I don't normally post twice but after seeing Chuck Renaud's comments about
L'Avian and the ethoxyquin debate I had to add my $.02.  Chuck said that
L'Avian had information that ... "pretty much said that while there isn't
100% proof ethoxyquin causes cancer, why take the chance?"
 
That statement underlies a level of sophistry that almost comes close to
that other famous leading question, "When did you stop beating your wife?"
No one has any business presupposing that something causes cancer until the
facts are in.  You can make a personal choice based on your own assessment,
which is all most of us can do, but it is reprehensible to denegrate a
competitor by implying that their product causes cancer.  Cancer is an
incredibly complex disease.  There are environmental causes, such as food,
smoking (not recommended for ferts) and radiation, as well as internal
factors such as hormones and genetic defects.  L'Avian knows that it's often
nearly impossible to show that an exposure of any sort causes cancer 100%.
I can find you a strain of mouse or rat that is guaranteed to develop cancer
no matter what it's fed, even if it's L'Avian and the purest water on earth.
That doesn't mean L'Avian (or the water) cause cancer.  The other side of
this argument involves the fact that even known carcinogens don't cause
cancer in everyone exposed.  Lifelong smokers have 20 to 30 times the risk
of developing lung cancer as non-smokers who've never been exposed to radon.
But most smokers die of cardiovascular disease and not lung cancer.  Cancer
is almost never an absolute, which is why it's so frustrating to study.
 
Lastly, even if ethoxyquin or other preservatives impart a small increased
risk of cancer, preservatives do *prevent* disease.  Few people remember
that the leading cause of death among humans was infectious disease until
not too long ago.  There are bacteria, fungi and yeast everywhere in the
environment.  A simple lack of hygiene can be deadly in many settings.  You
can go through life without preservat ives, but it requires more vigilence
and education and time than many people want to deal with.  The person who
posted the message about feeding ferrets raw meat "preserved" with extract
from grapefruit seed should be extremely careful trusting their ferrets'
lives with a "natural" preservative just as we should all be careful of the
artificial ones.  Contaminated raw meat can be deadly.  Use good judgment,
good hygiene and your nose to tell you when things have gone bad.  Don't put
total faith in anything just because they claim they're safer than Brand X
or because it 's "natural." (Hemlock is natural and it didn't do Socrates
any good.)
 
Hmmm...that was more like a buck fifty rather than $0.02. Well, keep the
change.  :)
 
Jeff Johnston, [log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 1654]