In some respects it's amazing anyone in my cohort is alive, though not in any metaphysical or religious or biological sense. It's just that knowing what we now know, it's amazing we made it out of childhood in one piece. We rode bikes without helmets. We played at the beach with no sunscreen. We went into the woods or streets to play unsupervised. My wife recalls riding with her folks in a car while standing up in the back hanging onto the front seats. And I rode bikes with friends as we chased a truck fogging our neighborhood for mosquitoes; the more of the cloud you could inhale the better. Try or allow any of that with kids today and you'd be hauled before a judge.
What seemed harmless then has since been shown to be anything but. Each of those activities and many more have been all but banned for reasons of health, prudence or just common sense. That said, you can say that we've merely swapped one set of perils for another. After all, smoking is looked on as a great evil, and most would no more consider eating a cigarette than smoking one. But who hasn't also wondered about what staring at and living on screens 18 hours a day is doing to our eyes and our brains, not to mention our social skills and ability to actually talk to each other.
You can make the same observation about the foods we eat, but in that case old habits die hard. We ate copious amounts bacon, hot dogs, French fries and sugared cereal. And while we have been admonished to try and eat healthier, we still consume copious amounts of bacon, hot dogs, French fries and sugared cereal. And just as in other areas, we look the other way as we likely swap one edible problem for another. While I am not eating as much bologna as I did when I was a kid (every day for lunch with mustard on white bread) I eat more raw fish, which carries its own set of risks.
Which brings us to our lawsuit of the week.
A class action filing in California is going after candy maker Mars Inc. for its formulation of Skittles. According to the complaint, the second most popular Halloween candy in the country (Reese's Cups are first, as they should be ) contains "heightened levels of titanium dioxide (TiO2)," a possible carcinogen. While the company committed back in 2016 to phase out TiO2, the lawsuit alleges that they have not done as much as they can or should. In response, the company counters that "our use of titanium dioxide complies with FDA regulations," which say that it is OK to be used as long as levels do not exceed 1% of the weight of the food.
While the scientific evidence is not conclusive as to the material's harm, some others have chosen to take action none the less. Dunkin' removed it from their products seven years ago, and in 2021 the European Food and Safety Authority declared the nanoparticles unsafe when used as a food additive. Still, they didn't ban it, leaving that action up to country regulators on a case-by-case basis. The bottom line is they don't really know about its long term effects, but are acting out of the overused mantra of "an abundance of caution."
I am not advocating consuming harmful chemicals, nor learning from scientific advances and applying those findings to make us safer. But it does call to mind the 1973 Woody Allen movie "Sleeper," in which two doctors are discussing a health food store owner who wakes up after two centuries. Dr. Melik: "This morning for breakfast he requested something called wheat germ, organic honey and tiger's milk." Dr. Aragon: "Oh, yes. Those are the charmed substances that some years ago were thought to contain life-preserving properties." Dr. Melik: "You mean there was no deep fat? No steak or cream pies or hot fudge?" Dr. Aragon: "Those were thought to be unhealthy, precisely the opposite of what we now know to be true." Dr. Melik: "Incredible."
Incredible indeed. I'm not saying it's not dangerous, but what isn't? Not wear a seatbelt? Are you out of your mind? Indeed, I'll have mine on as I review your text as I drive to pick up our takeout order of sushi. And yes, I'll make sure to get extra packets of low sodium soy sauce.
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Marc Wollin of Bedford picks his risks. His column appears regularly in The Record-Review, The Scarsdale Inquirer and online at http://www.glancingaskance.blogspot.com/, as well as via Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
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