Category: Issue 338
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Persistent Organic Pollutants Reportedly Detected in Food
Researchers studying 31 different types of food purchased from supermarkets in Dallas, Texas, have apparently found a range of persistent organic pollutants, including organochlorine pesticides, at varying levels, although none exceeded Environmental Protection Agency reference doses or EU maximum residue levels for pesticide residues in food. Arnold Schecter, et al., “Perfluorinated Compounds, Polychlorinated Biphenyl, and…
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Sarah Elizabeth Richards, “The Irresistible Baconator,” Slate, February 16, 2010
“Chalk it up to the lack of willpower, sway of culture, or love of the processed carb, but humans aren’t always rational eaters,” argues Sarah Elizabeth Richards in this February 16, 2010, Slate article that questions the effectiveness of efforts to make calorie counts more visible on menus and food packaging. Citing numerous recent studies…
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Mark Bittman, “Soda: A Sin We Sip Instead of Smoke?,” The New York Times, February 12, 2010
“In their critics’ eyes, producers of sugar-sweetened drinks are acting a lot like the tobacco industry of old: marketing heavily to children, claiming their products are healthy or at worst benign, and lobbying to prevent change,” begins New York Times columnist Mark Bittman in this article questioning whether aggressive public health initiatives, like those deployed to…
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Stephanie Clifford, “A Fine Line When Ads and Children Mix,” The New York Times, February 15, 2010
This article claims that recent efforts to monitor and regulate marketing to children has had “an interesting side effect,” that is, a shift away from traditional tactics to “games, contests and events where the advertiser has only a subtle presence— exactly the opposite of what some of the advocacy groups were aiming for.” According to…
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Rudd Center to Hold Soft Drink Tax Webinar
Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity has announced a March 9, 2010, webinar to discuss “the rationale, relevant science, and economic and policy considerations of soft drink taxes.” The conference will reportedly update participants about the latest developments in state and local policies since July 2009, when director Kelly Brownell presented the…
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Animal Rights Organization Targeted Online
Anne Landman, who once had the tobacco industry in her sights and now posts for Center for Media and Democracy’s PRWatch.org, has reported that Washington, D.C.-based industry lobbyist Rick Berman and his Center for Consumer Freedom have launched a website “to harass” the Humane Society of the United States. Landman states that Berman “sets up…
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British Newspaper Reports Scheme to Recruit Youth Marketers
“Children are being paid up to £25 a week to promote sugary soft drinks and other products through social networking sites and playground chat,” claims a February 15, 2010, report published in the Daily Mail. Titled “Child ‘Mini-Marketers’ Paid by Junk Food Firms to Secretly Push Products Among Their Friends,” the article focuses on an…
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Legal Commentators Make Predictions About BPA-Related Litigation
According to legal commentators interviewed for an article in Law 360, consumer perceptions about the safety of food-packaging chemical bisphenol A (BPA), as well as increasing attention to the chemical in state legislatures, could result in a morass of litigation for years to come. While a $1 billion lawsuit is already pending in multidistrict litigation…