I was encouraged by a recent article in the Wall Street Journal saying that an epidemic of BSE-related human disease in the United Kingdom is probably not going to happen. The article cited UK Department of Health statistics indicating that the number of cases of variant Creutzfeld-Jacob disease (vCJD), the human version of BSE, had likely peaked, and might well be on the decline. In 2000, twenty-eight Britons died of vCJD, and that number decreased to seventeen in '02 and eighteen in '03. While it will be several years before we know for sure that this trend will continue, some estimates suggest only another forty cases may occur over the next seventy-five years. So even though there were literally thousands of sick cows in Britain, and millions of people were at least theoretically exposed to them, the toll of human disease has been much lower so far only 139 Britons have succumbed to vCJD. One might expect this good news to make headlines in the UK and Britons to feel more comfortable with the safety of their food supply. But they didn't get much time to celebrate.
Another story (see www.foodnavigator.com/news/news-NG.asp?id=48948) about the UK food chain laments the recent report in the journal Science that farmed salmon contains more PCBs and other environmental chemicals (e.g., dioxins) than does wild salmon. Although the levels of contaminants found did not exceed safe levels (even the cautious FDA says levels of PCB nearly a hundred times higher are safe), environmental activists are implying that humans who consume farmed salmon are opening themselves to a gamut of negative health consequences, from hormone disruptions to cancers. Of course, none of these effects have ever been substantiated in humans.
So this seems to be business as usual for the activist groups. By the time we've realized Problem #1 wasn't reason to panic, needless panic over Problem #2 has begun, so that people rarely have a chance to step back to see the pattern: each successive panic is unwarranted. Good news about the food safety issues is immediately counterbalanced by new dire warnings. It's always something.
Ruth Kava, Ph.D., R.D., is Director of Nutrition at the American Council on Science and Health.
