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Local politics, the county, and the world, as viewed by Tammy Maygra Tammy’s views are her own, and do not necessarily reflect the views of Bill Eagle, his pastor, Tammy’s neighbors, Wayne Mayo, Betsy Johnson, Brad Witt, President Trump, Henry Heimuller, VP Pence, Pat Robertson, Debi Corsiglia’s dog, or Claudia Eagle’s Cats. This Tammy’s Take (with the exception of this disclaimer) is not paid for or written by, or even reviewed by anyone but Tammy and she refuses to be bullied by anyone.
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Baby food manufacturers knowingly sold toxic baby food.
You thought you could trust baby food companies. Four leading baby food manufacturers knowingly sold baby food that contained high levels of toxic heavy metals, according to internal company documents included in a congressional investigation released Thursday. Dangerous levels of toxic metals like arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury exist in baby foods at levels that exceed what experts and governing bodies say are allowed. Spreadsheets provided by manufacturers are shocking because they show confirmation that some baby foods contain hundreds of parts per billion of dangerous metals. Yet we know through science and documentation, we should not have anything more than single digit parts per billion of any of these metals in any of our foods. All of these heavy metals have been linked to cancer, chronic disease and neurotoxic effects, but it's the shattering damage that can be done to a developing baby's brain that makes baby food toxicity so critical. The US Food and Drug Administration has not yet set minimum levels for heavy metals in most infant food. This non action is by the FDA is shameful. The agency did set a standard of 100 parts per billion in organic arsenic for infant rice cereal, but even that level is considered much too high for a baby's safety. Especially since the FDA has already set a much lower standard of 10 parts per billion of inorganic arsenic for bottled water. Why the laxness on baby foods? From the time of conception through the age of 2, babies have an extremely high sensitivity to neurotoxic chemicals. Their brain is forming rapidly, and so when they're exposed to metals that can interrupt the natural processes, the impacts range from behavioral problems to aggression to IQ loss and all kinds of cognitive and behavioral deficits that can persist throughout life. Internal testing done by Gerber; Beech-Nut Nutrition Company; Nurture, Inc., which sells Happy Baby products; and Hain Celestial Group, Inc., which sells Earth's Best Organic baby food, showed levels of heavy metals far above limits set for bottled water by the FDA and the US Environmental Protection Agency. This information was found by the congressional investigators. Baby food ingredients in certain products contained up to 91 times the inorganic arsenic level, up to 177 times the lead level, up to 69 times the cadmium level, and up to five times the mercury level allowed in bottled water. Yet the companies still approved those products for sale, they knew and apparently do not care about the health and safety of the children. Whether the baby food was organic or not did not matter, levels of toxic metals were still high. This information was found by the investigators. Gerber told CNN in an email statement, in part, "All our foods meet our safety and quality standards, which are among the strictest in not just the U.S. but the world. Gerber foods are backed up by rigorous oversight at all levels of the growing and production process. Where government standards do not exist we have developed our own standards. Again their standards are not safe period. The elements in question occur naturally in the soil and water in which crops are grown. To minimize their presence, we take multiple steps including: prioritizing growing locations based on climate and soil composition; approving fields before crops are planted based on soil testing; rotating crops according to best available science; and testing of produce, water and other ingredients. Apparently not the case. Beech-Nut Nutrition said it established heavy metal testing standards 35 years ago, and we continuously review and strengthen them wherever possible. In addition, the company said it tested "every delivery of fruits, vegetables, rice and other ingredients for up to 255 contaminants to confirm that every shipment meets our strict quality standards. If the ingredients don't meet our standards, we reject them. Yet still their baby food product fails the safety measures. They know it and continues to sell tainted products. Happy Baby, which is part of Happy Family Organics, responded that the company "does not sell any products that have not been rigorously tested, and do not have products in-market with contaminant ranges outside of the limits set by the FDA. False statements. Three additional baby food companies, according to the congressional investigators, did not fully cooperate with the subcommittee's investigation: Sprout Organic Foods; Walmart, which sells Parent's Choice baby food; and Campbell Soup Company, which sells the Plum Organics brand of baby products. The Subcommittee is greatly concerned that their lack of cooperation might be obscuring the presence of even higher levels of toxic heavy metals in their baby food products than their competitors' products. Then why don’t the government step in and shut them down until they produce baby food. Stop the sale immediately of these products, make a mandatory recall and pull their products off the shelf. Campbell spokesperson did reply: "For more than 150 years, Campbell has placed the safety of consumers, especially our youngest consumers, above all else. That is why we fully cooperated with the House Oversight Subcommittee's baby food review. We responded quickly to their questions and never refused anything requested of us." Instead of producing any substantive information, Campbell provided a spreadsheet self-declaring that every one of its products 'meets criteria,'" the subcommittee wrote. "Campbell's avoidance is concerning, as even limited independent testing has revealed the presence of toxic heavy metals in its baby food. When these companies lie, mislead the investigators then shut them down right there and then. Why allow them to continue to do business. The vast majority of baby foods have no FDA guidance levels. It's dishonest for companies to say they meet guidance safety standards when there are none over seeing baby foods. No new action by the FDA The FDA under the Trump administration took no new action in response to the presentation, the investigation found: "To this day, baby foods containing toxic heavy metals bear no label or warning to parents. Manufacturers are free to test only ingredients, or, for the vast majority of baby foods, to conduct no testing at all." The FDA said, in part, "Sampling of infant rice cereal showed that since 2016 manufacturers have made significant progress in reducing arsenic in infant rice cereal products, demonstrating that this action level is achievable by industry. "Going forward," the FDA said, "good manufacturing processes, such as sourcing rice and other ingredients with lower inorganic arsenic levels, will continue to help manufacturers produce infant rice cereal with inorganic arsenic levels below the action level." It is apparent that we as parents, grandparents and consumers that we cannot trust these baby food companies to manufacture and sell safe products that people feed their babies. They have had the time to develop Safe foods. But they have deliberately failed to do so and have deliberately sold food to consumers which are very harmful to the children. So in this case I believe we must act quickly to stop these companies from inflicting anymore harm on these kids. We need legislation to compel compliance with standards that the FDA needs to develop based upon science and factual information. This needs to be done immediately, and not 2,3,4,5 years down the road. The time has long past to act. Shame on these companies and shame on the FDA for allowing this intentional harm to our children to go on for so long.
Tammy
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