White coats and green symbols

I was 'net surfing yesterday, and came across a clip from the Today Show where they talked about irradiated food. My knee jerked when a fellow in a white coat (could have been a doctor or line worker) said, "There's no question that it's safe." I forced my knee back down. I don't want be radical, I want to remain open to all viewpoints. But I'm not fully convinced we know everything there is to know about this. I mean, think about it: we used to think that doing x-rays of pregnant women was safe, and people were routinely prescribed smoking as a way to calm their nerves. My generation is full of people with disfigured limbs from an FDA-approved medication against morning sickness. When does our arrogance end?

So I start digging. I learn that irradiation effectively kills bacteria, which sounds great, if you're afraid of bacteria. I quote the FDA: "Energy waves passing through the food break molecular bonds in the DNA of bacteria, other pathogens, and insects." Nothing there to help me understand how it can disrupt the DNA of the bacteria without affecting that of the food in question.

The debate quickly dissolves into polarized views, no middle ground to be found, so I turn to the Europeans for a more balanced view. In the EU, irradiation is currently allowed for preserving dried herbs and spices. (Ironically, this can include herbs in supplements.) These items often travel great distances, and are affected by more exotic pathogens. Something like curry powder must be labeled irradiated even if only one of its many ingredients has been subjected to ionizing radiation. And in response to concerns raised by the general population, the EU has placed a hold on further irradiation licenses in the bloc "until member states come to a concensus on the safety of some chemicals formed when food is exposed to radiation." Turns out that there are some compounds we don't know a lot about that result, and they're looking into it.

Back home, these chemicals don't seem to be on the FDA's radar, but at least they require irradiated food to carry a label identifying it as such. I do have bone to pick with those who deceivingly print the international symbol in the same green as used for the FDA organic symbol. I even found a thread of nuclear scientists discussing the logo, "The irradiated food RADURA symbol is usually printed in environmentally friendly GREEN, and it looks very [much like] the EPA logo with its flower design."


(Hint: the one in the middle is the radura, the international symbol for irradiated foods. The EPA logo is on the right.)

But it occurs to me that there's a relatively easy way to avoid the whole issue: buy fresh, buy local, buy organic. Sound familiar? If we think of irradiation as a way of preserving foods--and we must--then all foodstuffs that have been subjected to the gamma rays from cobalt-60 cannot be considered fresh. Buy fresh, buy local, buy organic.