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***Irradiating lettuce and spinach would reduce quality of these foods. I oppose this proposed regulation. . . . . .Please Mr. FDA man, don't irradiate my bananas...daylight coming and I want to eat at home. . . . . ***We have been warring on the farms and orchards since world war 1. www.thefutureoffood.com
It is high past time for humans to cooperate with nature and quit trying to
subdue IT. Livestock production is the next cooperate after factories for pollution and global warming. Ahead of cars. We treat animals like wrenches.( www.tedtalk.com Mark Bittman: What's wrong with what we eat)
Organic food has more nutrition than conventional farming.
THE BEE'S ARE LEAVING & DYING BECAUSE OF OUR TOXIC WAY OF GROWING FOOD.
Pasteur said to"go back to RAW milk after the infection was gone. Pasteurized
milk is not healthy" Irradiation is deadly for our health. Change the way we
treat nature and nature will take care of us!!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5YkNkscBEp0 . . . . .Please Mr. USDA man, don't irradiate my pineapple...daylight coming and I want to eat at home. . . .*** As a health practicioner it has become obvious to me in my 20+ year career that the manipulation of food in any way has disastrous for the health of the United States.
The human immune system has many defenses against bacteria and viruses. Many of
these defenses are carried out properly as a result of proper biochemistry.
Nutrition RUNS our biochemistry. To "mess" with nature's foods is enormously short-sighted. Marcia Smith ND, PhD
***I am appalled at the idea of eating dirty food with germs killed by irradiation. Please regulate agricultural hygiene rather than use such a controversial process such as irradiation.Sincerely, Laura DePreta
*** Stop lying to the people of America. To many know the truth. Just ask
Monsanto...........You will not get away with this from the new Obama Administration. We are all watching..........
I am public citizen and deeply disappointed that the FDA has chosen to allowfood irradiation rather than requiring food growers and packagers to clean up their act.
It is amazing to me that for over 100 year our food supply was safe from these problems and now it seems every few weeks corporate farms release foods with bacteria like salmonella into the public food supply.
Irradiation of foods allows the unclean and unsanitary food production practices to continue while creating a new set of possible problems that will plaque the food supply.
Stop irradiation of our food supply. Clean up and keep sanitary our food
production and processing system.thank you William Stahl
Do not allow the unhealthy process of irradiating spinach, lettuce and other foods instead of cleaning up the contaminated factory-farmed processes of growing and packing our food supply.
***To FDA, I am writing to say that we should not become too dependent on irradiation to solve our problems with food contamination. Making our food products less healthy is not the answer. Please pressure the industrial feedlots to become cleaner to avoid contamination in the first place. Mitchell Stout
***Please help stop the irradiation of our foods.
***Stop Food Radiation. With the obvious problems in feedlots across the country, i would think you would have better things to do with your time. Clean them up and the bacterias found on (more and more) food will go away. Please let common sense and morality rule.
***Please keep our food clean! We don't want our lettuce and vegetable irradiated. Irradiation is the controversial practice of bombarding food with high levels of x-
rays (ionizing radiation) in order to destroy disease causing pathogens.
Unfortunately, in the process of irradiation, other hazards arise, like the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and nutrient loss, and the formation of carcinogenic chemicals. As a consumer, I urge you to make the FDA regulate waste that is used to fertilize the fields of corporate agribusiness. Consumers should be given a choice in the products that they choose. Many are now choosing organic.
There needs to be some regulation on foods used in restaurants, schools, grocery stores, etc. so that people are aware that the foods that they eat are not healthy and have been irradiated. We do not need another form of control over our choices. We have enough of a health crisis in this country without being tricked into eating foods that have been altered, either by genetic engineering, or irradiation. Tell the FDA to get after the violators who contaminated the foods in the first place. Tell the FDA to do their job to protect the American people by guaranteeing that if a food is labeled "organic" it is the truth.
***I am completely opposed to the radiation of our food. Clean up the food processing industries instead. Thank you.
***CLEAN UP THE WATER SUPPLY IN CA BEFORE IRRADIATING OUR FOOD SUPPLY
***Please do not allow irradiation of lettuce and spinach. This is like throwing out the baby with the bathwater. In other words, you are destroying the very thing that makes these foods desirable in your quest to find a cheap and easy way to make them safe: their natural sources of nutrients. There are better ways to deal with contaminants.
