Inside: Environmental Resources On Campus .... pg. 8
and 9 Should Columbia Cement Incinerate Hazardous Wastes - Two Perspectives ........ pg. 6 NW Wildlife Clinic ........ pg. 3 . 'N'NU UBRARY ARCHIVES Expedition Living ......... pg. 5 AND MORE...................................................................
Mon~bly
volume VIII
number
I
November 1986
A Publication of the Associated Students Environmental Center, Western Washington University
Food Irradiation:
Activism at the Crossroads by Don Norman There has been a subtle change in the style and information given in the articles filling the mainstream press on food irradiation. Two years ago it was impossible to get anyone's attention. Now US News and World Report and ~ have given full page articles, and there are good articles in MS. (Nov, 1985) and the multitude of "Health" journals, such as East-West Journal Harrowsmith. and New Frontier. As the bland articles have been written for less polarized audiences, they have massaged the issue into a more chic and humorous cxmtroversy: "The mixing of gamma rays with edibles has set off a nuclear chain reaction, releasing high rhetoric, short tempers, and
• - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - • - -- - -- - - -- - - - - -• 65.) mass uncertainty." ~Sept. 22, 1986, p. "Imagine sinking your teeth into a feast of What is food irradiation? What can you do about it? irradiated pork chops, asparagus zapped with gamma rays, and for dessert, Irradiation is a process in which either Learn more about the issue and write strawberries a la Cobalt 60." (US News and gamma rays from radioactive elements letters to your local and national officials. World Report. Aug. 11, 1986, p. 58.) (cesium 137 or Cobalt 60) or x-rays from There is presently a bill in Congress (HR · As a revitalization of the Atoms for Peace electron beams are passed through food 4762) sponsored by Doug Bosco that will program of the Eisenhower era (why is the after it is harvested. This is done at a variety require labeling of all irradiated foods, and Reagan administration so enraptured with of doses (called Rads) in order to prevent will require more research be done before it is that era?) it recalls such classic phrases a~ sprouting or kill insects at lower doses (such approved. Al Swift sits on the committee that "electricity too cheap to meter." MacFayden for Harrowsmith writes: as the coddling moth larvae in Washington will hear this bill. "High school students were treated to apples), and to kill bacteria and fungi at The food irradiation issue is an excellent higher doses. way to learn about food safety, nuclear visits by touring AEC (Atomic Energy power, multinationals and international food Commission) missionaries, who extolled the politics, legislative and bureaucratic advantages of the atom. Not infrequently, How is irradiation perfonned? procedures, and grass roots organizing. they brought with them slim, foil wrapped Using radioactive isotopes, which give off There are local support groups that can packets, which they brandished before their gamma rays deadly to humans, the process assist your efforts. With a little bit of work astonished audiences like pieces of the Holy is performed behind specially constructed you can be the national expert on one aspect Grail. 'This envelope contains a hamburger,' thick walls. The food is passed on conveyors of the consumer opinion about the issue. For they would soberly intone, 'that is five years through the rooms, at the appropriate speed, example, no one has been monitoring the old. You could eat it tomorrow and it would be to ensure the necessary dose. Electron National Marine Fisheries Service to find out as good as the day it was made.'" Food irradiation has been around for beam generators, which require the same what proposed rules they are contemplating, type of facilities (none of which are in and what are the economics of irradiating decades, baggage of the atomic age discard commercial usage), have the advantage of fish and shellfish, which is occurrin pile, along with the atomic car, toaster, and being turned on and off, and do not have any commercially on a small scale in the the airplane. Exciting ideas, but infeasible. (For a basic summary of what is food irradiation, of the problems of storing or transporting Netherlands. Write articles such as this one for your see the accompanying box). radioactivitv. The gamma rays emitted by
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