Cancer: it's what's for breakfast
Aug. 27th, 2005 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
debgeislerAnother little tidbit out of our friends in the 31st state in the union. You might remember them -- their governor, the Terminator, has decided to ban foie gras 'cuz it's bad for you (and, incidentally, bad for the goose...but that seems almost an afterthought). [Sorry, Janice (well, and Jim, and Ed, and Sandra, and Kevin and...)]
Okay, this time, it's french fries. California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, has filed in Los Angeles Superior Court to get an injunction against McDonalds and Wendy's and just about every fast-food manufacturer he can think of, to demand that they not sell you snacks until they put warning labels on french fries and potato chips (and, presumably, potato strings and tater tots and you name it) indicating that they are carcinogenic.
No, I am not making this up. CNN's web site has reported the story, noting that acrylamide -- which has been claimed to have some mild but clinically unproven carcinogenic properties -- is present in starchy foods that are fried at high heat.
The FDA is waffling (do waffles count, if they're fried in the fry-o-lator at your local Burger Death?) about the acrylamide thingumy, since it appears that in extremely high doses it has mild carcinogenic properties in laboratory rats. However, the FDA's further noted that there is no evidence that acrylamide causes cancer in humans in the amount present in foods.
Enough. Warning labels on french fries??? Come one. We *know* they're bad for us. But a warning label on a can of Pringles?
One or two studies do *not* a scientific proof make. Just ask the nice folks who made cyclamates. People my age remember cyclamates -- they were what made Tab potable. But in 1969, a study claimed that the ingestion of cyclamates caused tumor growth in lab rats. This study, which was never reproduced in any statistically significant way led to the total ban of cyclamates in the US, as well as the subsequent ban in the UK (which reinstated them in 1997).
The lousy piece of science that led to the ban supposedly fed the equivalent of 350 cans of soda (per day, every day, for months on end) to lab rats...and said that, over time, the rats got tumors. Wikipedia offers some insights and details, if you're interested.
Hell, you feed me 350 cans of soda a day, and my bladder and kidneys will wear out (not to mention the plumbing in the house) long before cancer could rear its ugly head. And then they started in on how saccharine could be horrible for you, too. They are *not* taking my Sweet-n-Low away.
So, now we have the AG of CA claiming that MickeyD's and others must label their french fries as dangerous on the basis of studies the FDA doesn't even buy.
Oh, and those lab rats? I think they're born with cancer.
Okay, this time, it's french fries. California's Attorney General, Bill Lockyer, has filed in Los Angeles Superior Court to get an injunction against McDonalds and Wendy's and just about every fast-food manufacturer he can think of, to demand that they not sell you snacks until they put warning labels on french fries and potato chips (and, presumably, potato strings and tater tots and you name it) indicating that they are carcinogenic.
No, I am not making this up. CNN's web site has reported the story, noting that acrylamide -- which has been claimed to have some mild but clinically unproven carcinogenic properties -- is present in starchy foods that are fried at high heat.
The FDA is waffling (do waffles count, if they're fried in the fry-o-lator at your local Burger Death?) about the acrylamide thingumy, since it appears that in extremely high doses it has mild carcinogenic properties in laboratory rats. However, the FDA's further noted that there is no evidence that acrylamide causes cancer in humans in the amount present in foods.
Enough. Warning labels on french fries??? Come one. We *know* they're bad for us. But a warning label on a can of Pringles?
One or two studies do *not* a scientific proof make. Just ask the nice folks who made cyclamates. People my age remember cyclamates -- they were what made Tab potable. But in 1969, a study claimed that the ingestion of cyclamates caused tumor growth in lab rats. This study, which was never reproduced in any statistically significant way led to the total ban of cyclamates in the US, as well as the subsequent ban in the UK (which reinstated them in 1997).
The lousy piece of science that led to the ban supposedly fed the equivalent of 350 cans of soda (per day, every day, for months on end) to lab rats...and said that, over time, the rats got tumors. Wikipedia offers some insights and details, if you're interested.
Hell, you feed me 350 cans of soda a day, and my bladder and kidneys will wear out (not to mention the plumbing in the house) long before cancer could rear its ugly head. And then they started in on how saccharine could be horrible for you, too. They are *not* taking my Sweet-n-Low away.
So, now we have the AG of CA claiming that MickeyD's and others must label their french fries as dangerous on the basis of studies the FDA doesn't even buy.
Oh, and those lab rats? I think they're born with cancer.