This article too is getting a lot of (worthy!) attention here today. Have a look.

Round Up Ready by Monsanto might be something to look at too

It’s in an abundance of seeds now; soy, corn. Alfalfa. California? sued the gov recently to have it back to regulated status and the alfalfa seed is being taken off the market (temporarily?) - evidently it’s bad for the environment, human health, etc. But those that bought the seed as of March 12, 2007 can plant it but anything after that cannot.

It’s a chemical put into seeds to make them be able to withstand fertilizer use - not die when things like Round Up are used to kill weeds,bugs,etc. The soy, corn,alfalfa etc. won’t die if that is the seed that was used - Round Up Ready seed. Made by Monsanto

This will be my second round of testing, as the first lab I used wasn’t able to test for everything I had on my list.

Early on, the first few lab people I talked to explained I had to know what substances I wanted to test for. I spent the next week doing search engine work trying to identify substances which are toxic to kidneys and might reasonably end up in food. On the list I started with as a result, I had testing done for ethoxyquin, sodium nitrate, sodium nitrite, aflatoxin, mercury, phosphorous, chromium and cadmium. Those all came out either negative or within safe limits.

As I understand it, oxalic acid is the toxin in the various glycols. According to anecdotal media reports, ethylene glycol has been ruled out. Considering it was identified as the toxin responsible for pet deaths in South Africa last December, I don’t believe it should be ruled out without a whole lot more testing. Sulfa drugs used in livestock feed can bio accumulate in organs, are not broken down by heat, are toxic to kidneys, and can end up concentrated as a result of the rendering process. A response to an email I sent to the U of Goof said sulfa drugs had been ruled out. IMO, nothing credible is coming out of the U of Goof, so I don’t think sulfa should be ruled out without more testing either.

Melamine and aminopterin are obvious suspects as they’ve both been identified as being present in some food samples, although I remain unconvinced melamine and related substances alone could account for the deaths.

Unfortunately, there are apparently an unholy number of substances, toxic to kidneys, that are sprayed all over the place or are otherwise used in industry. Trying to pin down every last one of them might be rather difficult.

I wouldn’t be surprised if there were a number of different toxins involved, and just because something wasn’t found in one batch, doesn’t mean it is not present in another. I saw one account where a lady who worked in a lab tested 6 cans of food she had, and found melamine in only one of them. That makes it hard for those of us who don’t work at a lab. If a person has samples to spare, it might make sense to send several with instructions to mix them together to test them all at once.

Anyhow, that’s what I’ve been working on. Everything about this situation is outside my experience, so I don’t know if I’m going about it the right way or not. I’d certainly be interested in hearing what other folks are doing along those lines.

son-of-a-gun

Polyethylene Glycol

Do you have any suggestions to what the culprit poison(s) might be, if not melamine and cyanuric acid? Are you thinking aminopterin really was the toxin? Something else? I would like to do further sleuthing, using your thoughts.

Thanks.

I put some samples in the mail to them Friday. I had emailed them awhile back with questions on different substances, and was less than pleased with the response. They wanted 10 times as much money as UC Davis on two items, oxalic acid and non protein nitrogen. On a recent visit to their site, they seem to have put together two decent general package deals. One is melamine and aminopterin, which also includes an unknown toxin scan that evidently covers quite a few substances. The other package is melamine and common melamine byproducts/contaminants, which I believe also includes the unknown toxin scan.

Cyanuric acid has received a ton of slanted attention in the media and from the U of Goof. It would be strange NOT to find cyanuric acid, along with several other trace items, in melamine. I have yet to see anything which would suggest cyanuric acid is present in other than expected trace amounts. If melamine is present, it is safe to assume cyanuric acid is also. That is the way the stuff comes.

Anyhow, I ordered the melamine and aminopterin test, and may add some other items if the cost is reasonable. My guess is the unknown toxin scan is going to produce the most interesting results, and I hope these guys compile and publish data on what they find in these tests. Melamine, cyanuric acid, and even crystals formed from the combination should not have been deadly in the amounts alleged to be present in the food. The crystals cooked up at the U of Goof have an LD 50 of 2500 mg. per kg. of body weight. That compares to 3100 for melamine, 8000 for cyanuric acid, and 3000 for table salt. Note: the lower the number, the more toxic the substance.

IMO, the melamine hype is a smoke screen to hide the fact we have not been told anything like the whole truth. Does anyone realize that a over a month and a half into the melamine hype, there has not been a single statement on the quantity of the stuff found in the food? The first thing they told us on aminopterin was it was found at 40 parts per million. Why hasn’t there been a similar statement on melamine? Is it because it would have to be present at 84,000 parts per million to produce the results claimed in the Menu Foods taste tests?

….hey you want live action no one can control? Go to your local govt meetings. Our county meetings are televised later in the evening and you can buy a tape cheap. I think the city meetings are also, but I haven’t got that far yet in my role as *citizen pest*!

Sharon - As a taxpayer, why should I pay for testing of imports? As far as I can see this is the proper way to do it - make the owner of the goods pay. Then they can spot check them to see if they’re telling the truth. (They might be doing that anyway, but they sure as heck aren’t going to talk about it ahead of time.) That’s what China is having a cow about right now - how expensive it’s going to be to do all these lab tests to prove the product isn’t contaminated. It’s mostly the supposedly *good companies* that are complaining. Too bad I say, as if spiking feed was so widely known and they didn’t do anything about it, well, they can just lay in the same bed as the criminals.