Health

Flame Retardant Found in Some Common Foods

Flame Retardant Found in Some Common Foods

May 31, 2012 — A common flame retardant is found in many popular foods, including fish and turkey, according to new research.

Researchers tested foods such as meats, fish, and peanut butter.

Fifteen of the 36 food samples tested had detectable levels of hexabromocyclododecane, or HBCD, says researcher Arnold Schecter, MD, MPH, professor of environmental and occupational health at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas.

HBCD is used in foams in thermal insulation, in electrical equipment, and consumer products. It is found in the environment and wildlife. People are exposed from products and dust in the home and workplace. …

The researchers bought the foods from Dallas supermarkets in 2009 and 2010. They tested all 36 samples for HBCD.

Fifteen of the 36 samples, or 42%, had detectable levels of HBCDs. Some of these 15 samples were the same foods, but from different stores.

The foods with detectable levels include:

  • Sardines in water
  • Smoked turkey sausages (three samples)
  • Fresh salmon (two different samples) [mjh: Oh, no!]
  • Sardines in olive oil (two samples)
  • Fresh catfish (three samples)
  • Fresh deli-sliced turkey (one of three)
  • Fresh deli-sliced ham (one of two)
  • Fresh tilapia (one of three)
  • Chili with beans (one of three)

Twenty-one other samples tested that did not have detectable HBCD levels included:

  • Creamy peanut butter (three samples)
  • Chili with beans (two of three samples)
  • Bacon (three samples)
  • Fresh deli-sliced beef (three samples)
  • Fresh deli-sliced turkey (two of three samples)
  • Fresh deli-sliced chicken (two samples)
  • Fresh tilapia (two of three samples)
  • Fish sticks (three samples)
  • Fresh deli-sliced ham (one of two)
Flame Retardants in Foods: Discussion

HBCD is viewed as a ”persistent organic pollutant," according to Schecter. That is because it accumulates, travels long distances, and stays in the environment for a long time.

It is often found in fatty foods such as high-fat meats and some fish.

Flame Retardant Found in Some Common Foods

Flickr, photos

comin’ to get me

mjhinton posted a photo:

comin' to get me

Normally, I wouldn’t post a photo so out-of-focus. However, it’s clear enough what’s going on — this Cooper’s hawk had enough of me and dropped off its limb and came straight at me, before pulling up to pass over my head. Wonderful!

Election

The GOP strategy to hold on to power

Wisconsin’s recall election on Scott Walker: A bid for regular order – The Washington Post by EJ Dionne

Walker is being challenged not because he pursued conservative policies but because Wisconsin has become the most glaring example of a new and genuinely alarming approach to politics on the right. It seeks to use incumbency to alter the rules and tilt the legal and electoral playing field decisively toward the interests of those in power.

The most obvious way of gaming the system is to keep your opponents from voting in the next election. Rigging the electorate is a surefire way of holding on to office. That is exactly what has happened in state after state — Wisconsin is one of them — where GOP legislatures passed new laws on voter identification and registration.

Wisconsin’s recall election on Scott Walker: A bid for regular order – The Washington Post

Election, media, NADA - New American Dark Ages, other voices

Marriage is a civil contract governed by established contract law

The following letter is a cogent and thorough argument for marriage rights for all adults. Marriage is a contract. Indeed, Merri has made this argument for 25+ years. Kudos to David Paul Blacher.

A different letter insists Americans bow to Leviticus as the law. Not in America, bub. We have the Constitution. You are free to let the Bible rule your life, but not to force that rule on the rest of us. Amen. peace, mjh

Contract Law Applies To Marriage Licenses

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER’S comments (“The Same-Sex Marriage Dilemma,” May 19) are interesting, but he misses the fundamental issue— marriage is a contract. In fact, in America, it is most often actually two contracts: one civil and one religious. I absolutely support the right and obligation of religious organizations to define, pursuant to their own doctrines, who may enter into a contract that they validate and recognize.

However, the civil contract — usually in the form of a “marriage license” — automatically provides the individuals who sign and register the document with several unique and valuable government- issued and -sanctioned advantages. First and foremost is a significantly lower income tax rate, both federal and state. Add to this the way married couples may choose to own real property — usually as community property — and the inheritance advantages which are thereto attached.

Also, married couples have access to a capital gains deduction upon sale of the primary residence that is double that of a single owner. Add to this the general inheritance rights and tax levels provided by governments to married couples but not single couples.

Furthermore, the ability for hospital visitation, treatment and health-decision participation are treated differently for married and unmarried couples. The list of civil rights available only to married couples is extensive. … Most, if not all, governmental entities have laws that disallow discrimination on the basis of sex in the fulfillment contracts — both oral and especially written. The most significant contract that most people will ever sign is their civil marriage contract.

To abrogate a contract based on the sex of the signatories goes totally against the grain of the history of the United States as to the sacrosanct nature of contracts — see Article I, section 10, clause lof the U.S. Constitution that forbids the states from passing any “Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts.”

DAVID PAUL BLACHER
Albuquerque

[Curiously, this letter is not available on-line. What’s up with that, abqjournal.com?]

!status updates, QOTD

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." – G. K. Chesterton

As in other contexts, I’d rather be progressive.

Key to the Highway by Mark Halliday | The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

"The whole modern world has divided itself into Conservatives and Progressives. The business of Progressives is to go on making mistakes. The business of the Conservatives is to prevent the mistakes from being corrected." G. K. Chesterton (books by this author), born in London (1874)

Key to the Highway by Mark Halliday | The Writer’s Almanac with Garrison Keillor

Election

Liar, liar, Romney’s on fire

Romney’s distortions about Obama do us a disservice – The Washington Post

By Eugene Robinson, Published: May 28 The Washington Post

Even by this lax standard, Romney too often fails. Not to put too fine a point on it, he lies. Quite a bit.

“Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history,” Romney claims on his campaign Web site. This is utterly false. The truth is that spending has slowed markedly under Obama.

Romney’s distortions about Obama do us a disservice – The Washington Post

"It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds." — Sam Adams