Kellogg’s faces protests over food dyes in popular breakfast cereals
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(BATTLE CREEK, Mich.) Hundreds of people gathered outside the WK Kellogg headquarters in Michigan on Tuesday calling for the company to hold up its promise to remove artificial dyes from its breakfast cereals sold in the U.S.
Nearly 10 years ago, Kellogg’s, the maker of Froot Loops and Apple Jacks, committed to removing such additives from its products by 2018.
While Kellogg’s has done so in other countries including Canada, which now makes Froot Loops with natural fruit juice concentrates, the cereals sold in the U.S. still contain both food dyes and a chemical preservative.
Food activist Vani Hari, also known as the Food Babe on social media, spoke to the crowd of demonstrators at the cereal giant’s offices in Battle Creek on Tuesday.
“I’m here for the moms, all the moms, who struggle to feed their children healthy food without added chemicals,” she said.
In response to the protests, Kellogg’s insisted its products are safe for consumption, saying its ingredients meet the federal standards set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
The agency has said that most children experience no adverse effects from color additives, but critics argue the FDA standards were developed without any assessment for possible neurological effects.
The protests come in the wake of a new California law known as the California School Food Safety Act that bans six potentially harmful dyes in foods served in California public schools. The ban includes all of the dyes in Froot Loops, plus Blue Dye No. 2 and Green Dye No. 3.
The bill was passed by state legislators in August and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in September.
Studies suggest that consumption of said dyes and colorants banned under the new California School Food Safety Act may be linked to hyperactivity and other neurobehavioral problems in some children, as the California Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment outlined in a 2021 report.
While there are still thousands of chemicals allowed for use in our country’s commercial food system, many of those that have been reviewed by the Food and Drug Administration have not been reevaluated for decades. Red 40, for example, was last evaluated for health risks in 1971.
Reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics align with this push to reassess the safety of artificial food coloring.
California previously made history in October 2023, when Newsom signed AB 418 into law, a first-of-its-kind bill that bans four harmful chemicals from candy, cereals, salad dressings and other processed foods in the state starting in 2027.
That law will end the use of brominated vegetable oil, potassium bromate, propylparaben and Red Dye No. 3 in food products sold throughout the state.
(NEW YORK) — Breast cancer deaths have fallen by 44% compared to 35 years ago, saving nearly 520,000 lives, according to a new report by the American Cancer Society.
The dramatic decrease is a major milestone in the fight against breast cancer, according to Dr. Lisa Newman, a co-author of the report, released on Tuesday, the start of Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
“This decline is evidence of our success in better treatments for breast cancer, especially with targeted treatments,” Newman, chief of the section of breast surgery at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, told ABC News.
Beyond advances in care, Newman noted that mammography has also played a crucial role in detecting cancer earlier.
In April, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force updated their guidelines, recommending that women at average risk for breast cancer get a mammogram every two years starting at age 40.
However, screening isn’t perfect, Newman stressed.
Women should watch for new lumps, skin changes, and nipple changes, including unusual discharge, pain, and redness.
Even if the last mammogram is clear, women should discuss any changes with a healthcare provider.
Steepest rise in new cases among women under 50
Though breast cancer deaths have dropped, new cases continue to rise.
From 2012 to 2021, breast cancer diagnoses increased by 1% each year, with the steepest rise among women under 50.
The reasons for the increase in diagnoses at a younger age remain unclear, Newman said.
“We speculate that it is related to differences in lifestyle and environment given the obesity epidemic and more women delaying their childbearing years and having fewer pregnancies over their lifetime,” she said.
Racial disparities in breast cancer persist
Yet despite lower overall death rates, racial disparities in breast cancer persist.
American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) women have seen no improvement in death rates, while Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) women face the fastest uptick in new cases, with a nearly 3% annual increase.
And despite having 10% fewer cases than white women, AIAN women are 6% more likely to die from the disease and receive fewer regular mammograms.
Black women face a 38% higher chance of dying from breast cancer and have worse outcomes at every stage and subtype, except for localized cancers, compared to white women.
“Studies show that Black women are more likely to receive mammograms at lower-quality facilities, face delays in diagnosing abnormalities, and experience delays in starting and completing treatment,” Newman explained.
Because African American women are more prone to triple negative breast cancer, a particularly deadly form of the disease, Newman said there is a strong push to improve the diversity in clinical trials.
In May of 2024, the ACS launched the VOICES of Black Women Study which will enroll 100,000 Black women aged 25 to 55 and follow them for 30 years.
Newman also pointed out that breast cancer can affect men, especially African American men, who have double the risk compared to White men.
While the report revealed many promising trends in breast cancer, the disease remains the second most common cancer among women in the U.S. after skin cancer and the leading cause of cancer deaths for Black and Hispanic women. In 2024, experts predict over 300,000 new invasive (stage I and above) breast cancer cases with more than 40,000 deaths.
