Tag: public safety (Page 4 of 6)

Big Corn Loses Battle With FDA To Rename Corn Syrup

May 31, 2012 / Staff

This is a small victory for consumers who, finally aware of the dangers of high fructose corn syrup, will continue to be able to identify it in the products they buy.

Michael M. Landa, director of the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition at the F.D.A., denied the petition, saying that the term “sugar” is used only for food “that is solid, dried and crystallized.”
“HFCS is an aqueous solution sweetener derived from corn after enzymatic hydrolysis of cornstarch, followed by enzymatic conversion of glucose (dextrose) to fructose,” the letter stated. “Thus, the use of the term ‘sugar’ to describe HFCS, a product that is a syrup, would not accurately identify or describe the basic nature of the food or its characterizing properties.”

The Corn Refiners Association is afraid that consumers will avoid the product, which has received a bad reputation, under the pretext of “false information”, namely that corn syrup is natural and is the same as sugar.

The fact is that it is NOT natural , it is manufactured in a lab and can harm to people who can not properly metabolize the ingredient.

And further, to argue that HFCS is the same as sugar only calls into question the efficacy of sugar in the human diet.

There are many who would postulate that there already exists an overabundance of sugar which is causing obesity and Type 2 diabetes in epidemic proportions.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Wellness

corn corn lobbies Corn lobby Corn Refiners Association corn subsidies FDA FDA ruling against Corn Refiners Association food safety HFCS High fructose corn syrup obesity obesity epidemic public safety safety of high fructose corn syrup type 2 diabetes

Please Don’t Contaminate The Pool!

May 29, 2012 / Staff

Summertime means summer fun but beware the germs in the pool.

The Water Quality and Health Council conducted a recent survey which found that one in five Americans admit to urinating in a public pool and seven in 10 confessed to skipping a shower before going for a swim.

How can this contamination be avoided? Make sure you shower with soap and water before you jump in the water. Take small children on frequent bathroom breaks. And make sure you have a lifeguard or operator who frequently makes sure the pH and chlorine levels in the pool are up to standard. Proper levels help keep pools healthy by destroying waterborne germs that can cause diarrhea, swimmer’s ear and skin infections.

Quality Control, Wellness

bacteria in pool pool dangers pool safety public pool safety public safety summer fun summer hazards summer health

Public Health Could Be Improved With A Big “Fat Tax”

May 16, 2012 / Staff

Taxing fatty and sugary foods could help lower rates of obesity but the tax would have to big; 20% big.

Denmark and Hungary have already introduced such a tax and France has a tax on sugary drinks.

Skyrocketing obesity and diabetes has made it necessary for countries to control health care costs and a fat tax seems to be the answer.

Discouraging high calorie, nutritionally deficient foods and subsidizing healthy foods could help mitigate the problem.

“Soft drinks consumption is simpler in comparison with food, and we can be more confident of the likely effects,” says Mytton in an email. According to Mytton, when one food item is taxed, people tend to switch consumption to other food items that are not necessarily healthier. For example, if there’s a tax on foods higher in saturated fat, consumers may switch to foods high in salt. “These effects don’t really happen with drinks as the economic data suggests. They either buy a similar drink that is untaxed or they don’t buy a drink at all,” says Mytton.
The reason for this could be that the body doesn’t register liquid calories in the same way it does food calories, so it’s easier to overdo it with drinks. “People don’t tend to feel full from drinking a high-calorie drink, so it seems less likely that people will buy foods to replace taxed liquid calories,” says Mytton. “People need food, but as with alcohol and tobacco, they don’t need the extra calories they get from sugar-sweetened beverages.”

Nutrition, Quality Control, Wellness

diabetes fat tax obesity public health public safety soft drink tax sugar tax taxing fattening foods taxing sugary foods

Risk Of Death When Children Are Left Alone In Hot Cars

May 14, 2012 / Staff

Summer heat too often brings tragedy when parents underestimate the dangers of leaving children cars in the hot sun.

The bodies of babies and children heat up three to five times faster than an adult’s and their internal systems are not fully developed.

Children don’t sweat as efficiently as adults and their bodies absorb heat faster.

It can take as little as 15 minutes in an overheated vehicle for a child to begin to suffer life-threatening brain or kidney injuries.

When body temperature reaches 104 degrees, internal organs begin to shut down.

At 107 degrees, children die.

At least 529 such deaths have been recorded since 1998, including the two logged in the past week, according to figures from the Department of Geosciences at San Francisco State University, which tracks reports.
On average, 38 children die each year in hot cars, reports show. The numbers typically begin to climb in May, with an average of three deaths per month. They spike in July and August, when nine deaths, on average, are recorded, the figures show.
Overall, more than half of the deaths — 52 percent — occur when a child is mistakenly left in a vehicle, typically by a parent or caregiver who is rushed or stressed.

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

car safety child safety children in cars children's health public policy public safety summer safety vehicle safety

Norovirus Spread In Re-Usable Grocery Bags

May 9, 2012 / Staff

It is imperative to wash re-usable grocery bags.

There are actually a variety of bacteria and viruses, such as E-coli and salmonella, which can be spread through the use of grocery bags as they come in contact with so many bugs.

Raw meat, unwashed produce, and public surfaces in addition to the fact that many bags are made of fabrics which can harbor disease.

The simple solution is to wash and dry bags to eliminate any chance of contamination.

While the risk of contracting an illness from any particular reusable bag is low, Schaffner said, the Oregon study follows a 2010 paper by researchers at the University of Arizona and Loma Linda University that found large numbers of bacteria in reusable grocery bags, including 12 percent that were contaminated with E. coli.
When scientists stored the bags in the trunks of cars for two hours, the number of bacteria jumped 10-fold.