by Ralph Nader Washington—What’s in a frankfurter? This question is being answered with disturbing detail for consumers who want to know whi they are buying. Fraud, lowbtnutritional value and health hazards abound, with varying degrees, in most of the 15 billion frankfurters sold annually. The hot dog is offering less nutrition and more fat and added water now than its predecessor did 35 years ago during the depression. In 1937, U.S. Department of Agriculture tests showed frankfurters to average 19 percent fat and 19.6 percent protein. Currently, the percentages average out at 28 percent fat and about 11.7 percent average protein con- tent. A perfisive USDA also permits adding 10 percent water and many processors exceed that level while the government keeps looking the other way. New technologies in meat processing have facilitated such adulterations in ways not posible a few decades ago. Most processors find selling more fat,’ water and other fillers at meat prices difficult to resist. But they do resist fullygy labeling such ingredients » they tout their ‘all meat” or ‘‘all beef” franks. For a protein buy, the hot dog is a very expensive item. For those advised by their physicians to stay on ‘a low animal fat diet, the hot dog has only deception. Clearly, something less than furters. One purpose served by cooked sausage products, such as hot dogs, is to sell the por- tions of beef cattle, which could not be sold on the open counter. Federal law, always con- siderate of the industry, allows the inclusion of esophagi, lips, snouts, ears, and other edible offal, in addition. to skeletal muscle tissue. The 1967 Congressiondl hearings produced evidence of ths use of “4D” animaf® (dead, dying, diseased and disabled) in processed meat products. The ate share of these. items. Just recently, Consumers Union concluded tds of frankfurters which found 40 percent of widely available brands to contain bacteria counts ex- ceeding ‘10 million per gram, with one reaching 140 million bacteria per gram. This is startling. Food specialists say that putrefaction sets in at the 10 million per gram level. As a guide to how far these com- panies stray from the law, New York City regulations stipulate a mazimum permissible level of 100,000 bacteria per gram—a level itself ten times what some experts recommend. As in previous tests of pork sausage, Consumers Union found insect fragments and rodent remains in about a sixth of the samples, once again underlining the sanitation problems of many meat plants. The most serious recent development involved scientific concern, based on numerous animal tests conducted in this country and abroad, over the hazards of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. In particular, sodium mitrite, a chemical byproduct of sodium nitrate, is supposed to inhibit the growth of bacteria. As a cosmetic in many meat products, its chief purpose is to keep the meat a reddish color so that an un- appetizing grey coloring doesn’t set in. Norway has issued a prohibition of the use of nitrite effective at the end of this year. In that country as well as here, scientists are worried about two effects on humans of sodium nitrite. One is on infants who are often fed small slices of hot dogs and other food containing nitrites. These nitrites can cause a particular impairment in the ability of infants’ blood to carry oxygen. The risk in- creases with the amount of nitrites consumed but since the main purpose of using the ingredient is cosmetic, why should infants assume such risks? The other hazard affects adults and children alike and is at this time a top priority concern of the Food and Drug Administration and the USDA. Nitrites combine with certain substances called amines in food and the human body to form nitrosamines. Last year, before a House of Represen- tatives Subcommittee inves- tigating food additives, Dr. William Lijinsky, a cancer researcher) at the, Atomic Energy Commission’s Oak Ridge National Laboratories testified that ¢“Nitrosamines. . . seem to be most effective in eliciting tumors when they are applied as small doses over a large single doses.” He noted that most nitrosamines tested caused cancer in test animals. To emphasize that there is no known safe level for these substances, Dr. Samuel Ep- stein, a respected toxicologist at Case Western Reserve Univer- sity in Cleveland, called nitrosamines ‘‘one of the major public health issues of our time.”’ Consumers have petitioned the USDA to ban all cosmetic uses of sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. Another con- sumer suit has also been filed in ban the use of the growth promoting synthetic hormone, stilbestrol, in cattle and sheep. Sweden, France, Italy, Australia and seventeen other countries have already banned this .cancer-causing hormone. The Nixon Administration is not prepared to voluntarily respond to any of these pleas for action before the election. The meat industry is still stronger than the consumer movement as far as our national politicians are concerned. What emerges from any scrutiny of ‘the ubiquitous hot dog, as well as other cooked sausage and ground meat products like hamburgers, is the near total absence of local, state and federal law enforce- ment. Periodically, USDA in- spectors or local officials un- cover the most fraudulent or repulsive conditions but little is done. What a shame that this country cannot even enforce important public health stan- dards for such a common food product, quite apart from the reluctance to prevent deception in ingredients and labeling. What lulls consumers into docile acceptance is not their belief that the government is looking out for them; rather it is the ingenious misuse of modern chemistry which can make hot dogs visually