***STOP THE USE OF IONIZING RADIATION FOR FOOD!!!!!
*** I am opposed to irradiating any food.
***I cannot believe that you have voted for such a short sighted "fix". Irradiating spinach and lettuce is like putting a bandaid on an individual that is having a heart attack.
This vote tells me that you are not really interested in public health (in the long run) and that some big business must be funding you. It does not take much awareness to realize that our food supply is in need of an
overhaul but it seems that you have neither the desire nor the care to tackle the bigger issues.
I can rest assured that this behavior will force the individual citizens to take personal action such as growing more of their own foods and accessing local farmers. Maybe this decision is good in the long run of that becomes the case.
In short...I strongly disagree with your decision to irradiate spinach and lettuce. I truly am in disbelief at your shortsightedness. Beth Power
***Please don't use ionizing radiation at all.
***It is time to clean up our food supply and provide fresh, nutritious food, not
increase the number of carcinogens in our food supply.
To say that irradiating spinach creates carbohydrate radicals that are not
significant is to say that our health system can deal with the increase in
diseases. This is not acceptable. We should work harder to provide good food, not make it easier to provide poorer quality food. The U.S. is noted in the 1st world as having decreasing life expectancy and more health problems than other similar nations. This is not the time to make this bad statistic worse. The health effects of free radicals is well documented.
It is time for the FDA to provide for the health of our citizens, to consider the TOTAL REAL COST of irradiating food, not just the money spent in supplying the food, but the cost in terms of health care as well.
***You must put a stop to allowing the barbaric practice of irradiating spinach, lettuce, beef or any other food. Whether the food is labeled as such is not the real issue--the point is, it's clearly unhealthy to irradiate food. The food loses nutrients and becomes toxic and carcinogenic. ARE YOU WILLING TO EAT THIS KIND OF FOOD DAILY??? Sincerely, Michael Mishaw
***We are having enough issues getting the American population to maintain a healthy diet, with out the loss of nutrition that the use of Ionizing Radiation for the control of food-borne pathogens, and extension of shelf-life.
Please do not advocate and make rulings just to increase economic favor and
simplified care over our food. If this is passed this will effect the quality of living in every American. That effect will be negative: decreases nutrition, increased immulagical degridation through to the point of increased rate of Cancer development. Tiffany L Calderone, DiHom, PhD
Research Investigator, Dr. Gershenwald's Lab
Dept of Surgical Oncology/Cancer Biology, UT-MDAnderson Cancer Center
7777 Knight Rd, SRB 1.514 Houston, TX 77054
***To whom it may concern,
I believe that some of the people in your organization have good intentions,
but there are others there who act without conscience. It is to those people I
address my comments. I am really tired of your deceitful practices. You put profit above the safety of the consumer. Not only have you approved dangerous pharmecutical drugs, for the financial benefit of the company to the detriment of the consumer, but now you promote the irradiating of "food" if one can even call it food, after the fact. This is an outrage. What kind of "science" have you been reading? You try to prevent the distribution of vitamins and nutrients, because they actually help cure people, while hurting the profits of "Big Pharmacy". Well, you can't fool all of the people all
the time, and the people I know are waking up to your trickery. The question is, how many more people will suffer and die because you hide the truth for a profit? Once again, your giving us another reason to shop exclusively organic.
Sincerely, Jennifer Hontucan
***I would urge you to investigate factory farming and look at the unsanitary conditions there before irradiating the food we eat which can potentially cause increased numbers of disease in the American population.
Irradiation does not seem like a sensible solution, it's a means around doing the dirty work cleaning up the factory farming standards in the country.
Thank you for allowing my comments to be heard,
***The irradiation of food is causing far more problems than it "solves." It is
proven to be dangerous. There is astounding technology available now for
handling the bacteria problems, not the least of which is water purification
technology used in conjunction with a technology which has a useful byproduct
resulting from the water purification. PLEASE let the scientists receive funding to investigate these alternatives. It simply is no longer true that the
solutions are a long way away. They are right here, in your hands, and an
initial investment could result in larger, better crops, safer food, plus higher profits. THAT is going to be the new vision of the new administration, in Washington, D.C., and perhaps it is time to prepare for it.
