From: arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidling)
Newsgroups: rec.crafts.brewing,talk.environment
Subject: Re: Sassafras for Root Beer
Date: 2 Sep 92 17:32:05 GMT
Followup-To: rec.crafts.brewing
Organization: ddsw1.MCS.COM Contributor, Chicago, IL
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 Article 5560            Re: Sassafras for Root Beer         
 ulick@chopin.helios.nd.edu  
 Ulick Stafford at University of Notre Dame
 
 In article <1992Sep1.141727.17113@ddsw1.mcs.com> arf@ddsw1.mcs.com (Jack Schmidl
 ing) writes:
 >
 > There are thousands of carcinogens that the FDA just winks at because of
 > political pressure.  When one makes their black list, it is not to be
 > triffled with.
 >
 > >We're all going to die anyway...let's have a little fun on our way.
 >
 > Dieing of cancer is not MY idea of fun.
 
 <You have a rather naive idea about the usefulness of the 
 FDA.
 
 No, just a very cynical idea about big government.
 
 >  It is true that lobbying by some interests has allowed 
 the continued sale of some products that cause some tumors 
 in the stomachs of rats fed near fatal toxic doses
 
 That is a rather narrow view of the scientific process and 
 suggests that you have been brainwashed by Rush Limbaugh.
 
 However, even if that was the only way things were tested, 
 the question still is:  How much poison do YOU want to eat? 
 It's the old "cigarrette lady on Crossfire" gambit.  No one 
 has ever been known to drop dead after lighting up, 
 therefore they are not harmful.
 
 > but in general the FDA gets their way and keeps stuff off 
 the market when there is little real risk.
 
 I would suggest that, unless you conducted the tests 
 yourself, you should have little confidence in there being 
 "little real risk".  When no one can be trusted, I take the 
 simple approach and assume the bad news is more likely to be 
 true.
 
 >  Bear in mind that thanks to the FDA it tkaes on average 
 12 years and $300M to get a drug approved, money that must 
 be recouped in the remaining 7 years of the patent.....
 
 You seem to think that I support the FDA.  It, like all 
 bureaucracies, it not much more than a socialist jobs 
 program.  Jobs for people too incompetent to make it 
 outside, jobs for lawyers and lobiests who take advantage of 
 this incpmetence and jobs for media brainwashers.
 
 If, through some quirk of random luck, a bit of science 
 emerges from such a system, it is not necessarily wrong or 
 bad science but one must understand the motives to evaluate 
 it.
 
 >Like most govt bodies the FDA's sole goal is its own 
 continued existence and consumption of tax dollars while 
 meddling in the lives of others.
 
 Oh.  An echo?
 
 >And think of all the useful stuff driven off the market 
 because when used improperly it's carcinogenic such as 
 asbestos...
 
 It's jobs, jobs, jobs.  Do you know how many jobs have been 
 created "cleaning up" asbestos compared to the small number 
 lost in the industry?
 
 Personally, I would be delighted if the entire federal 
 government would just go away.  I never suggested that I 
 like the idea of the FDA banning things.  All I want is the 
 data and the option to not consume that which I feel is not 
 in my best interest.
 
 DDT and Alar are great examples of the hypocracy of the 
 system as it is.  DDT is banned in this country but we 
 export it by the mega tons and import food contaminated with 
 it.  Do you know that the FDA does NOT test bananas for DDT?  
 Why?  It is our biggest single import fruit crop.
 
 How dangerous Alar is I can never know but again, I take the 
 safe way and don't want it.  The whole issue became a 
 political football about jobs again and the public was 
 totally spoofed.  I have no idea whether the apples in 
 stores now have it or not.  By the looks of what I see in 
 stores, either they are still using it or it's use was a 
 hoax anyway.  Everyone lies.  Long before this ever came up 
 in the media I have been buying apples from an orchard that 
 swore each year that they do not use it.  After it went 
 public, they admitted to using it on red apples (the only 
 ones I ever bought).
 
 I now eat only apples from my own trees but I suppose the 
 lead from passing cars is more potent than the alar but at 
 least I have my option.
 
 >Oops, bach to brewing subjects...
 
 Just squeezed another gallon of apple juice for this 
 weekend's batch of wine.  I always let it settle over night 
 before using it to give the lead a chance to settle out:).
 
 js
 
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