Consumer product safety may be in the eyes of the beholder
The Double Standard on Trading Contaminated Chinese and U.S. Consumer Products
By Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. — Professor emeritus, Environmental & Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chairman of Cancer Prevention Coalition — and Ronnie Cummins — National Director of Organic Consumers Association
CHICAGO -- The dangers of cheap Chinese exports of contaminated consumer products has received extensive media coverage, besides the formation of a Cabinet-level Product Safety Panel. These exports include personal care products, such as toothpaste contaminated with the anti-freeze diethylene glycol, honey contaminated with dangerous antibiotics, and food contaminated with banned drugs, pesticides and carcinogens. In contrast, Congress and the media remain silent on the export of dangerous U.S. consumer products, besides their decades-old domestic sale.
U.S. personal care and cosmetic products contain a wide range of avoidable toxic ingredients, notably multiple carcinogens, hormones and allergens, which remain unregulated by the FDA. These products include leading brands of toothpaste with carcinogenic ingredients. In sharp contrast, the 30-member state European Union has developed a Cosmetic Directive, which bans the manufacture and import of products suspected of causing harm to human health. Highlighting FDA's indifference is the State of California's 2005 Safe Cosmetic Act, requiring cosmetic companies to disclose information on toxic ingredients.
Of major concern is U.S. milk from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase milk production. According to Monsanto, about one third of dairy cows in the nation are in herds where the hormone is used. This milk contains abnormally high levels of a natural growth factor known as IGF-1. As documented in over 30 scientific publications, detailed in our May 2007 Citizen Petition to the FDA, increased levels of IGF-1 in milk increase risks of breast cancer by up to seven-fold, besides risks of colon and prostate cancers. Not surprisingly, the import of U.S. rBGH dairy products has been banned by Canada, 29 European nations, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Also, in June 1999, the United Nations Food Safety Agency, representing 101 nations worldwide, voted unanimously to reject a safety standard for rBGH milk. Nevertheless, there are no FDA restrictions on its continued sale in the U.S., nor any requirement for warning labels.
(More here.)
By Samuel S. Epstein, M.D. — Professor emeritus, Environmental & Occupational Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health, Chairman of Cancer Prevention Coalition — and Ronnie Cummins — National Director of Organic Consumers Association
CHICAGO -- The dangers of cheap Chinese exports of contaminated consumer products has received extensive media coverage, besides the formation of a Cabinet-level Product Safety Panel. These exports include personal care products, such as toothpaste contaminated with the anti-freeze diethylene glycol, honey contaminated with dangerous antibiotics, and food contaminated with banned drugs, pesticides and carcinogens. In contrast, Congress and the media remain silent on the export of dangerous U.S. consumer products, besides their decades-old domestic sale.
U.S. personal care and cosmetic products contain a wide range of avoidable toxic ingredients, notably multiple carcinogens, hormones and allergens, which remain unregulated by the FDA. These products include leading brands of toothpaste with carcinogenic ingredients. In sharp contrast, the 30-member state European Union has developed a Cosmetic Directive, which bans the manufacture and import of products suspected of causing harm to human health. Highlighting FDA's indifference is the State of California's 2005 Safe Cosmetic Act, requiring cosmetic companies to disclose information on toxic ingredients.
Of major concern is U.S. milk from cows injected with Monsanto's genetically engineered recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase milk production. According to Monsanto, about one third of dairy cows in the nation are in herds where the hormone is used. This milk contains abnormally high levels of a natural growth factor known as IGF-1. As documented in over 30 scientific publications, detailed in our May 2007 Citizen Petition to the FDA, increased levels of IGF-1 in milk increase risks of breast cancer by up to seven-fold, besides risks of colon and prostate cancers. Not surprisingly, the import of U.S. rBGH dairy products has been banned by Canada, 29 European nations, Norway, Switzerland, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and South Africa. Also, in June 1999, the United Nations Food Safety Agency, representing 101 nations worldwide, voted unanimously to reject a safety standard for rBGH milk. Nevertheless, there are no FDA restrictions on its continued sale in the U.S., nor any requirement for warning labels.
(More here.)
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