Radiation nation

Jon begins by describing the process in more detail: “Food is exposed to ‘hard’ irradiation, usually gamma rays from a source like cobalt-80, in doses of 100,000 to 3,000,000 rads. To give you a sense of how high a dose this is, understand that a dose of just 10,000 rads will totally destroy any living tissue.”

As HSI Panelist Allan Spreen, M.D., made clear last week, an abundance of nutrients are also eliminated by this process. Jon agrees, and says, “as much as 70% of the Vitamin A, B1 and B2 in irradiated milk is destroyed, and about 30% of Vitamin C.” Unfortunately, irradiation also accelerates the growth of aspergillus mold, “which produces the most potent natural carcinogens known to man, called aflatoxins.”

I wish I could say that’s the worst of it – but we’re just getting started.

Long before the FDA started assigning more palatable terms for these very unappetizing results, it had already reviewed more than 400 studies about the irradiation process. But Jon tells us where that review process fell woefully short: “They accepted 226 studies for further review. They then narrowed their criteria and selected only 69 for in-depth review. Of these, the FDA itself reported that 32 of the 69 showed adverse effects, and 37 showed safety problems. Then without explanation, they eliminated all but 5 of the 69 (including every negative study) and said they would base their decision on those 5 alone.

“In the FDA’s final report approving food radiation, they wrote that when up to 35% of the lab-animal diet was radiated, feeding studies had to be terminated because of premature mortality or morbidity.” And in one test at the medical College of Virginia, rats fed irradiated beef “died of hemorrhagic syndrome in 34 days.”