Wednesday, April 12, 2017

It is called regulations.

April 12, 2017
By Cari Nierenberg

New York residents (click here) have benefited from rules that ban trans fat in restaurants: Rates of heart attack and stroke have dropped in New York counties where such bans have been enacted, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that starting three years after the effort to restrict the use of trans fats in eating establishments was introduced, the New York counties with these restrictions experienced a 6.2 percent reduction in hospital admissions for heart attacks and strokes, compared with New York counties without similar restrictions. 

This translates to 43 fewer heart attacks and strokes per 100,000 adult residents (ages 25 and older) in the New York counties with trans fat restrictions, according to the study published online today (April 12) in the journal JAMA Cardiology. [9 Disgusting Things That the FDA Allows in Your Food]...

I betcha the Snack Food Association and the Fast Food Industry are happy today. The future of the FDA under Trump is in a precarious state. Trump announced the plans to cut many employees from the federal government. It will slow the government and with agencies like the FDA it will increase a backlog that will cause hardship among Americans.

We live in a world where discovery that improves quality of life occurs at a rapid pace with well funded research. The Trump administration will return the USA to the dark ages of ignorance.

June 16, 2015
By Jen Christensen

...In 2007, New York City (click here) adopted a regulation that banned trans fat from restaurants, but some restaurants were already ahead of the legal changes.

Companies like McDonald's had stopped cooking their french fries in trans fat more than a decade ago. Their online menus say all their fried food is free of trans fat. Chick-fil-A removed all artificial trans fat from its menu in 2008.

Before it became a popular ingredient in processed and fast foods, trans fat was introduced into the American diet as early as 1911 in the form of shortening or hydrogenated vegetable oil, used for cooking and making pies.

Partially hydrogenated oil is formed when hydrogen is added to liquid oils to make solid fats, like shortening and margarine. It also increases the shelf life of food and enhances flavors.

American dietary guidelines recommended Americans keep their trans fat consumption "as low as possible."

Dr. Steven Nissen, the chair of cardiovascular medicine at the Cleveland Clinic, praised the FDA for its "bold courage" and said it "deserves a lot of credit" for taking this "enormously important" move....

During the "W" years the USA added enormous numbers of private contractors for the security industry. After 911, "W" helped his lagging economics by throwing large amounts of money into a huge security industry. Trump doesn't want to end private industry attached to the federal government, he wants to shut down the federal government and throw everything into the private sector.

April 11, 2017
By John Fritze

...Asked specifically (click here) about the impact on Montgomery and Prince George's counties, home to the highest concentration of federal workers in the state, OMB director Mick Mulvaney said the administration would not be dissuaded by what he described as the concern of "special interest" groups....

The attack on federal employees involves race as well.

June 13, 2011
By Ed O'Keefe

The federal government employs (click here) a higher percentage of minorities when compared with the national workforce but is still employing a smaller percentage of Hispanics, according to a new government study.

The percentage of women in federal offices also dropped slightly year-to-year, according to the annual report on equal opportunity recruitment published Friday by the Office of Personnel Management.

In 2010, the percentage of minority federal workers grew 5 percent in 2010 to 647,588 employees, an increase of about 31,100 workers from the previous year. Minorities represent 33.8 percent of the federal workforce; just under 18 percent are black, 8 percent are Hispanic, 5.6 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 1.8 percent American Indian/Alaska Native and less than 1 percent are classified as “Non-Hispanic/Multiracial.”

Whites make up 66.2 percent of federal workers, the report said....

The employees that have been employed by the federal government and nearing retirement should be given an incentive by the federal government to move on. The private sector does it and the federal government should do exactly the same thing.

I don't know what kind of fiscal numbers Trump is looking at, but, simply throwing federal workers out on the street without a consideration to their length and dedication to service is cruel. The draw down of the number of employees needs to be systematically and without disrespect to minority employees.