Inquirer staff writer Faye Flam begins her piece on phthalates and possible human health effects by reporting that a Philadelphia surgeon is seeing double the number of baby boys, since he started practice 30 years ago, in need of repairs to their genitalia. Surgeon Howard Snyder hypothesizes that some of them have been exposed to phthalates in the womb. These “hormone-disrupting chemicals” are, according to Flam, found in everything from perfumes, hand and body lotions, nail polishes, deodorants, shower curtains, and children’s toys to IV tubing in hospitals. Phthalates apparently “interfere with the synthesis of testosterone,” and a study conducted by a University of Rochester researcher involving 134 boys born to women tested for compounds metabolized from phthalates showed that “boys whose mothers were most exposed to certain phthalates were more likely to have undescended testicles and to have smaller penises.” Chemistry trade groups reportedly challenge such research, saying the…
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Celebrity chef Jamie Oliver, who gained renown with his cooking show “The Naked Chef,” has apparently launched an initiative designed to teach people how to cook in an effort to reduce the incidence of obesity in Great Britain. Starting in a city of 250,000 in northern England with one of the highest rates of obesity in the nation, Oliver’s “Pass it On” campaign will teach eight cooks 10 recipes; they must promise to teach two people who will teach two people and so on, until, in less than six months, the entire city will, in theory, be able to cook. Although the show is being aired only in the UK, a YouTube® clip of the first ten minutes of his opening television show about his new “Ministry of Food” is available for viewing. Oliver is apparently hoping that people who learn to cook easy, nutritious meals will be less likely…
The New York Times Magazine featured several prominent food writers in its October 12, 2008, food issue, which covered topics ranging from agricultural production to marketing strategies. Author Michael Pollan penned an open letter, titled “Farmer in Chief,” addressing the numerous food security challenges facing the next U.S. president. Pollan tells the president-elect that even as he copes with rising food prices and decreasing production, he must also “make reform of the entire food system one of the highest priorities of your administration: unless you do, you will not be able to make significant progress on the health care crisis, energy independence or climate change.” Going on to explain the complexities of modern agriculture and its dependence on oil, Pollan recommends that the administration adopt one core idea: “we need to wean the American food system off its heavy 20th-century diet of fossil fuel and put it back on a…
This article examines the latest squabble at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration over the circumstances under which food products can properly be labeled “natural.” Noting that a number of chicken producers inject their “all natural” birds with salt water and broth, a practice some call fraudulent, journalist Andrew Bridges reports that even Michael Jacobson, executive director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, finds the issue confusing; he was quoted as saying, “It’s worth bringing in the rabbis to analyze these situations because it’s complicated, it’s subtle. You can argue from both sides. It has fine distinctions.” Petitions, comments and lawsuits have been filed over the matter involving foods ranging from poultry, beef and pork to soft drinks and other products containing high-fructose corn syrup. The final word is given to a Consumers Union scientist and policy analyst who observed, “The ‘natural’ thing…
This article discusses obesity-related litigation that has been instituted since the U.S. surgeon general declared in December 2001 that obesity and overweight are responsible for some 300,000 deaths annually. Tobacco-control activists John Banzhaf and Richard Daynard, who are quoted in the article, apparently did not think much of such litigation when the idea first surfaced. They now expect, however, that media attention will give rise to increasing attorney interest and the filing of other cases. Plaintiffs’ lawyer John Coale, described as “a veteran of tobacco and gun litigation,” evidently believes that the food industry’s Achilles’ heel is the targeting of children through Saturday morning television commercials, contracts to serve fast food and soft drinks in schools, and promotional initiatives involving toys. Tort reform advocate and Shook Partner Victor Schwartz reportedly predicts that it will take about five years of discovery in obesity-related litigation for plaintiffs’ lawyers to find “documents that, if…
