News and Articles
High exposure to BPA causes sexual dysfunction in men, researchers say Los Angeles Times November 10, 2009
High levels of occupational exposure to the controversial chemical bisphenol A, more commonly known as BPA, causes erectile dysfunction, loss of desire and difficulty ejaculating, U.S. and Chinese researchers reported today. Similar problems have been reported in rodents, but this is the first study to show such effects in humans, and the findings are likely to further inflame the debate over the chemical. |
Government helps keep consumers safe Atlantic Journal Constitution October23, 2009
Even after years of a lassez faire ideology that allowed businesses to pillage the economy, the idea of government intervention makes a lot of Americans nervous. In a recent Gallup poll, a majority of respondents agreed with the statement that the government currently is “trying to do too many things that should be left to individuals and businesses.”
That response is partly due to essential elements of the American character, which celebrates independence, self-reliance and the pioneering spirit. It reveals a healthy strain that encourages creativity and overcome-the-odds resilience. |
Toxic Hamburgers New York Times October 9, 2009
Eating a hamburger should not be a death-defying experience. Too often it is. As Michael Moss wrote in The Times recently, E. coli sickens thousands of people annually, including a young dance teacher named Stephanie Smith, who was paralyzed after eating a contaminated hamburger. Her case offers a poignant reminder that President Obama and Congress need to quickly fill the safety gaps in food production. |
D.C. lawmakers feel pressure to strengthen food safety rules Desmoinesregister.com October 9, 2009
Washington, D.C. - A near-death experience after eating E. coli-tainted lettuce turned Karen Hibben-Levi into an activist for changing the way the government regulates food safety.
This week, the retired court administrator from Waterloo made her second trip to Washington this year to join others affected by food poisoning to lobby for legislation that would give the Food and Drug Administration significant new authority over farms and food processors. The administration regulates 80 percent of the food supply, everything but meat. |
Consumers Union Opposes USDA Proposal On Salad Safety ConsumerAffairis.com September 28, 2009
Consumers Union is voicing opposition to a proposed national USDA Leafy Green Marketing Agreement, claiming the pact will fail to adequately improve the safety of raw spinach and other salad ingredients.
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Peanut butter consumers are back Omaha World-Herald September 22, 2009
ARLINGTON, Ga. — It’s sunny and warm and dry — and difficult to imagine a more perfect early September day for peanuts in this part of the world where as Arachis hypogaea goes, so goes just about everything else: the economy, the jobs, the pride, the reputation, an entire way of agricultural life.
“Puuuuuurty peanuts,” a farmhand said to Mike Newberry, who smiled as he surveyed fields lush with the dark green, knee-high foliage of peanut plants somebody from the city might mistake for arugula in the rough. |
Battling Back Bacteria Science Progress September 14, 2009
A New Plan to Protect Farmers and Eaters Alike: Once you’ve made the decision to encase a few men in a metal pod and shoot the vessel into space, what you don’t want is to have something they eat make them sick. |
Assembly Will Vote on Bill to Limit BPA KPBS September 8, 2009
California — The state assembly will vote Wednesday on a measure that would ban the chemical Bisphenol A (BPA) from products designed for young children.
BPA is a chemical that's widely used in plastic food and beverage containers, and supporters of the measure say BPA may cause serious health problems.
The National Institutes of Health says it's concerned that BPA exposure may have harmful effects on the brain. |
This Woman Might Die From Eating Cookie Dough, Washington Post (Sept. 1, 2009)
LAS VEGAS -- In Room 519 of Kindred Hospital, Linda Rivera can no longer speak.
