Death By Good Intention

[Ilion]

Small Dead Animals: Death By Good Intention[^]

"We're from the Nanny State, and we're here to kill you.[^]"

Canadian researchers have discovered that folic acid consumed during pregnancy can alter the gene function of offspring, potentially affecting their susceptibility to disease. The finding is part of a growing - and controversial - body of research that raises serious questions about whether long-term consumption of folate and folic acid may increase the risk of developing certain cancers in some people. The debate is far from benign. Food manufacturers are required to add folic acid to enriched flour and grain products under federal regulations that came into force in 1998. The premise behind fortification, which was also mandated in the United States, is to ensure that women receive adequate levels of folate in order to reduce the risk of birth defects in their offspring. A decade later, however, new research and scientific studies have found evidence that increased consumption of folic acid may help trigger the onset of colon and other types of cancer.

I have a simple request of those politicians, career bureaucrats, and other professional public policy meddlers who believe they have a special obligation to their fellow citizens to legislate what we eat, what we drive, what we say, how we play, and when to come in from the midday sun - would you please kindly go f%$# yourselves, now? My only consolation is the knowledge that once in a while, the family member you kill might be your own. (Note: the comments section at the G&M is particularly critical of the quality of reporting on the article quoted. It's a fine example of nanny mentality in action - public policy by lowest common denominator bureaucratic consensus, communicated by the best that uncomprehending journalism has to offer.)