bV.-wV-i*-.
..
cadet slouch by jim Earie PDA. files show preservative
laws ignored, student claims
“I liked it better when we got “Dear Johns” in th’ mail
rather than in person!”
WASHINGTON <A>) _ A Stan
ford University researcher said
Monday that secret food-safety
files opened hy his lawsuit show
the Food and Drug Administra
tion “has consistently and rou
tinely countenanced violations of
the law which have endangered
the public health.”
“Both scientifically and legally,
bureaucratic secrecy has made
actions possible which could never
stand the light of public review,”
said Dale B. Hattis, a graduate
student in genetics.
FDA officials were not imme
diately available for comment.
Hattis’s 78-page report lists a
series of actions culminating, he
said, in smoked-fish processors
being allowed to add sodium ni
trite, a preservative, after the
FDA learned many firms were ig
noring federal regulations and
using additive illegally.
The FDA’s safety data on nit
rite were opened for public in
spection after Hattis and the En
vironmental Defense Fund filed
a federal court suit under the
Freedom of Information Act.
Nitrite has been shown to com
bine with secondary amines in
the stomach to produce nitrosam-
ine, a potent cancer-causing sub
stance which has produced tu
mors in a wide variety of labo-
Activism
Student activism.
It is a term that carries several different meanings. No doubt it
keeps J. Edgar Hoover very uptight, warms the political heart of
Hubert Humphrey, and sends various college administrators into various
states of anxiety, fear, etc.
But here at dear old TAMU it means nothing. It’s something that
happens, very vaguely, at other places. TAMU, perpetually caught in
the year of the gas, lets all of it pass by.
It is a sad thing that it does.
Student activism means students doing things. Not hippie,
commie, long-hairs subverting the rest of the U.S. of A., not Yaffles
protesting the latest retreat of the South Vietnamese, but students
doing things.
All kinds of things. Except, if the student being referred to is an
Aggie. In that case at the beginning of the year, he arrived, sat on his
apathy, and stayed that way.
Not that it is wrong to do so. It gives old Ags something to brag
about. They can say “See, nothing like all those riots ever goes on at
A&M.”
They could save their breath and say, “See, nothing goes on at
A&M.”
i '■ t Now we’re not talking about social events. That is assumed.
We’re talking about the university student being responsive to the
rest of the world.
The university we now attend is one of the most responsive to the
needs of the people. It helps with agriculture, makes the highways safer,
spends quite a bit of time in learning about the oceans and thousands of
other things.
But the students here—no such luck. You can let the extension
services do all that stuff. The student is here to sporadically tend classes
and spend most of his time in or near the rack.
At TAMU, the term is student passivism.
We can get together once a year and build that bonfire and then
forget about the pile of ashes it leaves until the university hauls them
away. That, as a student body, is the Aggies great accomplishment.
Smoke and hot air.
But do you see the student body out doing something about the
general ecology in the area? Not only no, but hell no!
Do they spend time trying to help with the community they are
part of? A few do—to give credit to the CDO. Not much else is done.
It would seem that 14,000 people could get out and accomplish
something. A few have, the Community Development Organization,
the people who have worked on the clean-ups held, and so forth.
Probably about one-fiftieth of the student body has participated.
So why doesn’t the rest of the group get up off of its apathy and
do something for somebody? You’ve got all summer to think about it.
* • *
• — ‘ —<
Oh, wow
Saturday night’s performance by Rare Earth would have been
hilarious if the pathetic fact that so many Ags were duped didn’t exist.
When a band shows up about two hours late with the flimsiest of
excuses for their lateness, it can be assumed that the audience is going
to be hacked. And they were, to the extent that Rare Earth was booed
when they came on stage.
So what does a band do when it is initially booed? It doesn’t stop
between songs for one. That way they don’t let the audience have time
to start booing again.
Then they make sure that the music is loud. Loud sounds do a lot
to sooth the mad crowd. They can’t think unkind thoughts when even
the sound hurts.
Next step is to provoke the audience, you know, get them on
their side. They do this by edging them on, jumping down into the
audience. That kind of thing.
It’s known as fooling a crowd. That way the performance can be
terrible, not on time, and poorly managed and still come out smelling
sweet.
Sound familiar?
Cbe Battalion
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prise edited and operated by students as a university and MEMBER
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F.‘“s Wbi2‘SSl«; S'lSilSISSr, b SSSL,^.! S^. n d-CI M , P.ld M Coll.»« smion. T«„.
gprrqR hayden whitsett
Managing Editor Doug Dilley
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ratory animals. “It is highly un
likely that man will prove to be
the only species resistant to their
action,” Hettis said.
Sodium nitrite is used to pre
serve color and extend the shelf-
life of a wide range of foods in
cluding smoked fish, cured ham,
bacon, frankfurters, luncheon
meats and some sausage.
The FDA long has classified
the chemical as a “poisonous and
deleterious substance” banned by
federal law as a food additive,
Hattis said.
trite illegally in their products,”
Hattis said.
