Posted on 08/26/2005 6:23:43 PM PDT by SmithL
LOS ANGELES - Potato chips and french fries could soon come with a warning label if the state's top attorney prevails in a lawsuit filed Friday against nine fast food chains and snack-food makers.
Attorney General Bill Lockyer asked for a court order requiring McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's, Frito Lay and other companies to warn consumers that their fries and chips may contain acrylamide, a chemical the state says causes cancer.
"In taking this action, I am not telling people to stop eating potato chips or french fries," Lockyer said. "I know from personal experience that, while these snacks may not be a necessary part of a healthy diet, they sure taste good."
But consumers should have the information needed to make informed decisions about their food, he said.
Frito-Lay spokeswoman Lynn Markley said there was no scientific evidence that acrylamide caused cancer. She said it was counterproductive for the state to sue the companies when other California regulators are currently setting standards for the chemical under Proposition 65, which requires companies to notify the public about potentially dangerous toxins in food.
"We have been looking to the state regulators for direction on how to satisfy Proposition 65 due to the unexpected discovery of acrylamide in food products," she said.
Acrylamide, a byproduct of chemicals and high heat, has been found at low levels in several foods. The lawsuit focuses on french fries and chips because they have more acrylamide than other foods, according to the Attorney General's Office.
The state agency setting standards for the chemical, the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, is considering two potential approaches, spokesman Allan Hirsch said.
The agency might set regulations providing more specifics about when warnings would be required. Or it might exempt businesses from placing warning labels on their foods if they agree to reduce the presence of the chemical to the lowest feasible level, he said.
Spokespersons for several defendants based in the Midwest or East did not return calls for comment Friday. The lawsuit was filed after business hours in their time zones.
Teresa Schilling, a spokeswoman for Lockyer, said that if the lawsuit was successful, the office would want to sit down with the defendants to decide how large the warning labels would be and where they would appear on packaging.
"We don't want the warning to be alarming or excessively large," she said. "We want it to be simple and effective and (we'll) be flexible about how it will work with each product."
Lockyer is a boot-licker for the dems. I wonder how the anti-American "art" exhibit in his public building is doing.
Oh, who knows. Lockupyerwallet isn't playing with a full deck, if you ask me.
acrylamide -- a colorless crystalline solid that readily forms water-soluble polymers. • The amide of acrylic acid; chem. formula: CH 2 =CHCONH 2.
Hey Lockyer: How about putting a serial number on each potato chip? Oh, and require all snack food to be locked up so children can't get at them. Idiot.
it's more hazardous to our health every time politicians open their mouths to let something out , than it is when we open our own mouths to put something in. STFU
When will all of this revert? I swear this country was great under our grandparents, and again in the 1950s and 1980s.
This kind of nonsense destroys us, our freedom. It's all because of lawyers and sick liberal scum.
I pray for a comet that will fix things somehow...
Response: I want a label on the State Attorney General. Preferably placed with a hot iron and reading "POL's Are Known to the State of California to cause poverty, disease, famine and war."
He should have IDIOT laser etched on his forehead.
Used in labs for protein separation and stored as a liquid, typically at 4 degrees C. You pour it carefully and treat every drop like it could kill you, as the deadly neurotoxin it is.
Once solid, it is as harmless as any plastic, though it may contain other hazardous chemicals that you added seperately.
Its presence in chips and fries doesn't worry me. It is likely transient, and your body can easily handle it, obviously since billions of people consume it to old-age. If anything, perhaps it protects against foodborne diseases- a kind of natural preservative.
Let's get down to brass tacks. What we really need are warning labels on fat women. This would prevent drunk men from making a horrible mistake. Thus solving the need to put warning labels on the fries.
Stop with the fries already and close the friggin' border!!!!
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Picture of the hard-bodied (snicker) health nut. He reminds me of Waxman around the nose.
SO Californians are do damn stupid they can't eat a French Fry or do much else without a warning label!
I guess that's what happens when your the inbred off spring of homosexuals, you just naturally have a shitty outlook on life!
Sheesh. Kalifornia has over ten million illegal aliens running around loose and over 50,000 murderous gang members prowling the countryside and this preening idiot is worked up about putting health warning labels on french fries!!??
Close the borders, NOW - the Kalifornia borders to the rest of the USA, I mean, Kalifornia is g-o-n-e!!
Put the label on assfry Lockyer"full-of-it". What's he got to say about putting labels on illegal aliens?
Or some politician could put RFID chips on each chip and when people poop out the remains, we could track them coming out of the sewer pipes of each house. We could post on the web how many chips came out of each house daily. This would show who the evil chipeaters are. Then we could tax them on a per chip basis. Of course, this would just encourage people to crap away from home. Oh, well. Another idea down the drain.
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