Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 (Tek) 9/26/83; site orca.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!floyd!vax135!cornell!uw-beaver!tektronix!orca!brucec From: brucec@orca.UUCP (Bruce Cohen) Newsgroups: net.cooks,net.veg,net.med Subject: Re: irradiated food Message-ID: <624@orca.UUCP> Date: Fri, 24-Feb-84 12:25:09 EST Article-I.D.: orca.624 Posted: Fri Feb 24 12:25:09 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 28-Feb-84 14:43:37 EST References: <1550@tekig1.UUCP>, <588@pyuxqq.UUCP> <544@shark.UUCP> Organization: Tektronix, Wilsonville OR Lines: 36 ----------- I thought I'd help inject some facts into this discussion. First, irradiated foods have been around since the early '50s at least. I tasted an irradiated pork chop in, I think, 1957, and was told that it had been on the shelf for several years at that point. That pork chop was part of an Army study to determine the long-term economy and safety of irradiating foods for years of storage. Given the many years of study (not just by the Army, or just in this country) since then, I think that time has already told. Second, the FDA decision to allow the sale of irradiated food comes after a UNESCO decision that irradiated foods are safe for human consumption. The maximum radiation dose acceptable to UNESCO is 10 (that's ten) times the dose acceptable by the FDA. All the studies so far show that there is negligible danger of chemical or genetic modification of food at the doses accepted by UNESCO (100,000 rads, if you are interested). Third, it is not true that the irradiation of food will be the first mass use of isotopes outside the weapon and power industries. Medical isotopes involve tons of waste per year, much of it containers and wrappers which are easy to mistake as safe. Incidently, the irradiaters in use for food are also used to sterilize disposable medical supplies. Also, the construction industry uses a lot of cobalt-60 in weld analyzers, and other types of non-destructive test equipment. It was just such a cobalt source which was illegally dumped in a scrap heap in Mexico recently, and used to make radioactive tables. I would expect that, since food irradiation benefits nicely from economy of scale, that the sources used would be few and large, and that transportation of them would not be common. There is quite a bit more information on the operation and safety of food irradiation in the latest issue of High Technology. Bruce Cohen UUCP: ...!tektronix!tekecs!brucec CSNET: tekecs!brucec@tektronix ARPA: tekecs!brucec.tektronix@rand-relay