***I'm outraged that lettuce and vegetables will be irradiated. Fix the cause of dirty food at it's source. What's the long term risk of eating irradiated food? Is anyone at the FDA thinking?
***It is appalling that the FDA is willing to irradiate food instead of cleaning up the conditions of the growers to prevent contamination from happening in the first place!
***To the FDA:
Have you taken leave of your senses. Rather then clean up the problem, you
leave it and make it worse by irradiating it!.....you people who are supposed to help and take care of 'we the people' who pay your salaries, instead you do things to make us sick. Why? because you are under the influence of corporate
business?....do you think we do not know this. I don't care what your positions in this world, we are our brother's keeper.
"Principle -- particularly moral principle -- can never be a weathervane, spinning around this way and that with the shifting winds of expediency. Moral principle is a compass forever fixed and forever true".Edward R. Lyman
I hope you re-examine your morals, values and principles.
*** Use of Ionizing Radiation for the Control of Food-Borne Pathogens and Infectious
Protozoa, ..... 'Be the Change you Wish to See'...... Gandhi
Is this really the change you wish to see? Or wouldn't you consider this a typical American 'quick fix'? Work smarter people, that means include some heart in your resolutions. Isn't it true that true wisdom comes when the mind and heart converge. Where is the wisdom in using radiation for controlling our food supply. This is BEYOND riduculous people. You are so down the wrong road, that alone makes me sick, forget about the quality controls you put on our food.
*** I don't want any of my food irradiated.
*** I want to thank you for speeding up our trip on the way to a genetically mutated and environmentally toxic future. Keep up the good work.
***I am against the FDA plans to irradiate lettuce and spinach. As a home gardener
I am fortunate that I grow much of my produce. Many people do not have the
ability to grow their own and must rely on others to produce their food.
I want everyone to have access to a large variety of nutritious produce that has been tested for bacteria. I do not want all the produce to be irradiated. This process causes harm to the nutritious value of the food.
***I want to thank you for speeding up our trip on the way to a genetically mutated and environmentally toxic future. Keep up the good work.
***I am against the FDA plans to irradiate lettuce and spinach. As a home gardener
I am fortunate that I grow much of my produce. Many people do not have the
ability to grow their own and must rely on others to produce their food.
I want everyone to have access to a large variety of nutritious produce that has been tested for bacteria. I do not want all the produce to be irradiated. This process causes harm to the nutritious value of the food.
*** Please stop Radiation for the Control of Food-Borne Pathogens. You are not
protecting the public, but instead adding additional health risks. Instead of
Radiation, take a closer look at the practices of food production and factory
farming, and clean those areas up.
***We should be moving towards healthier and more sustainable agriculture, not putting in place systems that make food less nutritious and safe.
While irradiated lettuce and spinach must be labeled in supermarkets, there are
currently no labeling requirements whatsoever for restaurants, schools,
hospitals, or nursing homes serving irradiated produce or other nuked foods such as beef.
We should be cleaning up industrial feedlots instead of nuking beef!
Spinach is supposed to be super healthy! Unfortunately, in the process of
irradiation in order to destroy disease causing pathogens, other hazards arise,
like the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and nutrient loss, and the
formation of carcinogenic chemicals.
We should be looking at safer alternatives.
***It is wrong to endanger the American people by irradiating food. Radiation causes nutrient loss in the body and creates free-radicals, which can cause sickness and
disease in the long-term. You are creating a long-term problem that will affect
EVERY American who consumes these irradiated foods to fix a short-term
problem that does not even affect a large percentage of the population. Please
stick to the real problem at hand, which is the poor processing practices of the companies providing the food
***Hey folks, Please leave our fresh produce alone as GOD made them. How can Zapping them with Gamma Rays fix what the Good Lord provides for us unbroken. It ain't broke don't fix it. Haven't you got real broken things to fix? I can name a thousand things you could be fixing. Leave our fresh veggies alone.
