Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
|
General Cooking (rec.food.cooking) For general food and cooking discussion. Foods of all kinds, food procurement, cooking methods and techniques, eating, etc. |
Reply |
|
LinkBack | Thread Tools | Display Modes |
Posted to rec.food.cooking,soc.culture.taiwan
|
|||
|
|||
Taiwan in uproar over being forced to accept U.S. beef
Secret negotiations with the U.S. resulted in an agreement
for Taiwan to accept more risky forms of U.S. beef, resulting in a firestorm of angry response from consumers and political leaders. http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/fron.../27/2003456947 They are right to be concerned. Unlike Japan, where all cattle are tested for Mad Cow Disease, it is illegal for beef producers to test cattle in the U.S. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creekst...s_Premium_Beef On December 28, 2004, I sent a letter to the CDC FOI office, following the instructions given on their website he http://www.cdc.gov/od/foia/foidir.htm I requested "any records in the possession of the CDC regarding the results of any tests performed by or for the National Prion Disease Pathology Surveillance Center between October 15, 2004 and December 15, 2004 on human central nervous system tissue". According to CDC's FOI page, I should have received a postcard from them acknowledging receipt of my request when it was logged into their system. I also should have received a response within 20 working days. I did not receive a postcard or any other communication. On February 4, 2005, I called their phone number, and their spokesman confirmed that my request had been received and logged as case number 05-0278. I was told that the records I had requested had been received by the CDC FOI office from the laboratory involved, and the records were in the process of being reviewed for release. In a subsequent phone call on March 14, 2005, I learned that the requested records had been received by the CDC FOI office on January 20, 2005, and that the records were still in the process of being reviewed. This is an extraordinarily long delay in the release of these records, much longer than 20 days. This suggests that the case was passed up the chain of command -- no one below the highest level would have authority to release these documents, if they contained extremely sensitive information. On March 19, 2005, I posted an account of these events to rec.food.cooking and a few other newsgroups. On March 29, 2005, I received a letter from the CDC (dated March 23, 2005) denying my request for the records. It seems more than a coincidence that it took a public exposure of this case to shake loose a response from CDC. Had I not posted my account, I think it is unlikely I would have received a response even today. On March 31, 2005, I sent an appeal of the denial to the office of CDC Director Julie Gerberding. To my surprise, I received a letter (dated April 13, 2005) not from the CDC, but from the Public Health Service, acknowledging receipt of my appeal. I guess nobody in the CDC had the authority (in a practical sense, if not a legal sense) to make a decision to release these documents. My appeal was assigned case number PHS-2K5-A-070. After another extraordinarily long delay, on July 23, 2005 I received a letter (dated July 19, 2005) denying my appeal. Oddly, the reason given for denying the appeal is that the records are not in the possession of the CDC, even though the CDC FOI office had told me the records were received on 1/20/05! If these records showed nothing noteworthy, I believe they would have been released to me long ago. I believe that the extraordinary delays in processing my initial request and my appeal indicate that no low-level official could make the decision to comply with the Freedom of Information Act by releasing the records to me. I believe that only information of the most sensitive nature would receive such treatment. As I said in my appeal addressed to Director Gerberding: "The extraordinary delay in responding to my request suggests what these records might contain: documentation of the first human death from variant CJD acquired in the United States. Because variant CJD is a preventable fatal illness, it would be against the mission of the CDC if the public release of documentation of such an event were suppressed or delayed. There could be U.S. citizens that will become infected today who would have changed their behavior to avoid infection, if a death from U.S.-acquired variant CJD were known to have occurred." |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
U.S. Pressures Taiwan To Accept Tainted Meat | General Cooking | |||
US twists Taiwan's arm to allow drug-laced beef | General Cooking | |||
Please accept my apology! | General Cooking | |||
Please accept my apology! | Baking |