The people's voice. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1939-1969, 1951-09-28

nonpartisan House Select Committee
to investigate the Use of Chemicals
in Food Products. This body has
been holding hearings for nearly a
year to determine the effect of such
chemicals on the nations health.
Not long ago a frozen-food pack
er was told that his new shipment of
peaches would stay bright and fresh
looking if he added touch of THO
urea. He tried it. The chemical work
ed miracle of freshness and color
ing. The shipment went out.
Another frozen-peach firm did the
same thing. Before shipping out it's
product, hewever, it invited the To-
cal Food and Drug Administration in
spectors to test the food. Samples
were fed to experimental rats. With
in few hours they all died.
By merest chance the inspectors
then learned of the first packers
shipment. From that moment on,
there took place as exciting and dra-
matte a chase as ever thrilled Holly
wood film audience. And this time
the stakes were more than the price
of an admission. They were the
lives of thousands of men, women,
and children.
Fortunately, the episode had a
happy ending. All of the peaches
still bright and still deadly-were
intercepted before they could be
eaten by unsuspecting American fam
lilies
Other episodes have not ended
so happily.
Several years ago a salt substitute
was put on the market for use by
people on a low-salt diet 1t con-
tanned lithium chloride, a chemical
whose effect had been only super
ficially tested. Three persons died |
before the salt" could be withdrawn |
from the market.
These instances point up blunt
fact: Our food supply is being
doctored by hundreds of new chem
icals whose safety has not yet
been established.
Many of these chemicals were de-
veloped during and after the war.
Most of them may prove harmless,
but enough have been proved dan
gerous and even deadly to make US
wonder if our health is threatened.
In the year that the House COM
mittee has been investigating this
problem, scores of noted scientists
have testified that the rapid rate
at which substances, heretofore for
eign to the body, are being intro
duced directly or indirectlyainto our
food is alarming and may have a
serious effect on the health of all
of us, especially our children.
Nothing is more important TO the
American family. 1t is automatic to
say that the survival Of the coun-
try, as we'll as its democracy, de-
ponds on the health of its citizens.
The shocking number of our young
men who cannot meet the relatively
modest physical requirements of our
armed services must make each of
us ask the reasons for this reser-
voir of i'll health in the midst of such
a varied and abundant food sup
ply.
The growing number of mental di-
seases makes one wonder if there is I
rot some connection between that '
problem and the many new chemicals
used in our foods. In New York
State alone, mental hospitals now care
for $4,000 patients-almost one
patient to be supported by every 100
citizens. i
Why then, one asks, are new I
chemicals added at all? /
The answer is easy. They are rel {
atively cheap, easy, and work ''wond
ers" as preservers, blenders, soften {
ers, bleachers, emulsifiers, insect and
fungus killers, and crop stimulators. .
In one product, for example - !
has revealed that P
many bakers have been able to re- 9
iuce the amount of shortening in the II
asst several years by about so per Il
cent. This they have done by chemi =
,al emulsifiers first put on TIE mar "
get in 1947. .
Here is the overall score-board at / n
he present time: The Food and Drug II
administration has listed 704 chemi- 81
GALS which are being used in our Is
'egular food supply, of which only p
1923 are known to be safe. In other r,
words, 276 chemicals are unknown II
md untested quantities, and some q
IF them may be slowly poisoning us!
This potentially lethal situation is p'
lue to a curious loophole in our pres b,
mt laws-a tragic legal joker that et
permits us to become a nation of cl
l,l -lTi /