***I am writing this to express my deep concern regarding your approval of irradiated vegetables in our food markets, and especially the lack of regulation requiring labeling of such foods in our schools and restaurants. Irradiated food ends up with less nutrients, more damaging free radicals, and is a poor substitute for improving the core problem -- poor farming practices at factory farms. Please revisit this misguided regulation and do not allow irradiated vegetables in our markets, or at least require that it be properly labeled. Thank you
*** How dare the FDA feed irradiated food to the American Public? The People of
America do not want irradiated food. It is a dismal disgrace that the FDA cannot keep Americans safe from this scourge, and cannot assure the People of America safe, clean, natural food, which is a fundamental need of every individual.Irradiating food makes food more dangerous, not safer. Some major concerns with food irradiation include:
-The formation of free radicals, which can set off chain reactions in the body that destroy antioxidants, tear apart cell membranes, and make the body more
susceptible to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver damage, muscular breakdown and other serious problems.
-Serious health problems in laboratory testing, including, including premature
death, fatal internal bleeding, cancer, stillbirths and other reproductive problems, mutations and other genetic damage, organ malfunctions, stunted growth and vitamin deficiencies.
-The creation of mutant forms of dangerous bacteria, like E. coli and Salmonella
-Nutrient loss in foods, including the destruction of vitamins and essential fatty acids.
-The formation of carcinogenic chemicals, like benzene and toluene.
-The FDA is duping American restaurant patrons by hiding irradiated food on their plates, since there are currently no labeling requirements for restaurants serving irradiated produce or other altered items. It is unacceptable that restaurant patrons and clients may consume irradiated lettuce and spinach in the future without their knowledge, nor consent.
The FDA is funded by American taxpayers, and the FDA has a solemn obligation
to keep our food supply safe. The FDA needs to wake up and clean up its act by
cleaning up the food industry, and not by forcing irradiated food on the
unsuspecting American Public.
***I am concerned, irradiation might divert attention away from poor working conditions, sanitation, and poor food-handling procedures that lead to contamination.
Food irradiation is a way to "clean up" problems that are created by the food
production chain. The FDA don't have the will to really protect consumers from unsafe food and therefore is authorizing food irradiation to maintain the apparent quality of certain perishable food for a longer period of time, and in order to destroy disease causing pathogens. The irradiation process causes the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and nutrient loss. Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
***As a farmer I am concerned over this dangerous practice that you are proposing.
Radiation causes some dangerous side effects on the food as well as potentially
bad effects to the consumer. Being a small farmer we do not have any problems
in protecting our vegetables and fruits. All the food related problems are
coming from large operations. Your efforts to protect the food sources in this
country should be concentrated there to be more effective. Also, imported foods
are not being checked properly. I. E. China produce.
I urge you to reject this practice as it will cause not gain other than the
makers of the equipment that will be used to damage our national food sources
*** It is time the FDA started looking out for the people of this country instead of making excuses for the corporations. Instead of irradiation of our food sources, lets make it mandatory that all agri business grow, process and handle food in a safe way. Irradiation takes away from the food we eat, making it less nutritious and more harmful to the consumer. When will we ever learn. Organic is the way to go. Keeping our Organic standards at the highest level provides food for our nation, good food, healthy food, safe food. It is time to make the Agri business responsible in providing that good, healthy, safe food too.
***we promote a local agarian economy here in upper bucks county, PA. it is a crime what the FDA is allowing factory farms to do to the American food supply. it makes me encourage people even more to "BUY LOCAL"
***Please think more carefully about irradiating our food. And for heaven's sake, always provide clear labeling for the consumer at all points (farm to grocery store to menus at restaurants and institutions) so that we will maintain our freedom of choice. Between GMOs, mass feedlots and food processing, we are painting ourselves into a corner healthwise. Not to mention that our practices are decreasing our ability to sell our products over seas already. Private citizen with a BS Animal Science, TAMU, College Station
***Instead of turning our food into frankenfoods, please look into stopping the problem where it starts--industrial feedlots. Food irradiation is not the solution. This will only cause more malnutrition and does not encourage sustainable farming. I hope consumers show with their hard earned dollars that this is a very bad idea, and I hope that any companies that proceed with the practice fall victim to their own radiation.
***Please make sure their is the radura symbol that shows a product has been irradiated on all places such as restaurants, schools, hospitals, or nursing homes serving irradiated produce, beef and the grocery stores. We have a right to know what is going on our food or is being done to our food, especially if we have chemical sensitives and allergies or small children or elderly. We have a
right to vote with our dollars. thanks.
