DON'T IRRADIATE OUR FOOD

Actions you can take to stop irradiation

1. PAPAYAS

A company called Hawaii Pride is building an electron-beam irradiation facility for papayas and exotic Hawaiian fruit, with over $6 million in USDA loans. Contact the papaya industry trade association, not Hawaii Pride. Write to: Papaya Administrative Committee, 230 Kekuanaoa St., Hilo, Hawaii 96720-4318 or call 808/969-1160. Send a copy of your letter to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald, Letters to the Editor, P.O. Box 767, Hilo, HI 96721. Sample letter.

Say you won't buy ANY Hawaiian papayas

• Because you won't be able to determine which ones are irradiated (Labels are required on displays of whole fruit, but not on prepared foods or foods served in restaurants/hotels/airlines/schools).
• You don't want to buy fresh-appearing fruit that has the nutrition profile of cooked fruit: depleted vitamins and damaged enzymes.
• Fruit irradiation benefits the producer: it has no benefit to you.
• Irradiation is not necessary: vapor heat and dry heat are tested, proven technologies for disinfestations of papayas that do not have the side-effects of irradiation (fewer vitamins, damaged enzymes and unique radiolytic products created by irradiation). These technologies are already being used, successfully.

2. GROUND BEEF AND CHICKEN

- Wal-Mart. "Case-ready" irradiated beef. Customer service: 1-800-966-6546 (then dial 3)
- Tyson Foods. Irradiated chicken. Customer service: 1-800-233-6332

Tell these companies you don't want to buy irradiated foods and you don't want Wal-Mart to sell them. If the person who answers the phone says they don't know anything about the company's plans, say that you know the company is planning to irradiate food and you won't buy it.

3. LOCAL ACTIONS

- Call in to talk radio.

- When irradiated food becomes available in your area, organize a demonstration outside a store selling irradiated foods.

- Inform us if you spot irradiated food in your area or you have any news about irradiation.

- Write a letter to the editor. Sample letters you can use.

1. Good phrases: "Don't expose our food to the energy equivalent of 1 million chest x-rays". "I don't want to eat irradiated fecally contaminated food." "Why is the food suddenly so dirty it has to be irradiated? Meat industry deregulation." "More inspection, not less, is a better way to have safer food."
2. You will not purchase irradiated meats because you believe the contamination should be addressed at the source.
3. Irradiation decreases the vitamins in food and creates unique radiolytic products, compounds that have never been studied for their effect on human health.
4. The existing scientific literature is not adequate to prove safety for long-term consumption.
5. There are no studies on children.
6. The FDA relied on only 5 of 441 studies submitted to approve irradiation, and these 5 either showed health effects on the animals or were conducted using lower-energy irradiation than that approved for use on human foods.
7. The longest human health study on irradiated food was only 15 weeks, which is not long enough to prove safety for people who might be eating irradiated foods for their lifetimes.
8. The FDA current minimum labeling requirement is totally inadequate (tiny type the size of the type on the ingredient label, and no labels to the consumer for restaurant or institutional foods, or foods that receive further processing). Although the USDA currently requires bigger labels for packaged meat and poultry products, the USDA can return to the FDA minimum at any time.. The FDA, which regulates all labeling, may choose to eliminate all labeling requirements. Permanent, prominent, and conspicuous labels on all irradiated foods should be required so that consumers can know what they are buying.
9. You have a right to know how your food has been processed, and the FDA should listen to you. The FDA received 30,000 comments and petitions in 1999 when it tried to change the labeling of irradiated food, and over 99% were in favor of prominent labeling or opposed irradiation altogether.

4. STAY INFORMED - GET ON OUR MAILING LIST

To be notified when the FDA revises the labeling requirement, contact the coordinator, Danila.

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