Dear FDA: Thanks for Nothing!

Why even bother issuing a statement about fish farms that may have used contaminated pet food, if this is all you're going to say?

Prepare to be Shocked...

The FDA is lying. It seems there could be health consequences of eating melamine-tainted food, including the pork, chicken and fish that entered our food supply. How do I know? I looked it up on the Internets (actually, at PubMed, the government's own medical research database).

As far as I can tell, there have been only a handful of animal studies done on the effects of consuming melamine. In every case, the animals developed bladder and/or kidney problems, including bladder stones, enlarged bladders, and tumors.

But here's the real problem -- in a study from 1985, researchers called the melamine connection to the formation of bladder stones and related problems an example of the threshold effect, and added that "there is strong evidence linking bladder stones with the induction of tumors...." This same study also found that the youngest animals were the most susceptible to developing these problems. Here are the researchers’ conclusions:

"A decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concerning the levels of MA [melamine] allowed to occur in the food chain indicates that data regarding thresholds, even in the case of urolithiasis [stone formation], are not being utilized in the risk assessment process."

I could be wrong, but that seems to say that for the past twenty-plus years, the EPA has chosen to ignore evidence that melamine damages the bladder and kidneys, and, based on the results of the animal study, that children would be particularly at risk. Plus, let's not forget that tens of thousands of companion animals have been sickened and killed by the same food the pigs, chickens and fish ate.

It seems to me we should avoid chicken and pork for at least a few months. But as the FDA's newly appointed "food czar," David Acheson, told a Congressional committee today, the agency would need "proof of human illness" before it would issue a ban on imported fish. Apparently, it's too much of a stretch to believe that food poisoned with industrial waste might make humans sick, too.

As for farmed fish, melamine is just one more reason to stay away, given the chemicals that have been found in tested samples. To get the considerable health benefits of fish without the risks, buy fish oil that has been molecularly distilled to remove the toxins.

How Far Has the Contamination Spread?

When I started this blog, it was a place to let people know that assisted living facilities often fail to live up to their promises, especially when it comes to dealing with Alzheimer's patients. I know this because my sister and I lost our father due to negligence on the part of two different assisted living facilities. He became so severely dehydrated that when he went to the emergency room, the doctor there said she had never seen anyone in his condition who was not in a coma. So much for assisting him with living.

Dad recovered a bit in the hospital and went to a nursing home. But the dehydration had made swallowing difficult, so his diet consisted of "thickened" foods, products made specifically for people who can't swallow well on their own. In checking the ingredient list on some of these foods, I found a number of different products that made me think: Where are these ingredients from? If they came from abroad, did the FDA inspect the shipment? (Actually, that's highly unlikely, since only 1 container out of 100 is actually examined and that's when the container holds actual food. When it comes to ingredients, the inspection rate is even lower.)

Dad died from kidney failure, the same thing that has killed thousands of pets who ate tainted food recently. There don't seem to be any glutens in the thickened foods, but there are plenty of other ingredients that could have been bought in China on the cheap and been contaminated with who-knows-what. I could be way off base, but the tainted food scandal is far more widespread than the FDA wants you to think, so who wouldn't be wondering whether anything is safe anymore?

Eat at Your Own Risk?

The tragedy of tainted pet food is only one small part of our disastrous and unsafe food supply picture -- and it is not pretty. According to a recent Associated Press article, nearly 99 percent of food from other countries is not inspected by the FDA or USDA. Keep in mind this is food intended for humans as well as animals. And of the miniscule 1.3% that is tested, government agencies regularly find unhealthy levels of contamination, including everything from pesticides to salmonella. According to the report, food from China is especially likely to unsafe, so whenever possible check labels for country of origin information.

Furthermore, it's likely that the tainted ingredients that sickened and killed pets are in human foods, as well, according to another report in the International Herald Tribune. From the article:

"... the agency [FDA] will begin domestic tests of corn gluten, corn meal, soy protein, rice bran, rice protein concentrate, and wheat gluten imported from China to determine if those products are also tainted with industrial chemicals. Such ingredients are used in breakfast cereal, pizza dough, baby formula, and protein shakes, but Dr. David Acheson, chief medical officer at the food and Drug Administration's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, said there was "no evidence" that any of those human foods contained contaminated ingredients."

No evidence? When only 1.3% of all imported food is being tested, that's not very reassuring. Of course, it may be unfair to single out imports when the FDA has been allowing food on grocery store shelves from domestic manufacturers with known contamination issues for years. During testimony before Congress earlier this week, we learned that the FDA has long known about spinach and meat tainted with E. coli and salmonella-laced peanut butter (pictured above, recalled Peter Pan peanut butter with product code 2111).

What can consumers do about the situation? For starters, stay informed. Check the news daily, because these stories do make headlines. Second, contact your representatives in Congress and let them know that the FDA, an agency that has been gutted in recent years, needs the budget and staff to oversee food safety properly. This is no longer a pet food issue -- it's something that affects everyone who eats.