I’m speaking at the Aspen Ideas Festival: Health. I’ll be interviewed by Helena Bottemiller Evich of FoodFix from 9:00 to 9:50 a.m.. Topic: “Making sense of nutrition science.”
Friday is a great day for releasing news that might be controversial. The FDA announced a 1 ppm standard for safe levels of melamine in infant formula – provided cyanuric acid is not also present. By this standard, the amount in the adulterated Chinese infant formula – 2,000 ppm or more – would be deemed demonstrably toxic. The amount in the contaminated U.S. formula – 0.1 to 0.2 ppm – would be considered safe. Of course zero would be better, but that seems hard to achieve in today’s chemically contaminated environment. A 1 ppm standard is tough enough to give the FDA plenty of leeway in banning unsafe products.