------------------------



	--Fishing boats could remain at sea much longer if they would

avoid spoilage of their catch by irradiation.





-------------------------------------



Do you advocate, that irradiation cells with all their shielding would be

installed in fishing boats? How do you think this could be accomplished in

reality? How about radiation protection? Nevertheless this argument is

meaningless. Large fishing vessels freeze fish as soon as it is caught,

clearly avoiding spoilage, small fishing vessels return within a few hours

to their harbour, selling fish instantly.



-.---------------------------------------------



A personal remark: I am deeply disappointed, that somebody like you, who is

acknowledged worldwide for his research on Radon falls for the irradiation

lobby and their wrong arguments!



Best regards,



Franz



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