The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued its non-cancer dioxin reassessment 27 years after the ubiquitous chemical was last assessed and has established a consumption limit of 0.7 picogram of dioxin per kilogram of body weight per day. The agency has found that, while low-dose exposures persist, primarily from the consumption of meat, fish and other animal products, and ultra-low levels of exposure can pose health risks, “current exposure to dioxins does not pose a significant health risk” over a lifetime, given significant reductions in industrial dioxin emissions. According to EPA, air emissions of the chemical from industrial processes have been reduced 90 percent since the 1980s, but it breaks down slowly and remains in the water and soil to be consumed by fish and livestock feeding on contaminated plants. Most ambient dioxin today is apparently a result of backyard trash burning. The non-cancer health effects examined in this…
Category Archives Legislation, Regulations and Standards
U.S. Representative Louise Slaughter (D-N.Y.) has sent a letter to more than 60 food producers and retailers, “asking them to disclose their policies on antibiotic use in meat and poultry production.” Citing “decades of research,” the February 16, 2012, letter claims that agricultural antibiotic applications have contributed to drug-resistant disease in humans and seeks to clarify “the extent to which the fast food industry sources its meat and poultry from companies that routinely use antibiotics to raise livestock.” Slaughter, the only microbiologist in Congress, is soliciting information from retailers about their meat and poultry purchasing practices, as well as any efforts to educate consumers about the antibiotics used during food production. In particular, the letter directs recipients to provide details about whether their beef, pork and poultry supplies were produced (i) “without any antibiotics”; (ii) “in a manner that includes antibiotics only for disease treatment”; (iii) “in a manner that…
According to a news source, the United States and Canada have begun to develop a coordinated model framework to regulate nanomaterials. A draft plan, unveiled during a January 2012 meeting of the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council involving officials with the U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and Environment Canada, identifies the following as the “deliverable outcome”: “Share information and develop common approaches, to the extent possible, on foundational regulatory elements, including criteria for determining characteristics of concern/no concern, information gathering, approaches to risk assessment and management, etc. Develop joint initiatives to align regulatory approaches in specific areas such that consistency exists for consumers and industry in Canada and the US.” Industry officials attending the meeting were reportedly cautiously optimistic about the initiative. They urged government representatives to build on the work already done by European regulators to maintain some consistency, but also suggested that American officials move away from…
The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced a “historic new partnership” with the European Union that recognizes its organic standards as essentially equivalent to those administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). Effective June 1, 2012, the trade agreement will allow organic products certified by EU or USDA officials to be sold “as organic in either region.” “Previously, growers and companies wanting to trade products on both sides of the Atlantic had to obtain separate certifications to two standards, which meant a double set of fees, inspections and paperwork,” explains a February 15, 2012, USTR press release. “This partnership eliminates significant barriers, especially for small and medium-sized organic producers. All products meeting the terms of the partnership can be labeled as certified organic produce, meat, cereal, or wine.” According to USTR, the two parties conducted “thorough on-site audits” to ensure that their organic programs were compatible.…
The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to establish performance standards for the shellfish industry to reduce the threat of a “naturally occurring but deadly contaminant” found primarily in raw or undercooked oysters. According to a CSPI letter to FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg, Vibrio vulnificus (V-vulnificus) bacteria in contaminated shellfish is responsible for sickening approximately 30 people and killing 15 annually. Claiming that an annual “outbreak” occurs between April and November when Gulf Coast water temperatures create an ideal environment for the contaminant to grow, CSPI has urged FDA to “act now” to enforce regulations in 2011’s Food Safety Modernization Act requiring performance standards for significant contaminants such as V-vulnificus. “If we knew a serial killer were going to kill a dozen people like clockwork each year, the police would spring into action to stop it,” said David Plunkett ,…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Foreign Agriculture Service recently issued a Global Agricultural Information Network (GAIN) report concluding that a French proposal to prohibit all food packaging and materials containing bisphenol A (BPA) would “very likely… impact and jeopardize U.S. processed and other food exports to France.” Introduced after a French National Agency for Food Safety and Occupational and Environmental Health report questioned BPA’s safety, the legislation apparently reflects “strong political pressure from environmental and consumers’ groups,” as well as public distrust of the regulatory system following “the mad cow scandal, the Mediator diabetes drug scandal and even the PIP breast implant scandal.” As a result, the French food industry has evidently expressed concern that a BPA ban is unavoidable “in a short to medium term” even if the current bill is challenged at the EU level. The GAIN report warns U.S. companies that the proposed measure would require…
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has published its semiannual regulatory agenda outlining measures currently under development for 2012. Among the agenda items are proposed revisions to the rules that govern “certain genetically engineered organisms [GMOs] in order to bring the regulations into alignment with provisions of the Plant Protection Act.” Billed as the first comprehensive review of these regulations since 1987, the undertaking would apparently take into account the agency’s accumulated rulemaking experience as well as “advances in genetic science and technology.” USDA thus anticipates that any rule changes will affect “persons involved with the importation, interstate movement, or release into the environment of genetically engineered plants and certain other [GMOs].” In addition, the agenda includes modifications to the rules governing the importation of livestock and poultry at risk of transmitting bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) or highly pathogenic avian influenza. In particular, USDA has suggested (i) amending BSE regulations…
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has filed a complaint in a New York federal court seeking an order that would require the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to respond to the organization’s request under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for documents on “the agency’s proposed deregulation of herbicide-resistant crops.” NRDC v. USDA, No. 12-0795 (S.D.N.Y., filed February 6, 2012). According to the complaint, USDA “is currently considering petitions to deregulate several herbicide-resistant varieties of corn and soybeans, which, if granted, would significantly increase usage of the herbicides to which those genetically modified [GM] crops are resistant.” NRDC apparently submitted a FOIA request to USDA in October 2011, seeking records concerning the proposed agency action, as well as a “fee waiver on the grounds that disclosure of the requested information is in the public interest.” The deadline for a response, according to NRDC, was November 15, but USDA has…
California EPA’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment (OEHHA) has proposed adding two food and beverage flavorings, as well as a fungicide and an herbicide contaminant to the list of chemicals known to the state to cause cancer under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986 (Prop. 65).Comments are requested by April 10, 2012. The chemicals are beta-Myrcene and Pulegone, which are components of certain essential oils used to flavor foods and beverages and also used as a fragrance in cosmetics, soaps, detergents, and herbal medicines, and Isopyrazam, a fungicide used in Central and South America on bananas, and 3,3’,4,4’-Tetrachloroazo-benzene, a contaminant and degradation product of certain herbicides. OEHHA has proposed the action under the authoritative bodies listing mechanism, citing the National Toxicology Program and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as institutions that have found the chemicals to be carcinogens or “likely to be carcinogenic.”
The U.S Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service, the Food and Drug Administration and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services have announced a February 23, 2012, public meeting in College Park, Maryland, to provide information and receive public comments on draft U.S. positions to be discussed at the 6th Session of the Codex Committee on Contaminants in Food (CCCF) on March 26-30 in Maastricht, The Netherlands. CCCF is responsible for establishing or endorsing maximum levels “for contaminants and naturally occurring toxicants in food and feed.” Agenda items will include draft maximum levels for melamine in liquid infant formula, arsenic in rice, and deoxynivalenol and its acetylated derivatives in cereals and cereal-based products. See Federal Register, February 3, 2012.
