Chemical & Engineering News Digital Edition ... - IMM@BUCT

The new Administration will have limited
financial resources. It should support
with ample developmental funds and tax
subsidies only those few green technologies
that will provide the greatest beneficial
impact during the next one to two decades.
John L. Gardon
Bloomfield Hills, Mich.
MELAMINE-CONTAMINATED MILK
technical specialist on the auditing team at
Gasser Associates, a nuclear energy consulting
group now known as Fire Prevention
Inc. The team would audit the laboratories
that did the alcohol and drug abuse
testing for employees at nuclear facilities.
As the technical specialist, I would audit
the site where the urine specimens were
collected and follow through the chain of
custody to the laboratory. There, I would
audit the laboratory testing procedures.
The specimen was tested by gas chromatography.
If the test was negative, the
person was cleared. If it tested positive, the
specimen was then tested by mass spectrometry.
If the specimen tested positive
by MS, the employee would then be sent to
the medical review officer (MRO). I would
EVERY ARTICLE I’VE READ about the
milk products from China that contain intentionally
added melamine uses the term
“tainted” as if it is equivalent to flavor going
bad because of mold growth or a minor
unintended impurity (C&EN, Sept. 29, page
18). The addition of melamine to fool food
quality control tests of watered-down milk
is intentional and criminal adulteration with
no regard to health consequences. There is
nothing accidental or minor about it.
“Tainted” doesn’t begin to describe
this unforgivable act. C&EN and all other
publications should stop using this descriptor.
After the pet-food scare, people
who continued the use of melamine were
knowingly poisoning human food. The perpetrators
should be held criminally liable
for recklessly causing serious illness and
death in children.
Where melamine or other contaminants
are indeed unintentional contaminants
at levels that are exceedingly low
and not reasonably expected to cause
adverse health effects, the term tainted is
an overstatement. Given enough analytical
power, myriad natural and man-made
chemicals can be found in foods. The question
for such impurities should be, “What
is the scientifically determined level of risk
compared to the cost and benefits of their
removal?” C&EN should make clear the
difference between unintended low-level
contamination and the active adulteration
of food products with the intent to
deceive. Tainted is inappropriate for both
extremes.
Georjean Adams
Woodbury, Minn.
FOILING CHEATERS
“TO CATCH A CHEAT” by Melody Voith
was very interesting (C&EN, Sept. 8, page
23). My experience with drug testing involved
the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s
Fitness for Duty program. I was the
more than chemistry
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WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG 5 NOVEMBER 3, 2008