Torpedo
05-24-03, 08:56 AM
Information before decision
In an April 16 notice in the Federal Register, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Steris Corporation had filed a petition requesting "the safe use of ionizing radiation" for sterilizing dietary supplements, and ingredients used in their manufacture. In support of the petition, FDA reassured "that this action ... does not ... have a significant effect on the human environment."
However, in spite of industry and FDA assurances, irradiated dietary supplements are nutritionally inferior. Worse still, they are even dangerous.
The irradiation dosage proposed by Steris ranges to as high as one billion times greater than that of a single chest X-ray, and about six times greater than that allowed by FDA for the sterilization of fresh meat. Such high doses of ionizing radiation produce profound changes in the chemical composition of the fats in nutritional ingredients. These include the production of high levels of benzene, and also a group of unique chemicals, some of which are highly stable. These chemicals, and irradiated food, have been incriminated as causing cancer. They have also been shown to cause genetic damage in test tube experiments, rodents, monkeys, and young children.
Of still further concern, irradiation results in major losses of vitamins, particularly A, C, E, and the B complex.
The Steris petition for sterilizing nutritional supplements with high dose radiation raises serious concerns regarding the likelihood of bacterial contamination of mainstream industry products. Accordingly, the public should be so informed by explicit labeling.
In an April 16 notice in the Federal Register, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced that Steris Corporation had filed a petition requesting "the safe use of ionizing radiation" for sterilizing dietary supplements, and ingredients used in their manufacture. In support of the petition, FDA reassured "that this action ... does not ... have a significant effect on the human environment."
However, in spite of industry and FDA assurances, irradiated dietary supplements are nutritionally inferior. Worse still, they are even dangerous.
The irradiation dosage proposed by Steris ranges to as high as one billion times greater than that of a single chest X-ray, and about six times greater than that allowed by FDA for the sterilization of fresh meat. Such high doses of ionizing radiation produce profound changes in the chemical composition of the fats in nutritional ingredients. These include the production of high levels of benzene, and also a group of unique chemicals, some of which are highly stable. These chemicals, and irradiated food, have been incriminated as causing cancer. They have also been shown to cause genetic damage in test tube experiments, rodents, monkeys, and young children.
Of still further concern, irradiation results in major losses of vitamins, particularly A, C, E, and the B complex.
The Steris petition for sterilizing nutritional supplements with high dose radiation raises serious concerns regarding the likelihood of bacterial contamination of mainstream industry products. Accordingly, the public should be so informed by explicit labeling.