The report’s findings are based on data from the national cancer tracking programs that includes information from the National Cancer Institute and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
(DURHAM, N.C.) — As hospitals and health care facilities work to get back up and running after Hurricane Helene slammed into Florida’s Big Bend, affecting several states, the medical supply chain could be at risk.
Baxter International, a health care and medical technology company, announced this week that it must close its largest plant in North Carolina due to flooding and destruction caused by the hurricane.
The plant, located in North Cove, 60 miles northeast of Asheville, primarily manufactures IV fluids and peritoneal dialysis solutions, according to Baxter. It is the largest manufacturer of such solutions in the U.S., employing more than 2,500 people, the company said.
“Our hearts and thoughts are with all those affected by Hurricane Helene,” José Almeida, chair, president and CEO of Baxter, said in a statement. “The safety of our employees, their families, and the communities in which we operate remains our utmost concern, and we are committed to helping ensure a reliable supply of products to patients.”
“Remediation efforts are already underway, and we will spare no resource – human or financial – to resume production and help ensure patients and providers have the products they need,” the statement continued.
Baxter said it implemented a hurricane preparedness plan ahead of Helene, which included evacuation plans for staff and moving products to higher ground or to secure storage. However, heavy rainfall and storm surge “triggered a levee breach,” which led to flooding in the facility.
Among those impacted by the Baxter plant closing is Duke University Health System (DUHS), in Durham, North Carolina, according to William Trophi, DUHS interim president vice president of supply chain.
“[Baxter has] published their action items, and they have announced to us that they’re putting a hold on all distribution for 48 hours to understand what they have in their supply line, and then they’re going to be setting up pretty strict allocations based on prior usage to make sure that everyone is getting their fair share based on their volume and their needs,” he told ABC News.
Trophi said DUHS and Duke University have not seen major disruption to their supply chain following Helene’s landfall, but notes there may be delays in the future if the Baxter plant closure lasts for several weeks, if more plants close, and depending on how long the dockworkers’ strike on the East Coast and the Gulf Coast lasts.
“What we’re doing internally is we’re looking at conservation models, so similar with our IV solutions, we’re going to look at what can we be doing differently to treat our patients in a safe, effective manner to conserve IV solutions,” he said. “And we’ll start to look at other high, critical, sensitive items that could be impacted by this, and look at what can we be doing differently to conserve the way in which we treat our patients in a safe, effective manner.”
Paul Biddinger, chief preparedness and continuity officer for the Boston-based Mass General Brigham health care system, told ABC News that facilities typically begin stockpiling and taking inventory of supplies prior to a natural disaster. After the event has happened, health care centers will work to identify what products are affected by supply chain issues and which patients are using the products.
In the case of the Baxter plant, the products are primarily used by kidney patients, cardiac patients and urologic patients, Biddinger said, adding that hospitals and other health care facilities will typically try to conserve as much of the affected product as possible, and will also investigate any alternatives or substitutions for the product.
“If the shortage is so severe that we just can’t continue with normal usage, even with conservation, then we have to start a process of allocating across our clinical services, of course, prioritizing lifesaving care and emergency care, and then going down our list for more scheduled or more elective kinds of procedures,” Biddinger said.
Samantha Penta, an associate professor of emergency management and homeland security at the University at Albany in New York, said one really important factor to consider when understanding the implications of Hurricane Helene is just how large the affected area is.
“We’re not just talking about a couple of counties. We’re not even just talking about one state. This has affected multiple states very significantly,” she told ABC News. “One of the things that organizations, in general, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and like – really, anything in the health care sector – does, is you can rely on neighboring facilities.”
Penta said if health care facilities need to send patients to a neighboring facility because they’re running low on supplies or space, or if their facility is damaged, they typically can do so. The same holds true if one facility is running low on supplies; another facility might send them some of their reserves as part of a mutual aid agreement.
But in the case of Helene, “effectively, the people who need help, their neighbors are also being affected. So, any given hospital, the closest hospitals to them, are likely dealing with the same issues,” Penta said. “That further complicates it, because things have to come from even farther away, whether that’s working within a network or ordering from different vendors.”
Over the weekend, North Carolina became the latest state to have a public health emergency declared by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) in response to Hurricane Helene.
The HHS’s Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response deployed about 200 personnel to the state, including Health Care Situational Assessment teams to evaluate the storm’s impact on health care facilities such as hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers, and Disaster Medical Assistance teams to help state and local health workers provide care.
Three influenza A (H5N1/bird flu) virus particles (rod-shaped). Note: Layout incorporates two CDC transmission electron micrographs that have been inverted, repositioned, and colorized by NIAID. Scale has been modified. Image via CDC and NIAID.
(NEW YORK) — As seasonal influenza ramps up, and with bird flu continuing to circulate, some public health experts are worried there may be a strain on the public health system.
Since the bird flu outbreak began earlier this year connected to dairy cows and poultry, there have been 55 human cases reported in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This includes a child in California, who was confirmed on Friday by the agency to be the first pediatric case linked to the outbreak.