Her mute state, punctuated only by groans, is the latest downturn in the swift collapse of her health that began in May when she curled up on her living room couch and nonchalantly ate several spoonfuls of the Nestlé cookie dough her family had been consuming for years. Federal health officials believe she is among 80 people in 31 states sickened by cookie dough contaminated with a deadly bacteria, E. coli O157:H7. |
‘Non-GMO’ Seal Identifies Foods Mostly Biotech-Free New York Times August 31, 2009
Alarmed that genetically engineered crops may be finding their way into organic and natural foods, an industry group has begun a campaign to test products and label those that are largely free of biotech ingredients. |
SIGG Bottles Now BPA Free. But What Were They Before? TreeHugger.com August 20, 2009
A year and a half ago we asked Are Sigg Aluminum Bottles BPA Free? and our answer was inconclusive. SIGG bottles consistently tested with no detectable levels of Bisphenol A (BPA), but when we asked if their liner was made with BPA, CEO Steve Wasik told us that the liner chemistry was proprietary, and "as there are many copy-cat manufacturers in the market (most based in China) that would like to get their hands on this formula, our supplier has an agreement with SIGG to keep his formula confidential."
Now SIGG has gone public with an announcement that all of their bottles are completely BPA free, thanks to their new "EcoCare" powder-based, co-polyester coating. |
Freshening up food safety, St. Louis Today (Aug. 9, 2009)
U.S. food safety laws are like an egg-salad sandwich that’s been left too long in the sun: Once perfectly good, it now is apt to make you sick.
For the first time since World War II, Congress last week took a step toward freshening up those laws. The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a bill that would give the Food and Drug Administration new authority to set standards and order recalls of tainted foods. |
House moves to toughen food inspectionsNewsday July 31, 2009
Food safety legislation that passed in the House this week marks the first official vote to pump up federal "farm-to-fork" oversight since the Great Depression, but the final word on government regulation won't come until the Senate votes in the fall. |
Food safety bill fails, gets another shot ThursdayDes Moines Register July 29, 2009
Washington, D.C. — Legislation that would increase regulation of food processors and growers of fruits and vegetables hit a speed bump in the House today.
A 280-150 vote in favor of the legislation was just short of the two-thirds majority that was required under a fast-track procedure. The House will vote again Thursday under rules requiring a simple majority for approval, according to a spokesman for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
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Evaluating the Dangers of Bisphenol A in Plastic Baby Bottles Washington Post July 23, 2009
How dangerous to babies is bisphenol A? Lately, I've been seeing a lot of hubbub in the news over the chemical. They say it's in a lot of baby products, like bottles and sippy cups, and in hard plastic water bottles, too. But I can't tell if this is really a big deal or just an overblown chemical panic. |
Food Fright Washington Post July 9, 2009
THE LIST OF FOODS that have made Americans sick is long and bound to get longer. Even cookie dough wasn't safe from contamination. But it was the massive peanut recall this year that spurred President Obama to establish the food safety working group to devise ways to make a relatively safe food supply safer. |
Food safety advances San Francisco Chronicle July 08 2009
The Obama administration took a long-overdue step toward modernizing this nation's disjointed and woefully underfunded system for protecting the food supply.
By now, Americans realize that the threat to public health is not hypothetical. Some of our most popular foods have been subject to recall and halts in production. |
Administration Seeks to Restrict Antibiotics in Livestock The New York Times July 13, 2009
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration announced Monday that it would seek to ban many routine uses of antibiotics in farm animals in hopes of reducing the spread of dangerous bacteria in humans.
In written testimony to the House Rules Committee, Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, principal deputy commissioner of food and drugs, said feeding antibiotics to healthy chickens, pigs and cattle — done to encourage rapid growth — should cease. And Dr. Sharfstein said farmers should no longer be able to use antibiotics in animals without the supervision of a veterinarian. |
House Approves $2.99 Billion FDA Budget Wall Street Journal July 09, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $373 million budget increase for the Food and Drug Administration, the largest boost in the agency's history.
The House voted 266 to 160 to give the FDA a $2.99 billion budget for fiscal year 2010.
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House Approves $2.99 Billion FDA Budget Wall Street Journal July 09, 2009
WASHINGTON -- The House on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a $373 million budget increase for the Food and Drug Administration, the largest boost in the agency's history.
