New Study Reveals Gaping Holes in Mad Cow 'Firewall'

[Sliverofhope]

New Study Reveals Gaping Holes in Mad Cow 'Firewall', Says Center for Progressive Regulation; McGarity: 'Government's So-Called Firewalls Are Flimsy'; Administration's Sham Safeguards Don't Protect Public Health'

WASHINGTON, July 22 /U.S. Newswire/ -- Thomas O. McGarity, a food safety expert and president of the Center for Progressive Regulation, today derided the Bush Administration's response to the threat of Mad Cow disease in the U.S. beef supply, concluding that the series of regulatory measures taken to date "are riddled with sham safeguards and faux firewalls that fail to protect public health." In particular, McGarity described USDA Secretary Ann Veneman's recent assertion that USDA regulations for identifying and banning highly infective "specified risk materials" (SRMs) "ensures that the highest-risk materials are not entering the food chain" as based "more on fiction than fact." McGarity's assessment came upon the release of CPR's 160- page analysis of the Administration's Mad Cow regulatory regime, "Flimsy Firewalls: The Continuing Triumph of Efficiency over Safety in Regulating Mad Cow Disease Risks," written by McGarity with fellow CPR Member Scholar Frank Ackerman.

A key finding of McGarity's research is that because of a significant loophole in the government's regulations concerning handling of especially risky SRMs from slaughtered cattle -- brains, ganglia, and other body parts that can spread Mad Cow disease -- troubling practices are now both legal and widespread in the beef slaughter and processing industry. The loophole permits industry to elect not to implement the rigorous standards for specific controls at specific points in processing, simply by asserting -- as almost all establishments apparently have -- that Mad Cow disease is unlikely to be a problem in their facility. After reaching that conclusion on their own, and without government approval, industry is then allowed to follow far less rigorous industry-drafted Standard Operation Procedures, sometimes called "prerequisite" programs, to keep brain, spinal cord and the like out of edible meat. They are not required to actually check for Mad Cow. The failings of this system are potentially disastrous, and include:

(more)

http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=113-07222004

[Robert Murphy]

1. Simple Solution...

Go vegetarian.

Robert

[Sliverofhope]

2. True enough, but

cows are also used to create bases for vaccines, cow bones are used in bleaching sugar, and Stanley Pruisner, the man who discovered prions, said the question of whether milk was a transmission risk was an "open question."

So you'd really have to go vegan. And not get any blood transfusions from a non-vegan. And not be vaccinated.

Oh, and use cosmetics either. I forgot about that. Just found the story for that, too.

[donsu]

4. use raw sugar

I've been buying organic butter and milk - but - doesn't organic mean the cow doesn't eat food with pesticides or manmade fertilizer on it. does it also mean the cow did not receive hormones or antibiotics?

cannot find organic cottage cheese.

and I've given up all cheese but Feta.

we wouldn't have to do all this just to stay healthy if the gov. would check every single bovine and clear our herds of madcow.

wish some reporters would find out what kind of beef the CEOs of the beef corps eat. probably from a herd that has been checked clean of madcow.

[shanti]

12. come on now

although your suggestions are well-intentioned, do you really think that the average joe blow will follow them? organic, etc. products are quite a bit more expensive than standard grocery store fare. we shouldn't have to change for them, they should change for US!

[The Animator]

3. Heh, are we at risk from Mad Cow hackers?

If our firewalls are flimsy maybe we should get the good people at Norton to build it.

To think that some Mad Cow, working on his computer in his mom's basement could brind down the whole of Western society... I shudder. What is our fearless leader going to do about these Mad Cow Hacker's Program Activities?

[donsu]

5. whatever are you talking about?

nt

[lazarus]

6. Yep, huge gaping hole

And look how many Americans die every year of Mad Cow. It's like an epidemic sweeping the nation!

[colonel odis]

8. doesn't mad cow take a long time to incubate? n/t

[OnionPatch]

10. Yes, up to 20 years

My family and I eat only organic beef. It's kind of hard being at BBQs and having to turn down the burgers. Everyone asks if we're vegans and we feel we must explain. They look at us like we're crazy but sorry....I don't trust this administration to keep our food supply safe.

[lazarus]

11. Yes it does

However, we've been eating beef for over 20 years. Millions of us.

The Brits overreacted, and we're on the verge of overreacting as well. Some simple safety precautions, and we're all fine.

FWIW, you're in much more danger from the fact that the guy fixing your burger didn't wash his hands when he left the bathroom.

Now, I do eat organic beef, minimally processed, from a local rancher, but that's because I know what happens in slaughterhouses, and I'm not fond of fecal matter. My hamburger is either homemade, or freshly made at the local butchers.

Simple care will eliminate most of these problems.

[shanti]

13. AGAIN

most average americans either will not or cannot take the time to seek out the types of products you suggest, so it's a moot point.

[lazarus]

14. I'll accept "will not"

Can't? Maybe, in some rural areas.

But those products are for the elimination of fecal matter, which is really only a problem in hamburger. So just buy the meat whole, make sure it's clean, and grind it yourself.

Again, though, the worst danger in our food right now is the fact that the kid who put together your Big Mac didn't wash his hands after he took a piss break.

[shanti]

15. true dat

the odds of catching salmonella or hep C is greater than catching mad cow...

[lazarus]

16. Isn't it amazing what people get in a panic about?

Most foodborne illnesses can be eliminated with just a little caution, that nobody takes, and yet we're all in a tizzy about a disease that has affect less than 100 people total ever.

[struggle4progress]

18. The amount of animal byproduct in cattle-feed has increased ...

... in recent years, and this is the source of the infection. We should simply outlaw animal byproducts in cattle-feed. Come to think of it, we should outlaw feeding raw animal material to pigs as well; that would eliminate our trich problem.

[struggle4progress]

17. If anyone is currently dying of it ...

... it's being diagnosed as another of the degenerative diseases.

[glitch]

7. Gawd

so awful. But this may cheer you up a tiny bit, 'Cows with Guns':
http://www.ampcast.com/danalyons

[tom_paine]

9. You think Bushevik FDA will do anything about this?

Puh-LEEZE! Totalitarian Nations liek Imperial Amerika DO NOT HAVE agencies designed to protect the people from the powerful but to protect the powerful from the people.

The FDA as all the rest in current day Imperial Amerika. Only an ever-shrinking honest part (which is being fired as swiftly as the Busheviks can find "Nazi" Party replacements) still performs it's function, poorly and opposed by the Agency itslef, now a Totalitarian Front.