Faux Food Part 1

Faux Food: Why Is There Poison In Our Food Supply? Part One
By Cliff Walsh

As consumer groups and the public at large continue to wake up to the vast amount of dangerous chemicals in our daily lives (pesticides, GMOs, artificial sweeteners, preservatives, etc.), I keep asking myself why has this happened? I will attempt to answer this question in a multi-part article that will point the finger at a number of guilty parties and how they're responsible for the many toxic chemicals in our food supply and consumer products. I will also provide some information about what we can do to make changes to the flawed system that creates, approves, and oversees the usage of chemicals in our country.

The first point of blame is the foundation of our approval system, which is the U.S. Toxic Substances and Control Act (TSCA) of 1976. This law was passed by congress to regulate new and existing chemicals. The law falls short in many ways and boggles my mind as to why it has not been improved over the past 38 years. First, the law grandfathered in over 60,000 chemicals already in existence without assessing the risk or long-term concerns of any of these. They were simply approved because they were already in use. That does not appear to be a very effective way to protect against "unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment" as the law was meant to do. It's actually downright ludicrous, which doesn't surprise me since it came from Washington D.C.

The law was also designed to regulate the use of new chemicals coming to market. The EPA is responsible for this task. A chemical company will submit an application for a new chemical to be approved. Zero safety information needs to be provided. The EPA has to use its own modeling capabilities to project potential risks. If it cannot determine unreasonable risk to humans or to the environment within 90 days, the chemical is approved for use. No trials. No testing. No long-term studies. Innocent until proven guilty may work great in the courts, but it doesn't make any sense when our lives are at risk.

So the chemical industry's strategy has become to overwhelm the government. Thousands of new chemical formulations are submitted each year, the majority of which sail through the approval process, most likely because the EPA lacks the proper tools and does not have an adequate time frame to prove that these new chemicals are harmful. Compare this to the FDA's drug approval process, which takes years and tens of millions of dollars (if not hundreds of millions) to get a drug approved. The onus should be on the companies bringing these chemicals to market, not on the government/tax payer, and certainly shouldn't be putting the general public at risk so the chemical industry can gamble with our health to make a few bucks or billions.

The very foundation of our system is broken. The TSCA needs to be scrapped and replaced with something that puts public safety above the chemical industry's bottom line. I'm all for innovation, but the current system is downright reckless. Please stay tuned for part 2 coming up soon.  


BIO: I am a researcher and the author of They Put That In My Food? (theyputthatinmyfood.com). My aim is to increase awareness surrounding the dangerous chemicals and additives in our food supply in order to help others eat a healthier and cleaner diet.