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Show BY RICK KINNERSLEY Safe Food We rarely give thought to the cleanliness clean-liness of the food we eat. In most cases it is prepared in our homes and, if not there, in eating establishments which we assume are licensed for cleanliness by local governments. More recently, however, the introduction of substances sub-stances in our food supply which cannot can-not simply be washed or boiled away in the preparation process are giving scientists cause for concern. Here are a few incidents from the '70's: PCB, a cancer causing agent in laboratory animals, was found in the animal fats of a packing plant in Montana. Through that one incident the chemical chemi-cal residue found its way into everything every-thing from pork products to strawberry straw-berry cakes in 17 states including Utah. It was, in fact, a Utah discovery that stopped the spread of the contamination con-tamination to a wide area of the nation. na-tion. Another contaminent, KEPONE, was found in the James River in Virginia. This water supply, for hundreds hun-dreds of thousands of people, had to be quarantined to avoid population exposure. expo-sure. PBB in animal feed resulted in the deaths of thousands upon thousands thou-sands of dairy cows in Michigan. Because of the diligence of local health agencies, Utah has yet to have a serious food contamination experience. experi-ence. But with the growing technology, technolo-gy, and the resulting waste products from the statewide growth, the risks of such an occurrence are increasing dramatically. Food contamination from industrial industri-al poisoning, in one form or another, accounted for $1 billion in losses during dur-ing the 1970's. This resulted from an amazingly small number of cases, only 240. In conjunction with this contamination, contami-nation, the Office of Technology Assessment of the U.S. Congress was unable to determine the health costs and lost workdays that were associated associ-ated with these problems. The most commonly suggested answer to contamination is more government involvement. Past experience experi-ence shows, however, increased costs to consumers for stricter labeling and monitoring of food stuffs. Consumers need to know if the things they are purchasing are contaminated. It is expected that the government will play a more visible role in the control con-trol of food contamination in the future, unless private enterprise begins to monitor its products more closely. According to Rep. Don Ritter (D-PA) our citizens would rather pay a higher price for food and know its safe than to continue in fear that a manu-facurer manu-facurer might fail to protect its consumers. con-sumers. Only time will tell if this assumption is correct. WhUjt Column R1mm gy, and the resulting waste products WmUj Column Btltin l;;w.;v.- UTAH HOSPITAL ASSOCIATION |