Salmonella, lettuce, and lousy public reporting; silence of the Salmonella
U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said in her Sept. 11 address to the United Fresh Produce Association’s Washington Public Policy Conference that FDA’s intent is to keep unsafe foods from reaching the market and part of that new push will be accomplished by expanding outreach.
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Guess it didn’t reach all the lettuce growers. Or the consuming public.
That’s because The Oregonian reports today that federal and state health authorities are investigating a salmonella outbreak that peaked in Oregon in August.
This is the middle of September. This is not prevention. Or good news.
The good news is that it is over, said William Keene, senior epidemiologist at the Public Health Division in Oregon.
He said the first cases surfaced nationwide in mid-July and trailed off a month later.
At least 124 were sickened across the country, with a clustering of cases in the West.
Two people got so sick they had to be hospitalized, and one had severe symptoms, Keene said. They have now been released from the hospital. He said no one died in Oregon or elsewhere in connection with the outbreak.
Scientists from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration still do not know exactly what poisoned people, though shredded lettuce is a leading suspect, Keene said.
The silence of the Salmonella. It would help, as with the Salmonella in produce outbreak last summer, or the listeria in Canadian cold cuts last fall, if public health types would clearly articulate, when they go public and why. And let everyone see those guidelines.
Oregon: Live dangerously with dogs; lose a sandwich
Oregon seems like a lovely place. Never been, although the sense of dopiness in the state has apparently gotten so bad that the state Department of Agriculture has to allocate resources to a public awareness campaign to remind Oregonians it's illegal for dogs to enter grocery stores - unless it's a service dog.
Vance Bybee, administrator of the agency's Food Safety Division, told the Charleston Daily Mail,
"There's a trend, a growing trend, for people to treat their pets like a member of the family, but they forget we still have to draw the line between our furry children and those without paws.”
Is he talking about my hairy baby? Is he discriminating against children with paws? This is probably the worst attempt at being cute in a quote -- ever.
"Interestingly enough, we get more complaints in Bend and in the Pearl District of Portland where people are more affluent and have the opportunity to pamper their pets and feel this pet is a part of my family so I am entitled to do with it what I like."
Bybee said the division gets more than 100 complaints a year about dogs doing inappropriate things in grocery stores, from urinating in the aisles to sniffing and licking food. The Portland Farmers Market banned dogs earlier this year because vendors and shoppers complained about sanitation, safety and crowding. One vendor lost a sandwich to a dog, and one customer who got tangled in a leash had to be taken to the hospital.
Oregon. man upset by McDonald's order repeatedly calls 911
Oregon appears to be an emerging state for 911 wackos – rivaling Florida and Texas – after a 23-year-old called 911 Friday to complain about his order at a McDonald’s in Clackamas, Ore.
Last month, a fellow Oregonian was arrested after calling 911 to complain about a juice box missing from his McDonald’s order. From insufficient shrimp in Texas, a McNuggets emergency and missing lemonade at a Burger King, 2009 is turning into a watershed year as American fast-food diners to a 911-mediated slide into idiocracy.
In the latest incident, KOMO News reports that a man said he had paid $10 in the drive-thru but only received a single burger and a fry before he was told to pull around.
"Sir, this is not a police matter," the dispatcher told him. "You need to take it up with the manager of the McDonald's."
The man thought it would be wise to call 911 again.
"This is a 911 emergency. I got robbed for eight dollars."
"Sir, 911 is life-and-death only. If you do continue calling 911 you will be arrested for misuse."
"Well, arrest me at (expletive) 82nd and Sunnyside Road. Please send a cop right now. I swear to God all my life..."
The man was arrested and spent the night in jail.
On Saturday, the man told KATU he stood by his actions.
"I was very upset that they tried to charge me for food I had already paid for. … For me to end up going to jail over a $10 order, that's just ridiculous.”
E. coli outbreak traced to Oregon fair -- again
The Oregonian is reporting that seven people who attended the Clackamas County Fair contracted E. coli bacteria.William Keene, an epidemiologist for the Oregon Public Health Division, said this year's outbreak is larger than the one from the Clackamas County Fair in 2006, when the bacteria infected four people, sending one to the hospital.
Fair spokeswoman Heather Alexander said that next year, Clackamas County Fair officials plan to make more hand-washing stations available and post more signs urging people to wash their hands.
Somehow that seems too little, too late.
