As Much As They Can Get Away With

Trey Smith

We've all seen the ads hundreds of times before. This or that corporation SAYS the consumer comes first. They project a family-like atmosphere. They tell us they are our friends and neighbors. They boast that their products include the finest ingredients or materials. They would never, never, NEVER do anything to jeopardize our health and safety.

By and large, it is all a big lie. Most of the big companies out there -- and quite a significant number of small ones too -- will push the envelope to see how much they can get away with. If a beverage company thought they could get away with adding sheep urine to your favorite elixir, they'd do it in a second! If a major food producer thought they could get away with not filtering out cow dung, they wouldn't give it a second thought.

The bottom line in our wondrous capitalist system is the short-term bottom line. Health and safety standards are for sissies! Concern for the consumer doesn't pay for the world class yacht or the third home in The Hamptons.

I was reminded of the overarching goal of American-style capitalism by two recent news items that both deal with a callous disregard of consumer safety. According to an article in the Washington Post,

Four hundred of the nation’s most popular lipsticks contained trace levels of lead when tested recently by the federal government, confirming similar results of earlier analyses but on a much wider scale and at higher levels than previously detected.

Five L’Oreal and Maybelline lipsticks, owned by L’Oreal USA, ranked among the top 10 most contaminated brands, according to the analysis by the Food and Drug Administration. Two Cover Girl and two NARS lipsticks also landed in top 10 slots, as did one from Stargazer.

Boy, isn't this nice to know! Lead contamination can cause problems with the blood and nervous systems as well as the brain. In fact, long-term exposure can damage almost ANY system in the body. But what's a little bit of lead compared to the gold these companies can make?

In a local story from right here in Washington state, the investigators from King 5 TV discovered that a fruit processing plant in Yakima was getting away with doing something truly gross with applesauce.

Snokist Growers is a century-old cannery that processes and packages 50,000 tons of cherries, apples, pears and plums each year. The inspectors say that leaks in the packaging would cause 300 gallon bags of applesauce to spoil. Snokist would scrape thick mold off the top of the spoiled applesauce, heat-treat the remaining product and then send it down the production line for sale to the public...The KING 5 Investigators obtained public records showing Snokist reprocessed more than 23,000 gallons of moldy applesauce in the year 2010 alone. Other records show Snokist's own consultant concluded in 2009 that the mold in applesauce "would not be eliminated by your firm's thermal process." Records show the company continued selling it to customers.

It turns out that a good deal of this moldy product was sold to schools for their lunch programs and distributed through area food banks. My wife and I found a can of it in our cupboard...and immediately threw it away!!

These are but two of numerous examples uncovered every week of the year. Just remember that, if a company thought it could get away with selling us nuclear waste dressed up as something else, most of them would do it.

Hey, a company's gotta make them bucks.