Consequences of Europe's E. Coli Outbreak
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-06-06/consequences-europes-e-coli-outbreak
An E. coli outbreak in Europe has caused at least 22 deaths. Nearly 2,000 people have been sickened. Health officials are still searching for the source of the bacterium. They now believe it originated in Northern Germany. It has spread to 11 other countries, including, possibly, the United States. Most of the cases outside of Germany have been contracted by recent travelers to that nation. Germany's health minister warned against eating raw bean sprouts, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce. European farmers and grocers have suffered economically. An update on food safety at home and abroad.
Guests
Laura Stevens
reporter, The Wall Street Journal, based in Frankfurt, Germany.
Gardiner Harris
science reporter for The New York Times and author of the mystery novel "Hazard."
Jeff Benedict
author of "Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. Coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat."
David Orden
professor, Virginia Tech Institute for Society, Culture and Environment; senior research fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute.
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Program Highlights
E. Coli Abroad and at Home
The CDC estimates that 48 million Americans are sickened every year by food-borne diseases, and recent outbreaks related to eggs, peanut butter, and spinach have demonstrated that there are more foods involved than just undercooked meats. A new food safety law was passed in December 2010, but Congress failed to provide funding to enforce it.
This month's outbreak of a particularly virulent and serious strain of E. Coli in Germany has raised new questions about food safety regulations abroad and at home.
Germany-based Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Stevens said the outbreak in that country has been a "big deal." "Almost everybody I know have stopped eating raw fruits and vegetables, especially tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuce and, now, bean sprouts as advised by the German Health Ministry," she said. German farmers are losing an estimated 30 million Euros per week, she said.
Serious E. Coli Strain
The particular strain of E. coli involved in the German outbreak is especially serious because it produces what is called a Shiga toxin and it has what New York Times science reporter Gardiner Harris refers to as a "stickiness" in the gut. "Then, in your gut, they produce the poison that then gets absorbed into your bloodstream. The E. coli doesn't go into your bloodstream, but the poison does," Harris said.
Once the poison gets into the bloodstream, it attacks the body's small capillaries, which are most concentrated within the kidney - and that has lead to hundreds of infected patients needing dialysis treatments. Most people can probably recover, Harris said, but some have already died in the German outbreak.
Economic Impact of Outbreaks can be Devastating
"People are very averse to risks they can't control," said David Orden, a professor at Virginia Tech's Institute for Society, Culture and Environment. "You can drive too fast and get a speeding ticket. You make that choice...when we get a scare like this, as you've seen in Europe, the demand for the product that's creating that scare just drops off tremendously," he said.
"What happens in these cases is that the industry gets killed," Harris said. "So what the industry really wants right now is a very strong FDA, and they're actually willing to tax themselves to pay for it," he said.
Comments
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What I'm hearing is that this is a very specific and unusual e coli hybrid strain not likely to occur naturally. I'm wondering what the likelihood could be that this is a terrorist act by business, rogue government or extortionists. Here's our pack of monied terrorism pundits telling us the Internet is a dangerous place when digitization is optional and food is not.
I'm sick after seeing the English cucumber being autopsied in your topical photo. I eat one of them every day (USA or Canada label). Cucumbers have not yet been singled out as a vector for this pathogen, so maybe you are indicting an innocent vegetable.
OK, last word is on MSNBC that nasty bean sprouts are being hunted down using every possible enforcement and investigational asset. Stop that suspicious looking produce vendor!
Drug resistant infections frequently develop in factory farms that feed livestock antibiotics as a prevention measure. The factory farms are necessary to be able to feed the population that exceeds the carrying capacity of planet Earth.
Can't you irradiate food to kill ecoli?
I hear a bias against small producers being spoken. I'd like to hear some of the facts and statistics that support their assertions that small producers are "More likely" and often times the source of outbreaks. And now they are reversing those statements. But they are firm on the unfunded bill that they are campaigning for that also creates a situation that is proportionately difficult for small producers. The FDA appears over and over to be a bias organization that is for sale in regards to drug approvals and other protections for us.
Anti small farm is anti organic is pro agribiz. Address their bias and how they may be using this problem to leverage support for the death of small farms to promote the big business aspects of ag. I'd like to know why they believe that small ag, locovor trends cannot support our needs for product?
Basically big ag food is so diminished in nutritional value it's already killing us oh so slowly.
Simple solution that WORKS- Rinse off all veges 2 or 3 times then cover with white vinegar. Recover the vinegar and save for the next time. Rinse off with water and eat - Vinegar Kills everything. EveryThing !!!!!!!!
Simple solution that WORKS- Rinse off all veges 2 or 3 times then cover with white vinegar. Recover the vinegar and save for the next time. Rinse off with water and eat - Vinegar Kills everything. EveryThing !!!!!!!!
Certainly there are occasional outbreaks of disease that result in punitive consequences to producers who goof. This induces careful behavior.
Increasing inspections and the associated costs to government and producers will do little more. We don’t need more and more inspections. Food is probably safer today than it ever has been, but it will never be completely safe. This seems a non-issue to me.
Sampling for food safety is just one aspect of this issue. We have the technology to track food "from the field to the fork", as well as in reverse, "from the fork to back to the field". My company offers a Web-based service to growers that enables them to keep detailed records of everything that is done to a crop at the field level using satellite imagery and GPS positioning devices. We track all inputs, like seed varieties, chemicals, nutrients, and even water sources. We also track where each crop goes, from the field to the storage bins and onward to processors. Sadly this technology is a tough sell because farmers won't incur the costs unless they are forced to by the processors. But processors won't incur the costs unless forced to by government regulations.
