AW: Sad news - helminth hormesis

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

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----

Von: owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu

[mailto:owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu]Im Auftrag von

epirad@mchsi.com

Gesendet: Dienstag, 04. März 2003 18:00

An: BERNARD L COHEN

Cc: internet RADSAFE

Betreff: Re: Sad news - helminth hormesis





Dr. Cohen,



There are a growing group of scientists that believe that irradiation of

meat

may actually reduce immune function.





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



Bill,



The concern you mention, is not restricted to irradiation, but to the

overall attitude to eliminate any bacterial or immunological risks.

Children, who only play within clinically clean environments never have a

chance to come into contact with bacteria, virusses (correct spelling?) and

other risks in order to develop immune functions. Those unfortunate persons,

who have to receive immune-suppression drugs are in constant danger to die

on influenca or any other germs.



As always: one has to keep a balance. It is not advisable to have children

play in the dirt of a third world country - especially, since there are no

drugs there available, if they contract a disease. But it sure is not

advisable to keep children from any possible source of infection. This might

as well be true for grown-ups. I know very well, that even grown-ups can die

from infections from spoilt meat, but somebody who is buying rotten meat has

to blame his problems to himself. On the other hand it is still my believe,

that our western world has such good transport possibilities and logistics,

that even ground beef should be delivered within very short time to the

users. It might also be a question of life-style: In Europe we do not have

these gigantomanic companies, which produce thousands of tons of ground

beef. If I want ground beef, I visit the butcher and tell him exactly which

piece of meat he has there I want to have ground. We even prefer to have at

least a little of pork mixed with it and different meat parts of the animal

are used for different dishes. With other words: "Ground meat" is not

"ground meat"!



To draw a conclusion: The risk of salmonella infection depends not on the

meat, but on the regional cooking habits and the structure of supply. There

seems to be no place for irradiation of meat in our Western civilisation!



Best regards,



Franz







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