Monday, July 27, 2009

We get mail (Canada's Health Minister responds)!


So one month ago I emailed Canada's Minister of Health and pointed out what I see to be the incredible hypocrisy behind Health Canada's recent decisions to ban bisphenol-A and phthalates, compounds which pose at this point primarily theoretical risks to Canadians, while simultaneously twiddling their thumbs asking the food industry to please, pretty please, stop putting trans-fats in foods, a compound the head of Health Canada's own trans-fat task force deemed, "unsafe in any amount".

Last week I finally received a response.

You be the judge, click the picture above and read the letter for yourself.

Me?

I'm not clear on why it is we still need to wait. I mean this is the same Health Canada that banned bisphenol-A with a press release extolling that they did so because,

"we believe it is our responsibility to ensure families, Canadians and our environment are not exposed to a potentially harmful chemical"
yet here with clear and present trans-fat danger they want us to keep waiting? Frankly I would have thought that even if voluntary measures were successful at a marked reduction of trans-fat in the Canadian marketplace that banning a toxic food additive would still be something Health Canada would feel compelled to do - and do in a hurry.