*** We are writing to oppose irradiation of spinach and lettuce, and of all other foods.If food is handled properly then it will be clean and there will not be any problems. Irradiation is not the answer to dangers posed by poor food handling and it also generates carcinogenic compounds in the irradiated food. Congressman Mike Thompson
***I am opposed to irradiation of food. In the process of irradiation, other hazards arise, like the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and nutrient loss, and the formation of carcinogenic chemicals. A better solution would be to clean up disease-ridden industrial feed lots instead.
***Your decision to irradiate lettuce and spinach is a very bad idea. In the process of irradiation health hazards arise, like the creation of toxic free radicals, vitamin and
nutrient loss, and the formation of carcinogenic compounds. It also makes food
off-flavored. Then there is also the source of irradiation -- is it contained, where is it stored, are workers protected, and what will be done with the waste? Moreover, there is no requirement for restaurants, schools and so forth to let the consumer know that it is irradiated. For us at the society, we personally will not go to restaurants and get any salad or a side of spinach, and we will make it a point to see that schools not use it. It is so counter productive to be concerned about the few people who were sicked by spinach and lettuce, and put many more people at risk for all sorts of diseases that come from free radicals, carcinogenic compounds, and insufficient nutrition.
*** We are concerned that the Food and Drug Administration has approved the irradiation of spinach and lettuce. Food irradiation is a process that leaves food more dangerous than was before the irradiation.
Laboratory testing has shown that food irradiation can lead to serious health problems such as premature death, fatal internal bleeding, cancer, stillbirths and other reproductive problems, mutations and other genetic damage, organ malfunctions, stunted growth and vitamin deficiencies.
Food irradiation also creates free radicals, which can set off chain reactions in the body that destroy antioxidants, tear apart cell membranes, and make the body more susceptible to cancer, diabetes, heart disease, liver damage, muscular breakdown and other serious problems.
It creates mutant forms of dangerous bacteria, such as E. coli and Salmonella. It causes nutrient loss in foods, such as the destruction of vitamins and essential fatty acids. Irradiation also causes the formation of carcinogens such as benzene and toluene.
While the FDA currently requires the labeling of irradiated food in grocery stores, there are no regulations on the labeling of irradiated food in restaurants. This is a concern because consumers may consume irradiated food without prior knowledge or consent.
There are alternatives to food irradiation which include prevention by keeping facilities clean and ridding of infested fruits and vegetables, heat treatment, cold treatments, using plant oils, controlling the atmosphere of shipping containers, and replacing stainless steel with brass and copper.
*** I believe that FDA's approval of irradiation in our food is not only dangerous, it is patently absurd. Instead of growing and processing food in a manner that treats it as food, FDA is trying to clean up the act of a few bad practices and companies at the expense of people's lives. As a grower and processor of walnuts, I know that it is only through my neglect that I create problems. I know that if I do this, it will cost me. Now you are saying that we and others can be neglectful without consequences. How absurd. This decision is like so many coming out of FDA. I think it may be time to totally revamp FDA so that it is doing what it was called to do; protect people from harmful and dangerous practices. The FDA does not work for business. The FDA is supposed to work for the people.
*** Do not use ionizing radiation for food -- the benefits have not been fully tested and proven and the dangers are apparently not important enough to be considered. Have you considered the dangers?
*** I am writing to protest the irradiation of any foodstuffs. This is a back door solution that provides consumers with a less than nutritious and possibly harmful food supply, while allowing food producers carte blanche on their production processes.
It is not the province of the FDA to clean up after, or facilitate unsafe and
unsanitary food production methods. The FDA is mandated by law to provide
American consumers with a safe and nutritious pathway to foodstuffs, not to
endlessly enable big agribusiness in their self serving procedures.
This just further indicates the need for wide sweeping reforms within the FDA. For too long the FDA has functioned as a lackey for big ag and big pharma, while putting Americans at risk. This symbiosis between the industries and the FDA is unhealthy for America.
***I am an Adjunct Prof. at Tufts Medical School & Mass College of Pharmacy.
Irradiating spinach and lettuce is not a solution to e. coli found on foods. The workers need to be provided with toilets and sanitary hand washing as a normal part of their work day in the field.
