CHOICE? with Food Irradiation

["Scott O. Schwahn" <schwahn@CEBAF.GOV>]

Dr. Schoenhofer and others,

I must beg to differ, not so much in what you said concerning labeling and
the choices people make, but in your premise.  Food and Water, the lobbying
group who is spearheading this effort to discourage Hormel from using
irradiation, is in fact, taking the decision OUT of the process.  They are
not, as Glen Vickers put it, "mom at the grocery store," offering an
opinion.  They are a well-organized, often misinformed group of people
trying to supress the use of a life-saving technology out of fear and
ignorance.  Their efforts, unfortunately, are seen by industry either as
"typical," or the industry fears they will become too vocal, dropping
profits.  In the end, they are supressing choice, not encouraging it.

Why do we need irradiated food?  To save lives.  For the last month,
National Public Radio has aired several stories on children who have gotten
sick and died from E. Coli contamination of apple juice/cider.  The
companies don't want to Pasteurize due to the change of food taste and
expense.  I have written them several times to tell them that they are
missing an important technology.  And yet this morning, they STILL present
another story, this time INCLUDING alternate technologies (including
pressure??) to make the food safe.  Guess which one was not included...
irradiation.  I will write them again. (See below for one of several similar
letters).  And who can forget (pardon me for those of you out of the US who
may not have heard) the deaths from contaminated meat in the Jack-n-the-Box
fast food chain last year?  Irradiation very likely would have prevented it
from ever occurring.

>Is it advisable to treat poultry
>with radiation to kill salmonella? It might be in cases with heavy
>infestion, but even in this case it would be advisable to strenghthen
>hygiene instead of irradiating.

Somehow, I don't think that strengthening hygiene is enough... but in this
case, I don't have all the facts.
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To:atc@NPR.org

Dear All Things Considered:

Once again, NPR failed to tell the whole story about E. Coli contamination.
Last week's story on E. Coli contamination of apple Juice contained a
factual error.  You stated that the only method of ensuring bacteria-free
cider is pasteurization, but that the method is undesirable because it
alters the taste of the cider and is expensive.  

A second method that is consistently ignored is irradiation.  There is an
ever-present public hysteria about radiation which is primarily due to the
use of nuclear weapons and to poor design in non-U.S. nuclear facilities
such as with the Chernobyl disaster.  Food irradiation has been approved by
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for many years, and is a proven method
for killing food-borne bacteria.  It is an inexpensive and safe method, but
is often boycotted because of misinformation from environmentalists who
should be fighting real problems instead of technological superstitions.
Food irradiation makes food last much longer, kills bacteria, does NOT cause
food to become radioactive, and does not alter the taste of food.

I would encourage you and all listeners to get the facts about the use of
radiation for sterilization of food.  It could save lives.

Scott O. Schwahn, CHP
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Newport News, VA
schwahn@jlab.org