Don't eat the sushi!

Following on the food topics, the NY Times report alarmingly high levels of mercury in tuna sushi. Though the world's largest consumer of tuna, Japan, is not so worried. The Health Ministry advising pregnant women to "limit the amount" and average adults to eat a "sensible amount".
I found this video on CNN, talking about mercury levels in fish. And a link to another EPA / FDA advice statement.

Is it safe to eat that meat?

The FDA tell us that eating meat and milk from clones of cattle, swine, and goats is as safe as food from conventionally bred animals. The report does however note there is not enough information to confirm safety from clones of other species such as sheep.

Meanwhile in Europe, EFSA (the European Food Safety Agency) has released a draft opion for public consultation which (though limited to cattle and pigs) essentially aggrees with the FDA report in that "no expectation that clones or their progeny would pose any new or additional environmental risks compared with conventionally bred animals".

Initial dissent appears in the form of another opinion from an European advisory board Euopean Group in Ethics in Science and New Technologies - the group does not see convincing arguments for (yet) producing food from clones or their offspring. EFSA will make a "final" opinion sometime in May 2008.

FDA - lack of oversight

The New York Times reports that the FDA does very little to ensure the safety of clinical trials participants - auditing fewer than 1% of testing sites. We can all only hope the recently signed FDA Reforms will improve these appalling statistics - for all of us.

FDA Reforms

According to an article in Forbes magazine the recent passing of the FDA Amendments Act of 2007 is the biggest overhaul of the FDA in decades. The Consumers Union called it 'the most significant prescription drug safety reforms in 45 years'. Central to the new legislation is new funding and oversight of drug safety and risk minimization. The legislation also codifies the post phase 1 clincal trials database, conflict of interest for advisory committee members, and $25 million for the FDA to perform routine active surveillance.

All-in-all we may be headed towards a safer (though never totally safe) world.

Sunscreen

Summer is nearly over and so the FDA announces new proposals on sunscreens. I am sure they must have read my recent posting . . .

The new regulations (if agreed to) will require labeling for both UVA & UVB. The Wall Street Journal has a really nice blog that mentions the new proposals and describes UVA, UVB & UVC.

A quick search of the literature brings up many hits including this from the Aug 11th issue of the Lancet - Photoprotection, Aug 11;370(9586):528-37.

We are advised to wear protective clothing (hats, shirts etc) in addition to sunscreen, and not to view sunscreen as a means to enabling us to stay longer in the sun. In addition sunscreen should be applied liberally and often!
A note of caution though, sunscreen may well aid the body in protection against UVB but it has not been "clearly proven to further protect against skin cancer".

On a personal note, be very careful to apply the sunscreen everywhere. Last weekend we went to the beach in Long Island - and I have a sunburn in two places where (somehow) I managed to miss with the regular doses of sunscreen.

Apologies

My typing has been slow, and I haven't posted in a week. Worse I failed to acknowledge a comment to the Mad Hatter post.

To make amends here are a couple of links: the FDA has a great page on Thimersal (a mercury containing preservative). But this is not the end to the story as you can read in this wikipedia article.

A PubMed search for Thimersal resulted in 972 hits, the latest being in ToxSci - the official journal of the Society of Toxicology (SOT) - discussing the effect of Thimersal on gastric cancer cells.

Mad as a hatter

The phrase "Mad as a hatter" is thought to come from the use of mercury (and subsequent poisonings) in the felt hat trade.

I'm in LA today, I should have been here a lot earlier, however Delta in their wisdom over sold my flight and so I was bounced from the early morning flight to one six hours later - I was not happy. Anyway, watching CNN in the waiting area I see they are doing a piece on Mercury poisoning, levels in fish etc.

I remember as an undergrad chemist spending part of an inorganic course discussing heavy metal build up, with the examples of the horrors in Minamata in Japan. In Neurotoxicology and Teratology we have published many papers over the years regarding different exposure levels to mercury including a couple of great papers in the September / October 2006 issue.

The US FDA and EPA have both issued advisories on fish, shellfish and mercury levels (FDA, EPA).

May be best to hold back on the sushi when pregnant . . .