Dear Listers:
Thank you again for your many letters and suggestions. Some of you have
suggested protocols on how to test for cyanide compounds in fish and I really
do appreciate these but I believe that rather than privately voicing your
concerns you should discuss them openly. I am not interested in whispers but
in public safety and GMP. There are a great number of people on this list who
have the capability of investigating safety issues and GMP. We wont get any
response on this topic if you continue to keep these matters out of the main
stream list to avoid criticism.
I am sending this letter I received along to the list for it demonstrates a
concern for the use of YPS in general. It seems that several agencies in the
United States Government have chosen to ban sodium Ferro cyanide as an anti
corrosive for environmental concerns. I am not going to choose sides here but
I think it would serve us all to read the preliminary report which can easily
be viewed at the web site disclosed in Harry's letter. Do not be alarmed by
Harry's statements. Im not enclosing it to fan anyone's fires but I am
enclosing it to demonstrate there are reasonable men and women looking into
sodium Ferro cyanide use and if you read the agencies report they state that
until recently it was commonly believed that the use of YPS at any level was
safe and in the best interests of their agencies. Several weeks ago we heard
basically the same sort of statements from our own listers. I am sure if you
probe into the Department of the Interiors investigation you will see the
same absurd rhetoric we saw in our own list citing statistics of impossible
ingestion of products containing YPS. We are not the only guilty parties to
this. If you go back fifty or more years every group that has come under
scrutiny for questionable practices has had a similar defense response. How
many silly pictures have we seen where mayors of cities pose drinking water
out of their contaminated water treatment plants or are pictured in fields
where the smell of the same sewage is dumped telling a reporter that the
smell is fine and that there should be no concern about the metals for they
are well within government guidelines. In our industry fisherman claimed that
mercury contaminated sword fish represented no threat to human health. Cities
were told that fish plants "always smell" and that the run off from these
plants was "needed for the cities economy". I can also remember practices in
the past that were excepted as "the way things are done" that today would
horrify us here on this list. Sodium Borate was an excepted preservative in
food processing but as early as 1883 (Bumbalo,1952) it was demonstrated to be
toxic and because of public expectancy it took years to remove it from food
production as an additive. We should all reference the 5th edition of
Clinical Toxicology Of Commercial Products for a better look at our past. I
believe methods for evaluating the effects of sodium Ferro cyanide in our
food supply are there but for some reason we have been lulled into
"acceptance by practice" rather than seeking answers to the questions that
were raised here several weeks ago.
Mainly due to the lack of scientific data concerning sodium Ferro cyanide in
food I have had a chance to take a closer look at some of these concerns from
people like Harry. If we can be objective and remove ourselves from his
rhetoric about hospitals and hunches we cant dismiss the fact that at 2 PPM
YPS fish do die. If the Department of the Interior has concerns about wild
fish and has banned the use of YPS evaluating it's use in salts used in the
processing of brined fish is not too far fetched. FDA currently regulates the
use of YPS in food but my search so far has demonstrated that most of its
members are just as ignorant about the effects of sodium Ferro cyanide on
food and its consumption by the general population as I am.
I despise inflammatory speeches as much as anyone. Fear tactics only serve to
confuse issues. I am looking for scientific answers to the very same
questions that were raised in good faith several weeks ago. Rather than
sending me private responses lets get this topic out into open discussion.
MARION DEWITTY
attached mail follows:
Dear Marion,
I received the email below this morning from Harry Foster who is a geologist
in Canada doing research on the effects of road salt on the environment.
His email is self-explanatory. Let me know if you have trouble opening the
link at the end of his email and I will email the press release to you.
I think this should be interesting information to put out on the food list
and see what kind of responses you get.
Michael
> >Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 21:38:42 -0700
> >To: Amy Castle <castlea@toronto.cbc.ca>
> >From: hfoster@office.geog.uvic.ca
> >Subject: Road salt
> >
> >As you may remember,I have been arguing that sodium ferrocyanide in road
> salt may be the world's most damaging carcinogen because it is spead in
> highly populated areas.On March 31st,2000 the US federal government
> suspended the use of a fire retardant that had been widely used for years
> in the nation's forests.A USGS Columbia Environmental Research Center
> report entitled "The Effects of UVB Radiation on the Toxicity of
> Fire-Fighting Chemicals" Had established that,as it decomposed,the
> retardant produced cyanide levels that exceeded Environmental Protection
> Agency (EPA) guidelines for freshwater organisms.In short, it kills fish
> and other wildlife in the USA just as it does in Canada.Of course,the
> chemical involved is sodium ferrocyanide,which cannot now be used in fire
> retardants in any US federal forests.As you will recall,this toxic
chemical
> is used at lower levels in US and Canadian road salt.Under the impact of
> sunlight it gives off hydrogen cyanide,a highly toxic gas.It is still a
> component of road salt in Canada and the U S.We wonder why our hospitals
> are so full.Regards,Harry Foster,Professor.
> > The relevant URL is http://www.fs.fed.us/fire/safety/retardant.shtml
>
>
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