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U.S.
food safety system fails the mad cow test
July 22, 04
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
The
system created to protect Americans from contaminated foods
is broken.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration are charged with protecting meat eaters –
and any of us who use products containing animal ingredients,
such as cosmetics and supplements. They have failed to do
their job where mad cow disease is concerned.
After the discovery of the nation’s first case of bovine
spongiform encephalopathy, or BSE, late last year, Health
and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson said actions would
be taken to protect consumers from the fatal, brain-wasting
disease that can be transmitted from cows to humans.
Among those steps promised:
* High-risk animal materials such as brains and spinal cords
would be kept out of FDA-regulated foods, dietary supplements
and cosmetics.
* Restrictions on the practice of feeding cow blood to calves.
* Prohibiting the feeding of hen-house litter, including chicken
manure and bits of feed, to cows. The litter could pass to
cows the prions that cause BSE.
* Banning the use of parts from sick cows, called “downers,”
from FDA-regulated foods, dietary supplements and cosmetics.
After more than five months, not one of these safeguards was
in place.
Then, earlier this month, in a joint USDA-FDA press conference,
the agencies announced that action on the bulk of these protections
would be further delayed – possibly until 2006 –
as the proposals are put through another round of the rulemaking
process. Only the ban on the use of high-risk animal parts
in foods, supplements and cosmetics was enacted. But the ban
only pertains to materials from cows older than 30 months
– most are slaughtered before that age – so the
restriction has minimal effect.
On the USDA side, the list of failures continues to mount.
Among them:
* Major flaws in USDA’s BSE surveillance program make
it impossible to determine whether BSE is present in U.S.
cattle and, if so, at what level, according to a damning draft
audit report by USDA’s inspector general released last
week.
* After banning importation of cows and cow by-products in
countries where BSE has been found, USDA permitted millions
of pounds of prohibited beef products to be brought into the
US from Canada and distributed – without notice –
to consumers.
* A cow showing signs of central nervous system problems was
ordered by an agency official in Texas to be disposed of without
being tested for BSE, despite assurances from USDA that all
such animals would be tested.
Consumer groups have been highly critical.
Jean Halloran, who helps lead Consumers Union, the publisher
of Consumer Reports magazine, said on the day of the agencies’
announcement: “They know what needs to be done and how
to do it. This further delay needlessly puts public health
at risk. This action today raises profound questions as to
whether the public can trust statements made by the Bush Administration
on food safety.”
The punch line to this sick joke comes from France.
A recently published study says French agriculture officials
failed to detect for years the spread of mad cow disease among
French cattle herds. As a result, meat from almost 50,000
cows infected with BSE was sold to French consumers, the study
authors say.
Why? Largely because French regulators were late in adopting
a policy of active surveillance for BSE and late to adopt
measures to stop the feeding of cattle products to other cattle,
the study says.
The French picture bears resemblance to the situation in the
U.S. today.
We rely on our federal agencies, through the elected officials
who govern them, to monitor and assure the safety of our food
supply. When it comes to beef, they are clearly failing. The
result: We are all at risk, and the onus is on each of us
now to educate and protect ourselves.
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