A new proposal would set the first maximum standard for arsenic in apple juice as the Food and Drug Administration continues to test for the substance.
Although no one says the juice is unsafe, the issue drew attention last week when TV’s Dr. Mehmet Oz said lab testing found what he suggested were troubling levels of arsenic.
The FDA, however, found no raised levels even in the batch Oz used. Later, even Oz said juice is safe.
Now U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer of New York is calling for the first standards of arsenic in juice. He says the rising amount of foreign juice prompts the need.
Note that there is no problem, according to both the FDA and even the teevee doctor who initially made the claim. Does that fact slow Schumer’s race to push yet more legislation? Clearly, not.
Please, no one tell Chuckles about this.
Arsenic in apple juice almost certainly comes from apple seeds, which contain trace amounts of . . . . ARSENIC!
Even the chewing/swallowing of apple seeds causes no known physical harm, and may even be beneficial.
Dr. Oz is also a media whore who gets paid to be one.
Has Mayor Bloomberg weighed in yet?
I’m not a chemist and know nothing whatever about safe levels of arsenic or whether arsenic occurs naturally in apple seeds.
However, I saw a BBC documentary last week called “Stalin’s Toxic Legacy” which traced the consequences of old stalin-era factories in Georgia (the one in Europe) being allowed to crumble without any proper decommissioning. The BBC host interviewed a man who he alleged was a scientist who said that even trace amounts of arsenic could be fatal to humans in a matter of a few hours.
Clearly, setting the actual amount of a “safe” threshhold should be the job of actual chemists or biologists who actually know what they’re talking about, not the likes of Chuck Schumer. The Georgian scientist seemed to be saying that there is no safe level of arsenic consumption.
Arsenic is ubiquitous in the environment. It ranks 20th in abundance in the earth’s crust, 14th in seawater, and 12th in the human body.[2] In nature, arsenic exists in the metallic state in 3 allotropic forms (alpha or yellow, beta or black, gamma or grey) and several ionic forms.
It is used even today to treat some intractable forms of cancer.
From an article found here.
If no amount of arsenic was safe, we’d all be dead.
Question: Is Chuck Schumer a Giant, Useless Attention Whore, or the Biggest Attention Whore In Human History?
Tough call, Bryan. So many attention whores, so little time to compare them all. He’s up against Obama, Hitler, Stalin, Mao…just to name a few.
And BTW, since when did Schumer acquire that medical degree or one in public health? In short, WTF does he know about arsenic, old lace or apple juice?
This sounds like a pathetic, attention-whoring effort to get upstate New York’s apple farmers to think he’s really, really concerned about them. They probably don’t use arsenic and other states’ farmers do.
Is he ever thinking about those upstate farmers 24/7.
Yeah, right.
since when did Schumer acquire that medical degree or one in public health?
Same time and place FLOTUS got her degree in human nutrition, apparently. But at least Schmucky was elected to a federal legislative position…unlike FLOTUS he’s authorized to enact random bureaucratic stupidity.
since when did Schumer acquire that medical degree or one in public health?
Oh, about the same time Meryl Streep got hers. (Remember Alar?)
Don’t whores have enough to worry about without you defaming their profession with a slander like this? Whores serve a valuable and frequently in demand service to their customers, which is more than I can say about the Senior Senator from New York.
They used to say that the most dangerous place in the world is between Schumer and a teevee camera. Until Obama came to town.
I guess it would be wrong to send his office a case of apple juice.
Yes.
– response to a compound question.
In answer to your headline…yes.
And he has the claim to being the prick that burst the real estate loan bubble, when he ratted out one of the less favored banks in 2007.
I am so proud that he is a sitting senator from the state in which I reside.
So much so that I am given to fantasies about the the urban NYC Jewish vote abandoning him, especially since NY 9 went to Turner.
My senator too (feh). I’d bet he shorted Indy Mac the night before and pocketed a tidy sum, but that’s just me. I remember how he screwed the late Rep. Steven Solarz out of his House seat. Look up “Machiavellian” and there’s Schumer’s picture. Years ago, he was walking alone on a Brooklyn street and passed by me. I gave him a look, but I was so, so tempted…
– look at the covers of most editions of The Prince and there’s Chuck Shuc, er, Old Nick Mac himself. Glad you resisted temptation. You see these bastids everywhere and the law protects them, not you.
If memory serves (but sometimes it fails), did ol’ Chucky boy spill the beans that led to IndyMac’s failure?
Actually, no.
It’s not about attention. It’s about micro-managing every tiny little aspect of our lives, because of course we non-elite-lefties can’t be allowed to make decisions for ourselves… we might do things like (gasp) vote for Republicans!
The man went from high school to Harvard to Harvard law to New York State Assembly and never looked back.
He doesn’t know how else to act…legislate solutions to every worry.
Politicians need issues to validate their worth — otherwise they can’t establish a record “accomplishment” and keep wallowing in the perks of elected office.
Is Schumer an attention whore? I can tell you this much: I have two stepdaughters. I’ve attended two high school graduations and one college graduation. Schumer spoke at all three — and in all three cases, what he talked about was himself.
Q.E.D.?
There’s a saying that survivalists like to use: “When the Schumer hits the fan, will you be ready?”