Irradiation: Opponents Fight to Be Taken Seriously

Dionne Jackson Miller

What can you do when your NGO's stance is rejected by reputable, internationally-recognised organizations? When transnational corporations repeatedly insist that your position has no merit? For the US-based organisation, Public Citizen, the answer is to fight on - a David taking on the Goliaths of this world.

Despite the cacophony of voices trying to be heard at the WSF, Public Citizen came to Porto Alegre hoping to spread its message and drum up wider support for one of its causes: a campaign against the irradiation of food.

According to the group, irradiation, ostensibly used to extend the shelf life of foods and kill insect pests, initiates 'a complex sequence of reactions that literally rip apart the molecular structure of the food. This process creates new and unidentified chemicals that have not been proven safe.'

Public Citizen charges that irradiation of food 'drastically lowers its nutritional value. Irradiated foods lack sufficient nutrients and abound in health hazards.'

The group's position is in direct contradiction with the position of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which stated in a report found at the organisation's website that 'food irradiated to any dose appropriate to achieve the intended technological objective is both safe to consume and nutritionally adequate.

The report states that irradiation is essentially analogous to 'conventional thermal processing' (or cooking) in that it eliminates biological hazards from food intended for human consumption, 'but does not result in the formation of physical or chemical entities that could constitute a hazard.'

However, spokespersons for Public Citizen stated at a WSF workshop that the WHO had been compromised in this issue, as had the US Food and Drug Administration.

And far from being deterred by the official positions of these internationally respected organisations, Public Citizen says it is now seeking to broaden its campaign beyond the United States.

'We're trying to increase international co-operation, we've met with a lot of European consumer organisations,' said spokesperson Jennifer Peterson.

'Radiation is a very complex issue and it affects different parts of life all around the world,' she said.

So are they crazies attracted to the international stage of the WSF to spread a message of doom and gloom? Or are they a collective David trying to take on the Goliaths of the transnational corporations and international health authorities with a tiny slingshot?

Either way, they're what the WSF is all about - letting all ideas compete in a democratic environment.