Disease Proof

Food contamination has become a reoccurring topic on DiseaseProof. Dr. Fuhrman recommends avoiding or limiting intake of dangerous foods. This can prove difficult because a lot of foods have been discovered to contain toxic compounds, such as milk, fish, and even bottled water. Unfortunately it may get harder to avoid these foods because as Marian Burros of The New York Times reports a new federal bill may threaten many state regulations:

Erik D. Olson, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: "What the bill would do is assure the lowest common denominator of protection. Cheaper food that has poisonous chemicals in it is no bargain. They [state regulations] are being responsible and protecting citizens when the federal government hasn't done its job."

In a letter opposing the bill, the Association of Food and Drug Officials, an organization of state regulators, said that proponents of the bill had misinterpreted it and that it extended well beyond uniform labeling. "Under this bill," it said, "a state cannot have any law, not just a food law, which is not identical to the federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act."

The National Association of State Departments of Agriculture also opposes the bill. In a letter to members of the House, the president of the association, J. Carlton Courter III, said the bill "threatens existing food safety programs," including milk, retail food protection and shellfish sanitation. About 80 percent of food safety inspections in the United States are conducted at state and local levels.

For more information on food contamination read these posts: The Keystone State Acts to Reduce Mercury Emissions, Is Organic Food Safer?, Early Exposure to Pesticide: Revisited, and Fishing for the Truth.