Got hormones?
Want to know if the milk you buy contains hormones? Good luck in Pennsylvania. The state agriculture department there recently barred farmers from telling consumers whether or not they're feeding their cows hormones. The move prompted over 65 consumer, agricultural, animal protection, retail and public health organizations to write a letter to Gov. Ed Rendell (D.) urging him to override it. "The PDA [Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture] action interferes with consumers' right to know about the foods they eat," Joseph Mendelson, legal director of the Washington, D.C.–based Center for Food Safety, said in a statement. "Many consumers prefer to buy milk produced by cows not treated with artificial hormones, as evidenced by the success in stores across the country of such milk." The PDA in October reportedly told 16 state dairies that they could not use certain labels on milk, including "Our farmers' pledge: No artificial growth hormones"; "From cows not treated with the growth hormone rBST"; and "Free of artificial growth hormones." The ban is set to take effect on February 1. "We urge the State of Pennsylvania to rescind this poorly conceived policy which interferes with the rights of farmers, dairies and consumers, and constitutes inappropriate government interference in the marketplace," said Ronnie Cummins, National director of the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association. "This new policy on the part of PDA was issued with no opportunity for comment or input from consumers, dairy farmers, processors or the general public, and as such, is a violation of basic democratic process."

Lawyer didn't transmit TB to other passengers
Apparently no fellow passengers contracted tuberculosis from the globe-trotting lawyer who flew to Italy in May to get married while stricken with a virulent form of tuberculosis. The Associated Press reports that preliminary data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that about 250 U.S. passengers aboard a May 12 Air France flight from Atlanta to Paris with Andrew Speaker tested negative for the respiratory ailment; ditto those on a return flight from Prague to Montreal, according to Canadian health officials. Speaker sparked international outrage when it was learned that he continued with his travel plans despite warnings from health officials that he tested positive for the respiratory ailment. (Associated Press)

4 Comments

1. 1. deowll 01:47 AM 12/2/07

   Somebody in the PDA got something. This is obviously not a good public relations move so the only reason a sane person would do it is some sort of payoff from the people that sell milk tainted with harmones.
   Unfortunately the government acting against the public good in favor of some "friend" is all to common.

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2. 2. arosyshort 12:54 PM 12/3/07

   I can't wait to see the response of GOP presidential wannabes to the offer made by the MPP. Their responses will be very revealing, in my opinion, as to how much (BS) is involved in these wannabes campaigns.

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3. 3. jmhatch 03:42 AM 12/5/07

   CT Scans increase cancer risk. Messers Hall and Brenner have made a serious mistake corrrelating the one time effect of radiation dose from the bomb with low dose rates over extended periods of time. We are constantly bombarded by radiation, and our body's imunne system deals with the dammage, but a one off significant dose can damage not only cells, but the imunne systems ability to respond. Also, the bomb put large doses of other carcinogenic compounds in the air. Also, today we are exposed to different, more complex chemicals in our enviroment (who used teflon frying pans 40-60 years ago)
   
   I suggest they read W. Allen Wallis and Harry V. Roberts book, The Nature of Statistics. Particularly the excellent chapter 3 on medical statistics comparring phycossis between the late 1800 and 1950's in New England. It should be required reading for all medical statiticians.

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4. 4. Lelandvk 07:17 AM 12/13/07

   I thought that the Japanese nuclear bomb survivors were recently shown to have remarkably low radiation-induced cancer rate?

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