By The Defender Staff

FDA to Reassess Safety of ‘Yoga Mat’ Chemical in Food

Food Dive reported:

The FDA said it would reassess the safety of food chemicals butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT) and azodicarbonamide (ADA) as the agency finalizes a plan to review ingredients based on their risk to public health. The agency issued two requests for information regarding the use and safety of BHT and ADA. BHT is used as a preservative in frozen meals, breakfast cereals, chewing gum and meat products.

Meanwhile, ADA, sometimes called the “yoga mat” chemical for its use in foam-like plastics, is used as a dough conditioner in breadmaking and a whitening agent in cereal flour.

The announcement is the latest move by the FDA to reassess approval of ingredients as Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claims a lack of transparency in the current approval process. The agency has also launched reassessments of meat preservative BHA and the rarely used Orange B food dye.

Bayer’s Proposed Roundup Settlement Violates Constitution, New Legal Filing Claims

The New Lede reported:

Bayer’s proposed $7.25 billion class action settlement is a “sweetheart deal” that violates the US Constitution by running “roughshod over basic due process rights, according to a court filing Thursday that seeks to undo the nationwide program.

The objections, filed in Missouri’s Circuit Court of the City of St. Louis, come in response to the settlement proposed by Bayer and a group of plaintiffs’ attorneys in February.

Bayer is hoping that the settlement deal will resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits brought by people suffering from cancer they blame on exposure to glyphosate herbicides, such as Roundup. But it has drawn criticism from several legal observers since it was announced and hastily granted preliminary approval by a Missouri judge.

Critics say the structure of the deal provides a rich payout of $675 million in fees to the lawyers helping promote the deal, but paltry payments for the cancer sufferers who make up the class. The settlement would include people currently suing the company and also Roundup users who develop non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in the future.

Former CDC Director Warns Ebola Could Be ‘Very Significant Pandemic’

The Hill reported:

Last week, the World Health Organization declared the Ebola outbreak occurring primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda to be a public health emergency of international concern, with more than 500 suspected cases reported from the two countries.

 “I suspect this is going to become a very significant pandemic, probably going to leak into Tanzania, leak into southern Sudan, maybe leak into Rwanda,” Redfield said during an appearance on NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.” “This is an outbreak right now that is really a significant outbreak that’s of significant public health international concern, partially because what you said, it wasn’t recognized very quickly. I’m not sure why,” he added.

The Bundibugyo Ebola virus behind the current outbreak is highly contagious but is not airborne. It spreads through body fluids and contaminated objects.

Exclusive: Inside the Covert Campaign to Push Out FDA Commissioner Marty Makary

Endpoints News reported:

Biohaven CEO Vlad Coric finally had the attention of the FDA, and most importantly, Commissioner Marty Makary. In late April, after the company’s spinocerebellar ataxia drug had been rejected last year, Coric had won a meeting with the commissioner’s office to talk about a path forward for the rare disease drug. But it didn’t go as planned.

Coric pitched several options as a way forward, including the FDA’s new plausible mechanism. He also offered up a new analysis using Bayesian statistics, which Makary had advocated for at the beginning of the year. But nothing seemed to steer Makary toward flexibility, according to the sources, who spoke to Endpoints News on condition of anonymity. Makary’s intention was never to provide guidance, only to listen to the company’s concerns, a different source said.

It was unusual in the first place that a company was directly pitching the FDA commissioner — an interaction historically handled by scientific and review staff. It spoke to just how much the walls had vanished between drug sponsors and the political appointees running the agency. Lawmakers had in fact been lobbying Makary on behalf of Biohaven for months before the two met, one of the sources told Endpoints.

Calls for ‘No Seed Oil’ Push Companies to Order Up Butter and Beef Tallow

The New York Times reported:

For more than three decades, loaves of crusty French bread were transformed into crunchy croutons at Olivia’s Croutons. The croutons, sold at supermarkets nationwide, were already produced to be free of preservatives and with low levels of sugar and sodium. But a few months ago, the grocery store chain Sprouts Farmers Markets had another request: Could the croutons be made without canola oil or other seed oils?

Seed oils have become a hot topic over the last couple of years after Robert F. Kennedy Jr. publicly vilified them. The future U.S. health secretary claimed they were a primary cause of the obesity epidemic in the United States. Last year, Louisiana passed a law requiring restaurants to disclose their use of seed oils to customers by 2028.

Along with ultraprocessed foods and artificial dyes, the “hateful eight” — canola, corn, sunflower and other oils derived from the seeds of some plants — are blamed by some in the Make America Healthy Again movement for playing a key role in chronic disease in America.

Trump Administration Says New EPA Rules Will Save You Money at the Supermarket. It’s Not Clear They Will

CNBC reported:

President Donald Trump on Thursday announced a delay of two Biden-era EPA refrigerant rules, arguing the move will cut costs for companies and save consumers money at the grocery store. The administration estimated that American businesses and families will save more than $2.4 billion under the new rules.

“Our actions allow businesses to choose the refrigeration systems that work best for them, saving them billions of dollars,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a statement.

“This will be felt directly by American families in lower grocery prices,” he said.

But it was unclear Thursday whether or how companies such as grocers would use those savings to make it more affordable for shoppers to fill their carts. The changes would not require grocers to take any steps to cut prices, at a time when many households see their budgets stretched by soaring gas prices and years of elevated inflation.

$46M EPA Boost Speeds Des Moines Lead Pipe Removal

Des Moines Register reported:

Work will begin in Des Moines’ Drake neighborhood next month to replace about 120 lead service lines, the first phase of Des Moines Water Works’ efforts to address the potential toxic threat to families across the metro.

The work is slated to start as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says it’s sending $46 million to Iowa for lead pipe replacement efforts. The federal dollars will be placed in a state revolving loan fund and target disadvantaged neighborhoods.

The post FDA to Reassess Safety of ‘Yoga Mat’ Chemical in Food + More appeared first on Children’s Health Defense.

 

IPAK-EDU is grateful to The Defender as this piece was originally published there and is included in this news feed with mutual agreement. Read More