The same FDA that said getting cheaper drugs from Canada is bad now says mercury in food is OK!

[ck4829]

In the waning days of the Bush presidency, the Food and Drug Administration is pushing to scuttle the government's advice about mercury-contaminated seafood, a dramatic policy change that would, in effect, encourage women and children to eat more fish despite growing concerns about the toxic metal.

The FDA's recommendations, sent recently to the White House Office of Management and Budget for approval, prompted a sharp rebuke from scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency who, in memos circulated earlier this month, described them as "scientifically flawed and inadequate."

A joint advisory issued by the two agencies in 2004 cautions women of childbearing age, nursing mothers and young children to limit seafood consumption to 12 ounces a week. But in a draft version of the FDA's new report, the agency says its own modeling shows that kids can benefit from eating fish.

EPA scientists, though, say the FDA's report reaches conclusions that aren't supported by the studies it cites, and at various points either trivializes or overstates existing research.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6174650.html

Mercury news...

Students checked after mercury spill at school

A mercury spill at a San Bernardino school brought out a hazardous materials squad and led to an after-classes decontamination ordeal for about 500 students.

An eighth grader at Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School found the 4-ounce bottle of mercury in a shed and he brought it to school on Thursday. While showing it to schoolmates, the mercury spilled.

Mercury can cause respiratory problems, skin irritation and long-term damage.

http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11270228

Student's home quarantined after mercury scare

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School returned to business as usual Friday following a mercury scare, but a family's home and vehicle were quarantined because of the potentially dangerous silver liquid.

An eighth grade boy brought a jar containing four ounces of mercury to school Thursday and spilled it while showing his friends.

Although more than 900 students and school employees were detained several hours after school let out at 2:10 p.m., a HAZMAT crew found that only 37 children had been in direct contact with the mercury.

"We had to check everyone, one by one," said San Bernardino City Unified School District spokeswoman Linda Bardere.

http://www.sbsun.com/sanbernardino/ci_11274101

And just to be clear, this is the same FDA that tried to hassle the American People out of getting cheaper prescription drugs from Canada because they said (Without any evidence) that these drugs were dangerous.

[Junkdrawer]

1. And let's not forget the Mercury in all that "Clean Coal" we're about to burn...

:mad:

[cascadiance]

5. It really smells like the coal industry's hands are in this... Consider RFK Jr's comments...

... on mercury poisoning that is so much a problem with fish these days, largely due to our mining of coal, etc. without any real effective oversight to keep mercury poisoning from getting into our fresh water supplies.

From:

http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/speeches/2005-09-10rfkjr.asp

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s speech

at the Sierra Summit, September 10, 2005

The following is a transcript of a speech by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. at the Sierra Club's National Convention and Expo on September 10, 2005 in San Francisco. Kennedy received the Sierra Club's William O. Douglas Award on behalf of the Waterkeeper Alliance.

...A couple of months ago, EPA announced that in 19 states it is now unsafe to eat any freshwater fish in the state mercury contamination. We know where the mercury is coming from -- those same coal-burning power plants. In 48 states, at least some of the fish are unsafe to eat. In fact, the only two states where all of the fish are still safe to eat are Alaska and Wyoming, where Republican-controlled legislatures have refused to appropriate the money to test the fish. In all of the other states, at least some, most, or all of the fish are unsafe to eat.

We know a lot about mercury we didn't know a few years ago. We know for example, that one out of every six, now one out of every three, American women has so much mercury in her womb that her children are at risk for a grim inventory of diseases: autism, blindness, mental retardation, heart, liver, kidney disease.

I have so much mercury in my body -- I had my level tested recently, and Waterkeeper will test your level, you can send them a hair sample -- my level is about double what the EPA considers safe. I was told by Dr. David Carpenter, who is the national authority on mercury contamination, that a woman with my levels of mercury in her blood would have children with impairment. I said to him, "You mean she might have," and he said, "No, the science is very certain today. Her children would have some kind of permanent brain damage." He estimated an IQ loss in those kids of about five to seven points.

Well, 630,000 children are born in America every year who have been exposed to dangerous levels of mercury in their mother's wombs. President Clinton, recognizing the gravity of this national health epidemic, reclassified mercury as a hazardous pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That triggered the requirement that all of those companies remove 90 percent of the mercury within three and a half years. It would have cost less than one percent of plant revenue -- a great deal for the American people. We have the technology. It exists. We already require it in states like Massachusetts.

...

[cascadiance]

6. Free Speech TV is actually talking about this issue right now!

[w4rma]

2. Corrupt, insane, evil. (nt)

[FarCenter]

3. Muddled

Metallic mercury, as in thermometers, barometer, etc, is not particularly hazardous without very long exposure, especially to the vapors in a poorly ventilated space.

Mercury compounds in food are much more hazardous. On the other hand, it is probably true that fetuses and young children's nervous system development would benefit from added omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids in fish more that they would be harmed by trace amounts of mercury compounds.

The trace amounts of mercury vary from species to species depending on how high up on the food chain it is.

The amounts of fatty acids in fish also vary widely depending on the species.

There are other sources of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids from plants that may be safer -- but watch out for pesticides and herbicides.

As for Canadian drugs, as Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota said (yes I know he's a Republican), "Show me the dead Canadians".

[Fireweed247]

4. Sometimes I get the impression...

that they are trying to kill us all between the way they allow harmful drugs through so easily and refuse to look at the possible side effects of Bgh and GM foods and then the false information they put out like...
"take you hormones even though they cause cancer" "vitamins don't help"