Posted on 05/13/2008 2:54:24 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Cornflakes in cereal killer warning
By Rosemary Desmond
May 13, 2008 03:28pm Article from: AAP
CLIMATE change could lead to "killer cornflakes" with the most potent liver toxin ever recorded, an environmental health conference has been told.
The effects of the toxins, known as mycotoxins, have been known since the Middle Ages when rye bread contaminated with ergot fungus was a staple part of the European diet, environmental health researcher Lisa Bricknell of Central Queensland University (CQU) said.
"People started suffering mass hallucinations, manic depression, gangrene, abortions, reduced fertility and painful, convulsive death," Ms Bricknell told the 10th World Congress on Environmental Health in Brisbane today.
"The rye bread, which was known as the staff of life, quickly became known as the sceptre of death."
The damage was done not from a single exposure but from many small doses of the toxins over a long period of time.
Mycotoxins can appear in the food chain as a result of the fungal infection of crops in the field or in storage, either by being eaten directly by humans, or by being used as livestock feed.
The most important group of mycotoxins in Australian maize is aflatoxins.
They could spread when temperature and moisture conditions were right and could affect crops including maize and peanuts and in some milk, dried milk products and some spices, Ms Bricknell said.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
No, it’s not that serious. Just the big D.
I wish someone would make it simple and give us a list of foods that WON’T kill us. It would be so much easier.
Every now and then I get lucky!
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