“None of these petitions con
tains any original scientific re
search by the firms into the ques
tion of whether the proposed uses
are safe,” he said.
“In two of the four, the peti
tions simply expressed their be
lief that nitrite is safe.”
Following the deaths from bot
ulism poisoning of at least nine
persons who consumed Great
Lakes smoked fish in the early
1960s the FDA adopted emer
gency measures in October 1963
advising destruction of all smok
ed-fish products from the region
that had not been heated to at
least 180 degrees fahrenheit for
at least 30 minutes.
After approved use of nitrite
was expanded, Hattis said, “It
is clear that the choice made
by the FDA in allowing this new
use of nitrite was not . . . be
tween nitrite and botulism. It was
between, nitrite, botulism, and en
forcing reasonable sanitation and
good manufacturing practice in
the industry.”
War protests
Two years later, Hattis said,
the National Fisheries Institute
sought permission to use nitrite
because, according to an FDA
memo, it would provide an ad
ditional margin of safety against
botulism “when the FDA-recom
mended processing time and tem
perature are not followed . . .
Many firms are already using the
chemical on fish without permis
sion and . . . nearly all of the
smoking and curing firms are not
treating Great Lakes fish” ac
cording to FDA guidelines.
The FDA by that time had al
ready granted petitions by four
firms to use nitrite, including
three “which had been using ni-
(Continued from page 1)
airmen have been killed in Viet
nam action in the past three
weeks, sat down in a circle and
blocked traffic going in into the
Strategic Air Command Base.
Police gave them two minutes
to disperse, then moved in to
make the arrests.
Seven seamen jumped overboard
from the ammunition ship USS
Nitro Monday as it put out to
sea past a flotilla of antiwar
demonstrators trying to block its
departure from the U.S. Navy’s
Earle Ammunition Depot at Leon
ardo, N.J. Coast guard ships
plucked the men from the water
as about 45 demonstrators in
canoes cheered, applauded and
flashed the peace sign.
THE BATTALION THE B-
Page 2 College Station, Texas Tuesday, April 251
READ BATTALION CLASSIFIED!
Call 822-1529 MEN ! ! Call 822-1520
Look nice for her — work out at the
HOLIDAY HEALTH SPA — 3008 E. 29th
& Acquire That “Certain Look” You want.
Hurry—Now For A Limited Time—4 Months $9 A Monti
It takes
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Do Kien
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the girln
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FLY NAVY
See Lieutenant's Gene Marek and Bob Webster fror
the Officer Information Team at the Memofiai 'cln ^
Student Center today thru March 28 from 9 a.(n|
to 5 p.m.
18-track ta;
ord level
OF Army Lou Says.
3-speed frir
ndition. 84
Drafting t
drai
top, 2
1970 Craft
asher. dry'
at. Fully
shed. 823-4
Two F-78
Belt whitewi
I '6-3422.
1970 Kaw
100 miles, i
Must sell
bedroo
THANK YOU SENIORS!
.sr, m qct v j rfoiir-denq •>
1966 VW
all 846-833
It’s been a great four years, and Lou has enjoyed knowing you. He be
lieves your friendship is Lou’s greatest treasure. Tell your classmates that
Lou is their friend too. . . anytime. You know Lou can give you considerable
savings in used boks. . . any books can be returned in 2 weeks, so tell them
that. So GIG ’EM AGGIES! and good luck! OF Army Lou appreciates your
business and Lou promises to be a friend to Aggies as long as there are Ag
gies. Soon Lou will be in his new location . . . Lou’s Corner, across from the
Post Office, and he’ll have a special collection of old edition books for your
reference library going for less than a dollar each! 10 for $7.00. It will pay
you to visit LOUPOT’S before you leave. And before you leave . . . remember
. . . OL’ ARMY LOU SAYS
1969 VW
icellent co
lust see to
Must sell
ansmission,
fer. 846-61
Three rail
78.
1970 VW.
nditioned,
tion. 822-1
1969 Buicl
mdition. I
1 5 week c
MUST SI
ansmission
50
Ralph Shi
Forms - Pc
UNIV
North
PROl
716 Mar
Also, Proi
THANK YOU SENIORS!
AU r
I
C
Farir
3400 S.
TV i
Zenith
All Mi
713 S.
P.S. Lou would consider it a privilege if you would drop by before you leave and have a free cup!
PEANUTS
By Charles M. Sch
PEANUTS
This is
Secretaries
W??k
let Vouk
^ECRETARv'
3LEEP LATE
THIS WEEK
T?is 15
$ex-r 1 4Ws
W%%k
(but not too late!
THIS 15 SECRETARIES lOEEK.,,
PAT VOUR SECRETARY!
—I
HaA
Cone
Gut
A.C.,
Altern
Sta
froi
Moi
A
Foreij
Some
Joe
220 ]
Givin
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