Quotes of the Morning: Safety

“Consumers face little risk from eating pork, chicken and eggs from farm animals that ate feed mixed with pet food scraps contaminated by an industrial chemical, government scientists said Monday.
“Mixing in material contaminated at low levels diluted it such that humans who eat the animals won’t be harmed, the scientists said.
[…]
Melamine, used to make plastics, and the related compounds contaminated pet food that either sickened or killed an unknown number of dogs and cats. Scraps left over from the manufacture of that dog and cat food was sold for use in animal feed before the pet food was known to be tainted and recalled from store shelves.”
-Associated Press, May 7, 2007

“Hey, unnamed scientists working for the government said so, so it must be true. The government wouldn’t lie about public safety.”
-Skippy

“Federal officials can't be held liable for painting a rosy picture of lower Manhattan's air quality after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, a federal appeals court has ruled.
A three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld a lower court ruling that tossed out a lawsuit by five emergency workers. The workers, who say they all suffer ailments related to their work at Ground Zero, charge that former Environmental Protection Agency head Christie Whitman misled them by issuing public statements assuring them the air was safe.
The court's chief judge, Dennis Jacobs, said holding public officials accountable for releasing bad information could have a chilling effect on future government responses during a crisis.
[…]
Five days after the attacks, Whitman said, ‘The good news continues to be that air samples we have taken have all been at levels that cause us no concern.’
The collapse of the towers released a cloud of hazardous dust across lower Manhattan, including lead from personal computers and asbestos. Thousands of workers say they have suffered ill health as a result of their time at Ground Zero.”
-New York Daily News, April 21, 2007

“Ok.. they might exaggerate a little now and then (to stop public worry of course), but that is entirely different. The government exists to help the people, and they would never act contrary to that mission.”
-Skippy

“The rebuilding effort in tornado-ravaged Greensburg, Kansas, likely will be hampered because some much-needed equipment is in Iraq, said that state’s governor.
Governor Kathleen Sebelius said much of the National Guard equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies is gone. She said not having immediate access to things like tents, trucks and semitrailers will really handicap the rebuilding effort.
The Greensburg administrator estimated that 95 percent of the town of 1500 was destroyed by Friday's tornado.
The Kansas National Guard has about 40 percent of the equipment it is allotted because much of it has been sent to Iraq.
-Associated Press, May 6, 2007

“Purely accidental! The government cares about what the public thinks. There is no way that they are just going to ignore the will of the people that put them in office..”
-Skippy

“The official White House transcript shows otherwise, but a recording shows that President Bush today introduced embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in a way that indicates Gonzales will have the job in perpetuity.
‘I’m honored to be here with the eternal general of the United States, mi amigo, Alberto Gonzales,’ Bush said in recognizing his longtime friend at a Rose Garden celebration of Cinco de Mayo.
The transcript says he said ’attorney general, not eternal general. But recordings don’t lie.
After the event, Gonzales fielded good wishes from guests who urged him not to cave in to the mounting pressure for him to resign in the wake of the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.”
-Ken Herman, Austin American-Statesman, May 4, 2007