No nail jobs in Washington fish tanks
The Washington state Department of Licensing has decided that pedicures by fish — the use of live, tiny carp to clean feet — is unsanitary and illegal.
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Christine Anthony, spokeswoman for the department, said it's impossible to sanitize the live fish.
"You can clean the tank, you can clean the water, but there's no guarantee that the fish aren't carrying something from the previous customer."
The Seattle Times reports that the pedicures, popular in Turkey and other Asian countries, started gaining attention in the states after a Virginia-based spa talked to the media this summer about the benefits of using the fish instead of razors to slough away scales and calluses.
At Peridot, the only Washington salon believed to offer the nail job, an employee who declined to give his name, said he was "speechless" about the state's ruling.
Mystery meat
A barfblog fan from Washington, D.C. writes with this tale:
A few weeks ago, I had an alarming experience at a Washington, DC
Chinese takeout restaurant. I normally avoid these sketchy-looking
dives, which are on every corner of this city, but in a moment of
weakness (insanity) decided to inflict some Kung Pao chicken on
myself. 
I went into Yum’s (ironic name right?) and got in line behind a couple hipsters and a man in filthy clothes with scraggly hair, who looked like he hadn't bathed or slept indoors in some time.
The not-clean-man had placed three large, bloody styrofoam Safeway containers of some kind of raw meat on the counter. The old Chinese lady behind the counter was saying “Ten dolla! I give you ten
dolla!” and the improperly-sanitized-guy said that was fine. The hipsters and I exchanged wide-eyed glances as it dawned on us that this dude was *selling* meat to the restaurant, meat that he had
somehow obtained from Safeway… probably in an unsavory manner…
anyway needless to say, I left Yum’s, never to return.
Raw milk: Should the state ban it? Or drink it up?
“Although the number of cases nationwide is low, contaminated raw milk can contain a strain of E. coli that sometimes causes hemolytic uremic syndrome, a life-threatening complication that can cause kidney failure and death.It took a 2005 outbreak of E. coli in raw milk that sickened 18 people in Washington and Oregon and put two children on life support to get all the players -- the dairy and raw milk communities, lawmakers, the state agriculture and health departments -- together to try to figure out what to do, Gordon said.
Last week, the owners of the dairy that sold the tainted milk, Michael and Anita Puckett, pleaded guilty in federal court in Seattle to the charge of distributing adulterated food.
Claudia Coles, food safety manager for the state Department of Agriculture, agreed that something had to done, that "in these outbreaks, it is almost always the children that become the victims."
The state's options for trying to control the sale of raw milk products were limited. In other states where it was banned completely, a black market flourished. So the question facing regulators is whether public health is better protected by regulating, testing, licensing and inspecting the raw milk or just by banning it so it goes underground with no oversight.
Doug Powell says he's not surprised that government health officials denounce the dangers of raw milk then turn around and license the sale of the same milk.
"In part, it's because of the almost evangelical way people talk about raw milk and that America is founded on consumer choice," said the associate professor of food safety at Kansas State University.
"The numbers of illnesses from outbreaks caused by unpasteurized milk are not that high. You could very easily make the cases that 'Wow, maybe tomatoes should be regulated a whole lot more than we do now because the numbers of cases of salmonella saintpaul are up to 550 now,' " said Powell, who is also scientific director for the International Food Safety Network.
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"I don't care if people drink raw milk. What I'm particularly concerned about is them then imposing their choice on their kids, because they're the ones who get sick. People have the right to sell a product, but if it makes people sick, they have a right to sue."Seattle food safety lawyer Bill Marler is up to his neck in many of those lawsuits. He grew up drinking raw milk on the farm "because that's what my dad wanted us to do," he said. He has tried injury suits stemming from most of Washington's raw milk outbreaks and is now handling similar cases in California and Missouri.
"The entire raw milk debate is so emotionally charged that there's no common ground at all," Marler said. "The reality is if you poison a little child by selling a product that could easily be pasteurized, you're going to have to deal with the legal issues surrounding that," he said.
E. coli O157:H7, possibly in romaine lettuce, sickens 9 in Washington State
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The Washington State Department of Health said today that nine confirmed cases of E. coli infection found in Thurston and Pierce counties have been traced to romaine lettuce and a tenth case may be linked but was not tested.Health Department spokesman Tim Church says five of the victims were hospitalized, but all have been released.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is tracing the source of the contaminated lettuce.
A table of known outbreaks of verotoxigenic E. coli -- including but not limited to E. coli O157:H7 -- associated with fresh spinach and lettuce is available at http://foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=903.
UPDATE: The Department of Health says nine confirmed cases of E.coli infection found in north Thurston and south Pierce counties have been traced to bagged, commercial romaine lettuce.
Health officials say it's not the same type of lettuce you would buy in a grocery store.
5 sickened by raw milk in Washington
The dairy pulled that batch of milk from the shelves and has resumed its distribution of raw milk.
The health department said the dairy has changed its testing procedures to reduce the risk of releasing contaminated milk.
A table of raw milk outbreaks is available at http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/articles/384/RawMilkOutbreakTable.pdf
Got campylobacter?
The milk may be contaminated with Campylobacter jejuni and that local health departments are reviewing Campylobacter illness reports that may be related to the milk.
A table of outbreaks linked raw milk or cheese produced from raw milk is available at:
http://www.foodsafety.ksu.edu/en/article-details.php?a=3&c=32&sc=419&id=1138
