The Inquisitive Skink

And it is about time!   HR 3057 , the House companion bill, was introduced by Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY). Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) has introduced The Household Product Labeling Ac t (S. 1697).  This Act would require household cleaning products to carry labels that list all of their ingredients. “Moms and dads have a right to know whether harmful chemicals are present in their kitchen cupboards,” Franken says. The way it is now, products are required to list immediately hazardous ingredients, but there is no labeling requirement for ingredients that may cause harm over time. The bill would make information readily available to consumers.

Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. has won a patent for a method of extracting oil from the tiny seeds of cranberries. This news makes me want to go out and buy a bag of cranberries and just take a look at those seeds....pretty tiny if I remember correctly. It will take an awful lot of berries to come up with enough oil with therapeutic value, but Ocean Spray is wise to come up with a product that uses the left over mash left from squeezing out all that juice. The patent claims the extracted oil can be used for “treating or reducing the occurrence of breast cancer,” among other diseases. This is a pretty powerful claim, and from what I have read all research is definitely in the preliminary stage. The patent claims the use of the oil for its anticancer, hypocholesterolemic, antithrombotic, antioxidizing, antiatherogenic, antiinflammatory, and immunoregulatory properties. I am already a big believer in the use of grapefruit seed extract and I think it makes sense that seeds would be powerh...