Word: grained
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...TTAPS findings make survivability and retaliation unnecessary. A first strike attack even one directed at just military targets, would cause enough of a nuclear winter to "wipe out all the grain growing regions of the United states, Canada and the Soviet Union." A nation launching a first strike will effectively commit suicide regardless of the adversary's response. As Sagan put it in a recent lecture at the Kennedy School, "the attacked nation need not lift a finger for retribution swift and final to fall on the aggressor...
...California, the state asked Procter & Gamble to take Duncan Hines muffin mixes off the shelves, and in Massachusetts, the public health commissioner recommended that consumers return 46 different cake mixes and grain products to the store. The cause of the panicked shelf cleaning was a chemical called ethylene dibromide, or EDB. A highly effective pesticide similar to DDT, it is also a dangerous carcinogen. Farmers have used EDB to keep bugs off grain and citrus fruit for more than 30 years, and scientists have known the cancer risk for the past ten years. But the Federal Government has been slow...
...must calm down," he said to a packed news conference in Washington, D.C. EDB is generally no longer used to treat grain, and the stored harvest that has been fumigated can be made safe simply by airing it or storing it longer. Most of the cake mix falls below the federally acceptable levels, and cooking will eliminate about 91% of EDB. Ruckelshaus put off any decision on the use of EDB on citrus fruits. Only about 2% of citrus fruits consumed in the U.S. are treated with the chemical. While there are safe alternative pesticides for grain, no entirely safe...
Ruckelshaus' move appeared dramatic, but, in fact, the action was long overdue. Scientists have long believed that the chemical, used primarily as a fumigant after the grain has been harvested, causes cancer and birth defects in laboratory animals, even in minute quantities. Industry spokesmen and EPA officials have often argued that there is no firm evidence linking the chemical to cancer in humans, but longterm studies have shown EDB to be carcinogenic in rats and mice. For the time being, consumers everywhere are the unwitting guinea pigs who will demonstrate the pesticide's effect on human health...
...action was taken under now-infamous EPA administrator Anne Burford Last September, Ruckelshaus cancelled use of EDB as a soil fumigant, but only after significant amounts of residues of the chemical showed up in the ground water in several states. The current order extends the ban to use on grain after harvesting, but is by no means conclusive; citrus products, also often treated with EDB, are unaffected by the new decree...