Sago misnomer as cycads are not palms. Extracting edible starch from the sago cycad requires special care due to the poisonous nature of cycads. Cycad sago is used for many of the same purposes as palm sago. The fruit of palm trees from which the sago is produced is not allowed to ripen fully. The full ripening completes the life cycle of the tree and exhausts the starch reserves in the trunk to produce the seeds. It leaves a hollow shell and causes the tree to die. The palms are cut down when they are about 15 years old, just before
Sago Mine disaster and that the support system is not meeting the needs of the roof." On January 3, 2006, Bruce Watzman of the National Mining Association, interviewed by Tom Foreman for Anderson Cooper 360, was asked whether any of the violations "leaps out at you as endangering miners' lives?" Watzman explained that they could be "paperwork errors [or] reporting errors. A lot of violations, but many of which were not significant to really impact miner safety." By contrast, a report in "Christian Science Monitor" on January 6, 2006, quotes McAteer as saying "Sago raises red flags for mine oversight ... If you