Here, here Rudy. Let's just hope the politicians don't find out about the dangers of Hydrogen Hydroxide!! ;> -----Original Message----- From: Rudy Sedlak [mailto:[log in to unmask]] Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 2:05 PM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: [TN] BVO, PVC, NTC, but relevant Some many years ago, the infamous columnist, Molly Ivins wrote a column on something she thought the FDA was doing was dumb/dangerous, and I responded with a letter that could have some insights that might help some of us get a better understanding of this. I copy the important parts below.... Dear Ms. Ivins: Read your recent column, I think it was Sunday in the San Jose Mercury News, wherein you discussed the Delaney Clause. From the sound of your discussion, it seems that you might not understand all the ramifications of the Delaney Clause, and being one of your serious fans, I felt is my duty, honor, and privilege to keep you from inadvertently tasting shoe leather. You talked about the Delaney Clause preventing the presence of any amount of a carcinogen in food or drugs. This issue that most folks have with the Delaney Clause has nothing to do with the amount of the carcinogen allowed, but rather the definition of a carcinogen. Seems that the Delaney Clause (do you capitalize the "C"?) calls something a carcinogen if it can cause any cancer-like condition in any living organism. Technology, like all of life, changes. And since the Delaney Clause was put in place there have been some tests invented that can show virtually any substance that has ever been known, to cause cancer, including an awful lot of substances that occur naturally in the very vegetables that everybody's mother urges them to eat! The test that has become the weather vane for the Delaney Clause is known as the Ames test, invented by Bruce Ames. Bruce Ames now says publicly that he is sorry he invented the test, because the results are essentially meaningless, especially when talking about ostensibly higher animal forms, like you, I, and certain politicians. Perhaps I was too generous, presuming that politicians belongs to the same order of life that you and I do. But I digress. You see, as life forms evolved, and as we have seen evolution has not been a steady or sure thing (re: politicians), they have developed cancer fighting mechanisms. Thus stuff (a technical term for chemicals) that will kill single celled organisms, if they are even in the same room, is utterly harmless to human beans. The problem that the Delaney Clause causes is that some very useful chemicals, that will help materially increase the quality of human life, but that cause cancer only in single celled critters, not in human beans, are not allowed to be used. This is not real clear thinking. Rudy Sedlak --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 ----------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Technet Mail List provided as a free service by IPC using LISTSERV 1.8e To unsubscribe, send a message to [log in to unmask] with following text in the BODY (NOT the subject field): SIGNOFF Technet To temporarily halt or (re-start) delivery of Technet send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet NOMAIL or (MAIL) To receive ONE mailing per day of all the posts: send e-mail to [log in to unmask]: SET Technet Digest Search the archives of previous posts at: http://listserv.ipc.org/archives Please visit IPC web site http://www.ipc.org/html/forum.htm for additional information, or contact Keach Sasamori at [log in to unmask] or 847-509-9700 ext.5315 -----------------------------------------------------