http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/ On Friday, August 18, 2006, the FDA has approved a virus cocktail to be sprayed on the foods that we eat. Thats right, a living virus. This is the first time in History that viruses will be used as a food additive. The FDA wants people to believe that these viruses, consumed over a lifetime, will have no adverse effect on health. For those of you that believe this is no big deal, imagine standing in line for a virus-laden sandwich. Do you like the idea of buying a virus infested turkey for thanksgiving dinner. Your local mini-mart will now be selling virus filled lunchmeat (yum!!!). Live viruses will be sprayed on foods such as cold cuts, sausages, hot dogs, sliced turkey, and chicken. The real problem is the poor quality FDA-approved food supply that is already full of diseased and sickly animals, many which are imported from other countries. Unhealthy animals are a great place for bacteria to grow and prosper, especially after this meat makes it to the market. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply. The stated goal of the FDA-approved viruses is to kill a rare bacterium known as Listeria monocytogenes. This bacterium is killed by cooking; however, it poses a problem in meats that are cooked during processing and not cooked again prior to consumption, so it can redily infect foods such as deli meat. Basically, the FDA plans to use one infectious organism to fight another. The carnage of battle will end up in your digestive tract along with the victorious live viruses, which the FDA assures us will not attack human cells. However, they cannot possibly be certain the viruses will not attack the friendly bacteria that make up the lining of your digestive tract. The FDA approval was based on scant human testing, mostly from unrelated medical experiments. Such safety data is woefully inadequate to determine safe ingestion of a specific product by humans over the course of a lifetime. THE FDA CERTAINLY KNOWS THERE ARE RISKS!!! The FDA had some concerns about the amount of bacterial endotoxin in the Intralytix product before it is sprayed; however, FDA tests apparently showed that the product was adequately purified and so they declared it safe if used as approved. Will the FDA diligently monitor the quality of this product once it is on the market, or will it go the path of many FDA-approved drugs that the agency can't keep track of? There is certainly a risk that humans will be exposed to excessive amounts of endotoxin. This could come from the manufacturing of the viral cocktail, the interaction of the viruses with bacteria after being sprayed on food, and/or the interaction of the viruses with bacteria in the digestive tract. The human immune system is highly reactive and sensitive to bacterial endotoxins. They provoke allergy, asthma, autoimmune problems, and elevate cholesterol. They also interfere with the healthy function of cells lining the digestive tract. Researchers have demonstrated that the presence of bacterial endotoxins can start cancer in the colon. Additionally, the human immune system reacts directly to viral phages. Thus, a person who eats a lot of processed deli meat is certain to evoke an immune reaction to the viruses. What will this reaction be? Allergy? Asthma? Autoimmunity? Cancer? How can the FDA approve a food additive that it knows can induce a variety of human immune responses? The ingestion of significant amounts of viral phages into the human digestive tract is a wild card full of unknown outcomes. For example, it is certainly possible that these phages, which constantly mutate in order to survive, are likely to find a way to infect bacteria they were not intended to infect. Since phages are parasites, they could hijack the friendly bacteria of the digestive tract and turn them into viral machines, constantly generating viral particles that are likely to confuse the human immune system, if not directly infect the body. We know from history that these viral phages can turn innocuous bacteria into a killer, which is how cholera occurs. Furthermore, the Listeria bacteria are not going to take the issue lying down. They will develop resistance to the viruses over time, as we have seen with the overuse of antibiotics. Going down this path we are likely to have hundreds of viral food additives in the food we eat, all designed to combat some possible infection coming from poor quality food. Sooner or later we will inadvertently create deadly new super-strains of bacteria and/or parasitically infect the human digestive tract with an untreatable infection. Keep in mind that the FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. The ill are mostly pregnant women, elderly with compromised immunity, and small children. It would be a lot more to the point if the FDA would simply warn such people that eating these foods, due to their poor quality of production, may be dangerous. What the FDA should really do is improve the quality of our food supply, the true source of the problem. Why expose millions of Americans to an unproven ingestion of live viruses for the benefit of so few? The FDA has failed miserably for the past century to protect the public from the adulteration of our food supply by vested interests. This is just one more insult added to a long list of injuries. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I know this is a lot of reading, so lets recap. -The FDA has approved a virus cocktail to be sprayed on the foods that we eat. The FDA wants people to believe that these viruses, consumed over a lifetime, will have no adverse effect on health. -The source of the problem is the poor quality FDA-approved food supply full of diseased and sickly animals. Rather than address the source of the problem, the FDA wants to add another adulteration into our food supply. -The FDA knows there are risks. -The FDA wants to conduct this experiment on our food supply to protect a small minority, only about 2500 people, who are made seriously ill by this infection each year. They should just warn the people who are most at risk, rather than risk infecting the whole population. This petition was created so that the consumers can decide whats best. If you believe that the FDA should not use these viruses in our food supply, please sign this. If there are enough signatures, I will forward this petition to the FDA. Petition Created by James Lucas. Original Article by Byron J. Richards, CCN "FDA Approves Spraying Of Viruses On Our Food Supply" Thu, 31 Aug 2006 05:1:23 CDT en-us 3 http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig5787025 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST I support this petition. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig3616862 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST this is just so very wrong that we are being used as guinea pigs.shame on the FDA.stop messing with mother nature. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig3218502 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST mmmmmmmm...........................viruses.... *drools* itll make us evolve into some sort of immune to ANY VIRUS SUPERHUMAN!!!! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig3124323 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST this is really gross http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig3042367 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST It's hard to keep up with all the different ways they are trying to poison us! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2984997 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2978162 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST Please do not allow Listeria monocytogenes or viruses to be put in our food! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2964379 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2963755 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST Stop messing with our food, and doing this behind our backs! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2917116 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2889817 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST I am looking forward to talk about it during my oral presentation about listeriosis in my food safety class. http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2887752 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST I think that we have to let everyone you know about this. This is a big deal and that we all have to work together to stop this...TELL EVERYONE YOU KNOW!!! http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2877359 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST This is just sick. If we really want to fix things, inform the public about listeria and how to avoid it (cooking meats before consuming them, especially the deli meats). http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2875464 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2870507 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2862357 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2856541 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST I believe the FDA should not use the viruses http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2853577 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2801547 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST http://www.petitionspot.com/petitions/stopvirus/#sig2798581 Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:0:00 CST The apalling idea of spraying our food supplies with the very infectious microorganisms which cause disease...shame on you! The Europeans are correct in banning American food products from their food resources!