As a teacher this is basic knowledge, as a mother this is common sense.
Margaret Flint
***I strongly oppose the use of ionizing radiation for the control of food bornepathogens.
***We are totally against your forced irradication of our foods. Clean up the growers and handlers industry and we will be able to live with wonderful food instead of 'dead' food which costs oour medical and hospital community way too mush money!
***As a nursing professional who has worked many years in the oncology field this comes as no surprise. What a shame our government lends it's support to those whose intentions lack integrity and forethought for the welfare of humankind. Yet will they be the ones who willingly eat these irradiated "foods"? Will they advise their own loved ones truthfully or lie to them as well? This is no longer food-as Webster's New World Dictionary denotes, and I quote" Food: anything that nourishes". Radiation does not nourish-it kills, the good with the bad.
***Please, someone rescue us from the FDA, they have no clue as to what they are doing.
***It's time to do the job you're being paid for, and that is making sure that food and drugs are safe and have known side effects. Irradiated Lettuce and Spinach is just putting a bandage on the real problem. We need to clean up how food is handled and packed as well as shipped. At least tell us on labels the foods that are irradiated, so we have a choice.
***Please do not allow irradiation of lettuce and spinach. There has already been far
too much harm done to our food sources without killing ALL the vitamins and
nutrients in the food on top of it! It is far more important to me that I have my nutrients intact in my food than that I avoid a few potentially harmful pathogens (which, in the first place, needn't even bother me if I am healthy from good food). Sincerely, Ruth Lough Missouri
***Has the FDA completely lost their minds? Our food supply is so depleted of vitamins and nutrients because of over farming the same crop in the same plot of land and all the added chemicals and hormones they have permitted our food
supply to be tainted with and no irradiation of our food supply. Who do they work for? Oh excuse me..PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANIES that make the poisons we are feed through our food supply. Well I for one am tired of being treated like a
lab rat. I will now only buy locally and what's in season and from organic farmers.
I don't trust the FDA one single bit. They do not have the best interest of the
people of this country at heart. To put it simply - it's all about GREED!
***I do not want to eat or buy ANY irradiated food. With the approval to allow irradiation for lettuce and spinach -- and while it must be labeled in supermarkets --there are no labeling requirements for restaurants, schools, hospitals, or nursing homes serving irradiated produce or other nuked foods.
These foods should have full discloser and either labeled or banned.
Thank you Shannon Donnelly read@shannondonnelly.com
*** Please do NOT use radiation on my food. If you choose to put this on the market, I will not buy it. It's bad enough you've let GMO foods into the system. As a gardener, and a seed saver I'm going to have to worry about that too. Would you want you're children eating this garbage?
***Please do not allow irradiation of our food supplies. This causes more nutritional problems than the health problems it is supposed to prevent. Here are my reasons why I don't want irradiation practiced in this country.
***Would you feed the food to your family? It must be comforting to know that your children and grandchildren are eating this food in school. Is this your solution to the education crisis? Feed kids radiation so their brains become mutant?
***I am a Holistic health practitioner who has been selecting the healthiest foods available for myself, my friends, family and associates. I am firmly against your approval of irradiating lettuce and spinach, as a way to rid them of
possible pathogens. The negative consequences of irradiation have not been
fully explored, and you are exposing the public to negative fallout, the scope
of which could be much worse than those pathogens!
I have grown lettuce and spinach organically, and with the proper care and
attention, it is not difficult to grow safe, healthy foods. To skimp on the
intelligent use of traditional methods to grow healthy foods, and to replace
that with a 'one size fits all' irradiation technique, is nonsensical and dangerous.
Please change this policy. Irradiation of healthy produce will damage it's
ability to nourish and sustain human life. Please re-consider your options, and
listen to what's best for the public good.
Thank you, Sheela Alex
*** Please reconsider your approval of Radiating our food. I want my food to be natural and as it was intended. Irradiating food makes food more dangerous, not safer. Please require all food sold or served anywhere including schools, hospitals etc. to be labeled so that we can make informed decisions. thanks Kumella
***How is it we made it to over 6 billion people on this planet, most of whom live in much less sanitary living conditions than Americans, without the "benefit" of irradiation of food???
