FDA may allow some toxic chemicals to be added to food without safety review

jmclnx

>many chemicals, especially hormone disruptors linked to brain damage and reproductive harm in children, are considered dangerous at levels far below 0.5ppb I guess US people are not damaged, dumbed down enough. Now the Trump admin wants to make sure kids are at high risk for brain damage. At least the cuts to colleges by Trump will not matter once TOR hits "critical mass".

ck2

it's really hard to pick the first few impeachments based on urgency in preventing further death and destruction so many clowns to chose from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_cabinet_of_Donald_Trump Hegseth, Kennedy and Vought I think would be most productive focus But if Dems don't get Senate country is doomed anyway so pointless

throawayonthe

it's weird how they say "One TOR exemption that allows the rocket fuel chemical perchlorate to be used in grain bags..." as well as the article they link to https://blogs.edf.org/health/2019/01/11/fda-perchlorate-in-f... focusing on it being a rocket fuel component i guess it sounds scary? but it almost implies rocket fuel is somehow involved in grain transport lol. the real reason for its use i guess is to control static electricity: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchlorate#:~:text=control-,s... this is like that one time people came to my school to talk about vapes, and one of their talking points was "vapes can contain formaldehyde, and formaldehyde is used to preserve dead specimens/tissue samples" ; they did not get my issue with the lack of causal reasoning in that argument :P

komali2

On that note, many of the American readers here are probably eligible for the Taiwan Gold Card Visa. Especially anyone in SF, basically having a Github and an American software engineering salary practically guarantees you to get it. It's an unrestricted work visa: 3 years, unlimited in/out, no requirement to get a job in Taiwan (or work at all), total allowance for remote work for foreign companies, lower tax rate, and eligibility for the state-subsidized national health insurance program after 6 months in the country. How'd you like to pay 10$ for an xray after being scanned and seen by a doctor within 30 minutes of walking into an ER? That's our life here! We have lots of tech folks from all over the world here and regularly have co-working meetups, hackathons, fireside chats, and talks. Also our food doesn't have toxic chemicals in it :) You can learn more here: https://goldcard.nat.gov.tw/en/ p.s. YC startup school is coming here this year https://events.ycombinator.com/startup-school-taipei

gustavus

Wait till they get wind of that toxic dihydrogen monoxide. It is in almost every beverage in the US and is the same chemical used in pesticides, fertilizer, its even used in many toxic waste industrial processes. Beyond that there are numerous repeated and scientifically proven to cause permanent brain damage or even death in sufficient concentrations. How long will Washington insiders profit while our nation continues to sicken.

NewJazz

I posted this because I thought it both interesting and troubling to see the disconnect between RFK Jr's stated goals and values and his actions in practice. Like many out there, I connected with some of the underlying messages and values that his campaign put forward. However, the more I learn about him and his past, the more I question not just his methods and expertise, but his truthfulness and genuineness. I would really like to see more policy (from whomever: local, state, federal, judiciary, legislative, executive, red, blue, green, black) that actually accomplishes some of the things that RFK Jr says that he wants to accomplish.

shevy-java

This is the outcome when you have lobbyists control a government. In this regard the Trump-administration is by far the most hostile to people. You still have to wonder why Trump has a 30% support base; that should be at 0% already but some people can not think on their own (excluding the 5% who benefit personally from the Trump clique).

Havoc

The self regulation worked great for Boeing so why not

Madmallard

No matter what you may argue about whether or not these specific chemicals are safe at the contaminant dosage, we do not NEED more poorly studied chemicals present in our environment.

londons_explore

If a chemical coating on a 2000 lbs grain bag was enough to harm children who ate grain stored in the bags, then think about the impact on the person in the coating factory who probably receives a dose 10^9 x bigger without PPE, and probably 10^6 bigger with PPE, because very little PPE keeps out more than 99.9% of whats outside. Something about the story doesn't add up. Either people are dying every day in the coating factory (unlikely), or the coating, whilst measurable, isn't as dangerous as the article implies.

6510

Someone once told me that if you have an ingredient that may have 0.3% toxins and you bought a cheap badge with 0.4% and a quality badge with 0.25% it is awfully tempting to mix them as close to 0.29% as possible. You might even convince the quality supplier to aim for 0.2% so that you can use the almost worthless 0.5% It isn't unthinkable that some would use the food supply to somewhat legally dispose of 100% toxic materials. Properly mixing is really hard and you cant really trust people who would do such a thing to mix in the poisons "properly".

stackghost

Americans are so bizarrely tolerant of having a food supply chock full of highly-processed, artificial everything. The answer always seems to be “we don’t like these big companies putting additives in food but we’ve tried nothing and are all out of ideas”

GuestFAUniverse

"generally regarded as safe” (Gras) -- obviously thought out while smoking too much of it.