Premier calls for scientific facts in ractopamine debate
By Jason Pan / Staff reporter
Deliberations on ractopamine must be based on scientific evidence, not rumors, Premier Su Tseng-chang (蘇貞昌) said yesterday.
“Some people hide their spreading of rumors and disinformation behind free speech, but that is wrong,” Su told a session of the Legislative Yuan.
Su made the remarks following the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) expression of support for psychiatrist Su Wei-shuo (蘇偉碩).
In media interviews earlier this week, Su Wei-shuo said: “The toxic effect of ractopamine is 250 times that of an ecstasy [MDMA] pill.”
When a nation allows the importation of products with traces of ractopamine, its “entire ecosystem will become filled with ractopamine, even the air, so that people will inhale it just by breathing,” Su Wei-shuo told reporters.