There is currently no evidence of person-to-person transmission of bird flu and the risk to the general public is low, federal health officials say. But with millions of seasonal flu infections around the corner, there is some concern about additional stress on how public health surveillance systems will track the virus.
“I think it does add a layer of stress, at least in the public health planning part of things, because we have to think about what resources would be necessary were we to have a significant outbreak of bird flu,” Dr. Tony Moody, a professor of pediatrics and infectious diseases specialist at Duke University, told ABC News.
Bird flu and seasonal flu at the same time
Currently, respiratory virus activity is low in the U.S., but the country is on the brink of entering traditional flu season.
Dr. Otto Yang, a professor of medicine and microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the flu season earlier this year in the Southern Hemisphere looked typical so the same can be expected for the Northern Hemisphere.
Countries in the Southern Hemisphere experience their flu season before countries in the Northern Hemisphere. This often provides a glimpse as to what the upcoming flu season may potentially look like for the Northern Hemisphere, though it is not fully predictive of what may occur in each individual country.
“It looks like everything so far points to a fairly typical flu season in terms of the numbers, not [an] especially severe flu season, but not one especially mild either,” he told ABC News.
So far, all bird flu cases in humans in the U.S. have been mild and patients have all recovered after receiving antiviral medication. Almost all confirmed cases have had direct contact with infected livestock.
Yang said he doesn’t see bird flu putting a major strain on the health system right now, but there are unknown factors such as whether COVID-19 or RSV will lead to a higher number of cases than normal.
Moody added that health systems have conversations every year about respiratory virus season regarding whether there are enough beds, enough staff and enough equipment to treat sick patients, and that unknown factors always present a threat.
“That’s what we would be thinking about, is, what can we do to try to blunt that as much as possible, because it’s not so much that the public health system can’t absorb it,” he said. “They just can’t absorb everything all at once.”
Testing for bird flu
With flu season expected to start ramping up in the coming weeks, it may be increasingly difficult to differentiate bird flu from seasonal flu without more extensive testing, experts say.
“The reality is, we want to be ahead of a problem. There’s a surveillance challenge that was easier in the summer because we didn’t have seasonal flu cycling,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News medical contributor. “As we enter flu season, we’re going to have a respiratory mix that includes flu and may include cases of avian, and it’ll be an even greater needle in the haystack.”
Right now, a PCR test, which checks for genetic material, is needed to detect a novel flu virus in a patient. More than 60,000 tests have been completed by public health labs to detect any presence of bird flu since February of this year, according to the CDC.
Tests are sent to public health labs if there is suspicion of bird flu exposure from a clinician or a sample was submitted for surveillance purposes. Health care systems send in a quantity of flu samples to public health labs for additional testing to help detect any new bird flu cases, which is how a case in Missouri was initially identified.
“We’re doing some opportunistic sampling of cases that would get additional sequencing. [Our hospital] is sending five samples per week to state labs that would ultimately get deeper identification for bird flu,” Brownstein said.
The nation’s flu surveillance systems “are built to be able to detect novel flu infections even during peak flu season” the CDC told ABC News in a statement in part. “The level of testing performed is designed to scale with increases in seasonal flu activity so that we’re casting a wider net and maintaining the ability to detect rare infections with novel influenza viruses.”
Other surveillance methods like emergency department trends and wastewater data may become less reliable as seasonal flu ramps up, Brownstein said.
“Patients that have access to rapid tests at home also aren’t necessarily collected and connected to surveillance systems” he added.
Risk of recombination
Questions have swirled about whether or not bird flu and seasonal influenza could form a recombinant virus, meaning a combination of the two.
There is currently no evidence that this has happened and, although it is possible for either virus to mutate with each new case, experts believe this is unlikely considering bird flu is not yet showing evidence of person-to-person transmission.
“It certainly is possible, but generally you get recombination when you have hosts where both strains can get in easily, and at the moment the bird flu strain is not traveling human to human, and so very, very few humans are infected with it,” Yang said. “It’s been a handful of cases, so the risk is really tiny.”
Moody said so-called “recombination events” do happen, with people becoming infected with multiple viruses at the same time or multiple strains of a virus. However, most of the time, they are “failures,” he said.
“That’s an important thing to understand, these recombination events are happening all the time and, most of the time, it doesn’t go anywhere,” Moody said. “Very, very rarely it does, and then that becomes a possibility for transmission”
How to best protect yourself
Moody and Yang say they both recommend that people receive the flu shot. Flu vaccines are currently available for everyone six months and older, according to the CDC.
In the last flu season prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, flu vaccination prevented an estimated 7 million illnesses, 3 million medical visits, 100,000 hospitalizations, and 7,000 deaths in the U.S., the CDC said.
The seasonal flu vaccine does not protect against bird flu, but it can reduce the risk of human influenza viruses, and therefore lower the risk of co-infection.
“Is there the potential for some cross-benefit for the avian flu? There may be. It’s hard to say, because, of course, these viruses are distinct from one another,” Moody said.
