1244.3.3803.4 Re: Protein in Shampoo, What Is It ??? (really PRIONS)
11/26/89 20:07 58/3186 larry@kitty.UUCP (Larry Lippman)

In article <24413@cup.portal.com>, mmm@cup.portal.com (Mark Robert
Thorson) writes:

> I would also like to know where the fat used to make soap comes from?
 
        I see where your question is leading, and I would like to immediately
point out that a significant number of soaps are produced with fats and
fatty acids which are derived from plants and NOT ANIMALS.
 
        Surfactants made from coconut oil, as an example, are very popular
these days; typical surfactants are lauramide diethanolamime (DEA) and
lauryl ammonium sulfate (look at the ingredient listing on a shampoo bottle,
and chances are you will see one or both of the above surfactants).  Other
common fatty acids of plant origin are palmitic acid (palm trees), myristic
acid (coconut and vegetables), linoleic acid (linseed, safflower and pine
trees), abietic acid (pine trees), etc.
 
        Stearic acid and oleic acid are the most common fatty acids used
in soap manufacture which are animal in origin.  Not surprisingly, one of
the largest producers of stearic acid and oleic acid is Armour & Company.
 
> The brain is a fatty organ, is fat ever recovered from it for use in soap?
 
        It's possible, but the percentage of fat recovered from animal
brains is miniscule.
 
        Animal fat and fatty acids are extracted in a multi-stage process.
The first step consists of boiling skin, bones, feet, and non-edible internal
organs (offal) for about 10 hours in a closed vessel.  This boiling process
is called "rendering".  The fat floats to the top of the vessel where it
is skimmed off.  The skimmed fat is then filtered and heated in a closed
vessel for about another 10 hours at 250 deg F.  The resultant oil is
drawn off, filtered, and then stored at around 34 deg F for about two
weeks.  This last process is called "graining".  The resultant oil is
then filtered and further processed to form fatty acids, or cooking and
other oils through such processes as hydrogenation, interesterification and
isomerization.
 
> I can just imagine a pile of dried brains from scrapie-infected sheep
> being crushed in a giant press to squeeze the fat out to make soap for
> people, and the brain meal then being sent back to the sheep farm as
> animal food.

        I have had the distinct displeasure of being in two different
rendering plants in past years.  If you had any conception of the process
from raw animal fat "input" to extracted fatty acid "output", you would
understand that there is NO WAY that any microorganism, or even the
structure of a non-living microorganism could survive the associated
chemical and mechanical processes.
 
> I certainly don't like the idea of smearing prions all over my body every
> time I take a shower.  Maybe this is how people catch Creutzfeld-Jakob,
> a disease so rare (about one case per million population) that contact
> infection can be ruled out.
 
        Please.  This is utter nonsense.  End of discussion.
 
<> Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. - Uniquex Corp. - Viatran Corp.
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