The House voted 266 to 160 to give the FDA a $2.99 billion budget for fiscal year 2010.
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California is new front line of BPA fight Grist.org June 29, 2009
The following is a guest post submitted by Elisa Odabashian, Director, West Coast Office and State Campaigns, and Dr. Urvashi Rangan, Director of Technical Policy, Consumers Union.
It’s the stuff of a good Hollywood movie-a potentially toxic chemical lurking in the bodies of most unwitting Americans; a decade of mounting but scuttled scientific evidence; government inaction; undue influence and public denials of harm by the powerful chemical industry; congressional inquiries; a crescendo of outcry by consumers demanding that something be done-and still, the battle to ban bisphenol A (also known as BPA) in food and drink containers rages on.
Now, California has become the prime battleground for this David v. Goliath contest. |
Lettuce From the Garden, With Worms New York Times June 20, 2009
Growing up on a farm near Yamhill, Ore., I quickly learned to appreciate the difference between fresh, home-grown foods and the commercial versions in the supermarket.
Store-bought lettuce was always lush, green and pristine, and thus vastly preferable to lettuce from my Mom’s vegetable garden (organic before we called it that). Her lettuce kept me on my toes, because a caterpillar might come crawling out of my salad. |
Editorial: A Minnesota model for U.S. food safety The Star Tribune May 29, 2009
Replicating our outbreak investigation process would save lives.
A virtual who's who of food safety experts as well as Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar filled the University of Minnesota meeting area on Thursday. The topic: a soon-to-be introduced bill that could dramatically improve the nation's ability to detect foodborne disease outbreaks. |
E. coli infection kills Cleveland girl, 7; case may be linked to Illinois company's beef recall The Plain Dealer May 21, 2009
A 7-year-old Cleveland girl died Sunday from an E. coli infection that local health officials say could be linked to a massive ground-beef recall issued Thursday from an Illinois-based company.
Health officials did not identify the girl or provide details of the circumstances that led to her death. But Cleveland Health Director Matthew Carroll said the case might be the latest in a cluster of E. coli infections traced to Valley Meats LLC of Coal Valley, Ill.
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Congresswoman seeks food safety specifics Associated Press May 21, 2009
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key lawmaker pressed FDA officials Thursday for specific plans to improve food safety, saying the agency's proposals to date don't sound like real change.
"A lot sounds to me like buzzwords from a past administration," Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., told the Food and Drug Administration's new acting commissioner at a hearing. |
New rules aim to keep salmonella out of food The Atlanta Journal-Constitution May 13, 2009
WASHINGTON —- A major food manufacturers group on Tuesday announced what it called “wide ranging” initiatives designed to make everyday food supplies safer in the wake of the deadly salmonella outbreak traced to Georgia peanuts and in advance of new federal food safety regulations in the works.
The Grocery Manufacturers Association’s initiatives include new training programs for workers and guidelines for keeping salmonella and other bacteria out of dry goods such as peanuts. |
Outbreaks Put Worry on the Table New York Times May 11, 2009
Every few weeks, it seems, deadly germs turn up in the food supply.
Heather Whybrew, a college student in Washington State, became gravely ill after eating a salad in her school cafeteria. Carl Ours, of Ohio, was temporarily paralyzed after eating chili dogs and drinking beer. Mari Tardiff, of California, spent three months on life support after she drank unpasteurized milk. |
Dolores couple takes salmonella message to U.S. Capitol Cortez Journal May 8, 2009
A Dolores man allegedly infected with salmonella-saintpaul last summer by consuming a jalepeno pepper is joining others seeking federal legislation to help stop foodborne illnesses nationwide. |
Woman lobbies for safe food The Bend Bulletin April 30, 2009
Christoferson joined the food safety debate after her son, Beck, contracted salmonella in 2007 from a tainted batch of Veggie Booty, a health food snack made from rice, corn and other vegetables. He was 10 months old. |
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