attractive, tasty, tender to chew, and appetizing. The chemical violence to health registers years later when it is most difficult to trace back to the causative agent. That is why must become the politics of the day. Given the facts ascer- tained by scientists, it should not. take many aroused con- sumers to get their government to impose the required cor- porate “law and order’’ to stop a major consumer abuse. A letter asking citizens in Northeastern Pennsylvania to urge the government’s halt to nuclear power plan construc- tion was issued this week by the Citizens Committee for En- vironmental Concern, Inc., a Tunmnociine] environ- mental actioti group. The action was taken in conjunction with the Environmental Action of Washington, D.C. In a letter widely distributed Bryan Lee and Joan Daniels, the environmental group urged that Congref/ halt the nuclear construction dealing with a planned fast breeder nuclear reactor to be built in Tennessee until more advanced technology demonstrates the plant’s safety. “The first demonstration fast breeder reactor will not be located in Northeastern Penn- sylvania,” the letter said in part, alluding to Pennsylvania Electric Co.'s once proposed plans to build the world’s largest experimental fast breeder on a site near Meshoppen in Wyoming County, “put the technology, with its accompanying plutonium economy, will affect every person oR he earth. Because this is so, it demands considera- tion and decisive action from each of us. There is no restraint on this technology by the AEC or the nuclear industry; there- fore, it has fallen to the citizen to provide such a restraint.” The letter continued: ‘‘The SST reached a national debate level because citizens made their feelings known to their representatives in congress. Your opinion does count, if you make it felt. Public opinion is now the only barrier which can prevent this technology from becoming rampant.” Accompanying the CCEC letter was a legislative alert from the Washington-based Environmental Action, which asked citizens to act promptly by writing their respective congressman to urge a full review of the breeder program by independent scientists before it is funded. Explaining that floor action was expected in early March, the alert said *‘we urge you to write your con- gressmen and senators im- mediately requesting a halt in funding until an independent review of the breeder program is conducted and the AEC’s en- vironmental impact statement on the program is prepared.’ The communique deals with action by the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy and the appropriations committees of Congress which will be: con- sidering the AEC’s new budget this month that includes $230 million for the development and construction of the controver- sial liquid metal fast breeder reactor. ‘‘This will be the beginning of large scale finan- cial commitments to the breeder as the answer to our future energy needs,” the alert stated. The alert said further that the preeder’s cooling system will utilize liquid sodium which is highly corrosive and explodes on contact with air. It generates plutonium which, unlike the uranium fuel used in present reactors, can easily be used for the construction of nuclear weapons by unauthorized parties. “Each breeder reactor will require from one to two tons of plutonium,” the communique said, “with a large number of these reactors planned (the AEC predicts 600 breeders will be functioning by the year 2000); plus the added danger that huge amounts of highly toxic plutonium will have to be transported. Because the breeder requires materials for operation that are more dangerous than the substances needed in present nuclear reactors, it poses a greater safety hazard than the current reactors.” According to the enclosier, there is little current public dis- cussion surrounding this commitment to the breeder program. “We need to question the AEC and its utility power demand projections. One study done by Duane Chapman of Cornell University and Tim Tyrell of Oak Ridge National Laboratories reveals that power demand can be reduced dramatically by changes in population, income or electric price growth rates. Policies which maximize the conserva- tion of energy could also decrease future power demand so that the breeder might not be necessary as an intermediate power source until fusion or solar power is developed,” the document indicated. DAMA (continued from PAGE ONE) It is noted that these six men serve without remuneration as members of Dallas Area Municipal Authority. As property owners and taxpayers, they must pay assessments and fees to the authority for its ser- vices, just as any other customer. Together, they have served as authority members for a total of 28 years. : ig next week’s Dallas Post. Photo by Dave Kozemchak Kingston Township Although the weather was clear, Carverton Road was icy during the morning hour of 7:30, March 1. The road condition caused a late-model car, driven by Stephen J. Yatsko, 22, of RD 5, Chase Manor, Shavertown, to slide on the ice and turn side- ways across the road. A second automobile, which was operated by Welsford John Bryan, 41, of 170 Limewood Road, Shavertown, was unable to stop and slid into the Yatsko vehicle. The collision hap- pended 150 feet east of Frances Slocum dam. Neither of the drivers was injured, nor were two passen- gers, Diane Yatsko, 21, also of RD 5, Shavertown, and Thomas Sturm, 57 Woodbine Road, Shavertown. Police Chief Paul Sabol was the investigating officer. Charges of passing a red signal light were cited against Elvie L. Truitt, 79, of 38% Harris Hill Road, Trucksville, after a two-car collision oc- 20 feet west of Center Street, Shavertown, at 11:30 a.m., March 3. According to police, Ann Jewell, 43, of 52 West Center St., Shavertown, was operating a 1971 Gremlin coupe proceeding west across the highway on a green traffic signal. Mr. Truitt was going south on Route 309 and did not stop for the red signal. Witnesses at the scene stated he continued forward and struck the Jewell vehicle. There were no injuries. Damages to both machines were estimated by Police Chief Paul Sabol at $700. Patrolman Elliott Ide, Dallas Township police, assisted Chief Sabol. A chain-type collision, in- volving three cars, happened Saturday afternoon at 4:45 on Route 309 near Center Street, Shavertown. 