May 20, 2004

Health-Hype Hypocrites on PCBs, Mercury, and Lead

http://www.acsh.org/factsfears/newsI...ews_detail.asp

By* Jeff Stier, Esq.


Overhyped stories of danger from fish, underhyped stories of lead in
candy -- but are the activists the real threat?

Fish consumption by pregnant women may aid late-stage fetal growth, a
new study shows (see
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...h_pregnancy_dc
).* If the results of this one study are supported by further
research, it is a scary example of the consequences of reckless use of
the* precautionary principle *by fish-fear-mongers.

"Better to be safe than sorry" -- avoiding even the remotest,
hypothetical threat -- say the anti-chemical activists, likely
inspiring many women to reduce fish consumption during pregnancy,
given all the recent hoopla over* PCBs in salmon *and mercury in tuna.
Even if you are not convinced that trace levels of these chemicals
are harmful, why take the risk, the prudent person might wonder.* So
now, women around the world are reducing fish consumption, a possible
fetal growth booster.

Isn't it time we held the activists accountable?

A similar case of unintended activist fallout faces the people of
California.* That state certainly has its hands full.* As leaders in
application of the precautionary principle, California officials have
to go around protecting consumers from all sorts of things that we
don't really have much reason to believe are harmful.* Warning labels
on virtually everything are mandated by law in California, as
Proposition 65 .* From warning labels on firewood to bans on
life-saving brominated fire retardants, you would think Californians
are very well protected by their government.

So when lead-contaminated candies from Mexico find their way into
California, you'd think the state would be there to protect the
children from what is indeed a real health threat.* Think again.

Crisis manager Jonathan Bernstein (see:
http://www.bernsteincrisismanagement...ewsletter.html ) reports:

The Orange County Register recently broke a story revealing that more
than 100 brands of candy sold in California, most of them from Mexico,
have tested positive for dangerous levels of lead over the past
decade, and that little has been done about it.

State officials claimed they didn't have the resources to handle the
problems, didn't have jurisdiction over Mexican manufacturers, and
then issued this pip of a statement:

"We have a lot more responsibilities than looking for lead in candy,"
said Jim Waddell, chief of the state Health Department's Food and Drug
Branch.

Too busy putting labels on everything to attend to real health threats
perhaps?* So much for the precautionary principle and Proposition 65!*
What have those activists wrought?

Again: Isn't it time we held them accountable?

Jeff Stier is an associate director of the American Council on Science
and Health and raised a similar question -- regarding chemical-fearing
breast cancer activists'*failure to laud statins*-- in a prior article
..


For more, please see:
http://www.acsh.org/about/staffID.2/staff_detail.asp