A Blast From The Past: Topham’s FIREWEED 

column Exposed WHO 35 Years Ago 

by

Arthur Topham

Part 1: Food irradiation: Nuclear waste used on our fruits and vegetables

Yesterday, August 20th, 2021 marked the 35th year since my first column appeared in the Quesnel Cariboo Observer on August 20th, 1986. Jerry Macdonald, the then editor and publisher of the local newspaper, had been “observing” my “letters to the editor” for some time and decided that maybe it would be a good idea if I were to join the paper and write a biweekly column. Of course I was thrilled with the invitation and knowing Jerry’s propensity for publishing cutting-edge news stories and also writing his own provocative column for the paper I knew that I would have the freedom to present my views without having them overshadowed by any Big Brother censors.

At the time I was fairly heavy into environmental issues and so I chose a topic that, at the time, was of current interest to people who preferred to eat healthy food. Due to the limited space I was allotted for the column I was forced to break it into two parts in order to get the main points across. 

The premier column was titled, “Food irradiation: Nuclear waste used on our fruits and vegetables”. The second half of it was titled, “Global interests at the dinner table”. It was only when I was recently re-reading the second part that I realized that the World Health Organization (WHO) was deeply involved in those strange events of the time; ones that in many ways parallel events of today, especially with respect to WHO’s involvement in the great Scamdemic of 2020 and beyond.

I’ve typed the articles out as the image cannot be displayed large enough to comfortably read on one’s screen.

The following column will consist of two parts the first of which will be a preamble to and an explanation of the food irradiation process. Part two will dwell mainly on the gory details.

Remember Chernobyl? Do you recall the feeling as you watched the death clouds drifting helter-skelter across the face of the planet? Did that shroud-like sense of helplessness settle over you as the radiating rains slowly approached? Did you sense that welling-up of insecurity knowing you had nowhere to run to and no place to hide? The fears of your loved ones, for Life itself, have they faded back into memory’s foggy realms? Chernobyl, like Three Mile Island and Chalk River, will continue to be a monument to the perilous plight of the nuclear power game for years to come.

Here in B.C. we were some of the lucky ones, this time. In other places closer to the scene of the crime they’re still living with those gut-clinching moments when we didn’t know what fate had in store for us.

But don’t relax just yet for all is not quiet on the western front. Now the life-threatening aspects of Chernobyl are transforming themselves into more subtle spectres and resurfacing on our dinner tables in the form of irradiated food!

Although this process of irradiating food has been around for quite some time (originating in the early 1950’s with U.S. President Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” initiative) the vast majority of Canadians are pathetically unaware of its development or how it works.

There are, of course, many reasons why the various government agencies and private food industries involved don’t want this issue brought out in full view of the scrutinizing eye of the general public but I’ll expose what I can with the space that I have.

Why we’re irradiating food, what happens to the food, what are the dangers of irradiation, what is the government saying about this process and why is the food industry pushing to eliminate labelling on irradiated foods, are all legitimate questions that deserve clear, honest answers if we as consumers are to make informed decisions about what we’re going to feed ourselves and our children.

The irradiation process, which ostensibly is designed to save energy, lessen the addition of food additives and lengthen shelf life, is one in which food (vegetables, fruit, meant, poultry, fish, grains, spices) is bombarded with gamma rays from Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137 both deadly waste products of the nuclear power and weapons industries.

Emissions known as picowaves (1 billionth the size of microwaves) ionizes the atoms of food on an atomic level. The energy of picowaves is powerful enough to tear off electrons from their natural orbital configurations and thereby induce in the food highly unstable chemical compounds known as free radical, believed by many investigators to be the precursors of cancer.

It’s of interest to note that the vast majority of the world supply of Cobalt-60 which is presently being used by other countries such as as the Netherlands (big user) and Japan enters the international marketplace via the Industrial Radiation Division of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. who process and solicit the waste. The AECL gets the Cobalt isotope from Ontario Hydro who in turn produce it in their Canadian-designed CANDU reactors. Considering the present decline in sales of reactors it appears highly suspect that the AECL is pushing for this new and lucrative process (present reports indicate that food irradiation will be a billion dollar industry within the next ten years).

In the second part of this article I’ll elaborate on the effects and dangers of irradiation on our food. Stay tuned for another glowing report!

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