Delta

  • Rat poop everywhere on Delta jet

    Posted: April 19th, 2011 - 8:53pm by Doug Powell

    Rat poop may be the immediate health risk, but gnawing on wires is even more dangerous.

    We found this out the expensive way a couple of times in Kansas, when rats, seeking warmth, entered the car’s engine and decided to go for a chomp.

    It’s happened twice.

    Bloomberg reports that rodent droppings “too numerous to count” were found by U.S. health inspectors near a Delta Air Lines Inc. (DAL) jet’s galley where food and drink are stored.

    The excrement and mammalian urine turned up in inspections at a Delta hangar in Atlanta, the Food and Drug Administration said in an April 13 letter to the airline.

    Delta’s response to the agency didn’t include steps to prevent a recurrence, which is “likely” unless such measures are taken, the FDA said.

    The FDA said the inspections took place from Jan. 26 through Feb. 2. Rodent excrement was discovered above the right and left forward galleys and mammalian urine was detected in six areas on ceiling panels over a galley, according to the FDA.

    Chad Artimovich, president of Atlanta Wildlife Solutions LLC, a pest-control company, said,

    “Once it gets in there and gets established, there’s no reason to leave. The real concern is if a rat started chewing on wires. Almost every house I go into where there are rats, they’ve chewed on wood and wiring and ornaments. Their teeth are harder than iron and they have to keep them gnawed down.”
     

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    delta, Food, food safety, jet, Rat, wire
  • Tri delt sorority barf

    Posted: October 25th, 2010 - 4:02pm by Doug Powell

    Being Canadian, I never got the whole sorority-fraternity thing except what I saw in Animal House, which I presumed was an accurate representation of American college life.

    Amy’s always going on about the University of Michigan because she got her PhD from there but prefers the sunshine of Kansas to the climatic drudgery of Michigan.

    Things were shaking at the U-M Delta Delta Delta house Saturday night as firefighters were called to help 37 women suffering from nausea, vomiting and diarrhea.

    Maybe it was a sorority prank.

    Washtenaw County Environmental Health supervisor Kristen Schweighoefer told the Detroit Free Press the sorority shared meals, so the students could have been exposed that way, adding,

    “We don’t know which meal or what food item at this point.”

    It’s too early to say for sure that norovirus was the cause without laboratory testing, she said.
     

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    delta, food safety, michigan, norovirus, Sorority, tri delt
  • Closed means closed: Alberta hotel, employees fined for ignoring closure order

    Posted: May 15th, 2010 - 9:13pm by Doug Powell

    The Delta Edmonton Centre Suite Hotel is a nice enough place. I stayed there a while ago, in February, and I’ve never been so cold in my life. Look at a map. Saskatoon was almost as cold but Edmonton is farther north.

    Not so sure about the food safety culture, after the owner, the head chef, and the food and beverage director were hit with fines Friday totaling $15,000 for operating its kitchen despite a closure order.

    The Edmonton Sun reports that provincial court Judge Paul Sully said,

    “I recognize that food preparation is a very serious matter on the one hand and, on the other hand, I recognize this was a result of a fire and will not likely happen again.”

    Court heard health inspectors closed the main kitchen at the downtown hotel in October after a fire in a transformer room led to the kitchen having no running water, however staff continued to prepare meals using a board room.

    A health inspector discovered kitchen staff were cooking meat dishes in the fifth-floor boardroom using roasters and had crock pots containing prepared rice dishes.

    Court heard the conditions were not sanitary, there were issues with food temperatures, there was no liquid soap or paper towels for hand washing and there was no equipment for cleaning or sanitizing utensils and other items.

    Alberta Health Services prosecutor Rob O’Neill said,

    “Closed means closed. When the health department shuts you down, you don’t go behind their back and operate somewhere else.”

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    Alberta, delta, Edmonton, fine, health, inspection