PINK PORK

Why did the ancient Jews shun pork?

One theory claims that the pig was a pagan idol, so that the Jews, as the first monotheists, abhorred it. But the theory that I find far more credible is that they had noted the health effects of pork: as we know today, pigs are apt to host the parasitic trichina worm, and unless pork is well cooked, broiled or roasted, it may infect the diner with trichinosis. Due to such and other precautions, the disease is relatively rare in the US, but (worries veterinarian Dr J.P. Dubey), complacency may change recipes, and "pink pork" is now being advocated in some parts of the world, including France (J. Am. Veterin. Med. Assn., 7/15/86, quoted in Science News, 7/19/86). Needless to say, if it comes from Paris, imitation by stylish hostesses in Manhattan penthouses is inevitable.

And trichinosis is not the worst of it, says Dr Dubey, a veterinarian at the DoA's Animal Parasitology Institute; he describes how undercooked pork can lead to blindness, mental retardation, and various afflictions with Greek and Latin names. I do not doubt his word, but there is a way in which you can have your pink pork and eat it, too: irradiate it killing the parasites at least as reliably as plain heat does.

As irradiation, which preserves food without chemicals, becomes more common, so does the campaign against it become shriller. And that brings me back to activation, for the crusaders for rot and pestilence quite often imply that irradiated food becomes itself radioactive. Flatly impossible: when food, cosmetic and medical items are exposed to strong gamma radiation, it kills bacteria and other parasites on the molecular level, but a gamma photon has insufficient energy to penetrate and destabilize an atomic nucleus (except in very special cases which have nothing to do with food). No matter how you increase the power of the radiation, you only produce more impotent gamma photons, you do not increase their potency. That is what Planck's discovery of energy quanta is about. Activation of irradiated food is a hoax.

The usual source for the irradiation is cobalt 60, which is specially produced for such purposes. But the US also uses cesium 137, a waste product from the weapons program with no other uses. This has added another brilliant argument to the de-industrializing, anti-defense litany of the critics: food irradiation is linked to war. Some well-meaning promoters of the technology answer this with "No, no, we use only cobalt 60." Cowardice: why be ashamed of man's most noble activity, the defense of freedom?

Unlike nuclear power, whose benefits are bestowed on supporters and critics alike, food irradiation can be utilized only by those who want it. But in the coercive traditions of the antinukes, the anti-irradiation crowd's credo is "Thou shalt eat what I eat."

And so, I expect, the Manhattan penthouses will soon eat untreated pink pork, for Paris fashion must be aped, and the antinukes' sermons parroted. And that is fine with me. My job is to explain why gamma radiation does not activate; I have no desire to save Gore Vidal from trichinosis.

[More: Apart from the previously recommended Irradiated Foods ($2 from Am. C. on Sci. & Health, 47 Maple St., Summit, NJ 07901, there is also an excellent discussion "Food irradiation: a special report," in Ascent, vol. 6, no. 1 (1985), free from AECL, 130 Adelaide St. W./#718, Toronto, Ont., Canada M5H 3P5. (One point in the critics' objections is outdated: earlier this year, Oak Ridge Ntl. Lab. discovered a method of testing foods for previous irradiation, so that they cannot be accidentally exposed twice.)]