3 Patrolman Clifford Culver reported Andrea P. Fulton, 27, of 52 Hunt St., Dallas, was stopped in the passing lane behind a vehicle which was attempting to make a left turn into Shavertown Shopping Center. The Fulton car, a small foreign-made machine, was struck from the rear by a car Pool (continued from PAGE ONE) “I am pleased that this ad- ditional funding has been ap- proved for the proposed park improvements in the Frances Slocum State Park since the park is being used so much more extensively these days and is in need of improvements to ‘accomodate local residents and vacationers,” Rep. O’Connell observed. The park, with 1,006 acres, was opened on Memorial Day, 1968, and has an average yearly attendance of 235,000. It has facilities for fishing, boating, picnicking, and winter sports of ice skating and sledding. An interesting segment of park activities is the recently started museum in the park office. Superintendent Zambo reported there are 20 mounted animals; also an artifacts case containing arrowheads and other Indian tools discovered in the park itself. driven by John Sabatetti, 46, of Old Forge! Mr. Sabatetti stated his automobile was stopped behind the Fulton car when it was hit at the rear by the third vehicle, operated by Paul G. James, 20, of Wilkes-Barre. Mr. James stated he was proceeding north in the passing lane and was unable to stop in time to avoid hitting the Saba- tetty car, which was pushed into the Fulton car by the impact. No injuries were reported. Approximate damages to all three vehicles were $1,400. Dallas Township Four young men escaped injuries in a one-car mishap when the car’s operator on the highway. Jay Elwood Conden, 19, of RD 1, Harveys Lake, was traveling south ‘on Route 309. He told vestigating officer, that’'a dog ran across the highway from White Birch Trailer Court; he applied brakes and swerved to miss the dog, but in doing so, the car went out of control on the icecovered roadway. The car slid off the right side of the pavement and sideswiped a utility pole. Passengers were Thomas Kennedy, RD 1, Dallas; John Shultz, RD 1, Dallas; and Frederick Marsh, RD 1, Hunlock Creek. 4 by Page 5 ..(Editor’s Note: Nicholas von Hoffman, a well known com- mentator on the CBS Radio Network, whose diverse opinions are his own and not necessarily those of CBS or any of its affiliates, came out in favor of a congressional investi- gation of the Central Intelli- gence Agency. His comments follow.) This morning I'd like to show you something. What you see there is a sign that is going up on about one hundred Los Angeles area billboards. In case you don’t get good reception, I'll read it. It says: ‘The CIA put your brother in Vietnam. CIA heroin traffic turned him on to smack. You are paying the CIA six billion a year for these social services.” All of this relates to an article in the March issue of EARTH magazine, a publication with a circulation of upwards of a hundred thousand hip teen- agers. The same publication provides a news service to something like 300 top-40-type radio stations. So when this outfit accuses the Central In- telligence Agency or at least some of its key personnel with being involved in the dope traffic, a huge number of teen- agers are going to hear about it and they’re going to wonder if their government could do such a thing. If they saw a recent TV news program showing American agents arming 11- year -old Meo boys in Laos, they may think that—yes, we are capable of it. The accusation that the CIA, in cahoots with various business and political interests, has trafficked in heroin isn’t new. Parts of the story have been popping up in one publication or another for years. The rumor about the Agency being com- promised by this dirty business have been kicking around Washington for a long time now. Despite this, despite other charges of criminal activity against the CIA, there has been no public, believable investi- Stanley Assumes Full-time Duties Michael Stanley has assumed full-time duties as secretary- treasurer of Kingston Town- ship, and is maintaining an office in the township building. Office hours are from 8:30 to 4:30 each week day. Mr. Stanley reported that any resident who is seeking information or who has any complaint may call or see him at the office. He will refer them to the proper authority or official. gation of this outfit by Congress. Although there seems to be evidence that some of these accusations are true, they may not be. But the talk has now reached the point where they can’t be ignored any longer...not when they're putting them on 48-foot bill- boards along Sunset Boulevard. It’s Congress’ job to do more than vote money to the CIA; it’s also supposed to see how it’s spent. Let’s hope the CIA didn’t spend any of it on heroin, but we're not going to know that till there’s a credible investigation, and this is Nicholas von Hoff- man, saying, how ’bout it fellas? Noxen Ambulance. Wintersteen. Shonis, Pat Stenger. Williams, Jim Faerber. Merrill, Jim Faerber. below. 318. Nays 77. Passed, Mar. 1. Act and authorizes $315.2 your current one. below. To The Dallas Post Name Address
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers