Evening Primrose Oil

October 9, 2002 by Jurgen

On the 22nd of August, having tested two Evening Primrose Oil products on the market, the Food Safety Authority (FSAI) announced that the products were to be withdrawn from the market as they did not meet European guidelines.The FSAI’s action and the resultant headlines in the newspapers caused both alarm and distress among the EPO consuming public.

The FSAI now agree that this information was in fact wrong. That there are no European or Irish guidelines on Benzo(a)pyrene. The press release was in fact erroneous and that it is to be withdrawn. In effect, the products withdrawn did not breach any guidelines. Therefore any concern and distress caused to the consumer was in fact both unnecessary and most regrettable.

NB: Benzo(a)pyrene is a by-product of the industrial process and the burning of fossil fuels such as coal, oil and petrol.

Minister‘s FLUORIDATION REPORT ignores people

September 15, 2002 by Jurgen

Health Minister Martin has chosen the anniversary of 9/11 to release the findings of the Report of his Fluoridation Forum after delaying it for a whole year. The first review of the health effects of 40 years of fluoridation is a disappointing cop-out. The lower dosage recommendation is meaningless when there is no monitoring, no quality control and no measurement of the level of naturally occurring fluoride at the various treatment plants throughout the country.

Fluoride is implicated with skeletal fluorosis, Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis, under-active thyroid and many other diseases. In some cases the evidence of damage is overwhelming. In others the jury is still out, but for as long as it is, the precautionary principle must apply. VOICE (Voice of Irish Concern for the Environment) spokesperson Robert Pocock said, “Of all departments of government that should heed the precautionary principle, it must surely be our Irish Department of Health, so plagued is it by tribunals of enquiry into failed policies and practices”.

Ireland is only at the mid point on the European table of dental health, despite the fact, that we are now the only EU country mass medicating through our public water systems. Belgium, only last month, banned all swallowed forms of fluoride for health safety reasons.

(see also entry on 1/1/2002)

Oats and Coeliac

July 27, 2002 by Jurgen

Oats can be safely enjoyed by those on a gluten-free diet. Studying the diet and associated effects of adults with Coeliac Disease who have added oats to their diet for 5 years, the researchers at Kuopio University in Finland say the volunteers suffered ‘no harm’ and ‘no significant difference’ in their health.