The truth is that one saboteur with a hand held spray bottle can sicken and kill thousands of consumers. But can you say that on public radio?
I'm laughing about how the use of radiation has substituted itself for responsible scientific solutions to a variety of problems. Is the nukie caller planning on buying a truck mounted reactor, driving around to farms and selling his toxic spew. Crackpots immediately embrace the nu-ku-lur solution for fun and profit.
In studies at Univ of Iowa has shown that alternate use of vinegar and H2 O2 ( food grade Please) was more effective at killing bad bacteria as well as most any of the antibacterial on the market.
Do not mix them just use on after the other (order does not matter). Mixed can make a noxious gas
Great to wash veggies, cutting boards etc.
Do also realize it only kills what is on the surface not what may be in the food or on the surface area.
Organic Matters
KTSA 550 AM
Bruce Lee Deuley
While G.A.P.S. programs promote a chlorinated solution, it's not 100% effective, and as it's not rinsed the chlorine poses a problem to people like me.
The product you refer to is: peracetic acid. Here's the wiki:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peracetic_acid
There are several US sources for the concentrated solution.
You must use caution with the concentrate, but it's highly effective - and more costly ($) than a bleach-water solution.
The other upside, is that the waste water has less impact to the environment than a sodium hypochlorite solution, as PAA breaks down upon soil contact
I worked at the EPA pesticides when we tried to get hand-washing water into fields to wash off pesticide residues from workers hands, the Farm Bureau vigorously opposed this.
This was during the run up to the implementation of Part 170, the Farmworker Protection Standard from EPA Office of Pesticides and Pollution Prevention.
When This Reg finally got passed in the last months of president George HW Bush it was signed in for the following reasons (as told to us by our Branch Chief)
1) Pres Bush had poor turnouts by Hispanics in Texas primaries for his re-election and
2) The administration had bad press on Environmental Justice reports of Superfund sites in rural and minority areas.
He wanted to do something to counter this, so asked for any bottled-up regs to come forward.
Our AA got a call form Bill Riley, EPA administrator saying, "Get that farmworker Rule on my desk (to be signed ) in Two Weeks!!"
When it was signed, then the Congress banned its implementation for 2 years, due to pressure from big growers and the Farm Bureau.
We found out in the course of rule making that most growers are EXEMPT from OSHA rules requiring toileting facilities and hand washing stations from fields, and that's why we wanted to get water to wash and emergency eyewash stations into fields to deal with accidental pesticide exposure to eyes and hands.
MY QUESTION for the show today was: Is the lack of toileting and hand washing stations contributing to E Coli infections in vegetables??
Nor the animal manure, but from the Human waste??
--
QR "barcodes" will do the same with appropriate software, however this "accountability" program fails to address several factors:
1) Petrochemically farmed fields (as opposed to manure-based Organic) have been the point source for US outbreaks in produce.
2) Big Ag practices, such as piecework farm pay, lack of sanitary facilities, etc... contributed to the "what the hell, pick it anyway - we're not eating it" philosophy.
3) Co-mingling of clean and dirty product makes all product dirty. 1 pound of contaminated chicken, beef or spinach makes the other 999 pounds equally contaminated.
4) The larger the business, the less fine details are witnessed by management - who will ultimately be financially liable.
When you manage 10,000 acres from a central headquarters, and your manager and foreman know there's a 30,000 pound contract shipment to fulfill - it's going to be picked regardless of condition or contamination.
"No... we didn't pick that" isn't acceptable 800 miles away at headquarters. There's a truck waiting, a contract with a vendor waiting, a supermarket or restaurant waiting - and NO - IS NOT AN ANSWER.
5) "Agribusiness is required to feed our large population centers" - no, it's not. It's a talking point for California/Florida/Arizona trade boards. If you look at carbon inputs, hydro-farming in some of our unoccupied urban landscapes puts the produce where the people are.
"Can't be done up north." Really? I guess the folks from Holland who raise hydroponic tomatoes in Maine all year 'round didn't get the memo.
I wanted to ask if the reliance on so many industry insiders in the FDA and USDA hierarchy is responsible for the slow response to more e coli variants being listed and acted on as concerns in our food supply, Monsanto (Michael Taylor)and other large ag supply executives have revolved into the Obama administration, as happened in the Bush and the Clinton administrations.
When will actual public health experts from universities be appointed to these top spots??
Cow, Cows, Cows, What about the Farm Hands Who Pick the Stuff?
Reagan fought successfully against required Hand-Washing Facilities for Farm Workers.
I don't think it has been enacted yet!!
Monte Haun
Bulls Gap, TN
There has been a serious E. coli outbreak in Louisiana the last few weeks. Over a dozen people were sickened, with five children having been hospitalized. Three were in critical condition. A six year old girl nearly died, is still hospitalized, and on dialysis.
All the sick attended an end-of-the-year party at a rural residence. State health authorities say the source of the pathogen may never be known (why???), but suspect a tug-of-war mud pit which may have been contaminated with feces of cattle pastured nearby.
Too many unanswered questions for me!!!!
I took bacteriology at the University of Pennsylvania in 1955. E. Coli was considered non-infectious, and was used casually in experimental procedures. What happened ?
folks asked how to clean produce, no answer was given.
glad to read answer to use vinegar below. have read that vinegar is a better cleaner than bleach in hospitals!! and healthier for patients/workers