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stogot 5 hours ago

Companies that poison the people like this should be sanctioned, along with their owners. Greed and profiteering

flexagoon 4 hours ago | parent | next [-]

They don't "poison the people" unless the pesticides are found in a toxic dose (they are not).

Of course, the legal limits are purposefully designed to be well below the LOAEL, and those companies that were found to contain levels above them should face consequences. But to claim they "poison the people" isn't true.

Saline9515 3 hours ago | parent [-]

The toxic dose is a vague term. You may not die from exposure, but you can still have effects, such as infertility, cancers or endocrine disruption.

fasterik 3 hours ago | parent [-]

If we really want to be precise, we should talk about parts per million (PPM). Scientific research establishes a safe level of consumption in terms of PPM, below which there are no detectable health effects. Generally when you see alarmism about "pesticides found in food" they're orders of magnitude below the PPM that would have any effect on human health.

Saline9515 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Exactly, scientific research established that DDT was perfectly safe, too! Scientists even used to eat it to "prove" that it was safe.

In reality it depends, being biology, "safe level" is also very relative since you don't know every effect the substance has on the body.

That's why pesticides and other chemicals such as bisphenols are regularly phased out, since effects can appear long after "scientific research" established it was "safe". Or it can affect certain populations, such as farmers, who get a high dose, or children, who are more sensitive than adults.

Others, such DDT, lead or cadmium, are accumulated in the body over a long period, and then start to show effects, even when the person has stopped eating it. Or can find their way later the food chain: Inuits would get poisoned when eating polar bear's meat, that was full of DDT from fields on the other side of the globe.

spwa4 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Wasn't the EU fresh from a scandal that they voted all sorts of laws, sued lots of EU companies, and then allowed Chinese companies to import lots of stuff that obviously violated all those laws for 20+ years?

From safety regulations to baby toys with lead paint.

The EU will probably do nothing again.

throwaway67678 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

When it comes to safety regulations as with everything else, some countries do not succeed, others do not try

4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]
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4 hours ago | parent [-]
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Saline9515 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

The EU has allowed large scale imports of chinese fake honey for the last 20 years.

All of the beekeeper associations complain about it, regularly conduct lab tests with honeys from supermarkets, most of them being not honey, or mixed with fake honey.

The EU of course has done nothing : the beekeepers aren't powerful enough to distribute the right bribes to the right people. Meanwhile the consumers buy glucose syrup at 15€/kg.

But hey, we have USB-C! It evenS out, right?

Hikikomori 2 hours ago | parent [-]

Its up to individual countries to do it no? They've been testing honey here recently and several brands got removed from stores.

Saline9515 an hour ago | parent [-]

No, it's up to the EU to stop imports from China. It's not possible for individual countries to do it:

- Lab testing is complex, requires to identify the DNA of pollens in honey and few countries can do it at the moment.

- Honeys are mixed, so it's trivial to receive fake honey in a country that allows it, mix it, and reexport to another one that forbids it. Same happens with olive oils, no one cares.

- Many brands just lie, given that there is no enforcement regarding food traceability and safety in general in the EU (it's a meme to reassure consumers). Where I live a brand advertising "locally made honey" was found to sell glucose syrup : nothing happened.

WhereIsTheTruth 3 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

+1

The downvotes aren't surprising, people who have spent enough time on this orange site tend to lose the plot