It is outrageous and short-sighted to consider making a sweeping action of
irradiating our fresh foods. Consumers, who are at times dependent on obtaining
food from restaurants where they have no way of knowing if the food has been
irradiated, will be at the mercy of little choice about not eating irradiated food. Because irradiation alters the chemical composition of food and removes its vital life force, eating this food will in the long run prove to be more of a health hazard then the bacteria it is intended to destroy. In our attempts to be invulnerable we will succeed only in making ourselves more vulnerable to poor nutrition and compromise our health and wellbeing in the process. Please DO NOT approve the irradiation of our food supplies.
*** I'm deeply concerned about the FDA's consideration of the use of Ionizing Radiation on our food.
*** As always in this administration the bureaucrats wants to cover the smell of money talking. While the cost of cleaning up the poor agricultural practices might cost more than radiation, as always, the bodies of our citizens will be bombarded with more chemical residue, and, less healthy food leading to more health costs down the road. As a consumer I WILL NEVER buy this food and I intend to talk it up with all my friends and neighbors. Furthermore I shall contact my supermarkets and let them know how I feel. Mariah Healy
*** Beyond being a risky venture in itself, irradiation of foods such as lettuce and spinach does nothing to address the inherent problem with the food industry.
More effort should be spent on cleaning up and policing the food processing
plants than in putting a "band-aid" on the issue, one that costs money and may
have long-term effects that we cannot even imagine right now. Irradiating food
is a very controversial issue - it should not be used as a first resort to
fixing the problems of disease in our food chain.
Thank you for your time.
***As a farmer and value-added products producer I am vehemently opposed to irradiating food products. If irradiation or GMOs are going to be allowed into our food system, labeling is essential. I urge you to mandate the labeling of all irradiated food products
***Clean up industrial feedlots and and stop irradiating our food! I do not want to be poisoned by irradiation.
*** Please stop the irradiation of spinach and lettuce! Thank you. Nancy Broach, RN
*** I am absolutely stunned at these plans! We must protect the health of men, women and children above the profits of the food industry.
***Being a medical doctor, I am aware of the damage that can be caused by the irradiation to food, including gene mutation, toxic chemical changes in the chemicals used as pesticides/fertilizers present on the food ,reduction of anti oxidants, vitamins and nutrients, and so on.
In our present world ridden with Cancer epidemic, we do NOT need to add another
cause for cancer to our diet!
Int J Health Serv. 2001;31(1):187-92. Links
Preventing pathogenic food poisoning: sanitation, not irradiation.
Epstein SS, Hauter W.
Cancer Prevention Coalition, University of Illinois School of Public Health, 2121 West Taylor Street, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.
Bacterial food poisoning can be readily prevented by long overdue basic sanitary measures rather than by
ultrahazardous irradiation technologies.
PMID: 11271643 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]
2.http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/press/releases/will-abc-20-20-cover-food-
irradiation-fairly-article02232007
3.http://www.preventcancer.com/consumers/food/irradiation.htm
4. http://www.centerforfoodsafety.org/food_irrad.cfm
***I am extremely upset to learn that the FDA has ok'd irradiation of lettuce and spinach, especially now that we are certain that irradiating food makes food more dangerous, not safer. Moreover, there are many natural substances that are known to inhibit growth of bacteria on food. Why isn't the FDA funding the research of these substances rather than promoting a potentially deadly
alternative?
Some major concerns with food irradiation include:
-The formation of free radicals, which can set off chain reactions in the body that destroy antioxidants, tear apart cell membranes, and make the body more susceptible to cancer,
diabetes, heart disease, liver damage, muscular breakdown and other serious problems.
-Serious health problems in laboratory testing, including, including premature death, fatal
internal bleeding, cancer, stillbirths and other reproductive problems, mutations and other genetic
damage, organ malfunctions, stunted growth and vitamin deficiencies.
-The creating mutant forms of dangerous bacteria, like E. coli and Salmonella
-Nutrient loss in foods, including the destruction of vitamins and essential fatty acids.
-The formation of carcinogenic chemicals, like benzene and toluene.
***Consumer Comments on Food Irradiation
bravenet.com
